Sunday, December 29, 2013
(Moderately Cold with some Sleet)
A Beautiful Collection of Toys
for a New Year (2014) Auction
When I started out writing this blog, I purchased and resold toys on ebay. There was a slow period to sell toys, so I decided to sell off all my toys, and wait until the market picked up. I came up with an interim idea,which has since (so far) become permanent. I'd ask collectors, sellers, and auctioneers if I might use their photos. The Lloyd Ralston Gallery was one of the first auctioneers that I contacted.Mr. Lloyd ralston sadly had passed away much too young,but his two sons have done a marvellous job and keeping the company in excellent hands. I always like to go there to see what I can find for new writing material. And today, was as usual, most interesting. Some of today's toys I have seen, but I thought I'd share my personal felling with you.
Metalcraft was an American company manufacturing pressed steel toys in the 1920's-1940's (approximately). I like these toys because of the way they were made - pressed steel. Designers and other professional would have to create plans for heavy presses and dies to press the moderately thick steel sheet rolls into their form. After the pressed shake would be bend on their pre-cuts.
The idea of pre-determing the shapes and cuts always fascinates me to this day.
I'm sure these "artisans" worked with paper to pre-determine where the bends and cuts would be made, and made all of their plans the old-fahioned way - by hand and by drafting on drafting tables.
Today in the 21st century, I can imagine how these most-talented people would marvel at the computer and the accompanying software that today makes the world's toys.
Britains is most-famous for their toy soldiers (I believe lead). They have made these fine toys since the later 1800's and today. Almost every British regiment soldier has been sculpted, then moulds made followed by the pouring of molten metal. Later, the toys would be hand-painted.
The fact that there are so many of these historic toy "documents" still around, and that every individual one (I would assume mostly the earlier ones) were hand-painted astounds me.
If you were to look at an auction listing and magnify any image, you would see slight variations in the painting of soldiers of the same kind.
The Shackleton toy company (Britain) was only around for 4 years, I believe in the early 1950's.
Please excuse my approximations, as I'm running late in today's post and can't specifically cite exact dates. When I first saw this model which I wrote about this only recently,I was awestruck. Although moderately "young" at a mere almost 60 years,it was made to last forever!
I tried to get the permission of a Flickr member to use his fine collection of Shackleton toy photos, but he denied me the permission. Someone had abused his permission, and thus his turning me down. However, if you go to Flickr,and search for "Shackleton toys",or Shackleton Trucks", you will find his marvellous collection of both these superb toys,and his fantastic photo collection of British (real) trucks.
The Arcade toy above has been restored with some purposeful scratching to give it that aged appearance.When I first started out writing, I bought a few cast iron toys that were in my price range. What I like so much about this type of toy is that it's solidly built and heavy. There's something about a heavy weight in my hands that I like. I've had that feeling with ebony wood,where a small piece of this wood is very heavy.
If you ever have seen any WWII photo of Great Britain, or watched movies of the "Battle of Britain", you would have seen those "blimps" or barrage balloons as the "Brits" call them.
However, you never hardy ever see the accompanying "lorry" or truck,or at least I've never seen them.
Now I have!
What I thought was so ingenious is the fact that some collector had filled the repaired ballon with plaster, although to some other collector or bidder,this is a major "faux-pas" or mistake in English.
Tootsietoy was an American company that made fine die cast small-sized toys. Tootsietoy is to America as is to Great Britain. The company lasted from approximately 1920-1960,when it was purchased by some huge company, and eventually closed down. If you like "old" of any kind,you can;t help buy like the old designs,especially of toy cars. Fortunately,I was able to be lots of these fine toys, and re-seel them All of the Tootsietoys are favourites of mine, but the Grahams ( a car) are my favourite favourite of the Tootsietoys. I've written about this fine company many times,and never tire of writing amount these fantastic "minis".
It's funny that I would find several non-soldier Britains toys,when during normal search periods, I can never find them! This is a beautiful collection of these small toys made of of animals and circus people.
I've written about Marx toys plenty of times. At one time, Mr. Marx produced 1 in every 3 toys purchased in the USA. You cannot stop and think in admiration about how someone could be so driven in his company and be able to be so successful at that time in history. Many of the Marx toys are lithographed wind-up toys,and are always in demand,. with some of the rarer toys yielding great returns to their owners at auction.
I don't know if I've begun to like toys like food,but I do. I like most foods, and have even tried exotic foods when Montreal had an International food tasting fair on Ile Notre Dame for several years. I've eaten alligator, (tastes like chicken) emu, red deer, and several other exotic food sources. However, as with food,I like almost every pre-1940 and even pre-1950 toy.
The toys above are more like "charms" or collectibles, but when I first saw them I was enthralled.
I even purchased a small set made by the Arcade toy company for my wife.
Dinky toys have been around in Britain for a very long time, and are still in existence. The famous Hornby company now owns them. Just like the Britains company, Dinky has probably manufactured every British type of mechanical truck or car that was ever made. Of course, they also make other toys as well. Most of these toys are small (4" or 102mm), and the rarest of the Dinky can cost you thousands of US Dollars at auction. Of course, the original box is needed for those prices.
The year 2013, is now almost over, and it's been a big commitment on my part to blog almost every day. On days that I didn't blog, I wrote several posts on other days, so at the year's end,I've probably written the magic number of 365.
Naturally, I couldn't write and continue to write without the help from my "toy friends" who have allowed me the courtesy to use their photos and write about them. So I would like to thank the larger companies like Lloyd Ralston Gallery , and every other person, collector, auctioneers, store, repair person, or parts seller who has given me this wonderful new pass-time of writing. I used to write books when I taught pro photography, so writing was easier. However,if you were to ask me 3 years ago,could I write day in and day out a post about old and antique toys, I would have said "whaaaaatttttt?" with an expression of shock on my face.
I have succeeded in attracting many readers who have viewed 80,00) plus of my pages ( less 5-15% for referrer spam). which in Blogger language are called"page views". I would like to escalate readership even more.So if you have friends, neighbours, or fellow sellers , auctioneers,who like to read,or would even like to have me write about them, but all means tell them about my blog.
As the year ends, I want to thank everyone who has helped me,written to me, and read my blog.
Sincerely,
Stacey Bindman
And as always,
thanks for dropping by,
and have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be.
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com
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