The Martin Auction Co

Friday, January 26, 2018
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The Martin Auction Co

Please click here to visit this fine American Auctioneer

About the Martin Auction Co

The Martin Auction Co is located in Anna, Illinois (USA) and is at the southernmost tip of the state. The company under Mr. Red Martin has been in business for 48 years.  The company

prides itself in bringing the very best in antique furniture, glassware, and collectibles.

When you are searching for the Martin Auction Co, please be sure to type in the search  area 

"Martin Auction Co". The reason for this is that there is another company with the same name but is called Martin Auction Company with the word company spelled in full. What you don't want to do is mix the 2 companies up.

 Martin Auction Co is affiliated both with  Auction Zip, and Liveauctioneers. You can find their current auctions and past auctions on Liveauctioneers.

While I was looking for toys on liveauctioneers,   I find  that the Martin Auction Co had a very good amount of tin toys. These toys were made in the 1850's-1890's's and later in the USA. What I like about these very old toys, and true "antiques" is their simplicity. They remind me of American folk art. Two of the more famous companies at the time that made these toys were Altoph Bergmann and George Brown.   However, in this auction, none of the toys have been identified by the name of the company that manufactured them. I would think that there were a lot of minor  other companies who also produced these toys.

 Large Early Tin Wagon & Horse Toy

Circa 1880's - 1890's

Painted tin with iron wheels

Length x Width:  20" x 7 1/2"  (509 mm x 191 mm)

(Sold for $ 474.00 US)

Early Tin Horse & Rider on Platform Toy

Pull toy with wheels

Length x Width:  4" x 3 3/4"  (102 mm x 95 mm)

Painted tin with iron wheels

Earlt Tin Delivery Wagon & Horse Toy

Length x width:  11 1/2" x 6"  ( 292 mm x 152 mm)

Painted tin with iron wheels

Early Tin Horse and Cart Toy

Length x Width:  16" x 6 1/4"  (405 mm x 159 mm)

Circa 1880's-1890's

Painted tin with iron wheels

Earlt Tin Goat on Platform Toy

Circa 1880's - 1890's

Length x height:  7" x 9" ( 178 mm x 228 mm)

Mobile toy with wheels

Painted tin

Early Tin Key Wind Locomotive Toy

Unpainted tin with iron wheels

Length x width: 8 3/4" x 6"  (217 mm x 152 mm)

Early  Toy Train

Circa 1880's

Each car measures  6 1/4" (158 mm)

Painted and stencilled on tin

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

George Brown Early American Toys and Sketches

Wednesday, November 19,2014
Mainly sunny, seasonally cold

George Brown

Early American Toys and Sketches

   If you happen to be reading this post on Monday (November 17), you're fortunate. Today's weather is overcast with rain and snow, so I decided to stay indoors. I', also waiting for the plasters to come to work with the interior of our renovated "sunroom". It's ironic that they'd be returning today with the terrible weather. 

The sketches were scanned from:

The 

George Brown

Toy

Sketchbook

Edited with an Introduction, by

Edith F.Barnholtz

A Collectors Imprint Edition

The Pyne Press

Princeton

Copyright © by The Pyne Press

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 70-146210

ISBN  0-87861-000-6

First Edition

The book is a reproduction of the original sketches that were created by Mr. George Brown. There's a brief, but excellently-written introduction by Edith F. Barnholtz. The introduction describes the images very nicely and the book contains  65 pages of superbly-reproduced watercolours with their accompanying descriptions on the opposite page. The pages are heavy stock with a yellow-amber colour replicating that "old appearance" one gets as older books age.

The drawings and of course the toy production were probably done, according to 
Edith F. Barnholtz in the 1860's and 1870's. This is based on the fact that many of these toys were patented during those times. 

The size of the pages  in the original book are21 " x 15 " ( 533 mm x 381 mm), while the book that was reproduced by  the Pyne Press is 14" (Height) x  10 5/8" (Width) or 355 mm x 270 mm. Even at the smaller size,the quality is superb.

There are lots of these books around, but the prices can vary from lower to higher prices. Although the book is very fine, cutouts (heaven forbid) would make exceptional art to hang on someone's wall.

The exemplary "authentic toys" are from Bertoia Auctions a very helpful fine American company run by a the Bertoia family.

Please click here to visit this well-respected and exceptional American auction company

I left a bit of colour above around the Publisher's name to illustrate the nice antique appearance.

