Saturday, January 3,2014
Overcast and very cold!
Overcast and very cold!
The Early Mail Trucks
I hope everyone had a fine Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year to all. It's already January 3, and a new year. I took the day off yesterday, and took it easy. On Liveauctioneers, I came across a nice mail truck, and decided to search out the old toy cars. I narrowed the search for Bertoia Auctions, a highly-reliable source for toys. Bertoia Auctions has been a great contributor for my post,and one day I'll be writing a post about them titled "Through these doors have passed some of the most interesting toys".
This is my 1006th post. I forgot to mention my 100th post, so here is this number. I would never in a thousand years have thought I'd be writing about old and antique toys 4 years ago. I hope you enjoy reading and looking at the fine toys that I get to write about almost every day.
This is my 1006th post. I forgot to mention my 100th post, so here is this number. I would never in a thousand years have thought I'd be writing about old and antique toys 4 years ago. I hope you enjoy reading and looking at the fine toys that I get to write about almost every day.
When you look at the early mail trucks (circa 1910's-1930's), you'll notice that the majority of the toys are modelled after the British trucks. The toy makers probably liked the red trucks with the nice type on the sides. I had to find out what the G R initials represented on the truck. They refer to George Rex (the king at the time), with Rex being Latin for king.
The first truck below doesn't have windows or vertical supports for the roof. If you were to search for real trucks of the time, you'd probably be able to date this toy into the very early 1920's.
Of course,toys were and still are made "retro". So it is possible that they toy below could have been made at a later date. The yellow and black A.C.Gilbert you towards the end of this post is an example of a toy made in the 1930's but modelled after an earlier decades truck.
Exceptionally beautiful spoke wheels with their original ,but brittle and broken rubber tires
The Triang toy company was a British company. The toy below is a wind-up from the 1920's and is in great shape with some repairs having been made to it along its journey.
Below are two nice trucks. Do a search within my block or even on the Internet for
"tin biscuit cans". In the 1900's-1940's, British companies would package their biscuits (cookies) in
nicely-styled cans in the forms of toys - a great way to sell biscuits!
I'm wondering why the large key is in the photo if there is a permanently-fixed wind-up
key in the large image just in front of the rear left wheel?
Of course, not all of the toys were in red. Below is an A.C.Gilbert toy.
A.C.Gilbert was an American Company that made those fine metal kits
that would be assembled by children. The kit came with nuts and bolts.
The A.C.Gilbert company was to America what Meccano was to Great Britain.
Here's a nice mail truck with the colours of the American flag - red, white, and blue.
I like that oval window in the this toy, and the one above.
The toy below has what is called a "friction motor". THe mechanism creates power by moving the unpainted wheel under the truck continuously until the wheel has lots of power. When the truck is released, the toy can climb hills, and this type of mechanical toy was called a"hillclimber".
The Structo Company was an American toy company that made very durable pressed steel toys. Below are identical trucks.I decided to select the 2 for their slightly different photos. Interestingly, both toys are missing their back tailgate.
When you purchased a Structo toy at the time, you got a big toy.
The one below is more than twice as big as most of the toys above.
Being bigger, it could cary more mail!
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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