More of Charles Gilbert Antiques ( Penny Toys)

Saturday, March 22, 2014
            (Snowing and cloudy)

More of Charles Gilbert Antiques

(Penny Toys)

   I wrote about Mr. Charles Gilbert's fine Dinky toys earlier in the week.  I had had Charles on my mind in October but somehow I completely forgot to write his post.  So while looking on ebay I saw these nice penny toy photographs. The photography style looked familiar, so I decided to check my ebay emails, but there was no correspondence there. Plan "B" was to check my Hotmail account, then my Google G-mail, and there I found the correspondence. So I wrote Charles again, and his permission.

  I can't speak for all photographers, but when I see something that I am interested in, I usually remember it. However people's names is a while other story! Charles Photography id excellent, but needed a bit of photo-editing. When I wrote Charles, I asked him if he'd be interested if I made a mini slide show for him to show how to improve his photos to the next level.  He said yes, so I simply screen-captured the work in my photo-editing software , added arrows and writing to the images, and numbered them. Charles thanked me, but the thanks were all mine. When you take such nice photos, you deserve all the accolades. 

    I wrote an introduction about penny toys in Bertoia Auctions'e post this week. Penny toys were very popular in the late 1890s' to the beginning of WWI. The process of  lithographic printing on tinplate had been perfected, and millions of these toys could be produced easily and inexpensively.  Most of the toys did in fact sell for a penny (cent), hence the name of these types of toys. What's even more amazing is how many different penny toys from each of the many different manufacturers were made.

    I just wanted to mention one other thing that I add from time to time. I try to select people, companies, and collectors who not only take fine photos, but have excellent reputations. Chrles has an excellent reputation on ebayand I like has specific he is with his measurements. One toy below measures  , while another one is 1/16"(2mm) different! 

Please click here to visit Charles Gilbert's fine ebay store

This toy is my favourite of today's presentation. It's the great, great grandfather (or grandmother )to the 1990's  Transformers toys.For this ewho don;t know, Transformers are the toys that could metamorphose (change) into other toys. A figure could become a tank, and so forth.

For such a small toy, there is just so much to it. The lithography and the change to a table and chair from a highchair is fantastic. Maybe this was a twopenny toy! I even like that extra detail - the criss-cross textured pattern on the seat back and underneath.

Even the animal drawings on the table platform are great!

The alligator was a favourite of the 1900's, and many variations from different manufacturers and different types were produced. There's this version (Probably a pull toy) or i toculd be rolled downwards, and of course the wind-ups. Even today, you can find modern-era reproductions of these alligators

I can just see this toy in the 1900's  slithering or crawling along a dirt road or wooden sidewalk.

   It must have been very hard work and difficult for the factory workers to assemble hundreds of not thousands of these toys in a work shift. The parts were small, and I'm sure many workers developed that "repetitive" hand and arm aching syndrome from repeating the same tasks thousands of times during the day. Their hard work  still is present today in these fine toys,and I'm sure some of there descendants have photos of their  distant relatives to  admire the hard work that they done so long ago.

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