Matching 1928 Keystone Toys to a Butler Brothers Catalogue

Friday, March 21, 2020
Sunny
27 C.  81 F

Matching 1928 Keystone Toys

 to a Butler Brothers Catalogue

It's always fun to find toys on the Internet and match them up to a catalogue.

Bertoia Auctions is having a current auction now with a lot of Keystone toys.

However, my 1927 Butler Brothers catalogue does not have these toys.

Coincidentally, when I did the Internet search, I came up with the page that I was looking for.

I found page 266 of the Butler Brothers 1928 (December) catalogue.

All of the toys are pressed steel with  rubber tires, and some of them have been restored.

Please click here to view this June 18, 2020 auction

If you are reading this after the end of the auction, then simply

go to the Bertoia Auctions website, and search for past auctions and June 18, 2020*

The "Packard Combo 49 Truck measures 28" (710 mm).

The other toys seen above are also large toys.

If anyone has any of the other Keystone toys featured above,

please feel free to send me your photos, and I will add them to this blog post.

Just e-mail me beforehand, so I can tell you the size of the photos, 

and how to light the toys for best results.

Returning to reality, up here in Canada, and my province of Quebec, 

The Covid19 virus statistics are starting to show the data stabilizing 

and/or the falling. The governments  (federal and provincial) are starting to 

ease up on the rules. Soon, I will be able to get a haircut and to 

go to large stores that were previously closed.

Nevertheless, if people start to go beyond the rules, then they will

endanger everyone. I hope people understand this.

So that's it for today.

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey BIndman

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Pressed Steel Metal Toys Website

Sunday, November 27,2016
Overcast
1 Celsius  34 Fahrenheit

The Pressed Steel Metal Toys Website

I'd seen this fabulous website many times, but I'd never written about them. So, this past Monday, I decided to write to them and ask for permission. I received a very nice letter from Mr. Mike Yolles.

"Hi Stacey, I was an ardent toy collector specialist in 4 manufacturer's . I am also a member of The Antique Toy Collector's of America Inc. This organization is dedicated to the preservation of antique toys. I focused my collecting to specialize in Pressed Steel Toys with steering wheels or steeming handles. My interest was mainly with Buddy L (Moline, Il), Keystone (Boston, MA), Kingsbury (Keane,  NH) & Sturditoy (Pawtucket , RI). My reason for posting my website was to help other collectors identify  the variations and color combinations that these manufacturers offered. Also other Web sites don't  specifically  identify themselves As Virtual MUSEUM. People think they are dealing with  the manufactures museum. Not true!!!!  I get many questions each week concerning condition & approximate  values. I enjoy helping people in pursuit of there hobby or just as an info source. I have no problem letting you use my pictures etc, Mike Yolles."

Mike's website has lots and lots of toys from the four manufacturers that he has filled his museum with.  Not only that, but each of the four toy manufacturers have been divided into sub-categories. 

Even better, Mike hhas presented many of the different variations of a standard toy, such as a car.

I decided to start first with Kingsbury company as they manufactured many nice toys, especially the cars and race cars of that ere (1920's-1930's).Also the racer that they manufactured were based on some of the fastest cars that raced on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah (USA).

Please click here to visit this fabulous toy museum

The  Pressed Steel Metal Toys Museum is dedicated to showing some of the many toy variations

that were common in the heyday of pressed steel toy manufacturing during the1920's and 1930's. The four toy manufacturers if this time period which will be showcased on this site are as follows:

- Buddy L Toys

- Keystone Toys

- Kingsbury Toys

- Sturditoys

Kingsbury Toys

Kingsbury, the Wilkins Toy Company, manufacturer of tin novelties was founded by James S. Wilkins in Keene, New Hampshire in 1890. By the turn of the century, toy automobiles were introduced to the line and quickly became popular. The early Wilkins automotive toys were equipped with specially-designed disc wheels with real, white rubber non- skid tires vulcanized to the wheel. Automotive models could be purchased with metal spoke wheels or equipped with rubber tires at slightly more cost. Wilkins toys were made of steel ranging in size from 7 to 18 inches. The vehicles were powered by a long-running, flat spring mechanical motor, mounted horizontally at the end of the toy. In 1919, Kingsbury changed the name of the company to the Kingsbury Manufacturing Company. By 1926, Kingsbury introduced a new line of mechanical toys which were some of the finest automotive models ever produced. Leading the line was the 34-inch "Aerial Ladder Truck", the 25 inch long "Motor Driven Truck", and the "Fire Engine." Each toy was equipped with a front-end crank for winding the toy's flat spring motor. The 1927 line included the new Deluxe Custom Built Cars, featuring the "Town Car" and the "Sport Sedan." In 1930, Kingsbury announced that all Kingsbury passenger cars were now being designed and built with "Bodies by Fisher," just as real cars of the day were so equipped. Kingsbury's automotive toys received battery-operated lights in 1931. Kingsbury continued to manufacture toys until the beginning of World War II. After the war, the tooling was sold to the Keystone Manufacturing Company of Boston, Massachusetts.*

* Courtesy of Pressed Steel Metal Toys

The Automobiles

The car immediately below was quite sophisticated at the time. Most cars that were battery-operated usually had just the front lights go on. With this car below, it also had a battery-operated tail light.

Mike has taken lots of excellent photos of his toys, which most certainly was a big job to do, but well worth it to the many readers, whom I'm sure have visited his website.

The Racers

The Kingsbury Racers were very popular at the time, and were manufactured with wind-up mechanisms to have the racers move. I'm sure children had lots of fun with these nice race cars.

So that's it for today. For sure, I will be returning to Mike's excellent museum website in the future. His toy collection is certainly exhaustive, and is great for referring to. He is also always looking to but new toys, or to sell or trade some of his toys for ones that his museum does not have.

