A Very Rare Gely Windup Motorcycle

   Sunday, March 30, 2014
(Strong winds and blowing snow for the whole day!)

A Very Rare Gely (Georg Levy)

Windup Motorcycle

   I'm very fortunate to have many fine people who help me out, and one of them is Mr. Frederick Pals from Holland. He's very easygoing, and has allowed me to photo-edit his images. He was even so pleased with the effect, that he asked me (and I readily agreed) to make a slide show for his brother who is studying photography, to show how the editing was done.  What's great about having European friends is that they sell European toys, and usually have many more since the toys are more readily available there.

   I wrote Frederick if I could go one step further with my photo-editing, and he agreed. I'll send him another mini slide show, as this effect is very easy to do.  The reason I asked Frederick if I could go further with the photo edit was because this particular toy is very, very rare. I felt it deserved to catch the reader's attention even more.  Frederick's listings on ebay are easily recognized because he always places his toys against a background of a book or two. I'd certainly like to see his book collection, because books are great resources when you find toys without enough description to them.

Please click here to visit Frederick Pals' fine ebay store

It's always interesting to see which toys are the rarest. Georg Levy (Gely) manufacture red many beautiful lithographed tin toys at that time,yet this particular model is very rare. For the image above, I simply removed the colour of the books photo, and the colour of the foundation (what the toy was resting on). I then did a "motion blur' to give the illusion that the toy was moving. This particular motorcycle came in 2 variations. One is the above with the spoked wheels, and the other was with plane wheels with only the cream colour.

The photo above and below are Frederick's style when presenting his merchandise.  The book that he's using in this case is one from Rich Bertoia of the highly-renowned Bertoia Auctions  in New Jersey, USA. Not only is he part of the successful American auction house, but he's an author of antique toy motorcycles. 

I always wonder why so many  American toy manufacturers in the 1920's-1930's were producing such less sophisticated toys (cast iron) compared with the European manufactures of the time. The reason has to be more than simply cost, and one day, I'll have to research my own question to find the answer. However, by the early 1890's ,Germans and Europeans had successfully developed colour lithography on tin, and the process readily transferred to toy production.

You can see Rich Bertoia's name (blurred) on the right side above the lady passenger.

I cropped the top (cut off part of the photo) so the entire foundation (why the toy is resting on) occupied the whole picture frame. With less distraction, the toy shadow adds a nice balance to the actual toy. 

In this photo, Rich Bertoia's book happens to be opened on a page that has the same model of toy as Frederick happens to be selling on ebay.

Here is the actual book photo of the toy from Rich's book.

If you go to Google Blogger's slide mode, you'll be able to see today's photos larger and much better against a dark background.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

Please feel free to write to me anytime at

toysearcher@gmail.com