However I whitened up the background to diminish "borrowing" of the images due to copyright. Even though I mark images with copyrights, I still find them all over the Internet.

The drawings in the book are water coloured and you can see the original pencilled  handwriting of Geroge Brown in some places.

When I whiten the background for the photos from most contributors to my blog posts, I use a function in a photo-editing software titled "inner glow". I find that it helps eliminate any coloured parts that I might have left.

However, in the case of this fine toy that Bertoia Auctions had sold a while ago, there's an exaggerated "aura" (glow) around the small figures that present this toy in a kind of "magical" mood.

You can view these image in Blogger's slide view mode.In this way the images 

will show larger with more detail. I've purposely made the file sized larger for this specific purpose.

What I like about this toy is the illusion of exaggeration of the fire engine in proportion to the men on the platform. It reminds me of some movies (science-fiction and children's movies) of some of the vehicles that you would have seen.

I just realized as I'm typing that I forgot to add Bertoia Auction's written description. Thanks's to the "magic" of the 21st century, I can easily go back and add the missing elements later.

Many of the toys were made from tin. The material is easily formed, but what was more important (and I learned that from the book) is that paint adheres to tin quite well.  This would have been important to the small details that we see in such area as flags (the stars) or the fine lines of the horses' reins. 

I couldn't find exact matches for all of the toys, so I tried to find close similarities.

The toy below is actually 14" ( 355 mm) in length. Of course, Mr. Brown sometimes deviated from the drawings and made some changes and improvements to his fine toys.

Tow things are noteworthy in the illustration below.

1. The clockwork mechanism: George Brown was a locksmith before he entered the toy business

2. The flag on this toy has only 14 stars.

This is a very fine piece. What I like is the "hinged compartments" (Bertoia description) that you see in drawing. I'm sure children had lots of find toting around their "valuables" inside.Many of these toys, so early on in the American manufacture were hand made, and even the painting and the stencilling on the sides were also done by hand. I especially like the reins on the horses head's and bodies.

The toy below is magnificent in size - a massive 25"  650 mm) in length. Nothing is mentioned in Bertoia Auctions description about the content of the wagon. However, the item by Provenance came from a prominent famous American family, and I'm sure whomever had this toy made a great effort to find the appropriate "props" or freight to load on board.

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

Hull and Stafford - Early American Tin Toys

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Hull and Stafford

(Early American Tin Toys)

   The warm weather is starting, so readership is slightly down. As for myself, I raked, leaf blew, and filled  5 large-sized paper bags full  of leaves. We had a large snow storm 10 days ago, but now the snow is almost gone! 

  I found the name Hull and Stafford  when I was collecting images for the Fallows post on  April 4, 2013. What I've always found interesting is how the many different companies would make similar toys both in character and design. I've never read (so far) that 1 company would sue another for design or character. Yet Apple in 2012 sued Samsung over their Galaxy III smartphone. Part of the lawsuit was  over something like the "rounded corners" on the Galaxy, while other parts of the lawsuit centred on other software infringements (more serious).

* Addenda 

(Information provided by Mr. John Evans on May 13, 2014)

"The reason Hull and Strafford horses look the same as George Brown and other tin toy makers is because they did not make the horse itself, they purchased the horses from jobbers who sold to a few of these makers then they soldered the parts together and then painted them in their shops.

 I hope this info helps." 

John Evans

 Hull and Stafford manufactured hand-painted tin pull toys. For those who don't know, you attach a piece of cord or string to the front of the toy, and it moves on a platform and wheels (usually cast-iron). Many of the manufacturers of the time would have galloping horses with carriages, lambs or other similar characters.  For myself, it's hard to know which company made which item, since the different companies items look so similar.  Hull and Stafford  made their toys from the early 1880's - until the early 1900's. I'll need to do more research to add more storyline later.

Please click to be redirected to the fine Bertoia website

* The site above will direct you to a search page from Bertoia. 

Just add the words or name of the toy company and the toys that they've sold in the last 4-7 years will appear. For  a broader search, go to Liveauctioneers. There you will find a list of their previously and current toys that list even farther back to 2006 , and sometimes even earlier. When one thinks about the computer and the Internet, it's amazing how fast and what a broad range on information can appear in so short a timespan!

The above toy was made similarly by at least 1 other manufacturer. It's too bad the sellers don't add the logo or establishing references to specifically identify the exact manufacturer. As the circular shape rotates, the horse rocks up and down but always remains horizontal to the floor.

