Manoil Toy Soldiers at Their Best

Monday, November 16, 2015
       Sunny and Milder Temperatures

Barclay Toy Soldiers at Their Best

   I discovered Mr. Dirk Soulis one day while searching for toys on Liveauctioneers. For those who don't know, Liveauctioneers is a website for auctioneers that  allows auctioneers to present their merchandise to viewers. As well, it allows the viewers to sign up, and then to bid on the auction merchandise. 

   Dirk Soulis is a dynamic powerhouse who knew while in university  what he wanted in life. He pursued his degree by taking various appraisal course at university, and started up his company inn 1985, right after graduation. Even during his studies at university, Dirk was buying and selling merchandise.

   For those who visit this blog regularly, you'll know that I stopped blogging for a while. I reached a milestone of 300,000 page views, but I haven;t been able to elevate readership to the next level.   I get web designers offering to improve my website and readership, but I'd have to pay. I blog merely to keep my photography and photo-editing skills "fresh", so that I can return anytime to blogging. Google has me listed at the top of  their search engines, but that hasn't helped much, since not everyone uses Google.

   Anyway, when I visited Dirk's website on Saturday, I was greatly impressed. Not only does Dirk have fine photography, but he is always improving his website.  I don't know if he designs his website on his own, but I think he once told me that he does the photography. His website is quite up-to-date and presents itself superbly in terms of design and content, and photography.

   Dirk sells fine art and antiques, with toys playing a lesser importance. However, whatever Dirk sells, he does with a passion. His photograph, as I mentioned is superb, and his descriptions are well researched.

Please press here to visit this fine American Auctioneer

"Seventeen Manoil soldiers circa 1940, painted cast metal, measure from 2 to 3.5 inches.

Plus two Barclay sailors and a cowboy, plus other vintage cast metal and plastic toys." 

There are other figures in this lot up for auction, but I decided to focus on the Manoil set.

What originally caught my attention from the Manoil cast metal soldiers were the motorcyclist and the bicyclist. There were no spokes to the wheels, but the frames of the cycle were formed with  the wheel and tubes. This was an astounding casting for myself.

Below is a larger-sized example of the bicycle and soldier. I also like the parachutist who has just landed on the ground.

What makes these type of toys interesting is that they allow children to imagine a miniature world to play. A child can return to the soldiers, and create a different play a story each time. 

I'm not sure what the solider at the top centre is doing - perhaps he has a flame thrower on his back.

I'm unsure what the soldier is doing to the flamethrower's right, but he might be eating.

These soldiers would appear to be WWI soldiers rather than WWII. However, I did read and watched a WWII documentary that presented soldiers in WWI outfits and WWI guns. At the onset of the AAmericans entering the war, they were unprepared when the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

Once again, the massive howitzer leads me to believe that these toy soldiers are from WWI.

So that's it for today. I'm glad I was able to present these fine Manoil soldiers from Dirk. The quality of the photography, the size, and the arrangement all present these tiny figurines in their best manner.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Staccey Bindman

'toysearcher@gmail.com

An Exceptional Collection of Barclay and Manoil Comes to Auction

Monday, December 8, 2014
Variable periods of sun & cloud, very cold

An Exceptional Collection of 

Barclay and Manoil

Comes to Auction

   For the last several days, I've been writing about Gray's Auctioneers. As a blogger who likes to write every day, I have to always be on the alert for  new material to present to you, my viewers.  As chance would have it, last week, I came across an exceptional Auctioneer and Appraiser by the name of Gray's Auctioneers on Liveauctioneers. What initially caught my attention was their very high-quality photography, and photo-editing skills. Not only were the photos large-sized,but there were lots of images for each item listing, close-ups for detail, and nicely-styled arrangements of groups of toys.  BUt what also caught my attention was the fact that there was detail in the highlight and the shadows (brightest and darkest areas), which was done either in studio (difficult), or with photo-editing software.

   The collection that I'm writing about today is from the Provenance (ownership) of Mr. James N. Seidelle. The last couple of days, I was presenting just a few of his fine American mechanical banks.  I'm not exaggerating when I added the word exceptional to the title of this post.  This is the first time that I have seen such a large number of Manoil and Barclay cast iron and lead people and 

armed-service figures presented for auction. But the outstanding merits of the auction listing is to be able to appreciate the quality of the original figures. 

   With superior quality photography, the viewer can actually see up close and personal the expressions and the details of these fine American toys. I've only ever purchase a few of these toys, and they are great. The one I posted about was the motorcycle  policeman, and it's a beautifully-designed piece of art.  If you like art,  and collectibles such as these small figures, they make great artwork if you have a quality framer and artist who can provide you with a nice shadowbox, or carefully sewn items against a background. In this way, everyone can see these items, and you don;t have to worry about them breaking or gathering dust.

Please click here too visit this fine American auctioneer

If you go to ebay, you will rarely see more than 1-4 of these Manoil or Barclay toys up for auction.

It's exceptionally rare to see a whole collection being offered at auction. 

What's even more amazing is the starting price to bid. My bidding finger is "itchy", but ever since ebay started to force sellers to collect taxes directly for the Canadian Government via the USPS, and pressured sellers to ship via ebay Global Shipping, cost to Canadians have risen 50%. 

My bidding finger is in my holster!

I would highly recommend that you have a look at these fine toys on Gray's Auctioneers website. 

Because I started out on Google blogger with a specific format, I am locked in to eternity, and can't use the full page, without affecting the other 975 posts that I've written!

By going directly to Gray's Auctioneers website, you will see much larger-sized photos to explore and examine these fine cast and lead figures.

 The modern 1940's people below are spectacular. And as I mentioned,those motorcycle police are great.Have a look at the spokes on the wheels. It's unique just to see 2 spokes on each of the front and back wheels.

Most of these figures I have not seen before. Because these items are usually sold on e-bay anywhere from one to several, it's hard to start contacting people for permission to blog. As for Liveauctioneers,  it's again rare to see such a diverse and numerous collection going to auction.

I hope that these listings for this collection draws lots of bidders.

You rarely see such a fine collection of these toys such as Mr. Seidelle had collected over the years, 

and I'm sure he's probably sad to see them leave.

I know I would!

Thanks for dropping by, and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Some "Treasures" Re-released a Few at a Time

Saturday, March 1, 2014
     (Very cold and partly Sunny)

Some "Treasures" Re-released a 

Few at a Time

   I was visiting my Facebook pages earlier today,when  I went to some of the groups that I belong to. I went to one of them, and saw a nice Manoil toy, (USA), and  decided to add one of own photos to that page. On Facebook, there are many toy groups, so I decided to join  some of them.  I made requests to join, and I was accepted. HAving added one of my Manoil toys on Facebook, I decided to add a post for today. If you search out my blog, you'll find several entries, and these little toys are actually quite popular. 

   Sadly,the company doesn't exist anymore, but there are still many,many of these fine futuristic-looking cars (for today), and of course, the more common-looking toy. I decided to photo-edit them for today, because they are just so beautiful and deserve some sprucing up.  I decided only to present 5 today, so that I wouldn't  dilute the beauty of them, by placing my usual 10 or more photos.

   I don't know where everyone else is living, but as far as Montreal goes, this cold weather we've being having in February is not even fit for the birds. The meteorologists are evening predicting a colder than normal March! So keep bundled up,and if you don't venture out,  you can always read more of my blog posts!

Thanks for dropping by, 

'and have a great (warm) day, 

wherever you may be.

Stacey

write to me anytime at:

toysearcher@gmail.com