Thursday, April 25, 2013

Mr. Philippe De Lespinay - Collecteur Extraordinaire

Thursday, April 25, 2013
    (The nice weather is coming!)


Monsieur Philippe de Lespinay
"Collecteur Extraordinaire"
(Mister Philippe de Lespinay
Extraordinary Collector)

  Two Days ago,I had the pleasure to have Mr. Philippe de Lespinay edit my many mistakes in having written a post about Tootsietoys - the marvellous small die cast toys (USA) from the early 1930's and later). I said that I would write about Mr. Lespinay again, and so today is the day. Coincidentally, this is my 400th post on this blog, and so what better way to post, than having an exceptional collector, with an exceptional knowledge of the subject.

   I hope Philippe won't mind that I added the title of this post in French. Although, I live in Quebec, Canada, a bilingual province in Canada, French is the predominant language, with a majority of its population speaking French. Of course, I checked an English-French dictionary on the Net to be sure I spelled everything correctly,since I didn't want to incorrectly add to my Tootsietoy errors!

  Because of the warmer weather, readership usually will start to diminish. As for myself, I have been working outdoors and raking the lawn. So far, 10 bags of leaves, broken branches and grass, and in about 20 minutes, I have to repair the fence.

  It's still relatively cold here in Montreal (11C or 52F).

Berlin               19C       66F
Istanbul           23C       73F
London             9C       49F
Mexico City    18C       64F
Montreal        11C       52F
Moscow           4C       39F
Rome             24C       74F
Warsaw        17C        63F
Washington  13C       56F

   I added the temperatures of most of the countries from where people view my blog. So Montreal, doesn't look to be too bad, relative to the other cities and countries.


Mr. Philippe de Lespinay

(please click on the address above to be redirected to Mr. Lespinay's excellent website)


   I won't make any excuses for sometimes making mistakes in writing about toys, but I will  apologize to all of you for having make some errors in information, as you know. Thanks to excellent sellers, collectors, and auction houses, I have been able to learn a lot about toys.  and thanks to Philippe de Lespinay, I have learned a lot more about Tootsietoys! What Philippe has learned is most difficult to find in any book,especially when there are so many old, antique, and modern toys out in the world.



This is 1 of the showcases that Philippe has for his Tootsietoy Collection

What amazes me is that Philippe has been very patient , and I'm sure has spent a lot of time over the years in getting such a wonderful collection of toys that are in such great shape. You'll see larger-sized images below. You also have to have a lot of patience in order to be able to wait for the right item in the right condition.


When I first saw this  particular car (above) on the Net, I though it was a repaint. 
The lustre and colour appeared like the 1950's-1960's candy-apple colours of the  real muscle cars from that era. For those who don't know what a "muscle car" is, it's a car that had a lot of horsepower, and has been modified even further to go very fast. 





Collectors like to collect items in their original packaging.
Above are 2 boxed sets of toys in great condition.
What I like about original packaging is how the design and font of the time 
dates to a certain time frame. 












 * I'm going to write more to this post later today or tomorrow when I have more time.
I also noticed that I have some spelling errors which I also will have to correct.


In the meantime, please have a look at Philippe de Lespinay's website. If you like excellent photography, old toys in excellent condition, and a great narrative,  with interesting stories, then this is the site to go to!




To everyone today, I want to extend to everyone a special thank you for having come to my blog to read about the wonderful stories that myself and my "guests" such as Philippe Lespinay have  been able to share. If I thought 2 1/2 years that I'd still been writing about toys, I would never jhave believed that. You have to be dedicated, and have a positive outlook, since not everyone is willing to  be so generous or take the time too help out.

As always, have a great day,
wherever you may be.

Stacey








1 comment:

JG IT said...

Hey Phillipe, it's Jason Girardi
I believe you asked me a while back if I ever run into a French issued Bleriot plane let you know. I bought a collection that had one. Just listed.
Give me a ring if you want to chat. 214.923.1196
thanks,
jg
TOOTSIETOY- 1910 No.4482 Bleriot Plane (rare) FRANCE issue "all orig." Pristine(Item ID: 401517708684