So you might want to contact Mike of you have something interesting that you think he might be interested in.

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 Beautiful Keystone Airplanes

  February 1, 2014
(Moderately cold and Sunny)

Some Beautiful Keystone Airplanes

   I had already planned to post about toy tractors today, when I saw that I had mail. I checked and it was an answer from someone who has a beautifully-restored Keystone "Ride-Em" airplane for sale.

He politely declined to allow me to write about him and his toys, as he prefers to remain low key. I wrote back to thank him, but I appreciate people having the courtesy to at leaf say no.  That gave me the impetus to do a search of course for "Keystone Airplanes" first on Liveauctioneers, then to redirect to Bertoia Auctions, my excellent resource, and well-written descriptions, and of course superb-quality photos.

  I found enough images for a post, and thus today's original post will have to wait for tomorrow. What writing a blog has taught me is that there are always alternatives, and not to be dejected by refusals. I do get polite refusals, and some people never reply, but that makes me want to find what I'm looking for elsewhere.

The Keystone Company  originally sold camera equipment, but also made and sold pressed steel and their brand of "Ride-Em" line of toys. They also  sold many other products. The company existed from 1922-1965. They stopped the toy production in 1958, and eventually the camera division was sold in 1965 to Berkey Photo, a famous camera seller company at the time.

Please click here to redirect to Bertoia Auctions excellent website

This must have been a great toy for all kids whose parents were fortunate enough to purchase these toys in 1930, a very hard time in the world history (during the Great Depression).

I especially like the small compartment on the side of the airplane, and those nickel-plated propellers.

The propeller or propellers actually rotated as the "airplane" moved.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, 

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Please feel free to write to me anytime at

toysearcher@gmail.com

Keystone Pressed Steel Toys

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Keystone Pressed Steel Toys

History

   I've written about pressed steel toys, but when I checked yesterday on my post list, I hadn't written a post about the Keystone Manufacturing Company.  The founders of the company were Mr. Chester Rimmer and Mr. Arthur Jackson. Originally, the company had specialized in movie machines and producing comedy films for young children from 1920-1924.  However, by 1924, the company changed course and started to produce the Keystone brand of pressed steel toys.  

   They started out big, both in the sense of manufacturing larger-sized toys, as well as producing them in large amounts. Talk about having confidence in your product! They were given permission by the Packard Motor Company  , a highly-successful car and truck maker at the time, to produce reproductions of their truck models.  At the time, America was expanding from the east and moving westward.  Consequently, companies of all kinds were created to manufacture all kinds of products. Steel became a big commodity to be used, and huge machines were created to use steel in all kinds of different shapes and forms. Steel was able to be thinned into sheets and rolled up. Later, it could be cut and then pressed into various shapes via the use of  tremendously strong press machines with 100's of tons of pressure. The machine would press a piece if sheet steel into a mould (cast), and out would cone a shape of a toy. At the time, there of course were other toy companies doing the same, such as  Kingsbury, Sturditoy, Buddy "L", and Hubley, to name a few.

   Keystone also made toys for J.C. Penny, the famous department store chain. The J.C. Penny name of their toys was "Ride-Em", and these toys entered the market in 1932. Each toy made of a Packard truck had the famous Packard logo placed at the front of the truck. As well, each and every toy also had the Keystone logo, usually on the side of the toy.  In 1937, the Packard line of toys was phased out along with the Packard logo. A new design to the Keystone toys began with a new cab (for the driver and passengers), and a new hood. The new hood had horizontal ribs or louvres at the sides.

   Before the start of WWII, Keystone purchased the tools and dies from another famous company of toys at the time - Kingsbury Toys (New Hampshire, USA). Kingsbury, sadly (for toy aficionados and children alike) had decided to venture off in a different direction to manufacturer dies. The good news is that that great toy company is today still in business.

   There's still more history, but for today, I'll stop. I'm presenting the toys mostly from the 1920's that are still around, and in great shape. I don't think people in 80-100 years from now willbe able to say that about the current and mostly plastic toys. 

My  sources of the Keystone Manufacturing Company history came from  2 great sites for learning about toy history, as well as seeing marvellous toys. 

PLease click on each of the names below to be redirected to these 2 great websites:

http://www.pressedsteelmetaltoys.com

http://www.antiquetoycollections.info

http://bertoiaauctions.auctionflex.com/searchauctions.ap?co=44770&archive=y&lang=en

* The link to the Bertoia site is different from my usual linkage to the great Bertoia website.

The one above will take you to most of their previous auctions going back to March 2009. If you want older dates, you'll have to go to Liveauctioners, where Bertoia and many other fine auctioneers have all of their auctions going back many years.

I added the 1910's toy above, because it's incredibly beautiful and is in such excellent condition (original paint) for such a large and old toy. However, I will have to check again on the Keystone history. The one above was made earlier than 1920, and my narrative on the Keystone history starts at 1920.

The train set above was sold as a complete set only.  The locomotive engine was Keystone's

 # 6400, the Pullman passenger car was # 6800, the gondola was # 6500,and the green wrecking car was # 6600.  

The barely-visible brass-coloiured item behind the cab was a hydraulic "piston" that allowed the load to be slowly and gently dumped from the truck bed.

There was a pressure pump  in that round cylinder behind the cab of the truck. When pressurized, the water that had filled the tank would spray out in a strong jet.

   The wheel of the ambulance are not that colour. I didn't have the time to properly colour correct them to their true black. 

The Steam roller was the "top of the line" toy in the Keystone company.

Thanks for visiting,

and as always, have a great weekend,

or part of the day,wherever you may be.

Stacey