Another Fine Toy Needs to be Identified

Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Overcast with Showers
23 C  74 F

Another Fine Toy Needs

to be Identified

     This week, I received another inquiry  asking if I could identify an old toy. I tried to find a similar toy, but couldn't. Thus, I am asking all readers if they might help my guest and I to identify this fine toy. Below are several photos to illustrate how the toy looks.

I wrote to Shirley to ask for the dimensions of the toy to help out. When I receive that information, I will add it to this post.  I would think that the toy is made of painted tin. Also, the toy does appear to be old, and it might be from the late 19th century or early 20th century.

I know that there are a lot of terms for these "vehicles".  It might be called a "surrey", a  "coach", or even a cab. Also, the toy could be American-made such as by George Brown. It might also be European.

So, if there is anyone out there who has such a toy, or might know what today's toy is, would you 

please send me an e-mail so that I can share the manufacturer with Shirley Jackson, and all of my readers.

As always,

Thanks for dropping by,

And have a great day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

A Rare Greek Firetruck comes to ebay

Monday, January 14, 2018
Sunny with Clear Skies
-20 C  -4 F

A Rare Greek Firetruck

comes to ebay

Please click here to visit this fine ebay seller

(This seller's  name on ebay  Stellass)

I was on ebay this past Friday and looking for toys. I came across a Greek toy on Liveauctioneers,

but I was looking for something rarer. I decided to visit ebay , and did a search for "Greek Toys".

I then came across many Greek toys, so I then prioritized the list by making the list from high price to low price. Sure enough, a beautiful Greek firetruck from the 1920's-1930's appeared.

Description:

Very rare Greek antique toy.

Circa 1920's-1930's

Scarce with it's box 

FIRE FIGHTER TRUCK - FIRE SERVICE TOY

Made of metal, tin.

ΠΥΡΟΣΒΕΣΤΙΚΗ ΥΠΗΡΕΣΙΑ ΝΟ. 54

COMES WITH IT'S ORIGINAL BOX!!!

Dimensions: length: 36cm   14 3/16"

 

If you're wondering why I added so many photos, it's because you don't often see many

European toys from countries  like Greece,Russia , Romania  or some countries. The photography was also superb, with very good focus, nice colour, and placed on white.

In addition, the selling price was high.

That certainly caught my attention!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Toonerville Comics as a Toy

Saturday, January 2, 2016
Seasonal temperatures and overcast

The Toonerville Comics as a Toy

    From the 1880's-1950's one could open a newspaper and be entertained by whole pages of comics (Cartoons). Gradually, times changed, and today, so have the comics. The comics are fewer, and naturally reflect the times of the 21st century.

  One of the cartoons was "Toonerville". The cast of characters in those days could be typecast in a myriad of ways, because "politically correct" were words not yet invented. SO cartoonists were somewhat free to portray people in their more natural state and even exaggerate them.

"Characters and story                                                                    The single-panel gag cartoon (with longer-form comics on Sunday) was a daily look at Toonerville, situated in what are now called the suburbs. Central to the strip was the rickety little trolley called the "Toonerville Trolley that met all the trains," driven in a frenzy by the grizzly old Skipper to meet each commuter train as it arrived in town. A few of the many richly formed characters included the Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang, the Physically Powerful Katrinka, Little Woo-Woo Wortle, Aunt Eppie Hogg (The Fattest Lady in 3 Counties) and Mickey McGuire, the town bully."*

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toonerville_Folks

Description:

Eppie Hogg in Auto

Germany, very rare example, lithographed tin, depicts portly Eppie Hogg in rear open bed of auto, driven by_____, clockwork activated. 

Length:  7" (  177 mm). Brown paint dress highlights probably factory, repaint to back of Eppie's head.*

* Description & Photos courtesy of Bertoia Auctions

The Old Skipper is  the name of the character driving the car below.

Thanks for dropping by in the New Year,
and as always,
have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be,
Stacey Bindman
toysearcher@gmail.com

The Girard Airplanes - Part I

Tuesday, June 17, 2014
   Sunny, clear, hot and humid

The Girard Airplanes

   I decided to post today about the Girard airplanes. The Girard toy company produced toys starting in 1906.  The company was founded by Mr. C.G. Wood in 1906, in Pennsylvania.  With his son Frank, the name changed to Wood's Mechanical Toys. By 1931, with financial difficulties during the great depression, , Louis Marx had purchased the company.Their more famous toy is the fire chief coupe that you see below.  If you ever do a search anywhere on toy auction sites or on ebay, the #1 toy that will come up when doing "Girard Toy" is the fire chief coupe. However, Girard also produced nice toy busses and  airplanes.

  If you search, you'll also see a similar car that was made by the Marx toy company. As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Louis Marx had purchased the company in 1931, and produced the very popular fire chief coupe, but under his own label.

  So for today, I decided earlier on the weekend to search for the fine Girard airplanes.

Please click here to visit the fine website of Morphy Auctions

What's interesting about the value of these 90 year old toys is that they can be purchased at auction for a lower price than many other toys of the same era. I don't know why, but they certainly are nice to collect.  What's also interesting to note is how fast the airplane developed in 20 years from when the Wright brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 7, 1903.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey.

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Ludwigs and their Moko Collection

Thursday, November 21, 2013

The Ludwigs and 

Their Moko Toy Collection

   Earlier this week, I added a post, and one of the toys was a Moko. I never heard of the company, so I did  search and came across a fine website that has lots of toys, including the Moko brand. Hans  and Ludwig (son) are a father and son who like to collect toys. If you visit their website, they have lots of photos of them and their friends when they are in different places looking for toys.  THeir website has a visitor counter and they have surpassed the 600,000 and 700,000 - Wow! Their site and of course their toys certainly are of interest to everyone.

   Hans was most helpful,and sent me a  PDF file  about the Moko company history. As it turned out the name Moko derived from the name of one of the ancestors of the more-recent (circa 1950's) Moko relative.  Moko was an acronym derived from the first 2 letters of the name Moses Kohnstam, a toy merchant (seller and distributor), whose company was called Moses Kohnstam and Company. The article was written by Mr. Kevin McGimpsey and Mr. Stewart Orr in 1988. It was published in Collecting Matchbox Diecast Toys-the First 40 Years.

   The Kohnstam family has a strong presence in European toy history having had famous companies manufacture toys for them.  Several generations of the family continued in the business and suffered hardships, like many others during WWII. The toys presented today were made by the Moko Company. The Moko trademark was registered by the grandson of Moses Kohnstam- Mr. Richard Kohnstam in 1949. Richard had associations with Lesney the small diecast toy manufacturer as well.  THe history of Richard Kohnstam is fascinating, but for today, I'l finish there.

Dream Tintoys

Please click here to visit Hans and Marco Ludwig's fine website

Some of Hans Ludwig's Moko Toys

Some of Marco Ludwig's Moko Toys

The timespan when Richard Kohnstam's MoKo company  was in business was quite short (about 12 years or so). However he certainly manufactured a broad and diverse collection of toys.  As I was uploading the last few toys from Marco's collection, I realized that I was writing about a father and son who collect toys that several generations of the MoKo family had manufactured over a long time.

That coincidence sort of caught me off guard, and I was moved by the fact the it's nice to see the Ludwigs collecting toys and staying so close together - both of them are adults, but I'm sure Hans started to get Ludwig involved at a young age.

Sometimes writing a post  certainly brings out great discoveries in the toy world.

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Some Other Fine Tippco Toy Cars

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Some Other Fine Tippco Cars

   By the 1930's the automobile had evolved quite nicely. People who could afford cars could afford extremes of luxury for the time. Needless to say, both the real cars and the toys were there. Although toys were not as expensive to real cars relative to the 1930's, salaries for the "common" person were low. As such, not every child would have such nice toys as are presented here today. The Tippco toy cars are exceptional in terms of detailing, electric lights (battery), and wind-up (key) clockwork driven movement.

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auctions fine website

Oc course, for most people a bus would have to do,unless

you could "splurge" and ride in a taxi. That would have been a nice "luxury" for someone used to riding the train or bus in the 1930's.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

A 1935 Tippco Mercedes-Benz 540K Coupe

Monday, October 21, 2013

A 1935 Tippco

Mercedes-Benz 540K Coupe

   I came across this most-interesing Tippco car  during the past weekend. When I went to do a search on Liveauctioneers, I could only find 4 examples, of which I only needed 2 for today's post. I tried to get an example of the "real" car, but it's hard on short notice to make requests and get permission to use a photo. Also, the real cars are just as rare as the toy.  The car is a 1935 Mercedes-Benz 540K coupe. If you do a search for that, you will come across the most-beautiful car you might see for that era.

The car above was part of the famous Donald Kaufman sale held by Bertoia Auctions on April 15-16 , 2011.  The base paint had overpaint, there was minor damage on the battery box due to acid corrosion from the battery, the underside was repainted, and there was a minor retouch to the fender. Even with those descriptions, this particular car sold for $ 13, 800.00.

There is a small hole that you can see in the left rear wheel side panel. Although the written description did not say, I would infer that this toy is a wind-up and came with a key.

When you see such fine toys, there's little to say but to look!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com