Thursday, November 13, 2014
Sunny and very cold
Sunny and very cold
Superb Gong Bell Toys Matched to
My Latest Catalogue
Last week I received one my latest catalogues - a reprint from ATCA (American Toy Collectors of America) thanks to the late Mr. Lloyd Ralston. I think the catalogue is from the later 1920's. AS for the "real" toys, Bertoia Auctions is having an exceptional auction on behalf of Mr. Max Berry - a collector "extraordinaire". I estimated the release of the T-200 Gong Bell catalogue in the 1920's because the catalogue had handwriting changing words from "rubber" to chenille, and had stamped printing of the word "discontinued". So I am assuming that bell pull toys were not as popular as they once were decades earlier, and even in the earlier century.
Below is my "logo" that I use as a watermarkover my photos.
The catalogue of course was originally from the extant Gong Bell Company.
It was then reproduced by ACTA.
It's hard for me to decide which I like better -
old toys or the hand-drawings in the original catalogues.
I especially like the data. The "Darkey and Alligator", of course is a very derogatory and racist term of Black Americans even into the 1920's.
But what is noteworthy is to read the weight of the two toy illustrations. On the left the weight per gross (144 items) is 200 pounds (90.9 Kg), while the weight of the toy on the right for a gross is 114 pounds (51.8 Kg). Shipping by rail was a major means to get products to most cities and countrysides in the USA. It was the least expensive, and often the only way.
I did my usual "whitening effect" to remove the grey seamless paper than Bertoia uses.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with using grey, but I feel that presenting a toy just against white shows it at its best .
These toys were quite numerous, and were fine to be used when there were few streets around, and children played mostly outdoors. However, when large apartments came about, can you imagine the noise from these toys - both from the bell and the metal on the wood floors?
I think that's why the Gong Bell Compnay first had cast iron wheels, then rubber wheels or rubber-coated wheels, then chenille ( a fabric knit material). This was to muffle or lessen the noise.
If you look under the platform to the rear of the eagle , you can see an irregular-shaped rod attached to the wheels and axle. AS the child pulled the toy (with a string), the eagle would move around causing the bell to ring.
Talk about noise!
I would imagine that this was one favourite toy.
Imagine twice as much ringing as the single bell toy!
Below is a 1910 version of the toy.
Notice that the wheels are different from the mid -1920's catalogue image to the right.
The texture on the bear and the red tree branches is amazing.
Once again ,we see a difference between the mid-1920's catalogue illustration and the actual toy.
I would think that the photo was an earlier version, since it had a nose ring, and a rear tail bell.
It's amazing to see such simpler toys that could entertain children of hours at a time, day after day.
When you consider today's selection of toys, DVD games, tablets, and computers, you sometimes have to stop and think.
Thanks for dropping by, and as always,
have a great part of the day or night,
wherever you may be,
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com
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