A Reader asks about a Gong Bell

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Clear Skies with Lots of Sun

High of 86° F / 30° C

A Reader Asks About A Gong Bell Cart

I received an interesting e-mail from a reader this week. It was an inquiry about a 

Gong Bell Pull Cart. I couldn't help the reader who has a very interesting moniker (nickname) "RadioReporter".

The reader  sent me some nice photos of a Gong Bell Garden Cart # 260. I did some searching, but couldn't find any information on the nice cart from the 1950's.  I hadn't realized that Gong Bell had made such large-sized toys, and so "now I know".

He's placed a long steel ruler in the photos, so that should tell you 

the approximate size of this fine discovery.

I can't believe how this toy from the 1950's (70++ years) has

kept its' beautiful colours (colors in American spelling) for so long.

Sometimes you have great luck with finding something, 

and RadioReporter most certainly found a great discovery!

So that's it on this bright sunny day.

Thanks for dropping by, and as always, 

please feel free to write to me with any questions.

Better still, if you would like me to write a blog post for you, please 

write to me. I'll tell you what size photos work bet for a blog, 

and ask you for the size dimensions of the toy.

My e-mail address is  toysearcher@gmail.com

Pull Toys

Sunday, November 20, 2016
Overcast and raining
5 Celsius 39 Fahrenheit

Pull Toys

A "pull toy" is a toy that has small wheels and is moved by pulling 

the toy with a string (cord) attached to the front of the unit. This toy was popular from the mid-1800's-1940's, and lessened off later  on. The toy could be made of wood or tin or natural material s,

and would be mounted on wooden platform with the wheels underneath.

Please click here to visit this well-established American Auctioneer

Two Cast Iron Circus Toys

late 19th century, a red-painted circus wagon marked "OVERLAND CIRCUS" holding six musicians and a driver, pulled by two white horses with red riders; and a yellow elephant cart with pulley-activated performer that spins and rings a bell, (some repaint).

LArgest is 15 1/2" (393 mm) long

Steiff Embroidered Flannel Elephant Pull-toy

early 20th century, 

height x length: 9" x 10" (228mm x 253 mm)

Three Painted Tin Toys

a "GLEAM" engine and car, and a horse and carriage, 

Largest length: 15" 392 mm

Horse-drawn Covered Carriage Pull Toy 

19th century, black horse with fabric hair mounted on a red-painted platform 

pulling a blue-painted carriage with yellow wheels, (minor paint and fabric loss), 

Height x Length:  10 1/2" x 26"  (267 mm x 660 mm)

Tinned Sheet Iron Toy Goat and Cart

America, late 19th century, 

L x H x Width 9 1/4" x 3 3/4" x 2 1/2"  (235mm x 121 mm x 63 mm)

Tinned Sheet Iron Toy Horse and Wagon 

possibly Clinton, Connecticut, late 19th century,

L x H x Width: 10 1/4" x 4" x 3"  (260 mm x 101 mm x 76 mm)

Two Polychrome Cast Iron Toys 

early 20th century an a Kenton "Overland Circus" wagon 

with horses and a polar bear, and a mechanical fire wagon 

with three horses, (imperfections), 

H x Width:  6 1/2: x 20" (165 mm  508 mm)

Six Pull Toys

19th/20th century, four horses: one with saddle, reigns, 

and remnants of a hide exterior; a Boston terrier, and a steer, (imperfections), 

Height: Largest 14 1/" (368 mm)

Four Horse Pull Toys 

19th/early 20th century, each horse mounted on a wood base 

with metal wheels, the two larger horses have cloth covered bodies,

 the two smaller horses have paint on gesso on carved wood bodies, (imperfections), 

Height: Largest 24" 610 mm)

Moxie Lithographed Tin "Horsemobile" Pull-toy 

patented February 27, 1917, by the Moxie Company, blue car with bright double-sided colour, 

white horse, rider in advertising coat and hat, 

Length x Height: 8 1/2" x 6 1/4 "

Painted Cast Iron Mechanical "Trick Elephant Bell Ringer/No. 40" Pull Toy

Gong Bell Manufacturing Company, East Hampton, Connecticut, late 19th century, 

when the vehicle moves forward, the elephant turns and taps the bell; 

polychrome-painted elephant figure on a stand and pierced platform 

with raised lettering "Trick Elephant Bell Ringer/No. 40," cast iron wheels 

with heart-shaped spokes, (minor paint loss), 

Height  x Width x Length:  5 3/8" x 3 1/4 x 7 7/8 in.  (137mm x 83 mm x 200 mm)

As you can see, there certainly were a diverse lot of pull toys back then. A famous manufacturer in the 1880's was  George Brown, while the 1940's saw Fisher-Price making lots of toys for young children.The Steiff elephant toy is from the famous Steiff "teddy bear" manufacturer that had been in business for nearly 100 years, and is still going strong. The toy above was manufacture red by the Gong Bell Manufacturing Company. They were famous for their bell toys, which is what they manufactured exclusively and only these type of toys. All pull toys are still in demand to collectors even today.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Some Exceptional Gong Bell Toys with a Sad Story

Tuesday, December 16.2014
Mostly cloudy, seasonally mild temperature

Some Exceptional Gong Bell Toys

with a Sad Story
(but with a happy ending)

   I was browsing on the Internet, when I found some exceptional Gong toys on Liveauctioneers.  I was going to write in my usual cheerful manner, but when I went to look for images on Wikipedia, my mood changed.  I have to write that my opinions (rarely do I try to have any),are my own and do not reflect in any way on the many people who help me out.

