A Beautiful Cast Iron Toy Goes To Auction

Friday, December 20, 2024

Overcast and Damp

-8° C / 17° F

A Nice Kenton Pontiac 

Sedan Cast Iron 

Please click on this sentence to go to Mickie's ebay site

I was visiting  ebay  a few days ago, searching for cast iron toys. After "visiting" several stores I came across a store by the name od mikie70mach. There was only one item for sale, but Mikie has sold lots of toys, and his feedback (reviews) are excellent. 

The item shown today is:

 a Kenton cast iron Pontiac Sedan

Circa 1930

Length:  4.5" long (11.43 cm)

 "Car also has a trailer hitch, hidden in the rear bumper 

to pull 1 of two types of trailers" 

What I liked most about the listing was the excellent photography that 

Mikie had taken. 

So that's it for today.

As always, feel free to ask me questions, or even better, send me a an

e-mail if you'd like me to wrote a blog post for you, or to try and find

answers to your questions.

My name is Mr. Stacey Bindman

and I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

Finally,I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, and

a Healthy andHappy New Year.

Life Goes on Remotely in the Digital Age

Monday, May 11, 2020
Sunny with Clouds
8 C 46 F

Life Goes on Remotely

in the Digital Age

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions website

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions on Liveauctioneers

There's a terrible virus going around, and it's affecting people differently around the world. 

I'm doing blogging, one friend who is an endodontist (root canal) is reading more books at home, with minimal emergency work in his office. He's visiting his 2 children and grandchildren in another Canadian city, but he and his will be wearing masks and keeping that 2 meter / 6 foot distance from everybody else. I'm also cycling whenever the weather is warm. So far, April was terrible, and May is continuing with low temperatures. It even snowed earlier in the week.

My wife, a teacher teaching interior design, has not taught for 2 months now. She now is communicating with her fellow teachers over the Internet with something called "Zoom" that communicates over the Internet via conferencing. 

This week (I think), larger department stores will start opening. There is one side saying that it's too early to open, and others saying go ahead.  Meanwhile, food chains, Costco, and large hardware store chains are now open to all.

Today, on Liveauctioneer, I checked to see what the results were for Bertoia Auctions first day of their  annual spring auction. People did bid on the Net, and the results appeared excellent 

(from my point of view).

Below is a sampling of just some of the old toys that went to auction. 

The auction was very successful, and the prices were excellent, from my point-of-view.
Today's Auction (May 10, 2020) is the second part  of the total auction.
Todays' bidding in many cases is above the estimate that Bertoia Auctions started at.

Below:

Air Mail plane

Cast iron

Wingspan:    8" 203 mm

Manufacturer: Kenton  

USA

Below:

Motor Driven Stake Truck

Pressed metal with rubber tires

Length:  25" 635 mm

Manufacturer: Kingsbury

USA

Below:

Jonah and the Whale Mechanical Bank

Cast iron

Circa: 1900's and later

Manufacturer: Shepard Hardware Company

USA

Below:

Hold the Fort Mechanical Bank

Cast iron with brass trigger

Circa: 1900's and later

Manufacturer Unknown (Designer Samuel Clark)

Below:

Large Racer

Cast Iron

Circa: 1929

Length: 11"  / 280 mm

Manufacturer: Vindex

 USA

Below:

Jaeger Cement Mixer Truck

Circa: 1930's

Cast iron, nickel plated rotary cement mixer drum

Length:  9"

Manufacturer: Kenton

USA

I hope that you too are finding things to do safely during these times.

Thanks for dropping by,

And have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

You can reach me anytime at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

Cast Iron Wreckers

Tuesday, November 22,2016
Overcast  with sunny periods
6 Celsius 41 Fahrenheit

Cast Iron Wreckers

Please click here to visit this exclusive toy auctioneer

As soon as the automobile was invented, there were bound to be accidents. As such the "wrecker" was invented to tow away the vehicles that were damaged in the accidents. Later on, the term "wrecker" was changed to "tow truck"- a milder word. As toys always replicated relief items, sure enough, the wreck toys came on to the marketplace. The major manufacturers of cast iron toys made these wreckers. Arcade was the most prolific, and the other manufacturers made them also, but to a lesser extent.  Kenton, Kilgore, Hubley and Champion all made these nice toys.

Some wreckers were simpler coming with only a hook, while others came with a simple winch. The larger Arcade wreckers came with the most sophisticated mechanism for both lifting and towing the "wrecked:"car or truck.

A Cadillac 1931 tow truck from Springfield, Mass., USA

The cast iron phenomena  was almost exclusively in the United States. There was one Swedish company by the name of Skogland & Olsen that made cast iron toys including the wrecker below.

The lithographed  tin manufacturers in the United States, such as Marx, and Chein also made wreckers, but I chose just to present the cast iron version today. In my search, I didn't find too many lithographed tin wreckers, but that's not to say that more weren't manufactured.

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

A Bertoia Auction of Fine Cast Iron Toys

Monday, November 2, 2015
Seasonally warm and sunny

A Bertoia Auction of Fine

Cast Iron Toys

   I had to debate with myself where to position the word "fine" in today's title. Should in be close to Bertoia as in "A Fine Bertoia Auction" or leave the word where it is.  I chose the latter. I've come to know many auctioneers and sellers, and Bertoia Auction s are a fine company, and the owners , a family are also. 

