Wednesday, November 23, 2016

The Penny Toy

Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Cloud with sunny periods
1 Celcius  34 Fahrenheit


The Penny Toy




Penny toys is a name used for "cheap" tin toys mostly manufactured in Germany between the 1880s and 1914 that were sold in the United Kingdom for one Penny. They were originally sold to wholesalers by the gross for 8 Shillings allowing the seller, often street peddlers to sell them for one penny making a substantial profit. Offset color lithography enabled fine detail and color to be applied to sheets of tin plate quickly and economically. Shapes were machine-cut and stamped and then assembled by unskilled workers, sometimes in cottage industries. A Cottage industry is where individuals would take work home to their homes and work there. Once the work was finished, the people would return the work to the factory.Many were manufactured by the Johann Philip Meier company of Nurenberg. Penny toys included all kinds of vehicles , people and animals. Most of the toys  were mounted on 4 wheels and could be played with by hand ,or pulled with a cord.
The toys below yielded prices ranging from $65.00 USD to $200.00 USD. I didn't include written descriptions because all of the toys could not be attributed to any single manufacture. The written descriptions simply described the toy, and as such , I figured you could see for yourself what the toy was. As far as the size goes, most of the toys ranged in length from 3"- 4" (76 mm - 102 mm)/
In America, many toys would find their way to small sotres, and the larger department chains such as Woolworth and Kresge.












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