Monday, November 2, 2015
Seasonally warm and sunny
Seasonally warm and sunny
A Bertoia Auction of Fine
Cast Iron Toys
I had to debate with myself where to position the word "fine" in today's title. Should in be close to Bertoia as in "A Fine Bertoia Auction" or leave the word where it is. I chose the latter. I've come to know many auctioneers and sellers, and Bertoia Auction s are a fine company, and the owners , a family are also.
When I stopped buying and selling toys on ebay, Bertoia Auctions was one of the first companies that I wrote to ask for permission to use their photos. They answered with a nicely-written "yes",and I was ready to enter a new phase of blogging. Before, I was limited to a maximum price, but now with exceptional auctioneers, "I could reach for the stars". What's great about auctioneers is that they are people-oriented because they deal with people all f the time. But when I search on the Net, you get to see the people as well. The photos are always with the owners (e.g. Bertoia) and the client sellers) and you get a sense that most auctioneers truly like what they do, and also like to befriended the people they deal with.
I've presented a few of today's toys in the past, but when the photos are better than before (larger, or more derails) I like to present them again.
Many American early cast iron toys were made of fine materials such as the nickel-plated metals in several of the toys below. THe toys were painted with bright colours, and have lasted for these 8 decades and many even earlier, and are true (centenarians). As an aside (changing the subject to venture in a different train of thought), Canada now has 900 centenarians (people 100 years or older) and in 50 years, will have 1900 people 100 years or older!
The Kenton double-chained crank mechanism is a ditcher. It would dig ditches (horizontal lines in the ground) to either have water run off roads, or to embed pipes in the ground. The toy is marvellous for design, and function. A child could have a cast-iron dump truck to receive the sand or dirt that the scoop dug up.
Below is a rarer Kenton ditcher, that was manufactured for only one year. It would be interesting to know why for only one year! Again, the double-chain movement with nickel-plated chains(my guess?), bright colours, and 4 scoops, would have been lots of fun for young children.
Canada, as well as most countries removed the pure metals from their change (coins) currency in the last several decades. Once upon a time, a penny had copper (we no longer have pennies), a nickel was made of nickel from our famous Sudbury, Ontario, Canada mining town, and all other coins (10 , 25 , 50, and 1.000) coins were silver.
Back in time in the fist half of the 20th century, coins were issued of r currency, and nations wet proud of their currency. In the later part of the 20th century, metals became a "commodity", and the content of coins in terms of their metal "value" far exceeded their face value. In other words, a dollar worn of pennies would be worn $2.00, a nickel was 8 cents, and a $A1.00 coin of silver was worth close to $ 10.00.
The name of this tri-mpotor airplane is Ford. I've not researched this, but I'm sure Ford at one time did in fact manufacture an airplane. The ribbed and horizontal lines of this airplane are not only tactile (touch) but beautiful to look at. ALso, the design is certainly something "out of the past"!
The toy below is obviously designed from the German Company "Bremen" and is a "Junkers".
The propeller is nickel-plated. Of course, politics and aggression from Germany would change the world forever in a mere 6 years later.
For myself, "old" is great because I like to study history through them. It's easier to learn from what you enjoy, and learning about toys helps with history. For myself, anything old is fun to enjoy.
I just got a call from my brother in Calagary who was trying to sell some of out mother's
porcelain figurines on ebay. He didn't have even one inquiry. Here in Montreal, I'm on several estate sale vendors, and each weened from the spring and summer I get e-mails showing plenty of old merchandise. Fine dish sets, fine figurines, old jewellery, and cutlery. The new generations are not interested so much in "old", so many of these fine items are purchased at great bargains for now. BUt if one is optimistic, I'm sure in 30- years from now, the younger generation will be older, and perhaps "old' will once again be "new": again, in terms of collecting.
Of course "my old" will most likely be different from the younger generations old, buy maybe not?
As the old expression goes, "what comes around goes around".
If you told me 6 years ago that I'd be writing about old and antique toys, I'd probably have told toy not (in polite language of course!). Who would have known then?
Thanks for dropping by to visit,
and as always,
havce a great part of the day or not,
wherever you may be,
Stacey
toysearcher@gmail.com
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