Crandall's Antique Wood Figures

Monday, September 1, 2014
               (Labour Day)
               Sunny, warm and humid

Crandall's Antique Wood Figures

   I just purchased a few CD's on ebay yesterday,and while doing this, I noticed a nice set of interesting wood figures. It turned out to be an American-made set (circa 1880's) of wooden figures that articulated, and could be posed in many different ways (sort of like those wood model human figures that student artists use). I wanted to continue posting daily to try and reach 1000 posts, so I decided to have a look at what I could find on Liveauctioneers. If I could find Crandall's sets there, then perhaps  one of the auctioneers that I have permission from, would allow me to post today. Sure enough, there were , many from Bertoia Auctions, and so I am able to post today.

Please click here to visit this fine American auctioneer

The set below must have been quite popular as I was able to find three sets.

There are small hammered pins in the parts of the small figures, so that their hands and legs can move or articulate.

If you look closely you'll see the word "dunce", a derogatory term that used to be used for 

students who were perhaps unmotivated or slow in learning. But my favourite are the open books, which I think are wood.

You can see the exceptional maneuverability  and articulation of this toy.

If you look at the bases of the man and donkey, you can see the thin cuts in which the figures are placed.

The Crandall's Toy below in the trio of toys is the set of Bo-Peep and her sheep.

Of course, my curiosity got the better of me, and I had to see who John Gilpin was. 

It turns out he is a fictional British character based on a very real and most interest person at the time. If you want,  I've added the Wikipedia link below for you to read a brief write about him.

There's a funny story about Mr. Gilpin related to the pose above. 

To me the pose looks like Mr. Gilpin is riding backwards. The story happens to be a poem about the adventure.

Please click here to read the Wikipedia article about John Gilpin

Looking closely at this next presentation, you can see a different approach to the movement. 

The box of acrobat pieces have cut ends like the wooden bases that we saw earlier.

Articulation is achieved by creating different angles of the arms and legs after they have been inserted into matching clots of the torso (body) of the acrobats.

 Below are  a nice grouping of different Crandall's sets.

THe costumes are quite ornate and are made to represent the costumes of that time (circa 1880's).

 Looking at these antique toys, it's amazing to realize that children could actually play with much simpler toys than they do today.  And their imaginations would be used much more that today with the iPods, tablets, and computer games. Of course there are educational and toys catering to parents and children who want to play with such items.

 You just have to search a bit longer and harder to find them - sort of searching for interesting antique toys to present to my readers!

Thanks for dropping by to visit on this  Labour Day.

As always, have a great and restful

 part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com