Sunday, September 14, 2013
An Exceptional Story
(Part I)
Earlier this week on Wednesday, I added a post about the Cor-Cor toy company. A reader had asked me about whether or not he should restore his newly-acquired set of 5 Cor-Cor toys. Initially, I said no, since "purist" old or antique collectors of all types of collectibles, never want restored toys.
At the time, I noticed today's toys but didn't mention them. I should have, because there is an exceptional story here. Not only that, but I will be writing the reader again, to present him with a newer revised opinion.
I had seen the words "New Era" before. They were written with many different toys that I've seen in the last years. However, I misread the words. They didn't mean that these toys were new in the sense that were built recently (there are people who do this) What it meant that there was a company by the name of New Era Quality Toys, and owned by Mr. Marv Silverstein. Sadly, as I later found out, Mr. Silverstein passed on several years ago.
"He was a great guy and enjoyed the antique toy business and restoring pressed steel toys (e.g. Buddy-L, Keystone, Cor-Cor, etc.). His real love was creating pressed steel toys that were never made and there are a multitude of these. He started restoring toys in 1975. He never bought into the taboo of never touching an original. If a toy was in good condition he would never think of touching it, but he couldn't stand seeing the very rough, well played with, missing parts hulks that were available for very little money. Having played with cars and trucks (real & toy) from childhood on, he "repainted" a couple of trucks and brought them to our booth in Renninger's Antique Market, Adamstown, Pa. Many of the antique toy dealers were fascinated with his work and soon started to ask him to do work for them and thus a business was born. New Era Quality Toys was the name of the business. This label should be found on all of the custom trucks. He worked until 2000 when he closed the business but did a few special things for friends. There is an article in Antique Toy World sometime in the 2000's that shows the last fire engines he created.
I have a book about the business that he wrote and was edited by Peter Eisele that has never been published. There are literally hundreds of photos that have to be added to this book. Maybe, someday. My suggestion is to to use the Cor-Cor pictures as examples. There are also examples of his work in the catalogues from the Donald Kaufman auctions. In his book, he states that he believes he was the first to professionally restore toys, although he admits there were other people repainting for themselves. For many years he advertised with the slogan "First & Foremost in Toy Restoration"*
* Written by Fran Silverstein (Marv Silverstein's Wife)
(When you arrive at the Bertoia site, enter the words "new Era" in the search area.What will show from the search is a marvellous collection of toys made by Mr. Marv Silverstein.
I wrote earlier that I would be writing two posts about these customized toys. This first one is just about the Cor-Cor automobiles and trucks. If you ever come across any of Marv's fabulous "creations", there is a label on his custom trucks. Some of the toys presented today are"attributed" to Marv, and other are most-likely his creations. However, when auctioneers cannot tell with 100% certainty,they will either write "attributed to", or not write at all. However, with most of the Cor-Cor toy made by Marv Silverstein are "one-ova-kind". Windshield frames were added or nickel-plated, custom decals were added, car bodies were modified and so forth! If you study today's toys, and in the future see a beautiful Cor-Cor "variation", you will for sure know who made this toy!
I also wriote earlier, that I would send an e-mail to the person who wrote to me about restoring his 5 Cor-Cor toys that he acquired. After seeing Marv Silverstein's masterpieces, perhaps the reader will proceed with his restorations!
There is no written description of the above model to attribute it to Marv
nevertheless, I did include it.
As you can see, there are certainly some Cor-Cors that were never built originally, but were indeed made by Marv Silverstein. An unbelievable amount of work went into the crafting of these toys, and in time, I'm sure they will become true collector's items. The Late Donald Kaufmann - a famous collector of antique toys had many of today's toys in his collection, and many others. You'll see those when you search out the link that I've added under Bertoia Auctions logo.
Don't forget to view these toys in slide mode via Blogger. They're larger, and you can really see the skill that Marv Silverstein transferred into these "works of art". If anyone out there has the pleasure of owning one of these exceptional toys, please e-mail me,
and I will gladly add it to today's post.
Thanks for dropping by,
and have a great part of the day,
wherever you may be.
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com
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