Can Anyone Help Identify This Cast Iron Messerschmitt

 Tuesday, January 12, 2021
  0 C   32 F
 Cloudy

Can Anyone Help to Identify 

This Cast Iron Messerschmitt?

     I haven't been blogging lately, but fortunately, from time to time, I get letters from toy collectors who have questions. Mr. Ted Wesselo from Holland (The Netherlands) wrote to me to ask if I could identify his toy. I wrote back for more information such as the dimensions of the toy. Ted replied and sent me several more photos.

      The toy measures 13. 5 cm x 10 cm (5.31 inches x 2.54 inches), and the height of the spring holding the plane is 7.12"). It is also made of cast iron.

      I'm not sure if the toy is European, since cast iron toys were very rare in Europe, compared with the USA.

So, if someone out there can please help out, 

Ted and I would be very appreciative.

As always, please take care,

especially during this most-terrible

Covid-12 pandemic.

Have a nice day,

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Cast Iron Doorstops

Tuesday, January16, 2018
Overcast
-3 C  26.6 F

Cast Iron Figural Doorstops

Please click here to visit this highly successful auction company

You've probably read many of my posts about cast iron toys. However, most interestingly, these companies manufactured other products. They produced hardware for houses. This would include door hinges and door locks.  They also produced doorstops. Back in the 1870's and later on, houses weren't built  as well. Many houses also were quite old, so settling of the houses into the ground created some problems. One of these problems was tilting. This might not have been so apparent from the outside of the house, but inside, the doors often would slam into walls if the doors didn't have doorstops. So,doorstops were manufactured to keep the doors against the wall or keep them at any angle needed (such as when keeping the front door open for fresh air in the summertime. Being made of cast iron, these doorstops were heavy, and you had to watch out to ensure that you didn't smash your toes or foot against them! These items are very desirable as collectibles, and can be seen at flea markets and at auctions. The category of these collectibles is Cast Iron Figural Doorstops, as they were manufactured in many common forms, as you can see below. I've only taken a "sampling" of these fascinating items, but if you go to Liveauctioneers, you will see many of these items listed at auctions.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

A Fine Hubley Cast Iron Airplane

Saturday, November 21, 2015
Partly cloudy with mild temperatures

A Fine Hubley

Cast Iron Airplane

   Since Dan Morphy has expanded his auction business, his photography has improved with the use of larger-sized photographs. A lot of his expanded business has been old cars and firearms, which require superior photography. I'm glad this has happened, as it's great for myself to see more detail of the toy photos. In this way, I can expand on my writing and the fine toys.

 "Cast Iron Hubley Tri Motor America Airplane Toy.

All cast iron with aluminum wing marked "America" on wing and has star marks on circles on both sides of wing. Looks to be all original. Some paint chipping and wear on top of fuselage. Original pilots and motors. Original rubber tires marked "Hubley", one has a flat spot. Still has clicker. Condition (Excellent). Size 17" Length ( 431.8 mm)"*

* Description Courtesy of Morphy Auctions 

I like how the first 4 photos have been photographed. Since I have removed most of the grey background, the first 4 images appear to illustrate a spiral downward "dive"by the airplane.

Please click here to visit this fine American auctioneer's website

THe second-to-last photo above illustrates the fine detail of the trimotor castings. Look at the engine assembly to note all of the back parts of the propeller. As is usual, the propellers were made of plated nickel,and have truly stood "the test of time" for an 85 year old toy.

The 2 pilots in the cockpit certainly are "cute". They were hand painted, and even the paint on these characters have also withstood the test of time.

There are no photos to show you how the propellers moved,but you can vaguely see a criss-cross (X-shaped) expandable coils in the back attaching the 2 side propellers. The front wheels have another stretched wire coil that attached to the rear wheels and their coils. As the airplane was pushed or pulled with a string, all 3 propellers would rotate.  Also, in the written description, you will have read  the word "clicker". THe airplane had a clicking devise attached to the airplane. AS the airplane was pulled a nosy clicking would arise, with the noise getting faster and louder as the airplane was pulled faster.

The larger-sized cast iron airplanes from the 1930's are very much in demand and achieve high values at auction.