   When I stopped buying and selling toys on ebay,  Bertoia Auctions was one of the first companies that I wrote to ask for permission to use their photos. They answered with a nicely-written "yes",and I was ready to enter a new phase of blogging. Before, I was limited to a maximum price, but now with exceptional auctioneers, "I could reach for the stars". What's great about auctioneers is that they are people-oriented because they deal with people all f the time. But when I search on the Net, you get to see the people as well. The photos are always with the owners (e.g. Bertoia) and the client sellers) and you get a sense that  most auctioneers truly like what they do, and also like to befriended the people they deal with.

   I've presented a few of today's toys in the past, but when the photos are better than before (larger, or more derails) I like to present them again. 

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

Many American early cast iron toys were made of fine materials such as the nickel-plated metals in several of the toys below. THe toys were painted with bright colours, and have lasted for these 8 decades and many even earlier, and are true (centenarians). As an aside (changing the subject to venture in a different train of thought), Canada now has 900 centenarians (people 100 years or older) and in 50 years, will have 1900 people 100 years or older!

The Kenton double-chained crank mechanism is a ditcher. It would dig ditches (horizontal lines in the ground) to either have water run off roads, or to embed pipes in the ground. The toy is marvellous for design, and function. A child could have a cast-iron dump truck to receive the sand or dirt that the scoop dug up.

Below is a rarer  Kenton ditcher, that was manufactured for only one year. It would be interesting to know why for only one year! Again, the double-chain movement with nickel-plated  chains(my guess?), bright colours, and 4 scoops, would have been lots of fun for young children.

Canada, as well as most countries removed the pure metals from their change (coins) currency  in the last several decades. Once upon a time, a penny had copper (we no longer have pennies), a nickel was made of nickel from our famous Sudbury, Ontario, Canada mining town, and all other coins (10 , 25 , 50, and 1.000) coins were silver. 

Back in time in the fist half of the 20th century, coins were issued of r currency, and nations wet proud of their currency. In the later part of the 20th century, metals became a "commodity", and the content of coins in terms of their metal "value" far exceeded their face value. In other words, a dollar worn of pennies would be worn $2.00, a nickel was 8 cents, and a  $A1.00 coin of silver was worth  close to $ 10.00.

The name of this tri-mpotor airplane is Ford. I've not researched this, but I'm sure Ford at one time did in fact manufacture an airplane.  The ribbed and horizontal lines of this airplane are not only tactile (touch) but beautiful to look at.  ALso, the design is certainly something "out of the past"!

The toy below is obviously designed from the German Company "Bremen" and is a "Junkers". 

The propeller is nickel-plated. Of course, politics and aggression from Germany would change the world forever in a mere 6 years later.

For myself, "old" is great because I like to study history through them. It's easier to learn from what you enjoy, and learning about toys helps with history. For myself, anything old is fun to enjoy.

   I just got a call from my brother in Calagary who was trying to sell some of out mother's 

porcelain figurines on ebay. He didn't have even one inquiry. Here in Montreal, I'm on several estate sale vendors, and each weened from the spring and summer I get e-mails showing plenty of old merchandise. Fine dish sets, fine figurines, old jewellery, and cutlery.  The new generations are not interested so much in "old", so many of these fine items are purchased at great bargains for now. BUt if one is optimistic, I'm sure in 30- years from now, the younger generation will be older, and perhaps "old' will once again be "new": again, in terms of collecting. 

   Of course "my old" will most likely be different from the younger generations old, buy maybe not?

As the old expression goes, "what comes around goes around". 

   If you told me 6 years ago that I'd be writing about old and antique toys, I'd probably have told toy not (in polite language of course!).  Who would have known then?

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always,

havce a great part of the day or not,

wherever you may be,

Stacey 

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Kenton Hardware Company

Tuesday, March  5, 2013

The Kenton Hardware Company

   The Kenton Lock Manufacturing Company first started out in 1890.  Like many of the other hardware companies of the time, they produced cast iron products for the home. However, many similar companies entered the cast iron toy market, and the Kenton company joined in.  The cast iron toys ranged from toy stoves, banks, horse-draws carts and wagons, cars and trucks, and eventually cap pistols. Their most famous cap pistol was the Gene Autrey version first produced in 1938. Eventually, at one time, the Kenton Hardware Company, as it later became known as, became one of the world's largest producer of  cast iron toys.

http://www.morphyauctions.com

(Please press on the address above to be redirected to the fine website Morphy Auctions)

What's interesting about the toy above and the one below is the continuity of the cement mixer. A popular toy in the early years was redesigned and adapted to the age of the machine. 

The Kenton "Buckeye Ditcher" ditch digger is rare in 2 aspects. The first is that cast iron toys were usually not so  complex in terms if movement and design, as well as being made of 2 different metals. 

The second, is that due to its complexity in the cast iron division of toys, it's rare and usually fetches a high price at auction.

What's always interesting to see in the earlier era of toys (e.g. cast iron) that most companies would produce and sell similar models. The British double-decker bus, Lindburgh's airplane, and the Zeppelin are just some examples that can be found from all of the major cast iron manufacturers.

Above is another fine example of a cast iron airplane composed of nickel-plated iron wheels,and cast iron body. AS well, the airplane was one of the more common toys produced among all of the major cast iron toy factories of the time.

Thanks for dropping by, 
and have a great part of the day,
wherever you may be.

Stacey