More of Pinterest

Friday, October 21, 2016
Cloudy
13 Celsius / 56 Fahrenheit

More of Pinterest

Please click here to visit Pinterest

Yesterday, I wrote about Pinterest and how this website was a good website to search for toys. 

However, there are some "quirks" (idiosyncrasies).It's not the end of the world, and you can even find what you are looking for.

Below is a search result that I did for antique toys. Notice that I have added numbers "1" and "2".
It's obvious from the photos, that 2 Pinterest members "borrowed" identical images from the Internet from 2 different sources.

I decided to check the 2 search results.

This is a magnification of the 2 identical photos from 2 different locations of the same toy.

 When I clicked on the #1 image above, an enlargement (below) emerged.

 And when I clicked on the larger above image, I got the result below.
The result is from a very fine and superb website called Pook & Pook.
The minor problem is that the toy was auctioned in 2013, and Pook and Pook probably removed the 
image and descriptions. Their website usually has about 12-16 antique toys for sale at any one time, so I assume they needed space, and removed the toy.

Below is the #2 image from another location.

Once again, when I clicked on the camera photo (above), I was redirected to the photo's owner and website. It turned out to be another great website called Liveauctioneers. Liveauctioneers

is a website that adds hundreds of different types of auctioneers on their website. This is convenient for both auctioneers and potential bidders because many auctioneers  are on one website. This offers  additional promotion to the auctioneers, and the bidders do not have to go to 10 different websites to search for toys or other merchandise.They can look for everything on this one website.

When I clicked on the camel image (above),this is the result that I got. 

And when I clicked on the above image, I got the information below. There was a result of the bidding price, as well  as another toy similar in type. By the way, this type of toy is called a pull toy. A piece of cord would be attached to the front of the pull toy, and as the toy was pulled along the ground or sidewalk, the toy would ring. These toys were very popular in the 1880's-1920's.

When I clicked on the small photo of the boy and the alligator, I obtained an enlargement..

The final judgement for Pinterest is that it's a fine website. However, you have to a lot of work to get excellent photos and excellent descriptions of a specific toy. And if you have a  direct link to any of the larger toy auction companies or toy sellers on ebay, you will get more information on the toy, price estimates or final winner of the toy, and great photos.

It's all a matter of being patient, but you will find out what you are looking for eventually.

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

American History Preserved Through Photos

Sunday, August 11, 2013

American History 

Preserved Through Photos

     About 15 years ago,I had  a great experience of visiting the U.S. capital of Washington. Their many different museums under the name of the Smithsonian was unbelievable. There you can discover all of the good and and sometimes bad throughout most of American history.  Another of the exceptional museums in Washington is the Library of Congress.  There are collected much of the USA's famous documents, newspapers, photographs of what America was and is in all of her greatness and in all of his weaknesses. All of her good and all of her bad. I remember walking in to a majestic vestibule that showed an old decor of fine stone and echoed the sounds of people whispering in its massive chamber. There encased in glass was the original handwritten score of  Leonard Bernstein from the Broadway play - West Side Story.  That showcase is periodically changed to present just some of the many illustrious documents and other material from America's history.

    Yesterday,I had decided to visit the Library of Congress on the Net, as I wanted to get some photos of goat carts. I had asked an E-Bay seller for his (Her) permission, but still am waiting.  I found plenty of goat cart or goat wagon photos, but then decided to veer off for today's post. 

Please click here to visit the outstanding Library of Congress website

 I've only presented a few  toys that were in fact made by parents for their children.  The name of our (Canada) native northernmost people now is Inuit. The old name of "Eskimo" was old and a bit derisive. AS such , the new name has been used for the last 20-35 years. 

 December 3, 1903 was the date on which the Wright Brothers made the first "heavier" than air flight at Kitty Hawk,North Carolina.In the photo above, you can see some examples of toys that resemble that famous airplane. What's also interesting is to see how "small" Madison Sqare Gardens looks.

 A fabulous old pedal car. What's also of interest is the old radio and the table with those iron feet.