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

Cast Iron Doorstops

Tuesday, October 20, 2015
               Partly sunny and mild

Cast Iron Doorstops

   Our Canadian election is finally over. The Conservative Prime Minister, Mr Stephen Harper decided to call the election 79 days ago - a record for an election campaign. Whatever strategy he had obviously didn't work as a new Liberal Prime Minister buy the name of Mr. Justin Trudeau won the election with a clear majority. Mr.Trudeauis the son of the famous late P.M. Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and I'm 99.999% sure that the father-son Prime Ministership is a first in Canadian Politics.

   However, I digressed, and so back to toys, which is again another digression (that doesn't sound too good, since the word "digression" is usually associated with doing something wrong -a sin),for my blog, as I decided to write about cast iron doorstops. 

   Foundries that produced cast iron merchandise for the growing American public produced more than just toys. I've written innumerable times about cast iron toys, which are one of my favourite toy categories. However, the foundries also produced lots of tother fine merchandise such as hardware for the home. This included door hinges, locks and keys, butterfly latches to hold in screened and glass windows and lots of other items.

   I have written ever-so-briefly on cast iron doorstops, but decided to give these magnificent items their own post. The upcoming Bertoia Auctions auction on November  14, 2015, and titled Holiday Surprises Auction 2 features lots of nice cast iron toys and of course today's subject - doorstops.

  The houses  of yesteryear  weren't made the same as today's homes. Foundations might be large stones from the field, walls weren't as well-built as today, and doors weren't finished  to the level of today either. As a result, most homes in olden times would move, just as today. As a result, doors would tend to tilt and wouldn't remain open.  So with every problem there is a solution, and the doorstop was invented probably thousands of years ago, but in the form of a rock. 

   What's interesting about doorstops is that there were so many different models and different categories to choose from. And of cords, there were all of the cast iron toy companies and hardware manufacturers making these interesting items. While I was writing and assembling the photos with their respective data, I "discovered" that in fact, some of these door stoppers were actually small, compared with what I had originally thought they would have been.  I'm quite sure though, that if someone had a smaller door, they wouldn't need a large doorstop, and if the reverse was true, or the door was quite heavy and didbnlt hold its' place, a larger doorstop was called for.

    So without further adieu ( a French term for more talking), lets' get to these fine items.

Please click here to visit this exceptional American Antique Toy Auction Company

What I like of doorstops is the craftsmanship that went into making the mild and of course the design and content itself. It's like taking artwork and adding the third dimension of depth into the doorstop. The colours were of course hand painted, and  so one can imagine all of the workers who worked for long hours painting the many different doorstops.

My mother loved China, and had a nice collection of Royal Doulton, Helmsley, Rosenthal, and Lladro. The item below of the Southern Belle lady reminds me of a fine porcelain figurine.

I would think that the rabbit with the overalls (below) would have been selected for a child's door. So imagine iof a house was exceptionally tilting, and was a very large house, how many doorstops there might have been!

Beautiful!

Being a photographer and nature person, you have to adore the fine pair of quail below. 

And the same for this magnificent peacock with its plumage in full show to attract, of course, 

the peahen!

THe Turkey, whci is most likely a "Tom", the name for a male turkey is my favourite for its exceptional carving, skill, and detail. If you select slide-view mode for Blogger (this blog by Google), you will bye able to see all photos off this post and others in a magnified mode. There the detail of this Tom Turkey will stand out!

I like detail. I don't know why, but perhaps it's being a photographer and needing to see detail and  pay attention to detail when doing portraits, taking landscapes, or photographing products.  Also, I seem to retain lots on information. Sometimes, I am even surprised at the answers I get when I watch the American TV Quiz show - Jeopardy. Of course, if I ever went on the show, I would "freeze up" like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, and wouldn't be able to answer the questions.

What I learned from the Bertoia Auctions description below of the doorstop of the house (below) is that it has a resemblance to a saltbox.  I never heard of a saltbox before, and now I know. I would also assume, that people must have had a large supply of salt, especially if they lived in remote places throughout any country, in this case being America, so a larger-sized container would have been used.

So that's it for today. The leaves are already falling off the trees, so the fall season is already underway. It snowed earlier in the week, this the freeze caused the leaf stems to break away from the trees. 

