Sunday, January 20, 2013
I Get Lots of Help From My Toy Friends
(Thanks Lloyd Ralston Gallery and Bertoia Auctions)
Yesterday, I was visiting Live Auctioneers when I very interesting "pattern" caught my eye. It was the uncut castings of toy parts. As a photographer, lots of things "catch your eye" when you're photographing people, places, building or things. That's one of the reasons, among many others (personality, skill, experience, and knowledge), successful photographers earn the "big bucks", and take excellent photos.
Anyway, when I search for my next post or an even later future post, I'm looking very fast, and scrolling pages fast. I know what images I've posted (memory helps as a photography trait), and anything out of the ordinary will certainly attract my attention.
In a past auction listing, on April 4, 2009, the Lloyd Ralston Gallery had some interesting listings.
These were uncut parts that would be cut, polished and later painted to assemble their highly successful mechanical banks. It turned out the the parts were made from brass, which I didn't know (place that in my brain somewhere!). I thought most companies at the time use cast iron.
Presenting just the pieces would have been just "so-so", and I did find an article on the Net that wrote about them. So I decided to try and find the finished items-painted mechanical banks,from my other friends at Bertoia Auctions, I found 3 of the 4 banks. The forth is "close" but not identical, and I'll try to remember to find the exacting match.
So for today's post, here most certainly are some very interesting auctioned items both complete and as original parts!
The above 2 photos do not match in content.
I'll have to try and find the identical matches in the near future.
The above J. & E. Stevens Toy is very rare, and its casting was very complex to pour. I also wrote from the Bertoia Auctions description, that this toy was not a "big seller" at the time. These combining factors led this particular toy to be sold at a much higher final sale price than the rest.
If you go to either the Live Auctioneers / Bertoia Auctions or the Bertoia Auctions websites, you will get a much more thorough explanation as to how this great toy operated. By the way, the auction date was on Friday, November 11, 2011.
I just heard thunder outside. Yesterday, we had 6 cm (3 inches) of snow after a few days of very cold (-20 C or -4 F). Today, rain and thunderstorms, but with a high of +6 C or + 49 F, and later in the week back to even colder temperatures. Nothing like a yo-yo weather effect to have the flu and colds, not to mention tripping on ice! So everyone, please take care, if you are living in the Western Hemisphere!
That's it for today.
Thanks for visiting,
and have a great day wherever you may be.
Stacey
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