Vintage Literature Reproductions-A Great Antique Toy Reference Resource

Friday, April 27, 2012

Vintage Literature Reproductions

(A Great Antique Toy Reference Resource)

     Whether you are a collector, seller, or buyer of old toys, you need to be knowledgeable about what you are buying, and from whom. I've been seeing the name of Vintage Literature Reproductions on E-Bay many times, especially when I do a search for an Arcade toy.

      Vintage Literature Reproductions is a company that produces (to quote them) "digital reproductions of rare antique catalogs and books on CD/DVD". So after almost 1 1/2 years of buying and selling toys, I finally decided to purchase a CD from them on the topic of  Arcade Cast Iron Toys. The cost was  $ 12.95 US including shipping and I purchased the CD on E-Bay.

     They also have a website at: http://www.VintageLiterature.ca

      Most of the toys are excellent hand-drawn illustrations in B & W. However the descriptions of the toys are included. This is important and certainly balances with the illustrations. The descriptions include size, details such as "rubber tires", and of course the colour scheme of the toys.

     I write to the company to ask if I might use their images and pages and they agreed. Thank you   Vintage Literature Reproductions. So all of the copied pages below are courtesy of the company and they maintain all of the rights to the images.

     Being a photographer and someone who pays attention to detail, I liked how the company designed their CD cover. AS well, when I received the CD, it had a nice black sleeve, a cardboard insert to protect the CD, a small card about the company, and of course an invoice and a thank you.

 This  might be "small stuff" to most people or most people wouldn't even notice this, but I do. This provides a sense of "professionalism to the company , which I admire.

 Reproduction Courtesy of  Vintage Literature Reproductions (Copyright 2012)

The CD Design 

The CD comes with 2 large Adobe PDF files. 

One is a smaller-sized 36 page catalogue (# 51), and the other is a 136 page booklet of all of the arcade toys for the 1930's.

 Reproduction Courtesy of  Vintage Literature Reproductions (Copyright 2012)

The Book cover of the larger 136 page catalogue.

 Reproduction Courtesy of  Vintage Literature Reproductions (Copyright 2012)

I decided to select images of toys that I have seen listed on E-Bay.

Browsing through the pages, I noticed that Arcade had also manufactured many other items beside toys. They made games, cast iron book ends, and miniature furniture.

 Reproduction Courtesy of  Vintage Literature Reproductions (Copyright 2012)

I've seen this "Andy Gump" item several times on E-Bay.

Of course, it's beyond my price range that I limit to  $ 125.00 US. 

What's interesting is that the toy came in 3 versions. 

 Reproduction Courtesy of  Vintage Literature Reproductions (Copyright 2012)

I've seen this beautiful bus on E-Bay and at that great auction house Bertoia.

Bertoia auctions beautiful antique toys that you you hardly ever see on E-Bay. Also, they produce high-quality coloured and hard-covered auction catalogues. 

 Reproduction Courtesy of  Vintage Literature Reproductions (Copyright 2012)

I just saw the Arcade "Toy Wrecking Car"  listed this week on E-Bay.

It's a rarer item that I have never seen before.

 Reproduction Courtesy of  Vintage Literature Reproductions (Copyright 2012)

I didn't know that arcade made vises, but I did know that they made miniature nickel-plated tools.

What's more interesting is that they also copper-plated these tools. I've never seen the miniatures in copper listed anywhere, so I wonder if they're rarer and more valuable.

 Reproduction Courtesy of  Vintage Literature Reproductions (Copyright 2012) 

Here's another interesting coincidence.

Troy Bettridge is one of my readers who has been communicating with me about miniature Arcade furniture. He's an architect and miniature antique toy furniture collector.  He asked for my advise as to how to repair a cast iron missing leg on a piece of furniture. As well, he gave me a "Eureka moment" as to how to finish the surface of a toy that I am repairing (the Hubley Stake Truck).

 Reproduction Courtesy of  Vintage Literature Reproductions (Copyright 2012)

The company also manufactured cast iron banks.

I did purchase a Hubley bank of a child dressed in a sailor's outfit. You can read that instalment if you check in the list of all of my blog writings. 

 Reproduction Courtesy of  Vintage Literature Reproductions (Copyright 2012)

Above is one of the pages of Vintage Literature Reproductions with their internet address.

They have a huge library/inventory of all kinds of subjects, and of course antique toys. So if you're interested, by all means drop by their website. 

http://www.VintageLiterature.ca

Thanks as usual for dropping by, and have

a good morning,afternoon, or evening, whereever you may be.