Lots of work to do around the house, but still some time to write.

Thanks for dropping by, 

and as always,

haste a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

A Nice Restoration of a Rustbucket

Wednesday, January 21,2015
Sunny, and very, very, cold!

A Nice Restoration of a Rustbucket

   January is turning out to be very cold up here in Montreal.  The good news is that time is speedily moving along. It's a mere 60 days or 8 weeks and 4 days to March 22(the spring equinox). At that point there's another 60 days until warm weather comes to be able to go outdoors without a jacket. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Joseph Desaulniers is helping me keep busy,and sent me another set if photos of a "rustbucket" - before and after.  The world "rustbucket" refers usually to a car or truck that has badly rusted. In the 1960's-1980's American car manufacturers (and international manufacturers) produced cars that would rust.Back then.people liked to keep their cars a long time. Eventually, people complained enough to get governments to regulate car manufacturers so that they produced longer-lasting car bodies. They did this with better materials, better paint, and somewhat rusting car parts that rusted fast (e.g. the underneath of the car, wheel wells, and so forth.  Of course, also included was the replacement of a large portion of the car with plastic!

   Joseph send me a set of photos of a before and after cast iron car that he restored. Interestingly, for this particular car, he didn't repaint it, but left the un-removed paint stay. It's a mere shadow of itself,but beautifully shows what the original colour pattern was - red and blue.

Before

This car certainly is ugly before it was to be restored. However,it shows worse that it is. The surface is not rusted as bad as it appears,and Joseph was able to remove the rust and re-painted black exterior paint. 

The photo below shows that the car was re-painted 

black over blue at some time during its history.

The photo below is an excellent reference photo. It shows you what the original colours were - blue, and red. The red is shown on the top piece at the bottom. If you were to repaint the car,these would be the colours to use.

 The above and below photos show you how the 2 car parts would be assembled. The wire would be used to hold the top and bottom parts together. I'm not sure that this is the original wire or mechanism that would have held the car together. The reason that I mention this is that some manufacturers made sets of toys that would allow for interchangeable parts.As such, the removal of the parts had a flattened hinge-like spring, that made removal easy.

In the above illustration, the wire appears that it would have to be unwound.

After

Below are the photos of the finished and restored car. I've seen this car model, and it's rarer than the usual ones where the entire top part of the car would be one pice, and the underside (chassis) would be another. In this case, just the cab is the top part.

I.n surprised that the old tires and wooden rims are still intact. I'm sure they're very dry, 

but Joseph took great care not to damage them

I would think that Joseph use a wire brush head on an electric drill to remove the rust.He probably also use steel wool for the finer work,and hard-to-reach places of the toy. As you can plainly see, the actual body of the car is in quite good condition. 

What I haven't seen before is the round circle on the door, where the end of the steel rod was hammered flat to secure the left and right sides of the car together.

What's interesting is that you can easily see that the old expression "don't judge a book by its cover" clearly applies in a "sort-of-way" here. I don't' know how much Joseph paid for the original 

"rustbucket", but he turned it into a fine collectible!

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 of Bertoia Auction's Recent Cast Iron Items

Tuesday, April 1, 2014
            (Sunny and cool)

Some of Bertoia Auction's

Recent Cast Iron  Items

   This past weekend, Bertoia Auctions had their first auction of 2014. I selected some once items for today's post. They're all early 1920's, but for now (1910's). They're not the rarest or the most valuable, but to me their beautiful to look at.

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auction's excellent web site

You can easily see the similarities of the above .3 cast iron trucks. What I like best of all are the rounded  bars that surround the passengers.

What's nice about this particular truck is that there is a combination of cast iron and  pressed steel. 

Also, the driver is African-American. The gold painted trim adds a noise contrast to the overall grey colour of the truck body.

 I've seen this toy before, but decided to select it for today. It certainly is very "different looking" and interesting to look at. 

So that's it for April 1, 2014 - short and sweet. THe weather is starting to get nicer (finally), 

and I spent a bit more time outdoors, even though the temperature was still cold.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, 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

Out of the Clear Blue - from Oregon

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Out of the Clear Blue - From Oregon

   Monday and Tuesday of this week were doctor visits. I have a problem, but the doctors can't seem to find a solution. How come it's not like House or Grey's Anatomy where my medical anomaly gets to be treated by 10 of the world's brightest doctors for 6 weeks, and then I'm cured? Of course, I'm not worried, since I've had this problem for the last 2 years!

   So after Tuesday's doctor visit at 07:30 A.M., I go for coffee, and then go home. I check my e-mails and I have a very interesting e-mail from Mr. John Keiser. He had done a search for Tom Sehloff, and came across my posting about him. Tom and John are friends, and Mr. Tom Sehloff makes fabulous cast iron toys. I had written a post about the toys of Tom Sehloff courtesy of Bertoia Auctions. I tried to do a search for Mr. Sehloff, but didn't find much, so I continued and forgot.  If you click "here" you can  see the post about Tom.

   Anyway, when I read John's e-mail, I thought that I was in toy heaven! John provided me with Tom's e-mail address and telephone number, and said that I should phone him. Thinking fast, I know that I had to ask John if he'd like to be a guest on my blog, and if he would be so kind as to send me some photos. He wrote back right away, and sent me all kinds of photos. So below is the fascinating bio of Mr. John Keiser, as well as his great collection of personal and toy photos.

Mr. John Keiser

A Most-Interesting Guest

That's John in the 1960's. He still has that 1931 Dodge, and is working on restoring it. John's profession is that of an architectural draftsperson. He learned this profession by hand, and has learned to use Autocad.

Here's John today. He worked on restoring that car, another 1931 Dodge,

and he drives it to work every day.

John sent me the 3 newspaper pages above about his restoration of the coupe (the red one).
This is one of the most interesting posts that I have had the pleasure of writing with a guest.
Thanks, John!

Updated (October  10, 2013)

That's John's weathervane, that he calls a  whirlygig, and modestly said that this was his "attempt" at folk art. Did I recently tell you about my attempts at building and repairing things around the house? Now those are attempts, John's weathervane is "art",

What's interesting is that this piece was based on his grandfather's schooner on the Great Lakes. The ship was triple-masted, and it was the last one to haul lumber on the Gear Lakes. The ship was called the "J.T.Wing". John made that ship for his parents.

Here's a "sampling" of some of John's collection. These are mostly more-recent models, although I do see some older models as well.

The top shelf are some of Tom Sehloff's outstanding creations.

On the bottom shelf I see a blue motorcycle with 2 Disney characters. However, I can't tell if that's new or a very old Hubley. The policemen in blue on the red motorcycle looks like a very old 1930's Hubley.

I think these are more of Tom Sehloff's creations. I'll ask John to identify some of the photos, when I ask him to proofread this post.

As you can see from the hand as a  reference, this toy is quite large!

Recently, I've taken photos and placed the toys against a completely white background.  However, I decided to leave just a bit of "detail" in John's photos, and the results are excellent!  Of course, it helped that John took some great photos!

The photos above and those below are Tom's creations.

I removed some green on the left side of the photo, but left the doorbell.  I like the result even better than the complete-white effect. However this will only work well with people's personal photos, rather than the auctioneer photos that present their fine items on a solid colour. The backgrounds help the photo in this case.

Tom Sehloff always signs his "masterpieces".

The 4 photos above are when the castings have been cooled and removed from their moulds.

The castings are from a Chrysler Airflow. IF you do a search on the Net for "chrysler Airflow", you will see a fabulous car. However, the "real" car never made it (was not a success), and sadly was only produced for a few years.

Casting many parts together helps save time and money, since producing high temperatures to melt iron is quite costly.  When the casting is cool, the individual pieces are carefully separated, and then finished to removed excess iron.

The 3 toys above are more of Tom Sehloff's fine cast iron toys. I spoke with tom today, and he has agreed to be a guest on my blog. Of course, he's quite busy. Not only does he create these fabulous  toys, but he works on restoring and making parts for the 1960's-1970's Dodge "muscle cars".

It must be the great state of Oregon or the air there. Both John and Tom are multi-talented people from Oregon. Maybe I should move there?

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, 

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

write me anytime: 

toysearcher@gmail.com