Saturday, August 2, 2014
Partly cloudy and hot
Partly cloudy and hot
Wouldn't You Know?
Two days ago, I published a marvellous post about the Buddy "L" wooden toys produced during WWII. I'd written one post previous to that, and when I found a father and son ( The Hartmans) on ebay who had sold and were selling these rare treasures, I know I had to contact them. I did, and as they say the rest is history! You can redirect to their post after reading Bertoia Auctions trio of these great toys.
I decided to check what Liveauctioneers' auctioneers had for sale or had sold in terms of these very special wooden toys. Sure enough, I found about 18 sold items with duplications. What I also found was a nine toy that contradicted an "assumption" that I had made on my previous post. I'll inform you about that below.
If you did not know or didn't read my previous post, during WWII,there was a limitation for metal usage due to the war. Rationing was imposed, and toy companies needed to reduce or elimate most of the metallic content and change to wood, which was more readily available and not as much restricted. Consequently, most of the toy companies adapted to manufacture wooden toys, while changing over their factories to manufacturing war material, armaments, and machines.
My incorrect assumption that I wrote on the Hartman post was that the Buddy "L" company left their wooden rear door of their Town and Car wagon (modelled after the real Chrysler car) flat, rather than round it, as you'll see in the exceptional convertible below. I incorrectly stated that this was probably to save time. They most likely just designed it that wayI Anyway, the writing lesson here for myself (from the previous post) is to never make assumptions unless you can corroborate (gather evidence) what you write! Mind you, I could be correct, because the toy below was made after WWII (1947), and perhaps the company had more time
The convertible below from Bertoia Auctions is exceptional in many ways both as a toy, and as a collectible. Mint condition, original box, and beautiful features. TJHis toy must have had lots of bidding, and the final gavel price ascertained to that.
It's interesting that the Buddy "L"company was still manufacturing wooden toys after the war, even here with this 1947-1948 Coca-Cola truck. As you can see, it's also a nice toy, similar to the ones that I posted previously, but certainly can't come near the elegance of the town and country convertible.
Nevertheless, what I like about the previous toys, the Coca-Cola truck, and the Buddy "L" moving truck below is the simplicity of design. An analogy that I can make to compare my thoughts are famous company logos (symbols or lettering that identify a company). The Apple logo (computers),
the Audi logo rings (cars), the VW logo for the Volkswagen cars, and the Shell Oil Company logo (Scallop shell).
All the logos are simple but readily identifiable with the company, and so are these toys. They're trucks of different functions, but we can immediately recognize them .
Simplicity with elegance - at its best!
What I've mentioned several times,and I'd like to repeat myself is my appreciation to the skills and crafts of the people (men and women), and the companies who manufactured toys not made from metal, that have survived "the test if time". We've seen the lithographed paper placed on wooden toys of the 1880's an-1900's, and now these wooden Buddy L" toys form the 1940's. They're still around ,but the Buddy "L's" (so far) are not as numerous as I would have thought.
I'll be searching for more and keeping a mental note to be on the lookout for them!
Thanks for visiting,
and as always,
have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be,
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com
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