   Once upon a time, there were 60,000,000 American Bison or buffalo as they are more commonly known as. I once read that if you stood on the side of their path that the buffalo followed on their annual migration south, it would take 3 days for all of the buffalo to move past you.  Imagine standing by a 12 lane superhighway  5 mph or 1.67 kmp. The estimated number (fro Wikipedia) was said to have been estimated before 1492, the year Christopher Columbus discovered America. By  1890, there were 790 of these fine animals left,and in 2006, 360,000.

   I'm a romantic at heart, so I've believed in good triumphing over evil, crying while reading the book or watching the movie The Last of The Mohicans by James Fenaimore Cooper, or watching the Movie For Whom The Bells Tool, as Gary Cooper, an American in the International Bragades sends Ingrid Bergman off, as he prepares to fight Francisco Franco's Fasists at a mountain pass and knowingly will die.* (Of course, the crying was when I was a kid!).

I decided to present the sad part of today's post first, and finish off with the good part.

Below are 3 illustrative maps from Wikipedia. They present the exceptional disappearance of this fine native American animal,almost brought to extinction in the blink of an eye in (508 years) on earths' billion year history! 

 

Naturally, the bison was glorified like the America Eagle as a persona or symbol of America in terms of strength,yet rarely did the country or its elected representatives ever do something to save the animal during the first 500 years since Columbus landed on the shores of North America. 

Occasionally I will write about cast iron toys commenting on how parts of them were nickel-plated.

Nowadays, there are no nickel five-cent coins or nickels s they are commonly called,nor are there any coppers or 1 cent coins made of copper anymore in the USA> AS for Canada, we don;t have "coppers" anymore-period!

This image has always stayed with me in my mind. It's a terrible nightmare of what mankind could do. Americans slaughtered these animals for their tongues or hides, and left the carcasses to rot. International dignitaries would be taken to the Great Plains of to shoot hundreds of these animals for sport, and again the dead animals rotted.

 I used to  collect stamps and my favourites were the American and Canadian commemorative issues from the early 20th century and into the early 1940's. The issues commemorated (celebrated) special historic periods or specific dates that both countries heralded as milestones in their early and later development.

A nice photograph of a male American Bison.

Please click here to visit this fine American auction company

There were only 2 listings from Bertoia Auctions of these toys. The 2 toys are most probably the same toy.However,as I was working with them in my photo-editing software, I noticed that one buffalo had more hair or fur than the other(the bottom one). Perhaps it was simply abetter casting or early casting in the years of production.

Both toys were excellently photographed,and I really like the high camera angle for both to best illustrate the features of the toy,especially the blue-coloured bell.

And as for the happy ending (of sorts)the numbers of 

North American Bison as of 2000 were 360,000, as I wrote above. This of course is a far cry from the estimated 60,000,000 in 1492, but much better than the  790 in 1890.

We can hope, can't we?

Thanks for dropping by, and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Gong Bell Toy Company

Sunday, April 7, 2013

The Gong Bell Toy Company

    I keep wondering if I'm ever going to run out of old and antique toy companies to find. Yet yesterday, I find another one from the late 19th century in the USA. The Gong Bell toy company was created in 1866 by 4 people - Mr. H.H.Abbe, Mr. E.C.Barton, Mr. E.C.Cone, and Mr. A.H.Conklin.  

In 1872, Mr. Barton patented a unique toy (at the time) called "Revolving Chimes".  The toy was described in the patent as " a pair of cast bronze gongs, mounted between two malleable iron wheels". From that 1 patent and design,the company flourished and expanded to make many toys based on that idea. The company produced mostly toys with bells, and as you'll see, their very specific type of toy is easily recognized as a Gong Bell.  The company stopped production in the mid-1960's, almost lasting a century.

     Gong Bell incorporated in Connecticut (USA) in 1899.  Along the way, the company made the first bell for a car, and later a toy telephone with a bell and a moveable receiver hook. Wooden toys were also made,and like all companies, went into war production during WWII.  They manufactured hardware for parachutes .  Sadly, like many other companies, the late 1950's and early 1960's had plastics gain a large market hare for toys, and Gong Bell could not compete,nor were their toys as popular as they once were earlier.   The company eventually closed down for good in the mid 1960's.

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AS the toy is pulled along with a string (pull toy), the 2 goats rise and fall. THey do so via their connection to 2 L-shaped axles. They alternately strike the bell, so that there is a ring-ring sound.  

The toy above is  interesting in terms of its bell-ringing. An irregular rear axle causes the "tramp" character to rise and fall as the toy is pulled along with a string. This subsequently causes the 2 small round metal shapes attached to the chains on each side of the bell to hit the large bell in an intermittent manner.

As you can easily see, there are 3 main characteristics that will most-eality identify these toys as made by Gong Bell. 

1. The bell and accompanying parts to hit the bell.

2. An interesting character represented by an animal or person

3. The beautifully intricate wheels

I'd bet that if you ever see a toy like this at an auction, toy fair, or yard sale, you will definitely know it as a Gong Bell toy!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey