Tuesday, July 2, 2013
More Dent Cast Iron Airplanes
Yesterday,I posted about the Dent Hardware Co. and its cast iron airplanes from the 1930's. I also added catalogue page images matching up the actual airplanes. However, there were plenty of airplanes that didn't appear in that 1930's catalogue, so I decided to add most of the rest today.
I've only seen that particular catalogue, so I'll keep looking and try to buy the CD or the original catalogue, if its not too expensive.
Most of these airplanes are about the same size. However, if you go to yesterday's post, you'll see that Dent made many different sizes for the market. Also notice that most of the airplanes have nickel-plated motors, propellers, and disc wheels. I would say also that the ones I didn't describe as having nickel-plated components probably had them as well. The reason is that I don't want to write something that could be wrong, because the error might be attributed to the actual auctioneer, rather than to me.
The model above seems to be the most common of the Dent airplanes that were not shown in yesterday's catalogue. They are labelled "Question Mark", and you can see the common attributes (characteristics) to the other models below. The one above is a different colour from the previous green model.
The "Question Mark" airplane above is extremely rare. If you read the description (red writing) at the top of the image, you will see why it's rare. With its rarity also came the high bidding, and this particular one went for a very high price at auction!
The Ford tri-motor airplane was in fact in the 1930's catalogue that I presented yesterday. However, it did not have the name "Air Express" on it.
The above "American Airlines" airplane is also rare. It's based on the early American Airlines logo and airplane. I forgot to mention that "Fokker", a famous airplane manufacturer at the time is embossed at the front right side of the airplane.
The 3 "luckY boy" airplanes were in yesterday's catalogue. However their sizes were smaller. Today's airplanes are all large ones!
The Ford airplane above also was in yesterday's post. That linear texture is just great!
I saved the Dent "Lindy" airplane for last, because it has a very interesting story. Dent made these airplanes modelled after Charles Lindbergh's airplane. Lindbergh was the famous American aviator to first cross the Atlantic ocean from New York (USA) to Paris (France). The "problem" must have been in copyright or identity use without a contact. As a consequence, the company had to withdraw this particular model form the market. I don't know how many of these models got into the market, nor how much Lindburgh sued Dent for (if he did). This particular model only sold for half the price of the yellow airplane above. I don't like to add prices, so you'll have to go to the Morphy Auctions website (above link) to see the prices yielded at auction.
I also forgot one more fact. These toys are called "pull toys" because children would have a wooden ball with a string attached to the airplanes central propeller. If you look closely or magnify the image, you'll see where the cord would have been attached. It's very rare to actually have the original wooden ball and cord from so long ago. In yesterday's post, there were two photo sets that had their original ball and cord - imagine!
Thanks for visiting,
and have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be.
Stacey
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