Please,I Need A Dictionary!

Saturday, March 17, 2018
Sunny and Cold
-4 C  24.8 F

Please, I need

a Dictionary!

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions on Live Auctioneers

 I  found a Pratt and Letchworth that was located in Buffalo, New York.  As it turned out, the company was founded by 2 brothers Samuel Fetcher and Pascal Paoli  Pratt, and William Pryor Letchworth as the Buffalo Malleable Iron Works.  The company originally produced saddlery hardware and was the largest in the USA. In 1889, Mr. George S. Crosby, a toy designer was hired.
The toys were marketed by the name of Buffalo Toy with the company then being known as Buffalo Indestructible Malleable Iron and Steel Toys). The toys were cast iron and were mostly hosres with different kinds of wagons. 
* reference atca-clug.org/article02.php

The reason for today's title is that in the 1880's there were no cars. As such, people travelled by assorted wagons. There were many different wagons with many different names, that today are rarely used in the English language. You'll need a dictionary to find out what each of the horse-drawn vehicles mean!

Pratt & Letchworth Four Seat Brake

An all elusive example, impressive scale, and painted in eye appealing 

black  and orange, drawn by a team of four horses in brown and white,

seven seated figures.

Circa: Late 1800's, early 1900's

Length:  27"  68.5 cm

Pratt & Letchworth Hansom Cab

Painted cast iron, open front coach 

with side windows.

Length:  11"  28 cm

Pratt & Letchworth Double Surrey

Painted in assorted nice colours.

Circa 1893

Length:  15 1/2"  39.5 cm

Pratt & Letchworth & Welker Crosby one horse dray

stake sides,seated driver, open bench, patented

pull device attached to front leg of horse.

Circa 1893

Length:  13 1/4 33.5 cm

Pratt & Letchworth Phaeton

missing patented guide wheel usually attached

to the front leg of the horse

Circa late 1890's, early 1900's

Length:  15"  38 cm

Pratt & Letchworth Dog Cart

Horse appears restored,

Circa: Late 1890's, early 1900's

Boxed Pratt & Letchworth Sulky

Cast iron , yellow sulky, includes

patented front leading wheel

attached to front leg of horse.,

Cast iron, includes scarce box

with "Buffalo Toy" brand name

Circa: late 1880's, early 1900's

Length:  8"  20.03 cm

James D. Julia's Past Toy Auction

Sunday, December 4, 2015
Sunny with some clouds
1 C 34 F

James D. Julia's 

Past Toy Auction

Please click here to visit this exceptional American auctioneer

Most of the toys below are called "pull toys". A string would be attached to the front of the toy, and the child would pull it along the ground or sidewalk. In some cases, the horses would create a galloping motion.  In 2 descriptions below there is the term "transitional". I am "guessing" that this meant that the horse-drawn fire unit was about to change to the motorized vehicle (fire truck). These toys were still being produced in the 1900's when the motorized vehicles first started to appear. Even in the 1910's and early 1920's these toys were still around, and the "real"item,s, as well as toys had already appeared in "real life".

Mr. James D. Julia sold his toy division (the rights therein) to Mr. Dan Morphy.

As such, James D. Julia no longer auctioned toys.The year was 2015. James D. Julia took exceptional and painstaking photographs of all of his toys going to auction. I don't know how long these "past auction" toy auction listings will be up on his website. So if you like toys, may I highly recommend that you visit his past toy auctions - you won't be disappointed!

In the years of these toys ( 1870's-1920's) there was a myriad of these toys with all kinds of names. Below there are mostly wagons, pumpers, and a dray. For myself , I had never heard of all of these terms, and needed a dictionary to understand what each one meant. Other horse-drawn items are the buckboard, the cart, the surrey, the coupe, the Phaeton, the Hanson cab, and probably a few more. People of the times most likely knew all of these names as we do now for vehicles. Examples  of today's cars are are coupe, sedan, SUV, ATV and several others. Then there are the sizes of cars such as  subcompact, compact, mid-size, and full-sized cars.

These toys presented today are from a time long gone. The only places to see these real"vehicles"  today would be in museums, country fairs, and in the movies.

Wilkins Two-Horse Pumper

An early transitional pumper with a silhouetted driver

Length:  14"  355 mm

Wilkins Hose Reel

This is the "mate" to the Wilkins Chemical Wagon.

This toy also contains a unique bell-ringing assembly

under the driver's seat.

Length:  15 1/2"  393 mm

Horse-Drawn Pure Ice Wagon by Harris

Painted cast iron.

Length: 13 1/2"  343 mm

Wilkens Sprinkler Wagon

Very rare and sought after.