THis young boy certainly was fortunate to have such a nice toy way back in those days!

 Being a photograph taken in the USA, I would say that he was most likely playing with the American erector set made by A.C.Gilbert (USA).

Not all toys have always been metallic or mechanical. In the photo above, the 3 men are working on wooden and hand-painted or lacquered toys.

I'm sure every large department store in North America at one time had a display window such as the one above at Christmas Time.  In Montreal, Quebec, Canada ours is at Ogilvy's. THere the annual window exhibit consists of many mechanically-operated puppets and figures related to that festive season.

In the centre of Montreal and at the top of a small mountain is a lake called "Beaver Lake". 

I've never seen anyone play with sailboats there, but I'm sure 100 years ago this happened, as in New YOrk City's Central park (Above).

A very old and interesting photo of a salesman and lots of toys.

Lots of nice toys for this young boy. Notice the sailor suit that  he's wearing. The boy in the top second photograph is also wearing one as well. That outfit was very popular at the time. I'll be visiting the Library of Congress to write future posts using many of the most-interesting photos that are loaded on their vast database. Their is lots to learn from looking at these fascinating old photos, and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as me.

Thnaks for dropping by,

and always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may  be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Randystoyshop

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Randystoyshop

Background

 I've stopped by Randystoyshop on the Net, but never really checked it out. I think I was looking for toy repair people, and his site came up. I'm tempted to keep correcting Randy's store name, but that's the way it's spelled, so I'll just write about Randy and his store. 

    Yesterday, out of the clear blue, I decided to have a look on E-Bay. I've written that it's hard to find those rare toys, so I decided to go visit E-Bay. Was I wrong! I did a search and found several stores. One store didn't want their toys copied and written about, and Randy wrote back and said that was fine. 

    Randy is a diesel mechanic by profession, but he always liked to collect toys. Not just any toys, but those  toys that other collectors looked down on - those "misfit toys" as he calls them. Being a diesel mechanic, I'm sure he has the skills, and still does to repair things. As I even mentioned, Randy repairs toys.  He started collecting toys in the late 1970's and what began as a hobby of collecting turned into buying and selling. By 1987, he had to expand from working in his house to 

adapting an old "chicken coop" into a workshop.  In 1998, the business once again outgrew its space, and Randy decided to move to downtown Noblesville, Indiana. Randy mentioned that that's where many other antique  stores are.

www.randystoyshop.com

(please click on the above address to be redirected to Randy's store)

40° 2' 44" N / 86° 0' 31" W

The Toys

  I was going to show more toys, but I took some time to best show the ones below. I asked Randy if I could improve the images in Photoshop, and remove some rulers that he had for the Japanese Rickshaw and driver, and he said "sure". Once I started, I just had to bring out the fine detail and colours from the toys. And so, I only have 2 fine toys to show you for today.  

   With the Popeye toy below,  Randy e-mailed me to remind me that Popeye is not the 

"correct Popeye" for that tank toy.  The one he added is a "tumble or figure" that was installed. He's still looking for the correct one!  

   I was so interested with the toy, I didn't read what he had written in the description on E-Bay. That was almost like the time I went fishing off Vancouver, B.C. (Canada). My brother, his  wife, and my 2 nieces, and my wife charter a boat for an hour at $ 250.00. I catch the only salmon of the day - a large one, and the captain says "you can't keep it, it's too small!" I went back to look at the toy, but not knowing much about Linemar toys, I couldn't tell that that Popeye was the wrong one.

     The toy below is a superb 1920's  Lehmann (Germany) Masuyama wind-up tin toy. FOr being at least 92 years old, the toys and its original box sure are in great shape.

   You can see  the wind-up mechanism in the above photo. In the 1880's and later, Germany was "the" leader for well-crafted ind-up toys. I mentioned in another post that  Paya, a Spanish company that started  in 1902, by the 1930's rivalled Germany in  quality, craftsmanship, and design. Randy's last name, by the way is Iver, and he also sells on E-Bay. His name on E-Bay is Randystoyshop. He's a top rated seller, and has an excellent reputation on E-Bay. So you can either drop by E-Bay, or his store that  I've written above for you to be redirected.

