Beautiful Antique Toy Automobiles Coming to Auction

Wednesday, August 20,2014
    Sunny,seasonally cooler,but great!

Beautiful Antique Toy Automobiles

Coming to Auction

   One of the auction houses to first help me with my blog was Bertoia Auctions. Originally I bought and sold toys on ebay, and used the photos to start my blog. The  ebay was great, but I didn't make much money and probably lost some. Also, I maximum budget for any one toy was capped at about $ 200.00 US. Eventually, business slowed, and I decided to liquidate everything at "bargain-basement" prices and wait.  I came up with the idea to ask sellers and auction companies if I might be allowed to use their photos and that stated me to a new level of toys. Being able to access toys that I could never afford, nor could most of us, allowed me to see  the most wonderful toys that one could imagine. Of course, the toys that I purchased on my budget became the cornerstone for my writing "hobby". 

   I write about auctioneers, sellers, collectors,and museum toys, but I always like to return to several auctioneers, especially Bertoia Auctions. Excellent photography, a great knowledge of toys, and the reputation to match all make Bertoia what it is today - an exceptional toy auction company. However, it's the fine people in the family-run business that make the company such a success.

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions' auction for September 2014

The auction is titled the  "2014-09:Fall Festival Sale", 

and will take place on September 19th and 20th 2014.

What attracted me to these particular toys is the fact that the images were larger than I usually see.As such, the details are easier to see when I provide correspondingly larger-sized images.

What's great about larger-sized photos is that you see the detail easier.

In the image immediately below, you can see the brake on the right rear tire, a brass-coloured rack on the roof, a beautiful world country travelled and stickered labels on the piece of luggage,  with its handle. THen you can see the release lever for the handbrake to the right of the driver, who happens to be  driving a  right-handed steering automobile!

The windshield is probably glass!

The above photo illustrates the large centrally-positioned lantern (headlight), along with 2 more to the left and right of the windshield (windscreen). the door  behind the "chauffeur" actually has a beautiful handle that opens the door. Then there are the beautiful red-spoked wheels with the rubber tires.

What's interesting about the toy below are what I would assume are 2 small red lights 

just in front of the chauffeur.

Just look at that beautiful front grill made of nickel! What I always like, as in the original real cars are those oversized springs on the front of the toy.

Then have a look at those textured seats of the car!

I'll let you look at this fine Karl Bub limousine below. Lots and lots of beautiful detaiul

The final toy for today's post is a German-made American taxi.

It was made by the famous German toymaker - Bing.

What is interesting is that ornament to the front of the driver's door. It's a sign that American taxis would have to show to potential riders on the street if the taxi (cab) was available or was occupied.

You can better see the occupied/unoccupied sign in the above photo. I would assume that the red flag meant occupied and no sign meant available - of course  I could be wrong.

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

In Case of Rain!

 Sunday, July 27, 2014
 Overcast with rain, thunderstorms

In Case of Rain!

    Being a photographer, you are always paying attention to detail. So when it comes to toys, I'm still looking carefully at toys and trying to find something that I haven;t seen before.. This is related both to finding new toys (old or antique of course!), and interesting details that I also haven't seen before.

I've very fortune to have the opportunity to write about toys from many different source, and one I especially like to write about is Bertoia Auctions. This is a family-run business, and since I started to write about other peoples' or auctioneers listings, the Bertoia family  has helped me front that first time.

   I've started to post about their September 19- 20, 2014 auction. I found their listings on Liveauctioneers, and I'm sure their whole entire catalogue will be up for viewing on their website soon. This item is # 473 listed on the September 19, 2014 portion of the auction. I chose this item of the first 500 items, but there are still so many toys that I haven't seen before and that I will have to write about!

Please click here to see Bertoia Auctions September 19-20, 2014 Auction Items

Please click here to visit this fine American auctioneer's website

The Tourer, as this car was called at the time is an exceptional antique toy. It has a wind-up mechanism to allow it to move, and a nickel handbrake to the right of the driver that links to the right rear plate that rests on the rear tire.

The Tourer is was hand painted, and has remarkable detailing representing the authentic automobile of that era. The embossed seats are beautiful to look at, and there are small red buttons that would have held the richly-piled leather in place. Notice also the bolstering and how it's different in the front (shaped like the letter "m", compared with the back set (the letter "c").

Then there are the nickel parts such as the lamps (as the headlights were called back then), and the handbrake as I mentioned before.

But the "piece-de-resistance", a French expression which simply means exceptional or outstanding,

is the grey item that appears to the right rear of the passenger seat - the umbrella stand! 

If you didn't read the description that Bertoia Auctions write or that I elaborated on, you'll certain see that grey holed vertical item just about the rear fender.

That's the umbrella stand - "in case of rain".

Being a writer of a blog, you always have to remember to finish the story or article and make sure everything makes sense or ties in together. Naturally, I waited until the end to match up the toy part with the title of this post

There just isn't enough time in the day to write about all of the fine toys that I keep discovering!

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey