The N.N. Hill Brass Company

Friday, August 30, 2013

The N.N.Hill Brass Company

   I started to purchase more toy catalogues again. They're interesting to collect and then try to match catalogue drawings or photos with the original toy. I received the catalogue below today, and will write about its history later tonight. I though that it would be quite easy to match original toys with the "season of 1905" catalogue (a reproduction). However, it was not easy, and I  my usual sources did not have many past and sold items.  As well, from my observations, it seems that the N.N.Hill Brass Company of East Hampton, Connecticut (USA) had changed their 1905 models from the previous times, such as the 1895 models. Some became shorter, and some had the wheels changed. I'll mention that as the toys appears with their catalogue drawings. I know that there had photography it 1905 and even later, but the recent Hubley Cast Iron catalogue  of about 1920, and this  N.N.Hill Brass Company Catalogue of 1905 have their toys hand-drawn. I could research that to find out why, but I have enough just writing a blog per day.

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auction's excellent website*

*The link that you arrive at is Bertoia Auctions finished  auction site throgh a company called  Auctionflex. It's a software company that allows auctioneers to  place all of their sold inventory items online and have visitors search out merchandise (e.g. antique toys). Bertoia Auctions actual website is:

Please Click here to visit the Actual Bertoia Auctions Website

The 3 maple seedlings are my watermark. Although the catalogue is in the "public dominion", since the company closed down long ago, there are some people who earn a living reproducing and reselling the catalogue. I purchased the copy,but added the watermark. If you ever want to use the photo, just e-mail me, and I'll gladly oblige.

If you read the description of these 2 items, you'l see that the toys are actually small, and were  sold by the gross (144). Since the U.S.A. was rapidly expanding to populate the country, the railway was an inexpensive way to ship.As such, cast iron toys in the USA were made more than in Europe.

The Bertoia   Auctionflex website   only goes back so many years. As such, I screen-captued this image of Bertoia's from Liveauctioneers. As such, it is small .

The rabbit is missing. So there are 2 possibilities. Either the rabbit is missing from the toy, or it is in the hidden position when the photographer took the photo. As the toy is pulled, the rabbit will appear and disappear, while the bell chimes. Again, there weren't too many N.N.Hill Images from Bertoia, or other auctioneers that I am able to work with.

I've made the catalogue photos very large for you to look at. 

You'll need to view Blogger in its slide mode.

Many of these toys are animated. As such not only do they chime as the toy is pulled, but they move. In this case, the elephant's trunk moves up and down as the toy is pulled.  You can barely see a metal rod that is partly visible in the top photo of the elephant's leg.  As the toy is pulled, a gear would move the rod up and don, and the trunk would correspondingly move.

This toy is the 1895 version. It's larger than the 1905 catalogue, and the wheels are more ornate.

This toy is rare and in great condition, and yielded a handsome price at auction!

The above toy is from a person by the name of Mr. Bob Watrous that I met yesterday on the Net, and who I've have been corresponding with.He's actually a distant relative of the Watrous Manufacturing family who also were involved with the N.N.Hill Brass Company. I had mistakenly added a J.E.Stevens toy similar to this, and Bob kindly mentioned that I had made a  mistake. I use his photo  from his website. I'm going to be writing about him and his fabulous toys in the near future. His website is below:

Please Click here to visit Bob Watrous' fine website on his Bell toys

If I could afford one of these, I would buy it. Once upon a time, I used to fish, and  so Iwould really want one of these for my fish collection. My entire bathroom downstairs in our house is full of fish artifacts! Nowadays, the closest fish I ever see is on my plate!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great long Labour Day Holiday.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com