Thanks for dropping by,

and, as always, have a great part of the day or night, 

wherever 

you may be.

Stacey

Paya Toys

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Paya Toys

      The Paya Company was founded in 1902 by Rafael Paya in Alicante Spain. In 1906, Mr. Paya's sons (Pascual,Emilio, and Vincente) helped their father build a factory to produce their fine toys. This was the first ever toy factory on Spain.  Their quality and bold colours helped them create a reputation that rivalled the famous German manufacturers of the time such as Marklin. However, the Paya creations were not as complicated or as big as the German Marklin.  The 1930's saw further expansion until the Spanish civil war occurred. Under the dictator Franco,the company had to stop making toys and produced shell casings. In 1946, the company started once again to make toys. I'm not sure what happend later, as it's hard to find information on the company. However, in the mid 1980's Paya under Lino Paya (Unsure if his last name was Paya)  reintroduced the manufacture of limited editions (5000) of their old classic tin toys.

http://www.toytent.com

(please press on the above address to be redirected to their fine website)

Liberty (Toy Company) - Wooden Ships

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Liberty (Toy  Company)

Wooden Ships

Introduction  

I was searching out some toys yesterday, when I came across a wooden boat with the title "Liberty" in it. The first thing that came to mind was the fleet of U.S. ships that President Roosevelt and the US Government ordered built to help Great Britain in WWII. The Germans were besieging  Great Britain with the Blitzkrieg and daily aerial bombardment by the Luftwaffe.  Americans were in no mood to enter WWII, but decided to help Britain by sending armaments and food. The German U-boats prowled the  Atlantic and were even off the U.S. coats. THey torpedoes several ships off the U.S. coast killing many merchant marine sailors.

   Anyway, I had trouble finding other of these ships, so I decided to look for auctioneers on icollector and LiveAuctioneers. Sure enough, I struck gold with a past auction from James D. Bertoia. However, it took a lot longer to find anything about the Liberty toy company. I remembered that I had my trustworthy copy of Karen O'Brien's  12th Edition of "Collecting Toys - A Collector's Identification and Value Guide". I looked on page 4 for company histories,  and there was "Liberty Playthings" on page 511.

    Liberty Playthings turned out to be a company that existed from the late 1920's - early 1930's, and was located, in of all places - Niagara Falls (USA). Don't forget that we have a Niagara Falls (Canada)-eh! The company manufactured all of their toys from wood and metal, and always identified them by their name "Liberty".  There was a bit more information about the actual toys that they made, but that I'll show below. I tried to look some more on the Net, but drew a blank (nothing).

   What I did find and present to you today are very fine looking ships made often from mahogany. And of course,as usual,the toys were superbly photographed by the pro photographers at Bertoia Auctions. Fortunately, Bertoia had almost the whole fleet of ships up for auction on April 9, 2006. Thhe images can be found at LiveAuctioneers on their website.

The Toys

This particular ship reminds me of the ships that I see moving in Montreal when I bicycle along the St. Lawrence Seaway. I know someone who is a  retired electrical engineer who maintained electrical machines on boats, land oil wells, and of course, ocean oil platforms.

He told me an interesting story about the owner of Canada Steamship Lines - Mr. Paul Martin, Senior. Mr.Paul Martin Junior now is in charge of the company. He was Prime Minister for about 1 1/2 years after he won a minority election. The government was defeated on a vote, and he had to dissolve Parliament and call for an election.

Coming back to Mr. Paul Martin, Senior, a sailor on 1 of the Canada Steamship Line Ships  told the retired engineer, that he once saw Mr. Martin Senior on a ship and he sailed on it for the duration of the trip.  I guess he liked sailing on the larger "toys", but the story is interesting to hear about the owner of a worldwide shipping company taking a ride on one of his ships.

What I like about these ships (boats) is their simple but elegant design. 


If anyone out there ever finds any information on Liberty Playthings, 
would you please send me a note.


Thanks for dropping by, 
and
have a great part of the day or night, 
wherever you may be.

Stacey

A Reproduction of a Mechanical Bank

Monday, November 19, 2013

A Reproduction of A Mechanical Bank

     A few days ago, I was writing a post about mechanical banks. I was screen-capturing my images for the post,when I saw an bank that I have. However, mine is a "reproduction". I didn't bother to capture the "real ones", as I was busy with the post that I was about to write. A few days later, I had to track down those images. So the point of this story? Always go with your instinct, and do what you have to now, so you don;t waste time tomorrow!

    I know my mechanical bank is a "reproduction", since I bought it at one of the few remaining general stores/hardware stores in Montreal, by the name of Hogg Hardware. I know it was a reproduction, and they were selling it as such. I go to Hogg Hardware or Quinquillerie Hogg (French), when the super-sized giants don't have what I'm looking for! Those giants like Home Depot or Lowe's in the US, and Rona here in Montreal did a great job in knocking off all of the smaller stores! Those giants are also like our gas companies here in Canada- there is no competition!  The prices are always so close, it doesn't pay for me to run around the city looking to save 5%.

    Anyway, back to the story. My sense is that if a company closes down, then years later, it seems that anyone can reproduce their product without a care in the world. Maybe I'm wrong,so if you're reading this, especially if your a copyright or patent lawyer, I could use the confirmation or the correction!

   Today's mechanical bank reproduction is a "knockoff "(a polite word for "fake")of the renowned 1880's company by the name of J.E. Stevens. The original bank was  patented (May 31, 1892) by  Shepard Hardware (Buffalo, New York, USA). Later the bank was made by the  J & E Stevens Company. While I was researching this post, I came across a cornucopia of a site for mechanical banks. Bill Jones who is the webmaster and the writer for the site, as well as many other contributors. He has created an encyclopaedic source for anyone who has one of these fine banks, and wants to know something about it. 

                                                     http://www.mechanicalbanks.org
                            (Please press on the above address to be redirected to this great site!)
                    (

The red arrow is pointing to the threads of a screw on the underneath side.

On my "fake", this screw holds holds a spring that works the arm and cannon.

 On the "real" items, there is no rubber plug for holding the $$ in the bank,

and the spring is not seen.

On my "fake", you can see the poor casting for the cast iron bank.

The 4 corners of the "fort" have large gaps.

A top view of the "fort" to show you the large spaces where the 4 parts of the "fort" meet.

The arrows are pointing to the helmet visor and the hand.

Again, poor moulds  have resulted in the lact of fine detail. The visor on the authentic Stevens bank is longer, while the detail in the hand is much more refined!

My "reproduction"  release is shorter than the authentic Stevens bank

The red arrow is pointing to the # 3. On the authentic Stevens bank, there is no # 3.

All of the above images are of my "reproduction".

The ones below are from Net sources, and are "real"!

A photo or scan of an original advertisement of the "artillery bank" from the Shepard Hardware Company, in Buffalo (New York, USA).

Another of Bill Jones' photos.

I'll be adding more photos when I find out the credit sources.

However, Bill's well-taken photo shows many of the points to recognize is as "the real one":

1. The 4 fort corners meet smoothly without any gaps.

2.There is a small holein the third row of the fort bricks.

3. The hand has finer detail, and the visor of the cap is longer than my "reproduction"

4. The trigger latch (next to the word bank) is shorter on the real one.

5. There  are no screw threads showing through in front of the "fort"

6. The entire overall quality of the casting is more refined and smoother than on my "reproduction"

Of course, it's always great to have Bertoia auctions help me out when I write my blogs.

   It's always best to search for 2-5 different sources if you're looking to authenticate or disprove a "real" or a "reproduction". And it's even better if you can see the item in your hand.

So that's it for today.When I was out on Friday to do some shopping, they already were starting to sell Christmas trees. Is it just me, or is it everyone? I'm referring of course to how fast time goes when you get older.  I was just writing in the summertime,and now it's almost Christmas.

Thanks as always for dropping by,

and have a good morning, afternoon, or evening,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

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