The Big Ships are Coming

Monday, October 9, 2017
Canadian Thanksgiving
Overcast and Raining
17 C   63 F

The Big Ships Are Coming

 One of the first Auctioneers that I had the privilege and  enjoyment to write about was the famous American toy auctioneer - Bertoia Auctions.  As I was browsing at what  in coming up at Bertoia Auctions, I came across a great auction that is scheduled for November 11-12, 2017. There are a lot of fine toys such as Lehmann, cast iron, and European. But what caught my attention most were the unique antique toy ships from Marklin. These fine toys are wind-up toys from the  early 1900's.

This battleship has every feature imaginable, from its many cannons of several different sizes to its detailed flag masts and multi-story deck, Marklin didn't spare any detail. The boat features two exhaust stacks, two detailed deck cranes with winch and chain, many different levels of deck all lined with hand soldered railings, and classic warship colouring. 28"(70.43 cm) in length. Both cranes & two lifeboats are replacements, two funnels touched up, areas of masts reattached, otherwise in paint in (Pristine Condition)

The first thing that grabs your eye with this Marklin battleship, "Tirpitz", is the impressive
riggings and the tall masts that are complete with guy lines., flags, and crows nests, masts
tower over the ship and its' busy deck that features 2 large cranes for dispatching its'
lifeboats, many gun decks, and several different levels that make this boat
very complex and unique, decks are hand-painted to simulate wooden planking, an overall
extraordinary watercraft that only Marklin could produce, Professionally restored and aged.
Length:  34"  86.36 cm

High detail and impressive profile easily live up to its namesake "Majestic". From its'

hand-painted port holes and windows on the hull, to its' hand-soldered stairways and

deck railings, this boat is a great example of the beautiful imaginative toys that

Marklin was capable of creating. It features many deck guns, including one large cannon between its' large masts, and features two exhaust stacks complete with guy lines to keep them stable on rough seas. Majority of the paint on the ship is original with some small enhancements in areas,

paint is lightly flaking throughout, appears to retain original accessories and appointments with minimal soldering at masts and stack sleeves, red water line is repainted.

Length:  34"   (86.36 cm)

I've only presented 3 of these fine ships, but there are many more on the Bertoia Auctions website, so please venture over there to have a peek.

As always,

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

Please click here to visit this fine American auctioneer

The Marklin Ships

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The Marklin Ships

   The other day, I wrote about Bing ships. I already had in mind to write about other companies, and Marklin ships would follow. Both companies produced exceptional tin floating toys in the early decades of the 20th century,. However, the Marklin ships are the most prized of all. Today's post is just an introduction to these fine toys. The highest-paid and highest bid ships will eventually follow.

These toys were most probably made for people who were exceptionally wealthy, as you can see form the amount of work that would have gone into the production of these toys. There are lots of detail to the ships, and the most-prized Marklin ships even came with their own (I'm guessing) dollies on wheels and pull string.

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions exceptional website

The ships presented today are the "small" ones. When I post the most-expensive ships bid up at auction, you will understand why I called today's ships "small".

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

write to me anytime at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Marklin Civilian Ships

Saturday, May 25, 2013

The Marklin Civilian Ships

   I've presented a few of the Marklin ships in some of my posts, but have never dedicated an entire post to them. Marklin is still a you manufacturer, and  has been around for more than a century. The company was founded in 1859 and originally produced fine railroad sets (trains).  Their success led them to acquire other companies, which allowed them to diversify in terms of the range of toys that were produced. They still are in existence today, and still produce world-renowned toys for young people.

    Marklin produced outstanding ships from the early 1900's and later.  They were made probably of tinplate with clockwork driven mechanism to propel them in the water. Children would bring these boats to local parts with large-sized ponds, and the children would wind the toys up, and them let them move in the water.  I assume that the park lakes were shallow enough so that if the wind did not push the toy boat back to the sides of the lake, then a person could wade out and fetch the toy. Sometimes these park lakes also had rowboats for rent, so maybe helpful other people would help.

    Montreal has 2 large-sized park lakes . One is at the top of Mount Royal in the centre of our city, and the lake is called Beaver Lake. The other park is called Lafontaine park. I'm sure that at the beginning of the 20th century and earlier, these 2 parks has lots of local people and new immigrants who would go to these architecturally-designed parks. And I'm sure there were even children with sailboats, and perhaps even the occasional clockwork  driven boat.   I've never seen anyone play with a boat in these parts, but then again, my wife and I rarely go to them.

   The toy ships that I am presenting for today's post are the civilian types - ocean liners, river boats, and yachts. Their other type of  ships were the military battleships. I would highly recommend visiting the link below to read the outstanding narratives and descriptions that accompany all of the ships that I have presented today. When you go to the link, simply add the words "Marklin ships" in the search engine "keywords" space at the top of the page. 

Please click on this sentence to be redirected to Bertoia's fine Website

I wanted to present these beautiful ships in the way I've been presenting toys lately - against a white background. However,  all the fine details on these ships makes it harder to separate the grey tones from the ship.  Maybe in the future on a slow day, I'll rework the images., because personally, I like the way a toy "stands out" by itself against white. 

I like the way these toys even came with a metal roller support, so the child could pull the ship to the park lake. I'm sure the parents had lots of fun playing with these toys.

The riverboat above reminds me of the 1951 Kathryn Hepburn-Humphrey Bogart movie titled the African Queen. The movie had the same type of boat, by without the lifeboat. The movie boat ran by a steam engine.

     The last 10-12 days of  May here in Montreal have been miserable. It's been rain, rain, and more rain.  The good news is that I was able to reseed the bare spots on my lawn , and the grass is growing nicely.  Ironically, we has a water alert this week. A repair and maintenance crew accidentally let the water level in our largest reservoir and water purification plant get too low.  It's to early to assign blame, so the city will be conducting a review to find out what went wrong. As a consequence,  the bottom residue leaked out into the water pipes throughout much of the city. 1,200,000 were given "advisory  warnings" to boil their water for drinking or cooking. Bathing and shampooing were OK though. I bought water to wash my hair and shave. Some of the Starbucks cafes did not serve coffee for 2 days! Bottled water sold out in a few stores,and record sales were recorded!  

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day, 

wherever you may be.

Stacey