Painted cast iron

Length:  14 1'2" 363 mm

Boy's Express Wagon by Pratt & Letchworth

Painted cast iron, with stencilled words "Boy's Express Co.

Length: 17"

Wilkins Two-Horse Hose Reel

Another transitional hose reel with a silhouetted driver.

Wire attached to front wheel causes a galloping motion.

Length:  14"  355 mm

Rare Horse Drawn Chemical Wagon by Wilkins

Painted cast iron with nickel-plated chemical tank

Length:  19 1/2"  495 mm

Pratt & Letchworth Dray

A perfect replica of the dray wagons from the 1880's-1890's.

Removable stake sides, cast iron dray bed with wooden inserts

Length:  13"  330 mm

Welker & Crosby "One-Horse Truck"

Painted cast iron with japanned horse.

This is number 11 in the Welker & Crosby catalogue.

Length:  14"  355 mm

It's been a long time since I added a post about such old toys. As i already mentioned, the reason for posting is that I don't know how long the toy auction results and photos will be on the James. D. Julia website. 

I hope that you enjoy this post.

I just found out that James D. Julia has all kinds of videos on YouTube. 
If you go to the URL below, you'll see an example of a video.All of the video introductions are the same, but the content later on is different for each auction.

Below is the URL for one particular toy auction. These videos are quite interesting and informative.

Please click here to visit a James D. Julia YouTube video

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

Excellent Photography from Mr. Dirk Soülis

Monday, October 11, 2016
Overcast and Rainy
17 Celsius / 62 Fahrenheit

Excellent Photography from Mr. Dirk Soülis

   I've written about Mr. Dirk Soülis several times in the 5 years that I've been blogging. I discovered his find website and auctioned toys by having done a search one day. His photography is always superb, and he presents lots of photos of his toys going to auction.

Please click here to visit this excellent auctioneer

 Pratt and Letchworth  was located in Buffalo, New York.  As it turned out, the company was founded by 2 brothers Samuel Fetcher and Pascal Paoli  Pratt, and William Pryor Letchworth as the Buffalo Malleable Iron Works.  The company originally produced saddlery hardware and was the largest in the USA. In 1889, Mr. George S. Crosby, a toy designer was hired. The toys were marketed by the name of Buffalo Toy with the company then being known as Buffalo Indestructible Malleable Iron and Steel Toys).*
* reference atca-clug.org/article02.php

Since the company was established in the mid-1890's and existed later on, it manufactured toys that were popular at the time. These included horse-drawn fire wagons, and a whole group of different carriages, also that were horse-drawn.

 A SCARCE PRATT & LETCHWORTH BAROUCHE IRON TOY CARRIAGE

A high quality cast iron horse drawn toy circa 1890, unsigned, all original paint etc, 

measures 6.5 x 17 x 5.25 inches. Very good, complete, original condition.

Sold for: $ 3500.00 US

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great time

of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Fabulous Pratt & Letchworth Fire Wagons

Monday, September 22, 2014
  Overcast, very windy, unseasonably cold
                         Fall Equinox

The Fabulous Pratt & Letchworth

Fire Wagons

   I like to revisit topics or companies that I have written about to see how I can expand on them in the future. I had been to Liveauctioneers and saw some very nice late 19th century fire wagons. The manufacturer was the company Pratt & Letchworth. In the late 1800's and for the first 15 years of the both century, horse pulled "fire wagons". These were long metal and wooden wagons that had

wooden ladders and fire equipment (e.g. axes), as will as boilers for pumping water. It must have been terrifying for pedestrians to have to get out of the way of these wagons as teams of two or four horses bolted along streets to the fire. 

Please click here to visit this fine American toy auction company

Please click here to visit my original post on Pratt & Letchworth

 Slight variations would be created when selling toys. The two fire wagons with nickel-plated boilers help to illustrate this point.  In this case, the team of horses varied from either a pair of white horses, or a pair of horses, one black and one brown. The colour combinations for the horses collars and reins were also painted in different colour themes.  The firemen in both wagons are also painted differently and have different hats.

Finally, the last wagon below is the massive  wagon or "truck". The rear fireman would turn the large wheel in order to drive the wagon around corners. You wouldn't want to have the rear of the wagon start to tilt to much to the side and turn over.

The driver in the front is missing the reins that would have attached to the horses. THis type of toy is also called a "pull toy". A piece of rope or cord would be attached to the small red loop at the front of the toy with the red  bar at the front, and then "pull along" by children on the street, or the "rare" sidewalk. 

These toys were certainly beautiful at the time and they still are. When you go looking to buy such toys, you have to be careful to make sure that you are buying an authentic antique and not a reproduction.  Many of these have been "reproduced" over the years.

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