This pair of riders is one of my Hull and Stafford toys, because of its unique concept of a pair of riders, side by side.

Ummmph!  Here's a self-propelled toy that moves after its wound up. The colours are magnificent. But what I like most id the exaggerated large-sized wheels of the cart.

You can see the small hole through the horse's lower jaw in the top photo. What I like most about this toy is how the simple red, black and white colour theme stand out against the plain white background!

The 3 sets of photos above are typical examples of toys that many of the manufacturers of the day made.  Lambs and horses were very prominent toys of the era. What differentiates some of the Hull and Stafford designs of their toys is the embossed texture of their platforms. Notice the rough and 3D surface that the horse is trotting on. 

The above toy is quite large, measuring 18" or .457M long! A carved out mould (shape) woukld be made of 1/2 of the design (e.g. horse). The malleable tin would then be cut out, and gently hammered to the shape of the mould, by using a soft hammer made most likely from wood. After,  the 2 tin halves would be soldered together with lead.

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great part of the day,

whereer you may be.

Stacey

George Brown - Early American Tin Toys

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

George Brown

Early American Tin Toys

    I've been writing lately about new found companies that I had not known existed. AS it turns out, I found still more, and even in the USA. One of these was the George W. Brown & Company in  Forestville, Connecticut (USA). George Brown was a clockmaker who changed professions to become a toymaker. He was the one who introduced moving clockwork mechanisms to  tin toys in the USA in the 1850's.  I wasn't able to find too many of these moving toys, but I managed to find some very nice pull toys that were added to small-wheeled tin platforms. 

   The toys were made from tin-plated sheet metal. First they were carefully cut, then hammered into shape  on a mold (probably wood). After, the different parts would be held in place with clamps, and then soldered together.  Finally, the toys were hand painted and could also have stencilling also done with paint. 

    The company lasted from 1856-1880 or longer, as the "circa" dates seem to indicate toy dated going to the late 1880's-1890's. Surprisingly, not all of the toys seem to acquire high prices at auction, and as I mentioned there are not that many to be found.

Please click this sentence to be redirected to the fine Bertoia website

The above book is very interesting in 2 ways. It's a sketchbook from George Brown himself. What makes the book interesting from a collectors point of view is that the diagrams are beautifully drawn in colour. More importantly, many of the actual toys that George Brown designed and made are in the book. IN this way, you can actually mttch them up the sketch with the "real" toy  authenticate a "real" George Brown toy. I'm unsure when the book was published, but as a reference guide, it wasn;t that expensive. If you go to Amazon, you can find them.

It's interesting to see how "rough" the toys were made in terms of the stencilling, which of course was painted in by hand. What eventually  caused the company to close was the introduction of lithography on metal at the beginning of the earl 1900's.  However, with such nicely-crafted toys, I don;t know why Geroge Brown didn't continue with the "new" technology?

One of the things that fascinates me about these toys is that they're a footprint of time on people and machinery, and items of the time. I always like to think about how people might have felt being  born in the mid 19th century, and living into the middle of the 20th century. True "horsepower" was one of the important modes of transportation then. Also, the wooden paddleboat was most important in the USA at the time. THousands and thousands of these steamship boats plied the large American rivers such as the Missouri, the Mississippi, the Hudson, and so forth.  Next to the train, river traffic via these boats was the key to opening up the USA and the West.

You absolutely have to look at this fire engine under larger magnification! This is one of the  rarer George Brown toys, and typifies the many characteristic of his designs. It also yielded the highest price of all the toys on this post.

The wheels are cast iron, there is painted stencilling,  hammered tin plate,  and a clockwork mechanism (below). However, I can see why this toy went for so high a price at auction.  I simply admire that arched gate or fence  at the front of the fire engine. As well, the small firemen are more like modern  day characters in an architectural drawing  rather than  a "typical-looking" model of a person!

Finally, there's the horse on the platform - a pull toy. One thing that I always like is "elegance with simplicity", and this particular exemplifies that. That's what I like in the early cast iron toys such as the Hubley Airflows, and that's what I like in the modern day "real" Porsche.  This toy reminds me of the copper weather vans that you see atop old buildings of that time, and still today. The simple gallop of the horse,  attached to a small-sized platform, with small-sized cast iron wheels, is just superb! And of course, those bright colours!

It doesn't get any better than this!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey