Friday, January 26, 2018

The Ives, Blakeslee & Williams Company Trains

Friday,January 26, 2018
Sunny with Clouds
-12 C  10.4 F


The Ives, Blakeslee & Williams
Company Trains



The Ives, Blakeslee and Williams Company was located in Bridgeport, Connecticut (USA).
They manufactured many different types of tin toys,and some also being made of tin and cast iron.
The company was in business from 1868-1932.  In 1910, the company manufactured its' first electric train.  The company produced many quality trains in those times, but ran into financial difficulty. It had to compete with Lionel, which was a much larger company and advertised a lot more. Eventually, the company went through a bankruptcy, and later was purchased by the Lionel Company. 

"The scanned pages are from  a reprint (June 1965) of an Ives, Blakeslee & Williams catalogue circa 1893 featuring a complete line of toys for home and export trade by L.C. Hegarty, Collector of Iron Toys & Mechanical Banks, Coalport, Pennsylvania (USA"


If you look at the locomotives (magnify the pages by clicking on the first page), you will see
that they are slightly different in detail. As well,each one has a different name.





Ives, Blakeslee & Williams Company Clockwork Locomotive
"Giant"
Considered the "granddaddy" of all American tin trains.
Only 4 known examples of this model.
Tin & cast iron wheels
Clockwork mechanism
Circa: 1880
Length:  10"  254 mm

Ives, Blakeslee & Williams Company Clockwork Locomotive
"Transit"
Tin & cast iron wheels
Clockwork mechanism
Circa: 1880


Ives, Blakeslee & Williams Company Clockwork Locomotive
"Victory"
Tin & cast iron wheels
Clockwork mechanism
Circa: 1880

Ives, Blakeslee & Williams Company Clockwork Locomotive
"Whistler"
Tin & cast iron wheels
Clockwork mechanism
Circa: 1880
Length:  12.5"  307 mm 

Ives, Blakeslee & Williams Company Clockwork Locomotive
"Jupiter"
Tin & cast iron wheels
Clockwork mechanism
Circa: 1880
Length:  10"  254 mm

The locomotives in the photos do not match the scans of pages from the catalogues. 
This probably indicates that they were produced later than those from the 1893 catalogue. However, they are very similar to identify them as being produced 
by the Ives, Blakeslee & Williams Company.

They most certainly are quite nice!


Thanks for dropping by,
and have a great day or night.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com







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