An Exceptional Collector and his Website are Rediscovered

 Thursday, November 23, 2023

 Cloudy

 3.9 Celsius / 39 Fahrenheit

An Exceptional Collector

and his website are Rediscovered

    I recently contacted ATCA (Antique Toy Collectors of America) to ask for permission to write about their website and this great resource for toy collectors. Coincidentally, the person who replied to my inquiry was Mr. Derrick Clow. I received the permission, and posted recently on ATCA.  

    This week, I found an exceptional website, and it just happened to be written by Mr. Derrick Clow. What a coincidence. However, I didn't make the association, because lately, I've been very tired probably from the flu. I contacted Derrick, not remembering that he had had answered me 2 weeks before on behalf of ATCA. Nevertheless, I had a "Eureka moment", and recalled that I had just written to Derrick at ATCA, and now I was asking if I might write about his excellent website. I even checked my website, and sure enough, about 10 years ago, I had written a post about Derrick!  Needless to say, I was very embarrassed, and apologized to Derrick for my memory lapses.

  Derrick happens to specialize in collecting Keystone toys, catalogues, and even old invoices of a renowned American toy Company by the name of Keystone. Not only did Keystone once manufacture toys, but they also were known with regard to their having manufactured movie cameras and movie projectors.

Please click on the address below to visit Mr. derrick Clow's fine website

http://www.collectingkeystone.com/author/derrickclow/

        I've just presented a very small "introduction" to Derrick's exceptional website and resource for anyone collecting Keystone toys, or wanting to know about this once very popular company.

    I'll be returning to this great website, and will write another post some time soon. In the meantime, please have a look at Derrick's website. It has lots of information, and of course lots of photos of toys for anyone interested in learning about Keystone.

                                                       That's all for today.

                                                   Thanks for dropping by,

                                   And as always, have a great part of day or night,

                                                   Wherever you may be.

                                                   I can always be reached at

                                                     toysearcher@gmail.com

                                         (Mr.) Stacey Bindman

        

    

    

Early Outboard Toy Motors - Gas and Battery-Operated

Monday, August 25, 2014
             Sunny and very hot

Early Outboard Toy Motor

Gas and Battery-Operated

   I had the good fortune last week to meet (on the Net) a fine Montanan by the name of Mr. Dirk Soulis who is the owner of  DirkSoulis Auctions. I wrote about an exceptional salesman's sample Adams Road Grader. These are not really toys, but actual scaled-down models of real machinery that would be taken by salesmen across America in the early part pif the 20th century when the railroad was more prevalent than the highway.

  Naturally, I had looked at Dirk Soulis' items that he had sold, and I came across many nice items to write about in the future.What I also noticed with lots of excitement was the fact that Dirk or his photographer take a lot of photos to present their items up for auction. If you've been following my blog or if you haven;t you'll know that I'm a pro photographer and taught the profession for 32 years before I retired. As such, I am always appreciative of auctioneers who make the effort to present excellent photography, as wells lots of photos.

   I've written before about these small outboard motors before, but just about the battery-operated ones. However, as I was looking at some of Dirk's previously sold items on Liveauctioneers, I came across a few gas-operated ones. I should have realized these would have been made long ago, but nevertheless I was very excited to see so many photos, and of course excellent photography.

Please click here to visit this fine American auctioneer

The Battery Operated Outboard Motor

I like to be able to see an item and try to understand how it works mechanically.

With the fine series of photos below, you can easily see this. A small battery with wires would be attached to the two brass clips at the back of the steering handle. Hidden from sight are what I assume to be are tiny motors to be able to propel the three-bladed propeller. There is a long vertical shaft that is connected to the propeller at the bottom via interconnecting round gears, one form the drive shaft, and one from the propeller.

The Gas-Powered Outboard Motor

This one is gas-powered. There is a glow-plug pr spark-plug that you can see above. It's in the repeating round petal plates at the top of where the propeller side is, and at the back of that round plate on the engine top. What's interesting is that that round plate has some string still there, so I am wondering if the engine started just like it's big relative - the true real life outboard motor?

I'm "guessing" at what I'm looking at since I have never seen one of these engines, nor been around the model-airplamne ones either. The rectangular shape below the rotting start plate (with the string) is a gas reservoir,and the long shorted screw is, I assume a n adjustment for the gas.

Since I don;t know much about this old engine, I asked an ebay seller who had sold many of these a few questions.I haven;t yet heard back from him (or her), so if anyone knows about these great toys, please help me out!

My questions  were:

1. Does this small engine need the plug to be replaced periodically like the real item?

2. How far can the to engine propel a small boat or does it have a rubber or plastic (plastic may not have been invented at the time of this engine) hose that attached to a "gas tank", like the later-model engines?

( I don't mind asking what might appear to be "dumb questions"!

As you can readily see, the photography is excellent, and if you do know about these great toy engines, I'm sure you'd readily say that the photos illustrate excellently how such an engine would operate.

 Dirk or his photographer always take lots of photos for their items that go to auction. He has sold exceptionally rare items with many photos, and muchness items with plenty of photos.  To me , that certainly tells you about the standard that Dirk, his employees, and his company maintain.

I appreciate and respect that, and the photos as well!

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

"Tin Toy Treasures from Japan" Being Auctioned at Bonhams

Thursday, January 16, 2014

"Tin Toy Treasures from Japan"

Being Actioned at Bonhams

  Earlier this week, I decide to revisit Bonhams, the renowned and historic auction house established in 1993.  I hadn't been on their website for a long time, and the site had changed. All of their internationally-located sites are now on  one address. For myself, and I'm sure many others, this is a great change. It allows viewers to go directly from one location to another just buy the click of a mouse. 

   Fortunately for myself, I noticed a  beautiful collection of  Japanese toy cars that will  auctioned on January 27, 2014. The title of the auction is  "The Yoku Tanaka Toy Collection - Tin toy Treasures from Japan".  Mr. Yoku Tanaka collected these beautiful  toys over a long period of time, and they will auctioned at the end of January.  The collection is quite famous, and a book was written about the collection that was exhibited in New York City and elsewhere in 2009. The collection has over 500 cars.

   The items for sale have been excellently photographed at Bonhams, and the photos are large-sized, which is an added bonus. I have been thankful  to Bonhams (Great Britain) and specifically Mr.  James Opie,who has allowed me to write about their toy soldiers that often come to auction.

   I wrote to Bonhams in San Francisco, and the specialist for old and antique toys is 

Mr. Jaynes Friedman. He's very knowledgeable in the area of old and antique toys. When I wrote to him to thank him for permission to write, I mentioned that there is the book that is available about the Tanaka Collection. H enhanced me,and said that he already has one (I should have known),and he thanked me for my research.

Please click here to read Mr. Jaynes Friedman's impressive resume

I'm always happy when I work with excellent-quality photography. 

I didn't have to do much work, but to remove some scuff marks on the white foundation.

The photographers at Bonhams certainly are well-veresed in their profession!

I kept the "Super Jet" toy for last because of its great features.

Lots of details,good colours, and movement.

When you read about the the rebirth of post-war Japan after WWII, the story is certainly very interesting. As a youngster in the 1950's there were many toys that came from Japan,with the "Made in Japan" stamp on them.  Of course, I played more than I read, but with 15 years, the country had "risen from the ashes", and become a manufacturing powerhouse form any things that would come to the USA and Canada.

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

Please feel free to write to me at: 

toysearcher@gmail.com