Some Carette Cars and Their 1911 Catalogue Illustrations

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Some Carette Cars and Their

 1911 Catalogue Illustrations

   Yesterday in Montreal, we had rain in the morning following by the strongest winds I've seen in a long time. Thankfully, the meteorologists  got their forecasts corrects to warn everyone of the strong winds that followed. There were 750,000 people without power in the Province (Quebec, Canada), including my wife and I,and Buddy (our dog). The wind was so strong (65 mph/ 90 kph that Buddy refused to "pee". I sent him out to the front lawn tree, he gave me a pleading look, and came back in after I gave him the OK to come back into the house. today's newspapers will be interesting to see what happened overnight. Our salmon trout never got cooked in the oven (power failure),and we had asparagus, salad,and crackers. 

  As you know, I received the Carette catalogue a few days ago, and naturally like to go through it. I like to try and match up actual antique items with their catalogue counterparts. What I find amazing about early cars is that they became so sophisticated and ornate for having been around for so short a time ( 15 years).  There are only a few pages in the catalogue devoted to cars and trucks. I was able to match up cars, but I couldn't find any trucks (some are called wagons). The Carette catalogue is the second New Cavendish Books catalogue that I've purchased. These are reproductions, but already seem to appear on Amazon and AbeBooks as collectables,with high prices to match. Of course, some are not in excellent condition and if you like old toy books, you can purchase them at lower prices. If someone has a solution as to how to eliminate that musty old book smell,I'd be very thankful!

Please click here to visit the New Cavendish Books fine website

Please click here to redirect to Bertoia Auctions fine website

I haven't described the cars as I normally do on the photos.
I decided to let you, the viewer match up the actual toy photos with the 1911 catalogue sketches.

What's interesting about these toys is all of the hands-on workmanship that was needed to paint and install the accessories (e.g. lamps) to the toys). Also,some of these lamps are nickel-plated,which nowadays would be prohibitively expensive to use as parts for a toy. Also,you have to look closely for the detail.Notice the large hand brake to the right of the driver, the steering wheel is on the right side, and finally, the brake. If you look at the second photo from the bottom, there is an arched device that is on a rod and slightly away from the rear left tire. That was the brake in those times! What's also interesting is the costly options such as having rubber tires on the wheels. Imagine, that was a toy option in 1911!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always, have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

write to me anytime at

toysearcher@gmail.com