Cracker Jack Toys

Thursday, November 30, 2017
Sunny with some cloud
3 C  38 F

Cracker Jack 
Toys

Please click here to visit American Antique Auctions

    I was on Liveauctioneers looking at the upcoming auction from American Antique Auctions, when I came across some interesting toys. Upon closer inspection, the toys turned out to be from Cracker Jack.

   For those who don't know, Cracker Jack is a famous candy that is molasses-coated popcorn. It used to come in a box, but lately comes in a plasticized bag. Also, there used to be a toy in the box, but in 2016, the current owner of the company , Frito-Lay decided to stop including a toy in the box. The company was  registered in 1896, and their famous slogan was "The More You eat The More You Want".

   When molasses is added to  popcorn, the popcorn sticks together.  The creator of Cracker Jack was  Mr. Frederick William Rueckheim, and eventually he bought out his partner in the company, and brought in his brother Louis. Louis found a solution to "stick popcorn" by adding a small amount of oil to batches of popcorn. This added a small coating to the popcorn kernels, and prevented them from sticking together. There was also peanuts in the boxes of Cracker Jack.

   If you want to read the fascinating story of Cracker Jack, please visit wikipedia at the link below:

Please click here to be redirected to Wikipedia

Collider Image used from the Internet

   The toys that came in the Cracker Jack box were actually quite small, since they had to fit into the box.  The toys appear to be made from a soft metal such as tin. I would also "guess", that some toys would have to be bent into shape and assembled, since as you can see below, some of the toys are quite big when assembled.

    THe T

Below:

Groupings of Cracker Jack toys from the 1920's

    What's interesting to note is that as of today (I am writing this post on November 27, 2017), the starting bid for these groupings is set at $ 20.00 U.S. That's certainly interesting, since the  in 1915, a 1 1/4 ounce of Cracker Jack could be purchased for 5 cents (U.S.)! Now if you happened to inherit these toys from your grandparents and sold them, you could have made a great return on them!

The American Antique Auctions Company

Monday, November 27, 2017
Sunny with Cloudy Periods
-2 C 28 F

The American Antique Auctions Company

Please click here to visit this fine American Auction Company

    A few days ago, I was on the Liveauctioneers website, when I came across a very nice and eclectic grouping of toys up for auction. The auction is scheduled for December 2, 2017, and promptly begins at 07:00 A.M. As with several of the auctions companies that I have written about in the past,  American Antique Auctions is conducting their listings and auction on Liveauctioneers.

Below:

3 separate listings from the auction.

The listings are for Tootsietoy toys.

Below:

2 sides (left and right) of a reproduction page 

of a 1933 Tootsietoy catalogue. 

Tootsietoy in the 1930's and later on was "the" small toy company that was very prominent in the USA at the time. It even surpassed Dinky Toys from Great Britain. These small toys (about 4" or 100 mm in length) are still very prized and are very collectible even today.

The 3 toys below are part of a diverse and eclectic group of toys from this auction. These toys also are quite collectible, and there a lot of them in the auction.

You might want to venture over to Liveauctioneers and the American Antique Auctions site. Their toys exemplify a broad array of collectible toys from a while back, and the photography from this auctioneers is excellent in terms of showing the toys and their condition. Even if you might not be interested in buying, the  bidding on this collection of toys will give you a sense as to how the bidding goes (fast or slow, in high demand or not), as well as giving you an idea as to what the prices are.

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

toysearcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman

The December 17, 2017 Dan Morphy Auction

Sunday, November 26, 2017
Overcast 
-1 C  30 F

The December 17, 2017

Dan Morphy Auction

Please click here to visit Dan Morphy's next old toy auction

Everything always changes as time goes on. Today's post is just a sampling of 3 fine old toys from Dan Morphy's upcoming December 17, 2017 auction of old toys. This auction includes fine dolls, as well as cast iron and pressed steel toys.

The auction is titled:

Dec. 16-17 Toy Doll & Figural Cast Iron Day 1

You can find this particular auction at Liveauctioneers:

Many companies of all kinds, including companies that sell old and antique toys, are using Liveauctioneers as a website. The company is able to furnish Dan Morphy and other companies the convenience of conducting the auction on line compared to actual locations of the  merchandise up for sale. Of course, I'm sure buyers can still visit Dan Morphy's locations, all across the USA, to see the merchandise up for sale. 

Description:

German Hand-Painted Carette Limousine with Original Box

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Unusual brown color, beveled glass windows, two sets of nickel lamps, rubber tires. Includes composition driver. Box label designates for a French market. Figure has some damage on right arm and looks to have some repainting. Car has some paint flaking on front left fender and on roof. Provenance: Donald Kaufman Collection. Dimensions: 12-1/2" L. Condition: (Excellent-Near Mint).

German Bing Hand-Painted Clockwork 4- seat Auto

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Circa 1904. Top of the line, deluxe Bing touring car. Hand painted, rubber tires, looks to have original nickel lamps. Extraordinary looking car with beautiful color combination. Some wear behind the front seat and minor wear to fenders. Provenance: Donald Kaufman Collection. Dimensions: 10-3/4" L. Condition: (Excellent-Near Mint).

What's interesting to note is that these 3 toys were from the Bertoia Auction of Donald Kaufman's toy collection from several years ago. I assume that  Investment Rarities Inc. purchased (bid on) these fine toys at the original auction, or purchased them from someone who did bid at that auction. Another interesting fact is that these rarer toys have been placed up for bidding with the range of final final estimated bidding having vastly increased from the Bertoia Auction of Donald Kaufman's original auction, the first time.

German Marklin Hand-Painted Open 2-Seat Roadster

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Circa 1905. Blueish green enameled color with excellent accented striping. Open rear tool compartment and a leather-strapped-down rubber spare tire. Original nickel finished lamps and clockwork mechanism. Original driver has a broken and missing left hand. Some flattening and wear to tires. Provenance: Donald Kaufman Collection. A great addition for the serious collector. Dimensions: 14" L. Condition: (Excellent-Near Mint).

 As I mentioned earlier, things change as time goes on. In the case of Mr. Dan Morphy, he has expanded his very-successful auction house to include many divisions.  He has an old gun collector division, exceptional automobiles, and even large-sized neon signs from stores of a while ago. Another thing that I noticed is the excellent quality of the photos.  I no longer have to do a lot of retouching to place the toys on a nice white background (foundation). Dan's fine team of people, more-specifically, the photographer has done this all for me.

What luck!

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great time of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

toysearcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman

Sooner or Later You'll Arrive at Pinterest

Saturday, November 25, 2017
Overcast with Rain
5 C 41 F

Sooner or Later You'll

Arrive at Pinterest

    If you do searches for toys on your browser (e.g. Safari or Google), you'll most likely have come across the website of  Pinterest. Pinterest is a site that allows people to "pin" photos that they like and post them ("pin")to their account. Almost all of the "pins" are taken from websites around the Interest without permission. When an image is "pinned", there is a note or credit as to where the image came from.

Please click here to visit the Pinterest website

******* All screen-captures from the Pinterest website*******

I did a search for "cast iron toys", and the screen-capture below illustrates what came up. 

Not all of the images are toys or cast iron. However, there is a good amount to allow you to get an idea as to what a cast-iron toy is.

The image below shows you the sub-categories of your search for "cast iron toy antiques". 

The red arrow is pointing to one of the sub-categories titled "antiques". However,

 if you were to click on this, you would come to a new page with all types of cast iron items, and many would not in fact be antique toys.

The red arrow is pointing to an icon that allows you to send this photo to someone else.

The  pink arrow above is pointing to the save button. When you signed up for Pinterest,  an account was created for you. One of the features is a file folder, allowing you to store and see images that you wanted saved to your account.

The red arrow is pointing to  to an icon that allows you to enlarge the image and see more of it.

The  above blue arrow is pointing to the source of where the image was "captured" from.

Unfortunately, you cannot access the image on the Dan Morphy website, from where the image was "captured". In this case, I'm a little disappointed that Pinterest didn't catch this "minor issue".

The image below show you the enlarged image with the bottom showing. This happened when you pressed on the 4-corner white icon in the previous image is. This is where the red arrow was pointing to.

