A Short Story About a Rare Toy Hubley Motorcycle

Sunday, April 13, 2014
         (Cloudy and raining)

A Short Story About a

Rare Toy Hubley Motorcycle

   I always like to tell people about my blog in order to get more readers. Two days ago, I mentioned to a morning coffee friend Jeff, that I have a blog. Yesterday, I saw him and he mentioned that the writing was short although he liked the blog. Naturally, I kept the comment in my head, and lo and behold, By sheer coincidence, I had a "longer" narrative for today's post.  It's a more interesting story, with lots of help from all over!

   Hubley for those who don't know was a famous late 19th century- early 1960's toy manufacturer in the USA. In the early years, they manufactured fine cast iron toys, and one of their more famous line of these toys were their motorcycles. Yesterday, I came across a fine example with a small delivery platform attached to the motorcycle. It even had a name - Schabers Cycle Shop.

  I had Jeff's comment in mind, so I decided to search to see if in fact there ever was a company called Schabers Cycle Shop. Sure enough, there actually was a company in Ithaca, New York by that name. I couldn't find much information in the short time I spent to check, but I found some very nice material to add to today's post. 

Part I - The Toy

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions fine website

The story begins with a fine item from Bertoia Auctions. I have been very fortunate to have the Bertoia Auctions family help me out with my blog.

Hubley "Schabers Cycle Shop" Delivery Indian Cycle

Very rare example, cast iron, painted in green overall with orange van stripe, gold trim; tank embossed "Indian" features a low side body supporting a removable pressed steel enclosed van body, black roof, green sides; stenciled private label on sides, rear reads "BICYCLES RENTED".*

Circa: 1930's

Length:  6 1/2"    165 mm

 Description Courtesy of Bertoia Auctions*

Notice also the nice wheels to the motorcycle. They are most likely nickel plated. 

I especially like the removable pressed steel van bod.

Part II - There actually was a Schabers Cycle Shop

The first pale that I decide to search was at Liveauctioneers. There I found a listing from Morphy Auctions. I've also been fortunate to have Dan Morphy and his company help me with my writing.

The category of collectible for old paper is called ephemera.

What I always like about old letters, envelopes with old stamps, or calendars, is the fact that telephone numbers have only 4 numbers and there are no area or ZIP codes for addresses.

I'm not sure if you would just dial the number 9919 or dial DI 9919. Back then the letters would be used to make remembering telephone numbers easier.

In 1958, when we moved to Outremont (Montreal,Quebec,Canada), 

my telephone number was Crescent 7-6738 ( CR 7-6738)

The search turned cold on Liveauctioneers, so I now had to search on the Net with Google. I'm not 1000% happy with Google Blogger, but they do have the best search engine-period!

I did a fast search for Web content (written material), and images, and came up with 2 more nice connections. Naturally, I had to write to the people to see if I might use their images, and I was very lucky. Both write back to give me their permissions.

keatingwheelcompany

Please click here to visit Brian Keating's feedback page

Brian currently (April 13, 2014) does not have any merchandise for sale.However when you visit his feedback page, you'll be able to see the excellent feedback comments, as well as the most recent items that he has sold. 

Mr. Brian Keating of the keatingwheelcompany on ebay

I decided to check out  the US President on the stamp. 

I was 99% sure that it was president Harding, but I had to be sure for the post.

One of my favourite resources for cross-referencing information to verify facts is Wikipedia.

Wikipedia

Please click here to visit Wikipedia's excellent site

 Stamp of President Warren G. Harding Courtesy of Wikipedia

Imagine 1 1/2 cents to send a piece of mail in the 1930's!

My next marvellous discovery was from  Mr. Adam Baron. In doing a  Google, I found a multi-talented photographer by the name of  Adam Baron.

Please click here to see Adam Baron's excellent photography and website

Adam is very talented both in the area of illustration and of course photography.

When I read a bit of his background it is quite impressive and current. He's been selected for a 

book cover in 2014 by a famous author, and in a recent book from Adobe called Adobe's Master Class. If you like eye-catching photography or even need an excellent photographer, Adam is a great talent.

Please click here to see Adam's photograph on Flickr

It looks much better there!

Please click here to see a most-fascinating portfolio of illustration and photography!

You  absolutely have to visit Adam's fine portfolio. If you like to smile at clever illustrations and excellent photography, Adam's work has to be seen. It will make your day!

I hope that you liked today's post. It certainly was most-interesting for myself to travel back in time to connect the name Schaber's Cycle shop, with the original Hubley private-label of the original company. 

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

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

wherever you may be.

Stacey

My email address is:

toysearcher@gmail.com

Bertoia Auctions March 2013 Auction

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Bertoia Auctions: March 2013 Auction

    If you read yesterday's post you'll know that  I've been trying to get permission to write about modern and large die-cast models. However, that's been hard. So I had one of those "Eureka moments" yesterday. I though to myself, what don't I check out my  very helpful auctioneers and their respective companies and see what's the latest or new.

   So I took my own idea, checked out the 4 fine auction houses that I have permission to work with, and I was amazed. There were images of old toys that either I hadn't seen before,or in association with parts that I had not seem together. So yesterday, I wrote about Morphy Auctions, and today, I'll be posting about Bertoia Auctions.

  I've been very grateful and fortunate to have everyone's permission to use their fine photos of outstanding toys. And today's post is no different. What amazed me with regard to returning to these auctioneers, is that I could find toys that I had not seen before, or in as good a shape. 

  The images that I have for today are only from the first 2 pages of the auction set for March 16, 2013. There are still plenty of pages that I could  have looked through. SO for today, here are the fine images from Bertoia Auctions. 

I've seen and written about the Hubley Motorcycles, and written about several of the fine companies that make replacement parts for damaged or missing toys. But here was a listing for both - the original Hubley, and a replacement part. I don't know who made the replacement, but it fits well! 

I like the miniature toys that were made by all of the cast iron toy companies of that toy-making era.

The wheelbarrows are great, and what's interesting to note  ate the differences of wheels (cast iron and rubber) between the larger and smaller toys.

A great-looking toy. It's missing the coal tin chute accessory, but I'm sure  the stores that sell parts might have this one. If not, I'm sure a model or toy collector could make pone from some sheet of tin or a thin sheet of steel.

I like to think about how children could be entertained with toys from the eras of the 1900's-1940's.

The toy scales are no different.  I especially like the older-style  red and silver scale with the counterweights.

That hay rake is marvellous! I hadn't seen one before. I have written about "real" true to scale salesman's models. These are collectibles, but not toys.  The gigantic settling of the mid-west, and the move westward in the USA was in the 1850's - 1920's.The Trans-continetal Railroad in the USA was finished  with the "official" famous photo of the last spike driven into the tie on May 10, 1869. That occurred at Promontory Summit, Utah, USA.

I've bought and sold the later era Hubley Bell Telephone Truck in Green, and of course written about the red cast iron one form an earlier era. However, this listing that is for sale in the March auction is more complete. It has the assorted tools, the ladder, and the telephone pole cart. Also take note of the pulley.

A wonderful set of miniatures. I can;t figure out hat the 2 silver objects in the centre foreground are.

However, the 2 green telephone especially the one with the cardboard box are outstanding.

What I find amusing is that like the Model T ford, telephones back then came in 1 colour - black 

(I'm, 99% sure), yet here is a toy in green.

If you've ever watched old black and white movies, you'll have seen phone numbers like  RE 2634.

The "RE" was an abbreviation for Redwood. When I was growing up in the 1950's there were more telephones and people, and out phone number was CR 7-6738. The CR represented Crescent.

In 1962, when we moved, letters were replaced by number, and 1 more was added. We were fortunate to have a "teenage" line of 747-5000. Talk about having a great telephone number!

The miniature toilets, bath, ironing boards, dust sweepers, and I assume 2 clothes washers are great.

I wonder if cast iron would have been OK to place in wood doll houses? 

I remember the water pumps in the 1950's when we went to Missisquoi Bay to fish and to vacation.

You'd have to place some water in the top of the pump to "prime the pump. I think the way that worked is that you wet the inside rubber gasket to create an airtight seal. You them were able to pump the pump and water eventually flowed out.They still have millions of pumps around the world in less-developed  countries.

As for that "separator", I knew what it was but I had to double-check. Sure enough, it is what I thought it was - a cream and milk separator. I haven't seem any of the above 3 toys before. Of course, if I now did a search on Live Auctioneers, I'm sure I'd find them somewhere! 

I've never seen real gas pumps like these when I was a child. By then (early 1950's) the newer electric pumps had long since replaced these hand-cranked models. I'm going to try to get some photos from someone to match up the real ones with these toy models.

Of course, I had to investigate where Route 30 was in the USA. I did a quick search for 
"US route 30  USA" and the first result was Wikipedia. Is there anything that Wikipedia does not have in their encyclopedic data bases? As it turns out, Route (Highway) 30 is an East-West (why not also West-East) highway established in 1926, and is in the Northern USA, about 1/3 down from the Canadian-USA Border. It is the 3rd longest highway after routes  U.S. 20 and U.S. Route 6.

One thing for sure- you can't say either that I don't write enough, or that you won't learn important trivial information to answer the questions on the TV show -Jeopardy! 

Thanks for dropping by, 

and as always, have a great day.

Stacey