The Carpenter Fire Brigade

Thursday, December 4, 2014
Sun with clear skies, mild temperatures.

The Carpenter Fire Brigade

Yesterday, I wrote a post about the transitional fire wagons, when the internal combustible engine and mass production of the car and truck came about,. At the time, fire equipment and wagons were pulled by horses. However, when the  car and truck came about  "the writing was on the wall" ( you could see that a change would occur).  I came across a nice carpenter fire wagon, and decided to investigate what else Carpenter had manufacturers in the 1890's and later. Sure enough,I found  a noise grouping of  fire wagon toys pulled by horses. The Carpenter toy company is most famous for their fabulous "Burning Buildings",which I wrote about ( 3 posts) on October 28 of this year. You absolutely have to see them!

Please click here to visit this fine American auction company

Most fire ladder or fire pumper wagons of the time were very long and large. 

The one below is 24" or 610 mm. There is a nice pattern on the black supporting sides of the wagon,but the detail was too small (low resolution) to separate the tray background from the cast iron. for those who don;t know,I started to present toys against white (sometimes a lot of work). I find that this showcases the toys best without any distractions of colour.

Anytime an original cardboard or in this case a wood box comes with an original toy, the value collectively increases.  Carpenter produced two different sets of horses for their fire wagons. Below is the  front legs separated from the back legs.The other version (please see the second photo after this one below) had the front and back legs close together, and almost joined.

Absolutely beautiful colour. 

What's interesting about the Carpenter fire wagons is that they have  the horse-driuven wheels with notches.  I don't know exactly why they designed the toy this way instead of a smooth moving or fixed wheel. The only thing that I can think of is noise. If the toy was pulled on a wood sidewalk ( Some mid-west USA cities in the 1890's would have had wood sidewalks) or concrete one, there would be lots of noise! 

The pumper below has several differences from the one above. OI had originally selected it to present for the frame that paired the team of horses together. 

There are 2 differences to notice. First and foremost (most important), the left side in the top photo has the # 33,while the one is rarer and doesn't. Also, The one blow doesn't come with a pair of  small-sized spoked wheels behind the driver. Are they missing or simply never came with the original toy?

Below is the front and back legs touching, which is different from the other 

pairs of horses with a galloping leg position.

I selected the image below for its' brown horse and the open front legs (unattached to the rear legs).

However, I now wonder pif the horse was in fact originally off-white or yellowish white compared to having been brown but repainted.

If you examine all of the drivers and  their hands, you would have noticed a small hole. That of course was for the reins.  The one thing that none of the toys have are the original cotton cords that would have come with the original toys.

Sometimes you have to accept  small parts that go missing, but what a small price to pay for some marvellous 125 year old toys!

I can live with that!

Thanks for dropping by to visit,and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey 

toysearcher@gmail.com