Welker & Crosby - Part II

Saturday, October 18, 2014
Overcast and cooler

Welker & Crosby 

Part II

   If you've read my blog before, you'll know that I seldom team up different people or companies on a single post. I prefer to give exclusivity to each and every person or company that helps me out.  I'm sure nobody minds, but I like to do this.

  I didn't find too many  Welker & Crosby toys on Liveauctioneers. This is a great website to visit to check out all kinds of antiques, especially toys. Icollector is another similar location. Both of these excellent companies and sites present auction companies which their merchandise,and also afford the companies a resource where people can bid in real time on the same items. If you do visit Liveauctioneers, you'll see more Welker & Crosby items that I have not presented, because I don't have the permission from the other auctioneers. 

Please click here to visit this fine American auction company

I could;n\t find the meaning of the word "bouch". I had mentioned in the prevois post that there was a whole vocabulary at the time for all of the different types of horse-drawn "vehicles".

Of course, the word "dray" is easily found.  A dray is a horse-drawn truck or cart for carrying and delivering very heavy loads such as beer barrels. It usually has  fixed sides that you see on this fine toy. I', wondering if the arched shape of the wagon was an engineering design to better carry heavy loads. Today, you still see this arched design on the heavy trailers that semis (trucks) pull of course.)

Thanks for dropping by to visit,
and as always,
have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be,
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com

The Kenton Ditch Diggers

Saturday, May 4, 2013
         (Another Sunny Day)

Kenton Ditch Diggers

     The Kenton Hardware Company of Kenton Ohio started in the late 1890's and  produced beautiful cast iron toys from 1898-1952. Interestingly, many of the cast iron toy companies of the time were in fact producers of hardware for the house such as locks, latches, knobs and so forth. However,  amy of them adapted and expanded to produce the beautiful cast iron toys that were produced form the early 1900's - the early 1950's

    I've written a post about the Doepke sand loader, which was made of pressed steel. NOw that I'm thinking and writing, some of my favourite toys are the ones that you could play with and watch as they operated in a sandbox and backyard.  The toy toys from different eras (1930s and 1940's) would have a crank to turn a geared and chained mechanism. Both would "scoop" up dirt or sand, and then move it onwards. The Kenton toys were of course stronger, having been made form cast iron.  However, the Doepke sand movers had many more "scoops, and you could naturally load a pressed steel truck full of sand. If you search out another one of my posts, I wrote about some of the modern-era toys, including a ditch differ.  That one that I wrote about is a "monster machine". It looks like a giant chain saw with giant teeth to dig out a large-sized vertical sides of about 5' deep x 2'-3' wide ( 1.55M x.6M-.95M). Of course, that is the "real one". The items that I talked about are "models" that people collect rather than play with.

 Please click this sentence to be redirected to Bertoia's fine website

The nickel-plated crank (top photo) attached to the green motor turns a chain that also then turns the "scoopers" or digger  teeth. The dirt or soil is then moved along to the angled slide where it could be loaded on to a lower level train or truck.

As you can see, the Kenton Bucket Ditcher came in 2 colour combinations and 2 sizes. There was the red and green combo,and the orange and green combo,both of course with the nickel plated crank, buckets, and chains. 

The digger above is the larger-sized version measuring 12" ( .305M) in length compared 

with its smaller brother measuring 9"(.228M).

   Another variation of the Kenton's inventory was the Fairfield ditch digger. I'm sure the "real" machine was motorized, but this toy was hand-cranked without any part to show the motor. 

The fact that these toys have lasted so long says a lot about the quality of their manufacture. Of course, children did play with this toys, as well as their children. After that, the toys were probably stored in an attic, garage, or shed, and then passed on from generation to generation. Alternatively, the toys would goto auction or be sold at an antique store, where on a nice sunny day like today, people might venture out searching for those rare toys.

As for myself, I'm finishing this post now, and will continue moving our summer furniture from inside our house to the back lawn. I keep trying every year to convince my wife that a nice  small storage shack would be better than moving the summer items inside and out.

25 years later, I,m no further to getting that shack!

Thanks for visiting 

on this fine spring day (at lest in Montreal),

and have a great rest of the weekend,

Stacey

What's Changed at James D. Julia Auctions?

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

What's Changed at James D. Julia Auctions?

     As you know, I've been searching out permissions to write about large-scale die cast "models", and even ventured into 3D printing.  However, you have to send out 10 e-mail requests and be lucky to have someone reply, or give their permissions.

     So what I did  at the end of last week, and for today is to return to my trustworthy and kind auctioneer houses who've given me their permission to use their fine toys, and of course their quality photography. James D. Julia Auctions is the 4th in the series.  Currently, their representatives are looking for consignments, and their last auction was on November 30, 2012. 

     I decided to check the last auction, and once again I was pleasantly surprised. First, there were interesting items that old, and I only looked at page 1. Secondly, the size of the images had increased to a very good size to see all of the details. Thirdly,you can even magnify the larger magnification. And finally, they have incorporated the relatively new 360 degree software. That software allows you to take a dozen or so images of an item as it rotates on a special rotating platform. You then use the software to run a well-paced rotation to see all of the different angles and sides of a toy. If I have time this week, I'll try and screen capture the 12 images, but it's best to look firsthand at this technology.

I even have a larger-sized Logo to add to this blog!

http://www.juliaauctions.com

(Please click on the above address to be redirected to the James D. Julia site)

 I've seen the Arcade cast iron taxis in the pull-toy version, but never as a bank!

A very nice pair of toys that originally were together.

I've seen the brand name Ives, but never wrote about them.

A very nice toy. Please read the description, as the mechanical movement 

of the ticket-taker is most interesting.

Here's an exceptionally beautiful  Kilgore airplane with a large wingspan.

I'll have to research out the name of Hessman. 

This is a "first" for me to have seen this particular brand.

The Ives toy above is an exceptional toy in a superb condition, albeit the crack to the side of the boy's head. This toy garnered a very high price for its rarity!

Another very old set of toys in outstanding condition.

You certainly can see how the larger-sized images present the fine-details of the toys.

Don't forget, that you can magnify the images even more in Google Blogger!

I've presented a few Boucher boats,but this one is beautifully crafted and designed for its time!

Another  interesting toy attributed to Altholf  Bergmann. 

Notice that I used a screen capture to grab an enlarged image of the whole item.

 What's also noteworthy with most auctioneers, especially the more renowned and reputable ones, is that they do their homework. I would never have come across the name "Altholf Bergmann" if this particular toy came into my possession!

Last but not least, is this set of 9 pins from Ives Blakeslee. 

Of course, I'll have to research this to find out if this name is different from the Ives that I've seen before. Once again, I've presented a large image,and a magnified screen-capture. When you look at the images in Google Blogger, you will see the small detail very easily. In this case the lithographed images of the faces are remarkable for their detail and "character"

One final note. I especially like the subtle watermark  placed on each image with the name of the auctioneer - James D. Julia. It's not offensive in any way, but reminds the viewer that the images are in fact copyrighted. I've thought of doing this for images that I have permission to use.  The larger font appears better without the  pixilation effect around the lettering, even when you "rasterize" the text in Photoshop. Pixilation is simply that hazy and blurred effect around the writing.

Thanks as always for dropping by for a visit.

Have a nice part of the day wherever you may be.

Stacey