 The orange  arrow below is pointing to "add photo or note". You can add your own cast-iron toy image or another image here, and you can also comment.

When you press different icons on a Pinterest page, you will see all kinds of cast iron figures similar to the original Popeye character.

When you press another button, all "pins" that are identical or similar to the 

original Popeye toy are presented.

Overall, Pinterest is a very good place to see all kinds of toys. From there, you can be redirected to the original source of the image.  Sometimes, the source will be a blog (e.g. my blog), or an auctioneer, an ebay seller, or a modern manufacturer.

I'm a bit  unhappy that images are "borrowed" without written permission requests. I've seen my own images, as well as images from people who allowed me to use their photos after their permission was granted to me. Unfortunately, this is the 21st century, and that is what the Interest is about.

Below:

The blue and orange old cast iron toy trucks are 2 of my images that I had permission from

 Pook & Pook to use.  I never was asked for permission from the person who pinned", but there is the credit and link back to my blog. At least this is positive- a link to my site, and "free promotion".

Most people may not be aware that their images have been "borrowed", and it's nice to see credit notices as to where the images did come from (without in most cases permission requests).

 Nevertheless, Pinterest does have its' positive attributes for toy aficionados  

and people looking for antique toys.

Pinterest also has an extensive notice about copyright infringement, and I've screen-captured part of their notice below.

Please click here to visit the Pinterest copyright page as seen above

Image screen-captured from the Pinterest website**

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Toysearcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman

A Fine Train Collection from Turner Auctions & Appraisals

Thursday, November 23, 2017
Sun with Cloudy Periods
1 C  34 F

A Fine train Collection From 

Turner Auctions and Appraisals

Please click here to visit this fine auction of old trains

     I haven't  in a long time been to Turner Auctions and Appraisals, so I decided to venture over to their website and see what was going on. Fortunately, I found a fine auction (Part 2) from the Warren Heid Family Train Collection. I've just selected a sampling of nice toys from the late 1800's-early 1900's. However, if you venture over to their website, you will see an excellent collection of train sets and individual cars from the Warren Heid Family.

       As you can see, there is a nice diversity of train sets and individual cars in this auction.  The 

toys are also in very good condition.

So that's it for today.

As always, 

Have great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

Another Fine Item from Niknak-Vintage on ebay

Monday, November 20, 2017
Overcast
-4 C   25 F

Another Fine Item 

from Niknak Vintage

(an ebay merchant)

Please click here to visit this fine ebay merchant

     I found niknak-vintage , a seller on  ebay a few days ago, while I went to see what old toys were being offered  on ebay. What I found was an excellent  seller, who area husband and wife team (Anthony and Sera) who not only had great toys for sale, but photographed excellently their items up for sale. As well, they have a superb reputation on  ebay. You can also visit ebay where Fabtintoys writes an article about George Brown. 

Here it is below:

Please click here to visit the article on the George Brown Company

     The listing that I'm posting today is for a George Brown toy. The title of the toy listing is "American Tin Train George Brown, Stafford, Merriam Union Pacific Victory Loco". The description did not provide much information, so you'll have to contact the sellers. I've added the fine photographs of the listing, and also added a page of photos from a book that I have on George Brown (The George Brown Toy Sketchbook, edited by Edith F. Barenholtz, Pine Press, Princeton, 1971).  The book is readily available on Amazon.com, and makes a nice tabletop book. As well, the prices on Amazon for this particular book are very reasonable. The only thing is that, it is very hard to find George Brown toys!

Below is the photograph of the 4 items for sale

Looking at the scanned illustrations below, you can see some similarities between the actual engine and coal bin car, and the above photograph. Notice the front of the coal car with the rounded sides closest to the engine.

Notice the painted and rounded designs between the 2 rectangles that are on either side of the 

painted and rounded designs.

Below: Notice the  brown-painted and rounded designs on the engine 

and under the window of the engine.

 

You'd have to contact the sellers (Anthony and Sera) on  ebay to get more information on these toys, and to ask if they are in fact George Brown toys or some other manufacture at the time.
Nevertheless, they certainly are fine toys from an era long ago.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

toysearcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman