Another Fine Toy Needs to be Identified

Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Overcast with Showers
23 C  74 F

Another Fine Toy Needs

to be Identified

     This week, I received another inquiry  asking if I could identify an old toy. I tried to find a similar toy, but couldn't. Thus, I am asking all readers if they might help my guest and I to identify this fine toy. Below are several photos to illustrate how the toy looks.

I wrote to Shirley to ask for the dimensions of the toy to help out. When I receive that information, I will add it to this post.  I would think that the toy is made of painted tin. Also, the toy does appear to be old, and it might be from the late 19th century or early 20th century.

I know that there are a lot of terms for these "vehicles".  It might be called a "surrey", a  "coach", or even a cab. Also, the toy could be American-made such as by George Brown. It might also be European.

So, if there is anyone out there who has such a toy, or might know what today's toy is, would you 

please send me an e-mail so that I can share the manufacturer with Shirley Jackson, and all of my readers.

As always,

Thanks for dropping by,

And have a great day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

A Fine Lincoln Airplane

July 28, 2019
Overcast (Clouds) with rain predicted
27 C  81 F

Have You Any Information

on a Lincoln Airplane ?

     From time-to-time, I receive questions about toys. Recently, I received an e-mail from Mr. 
Lawrence Witen.  He has a very nice Lincoln Toys airplane from the 1950's. Lincoln Toys was a Canadian company that made pressed steel toys. Below are several links through which you can read up on this company.

Please Click here to visit the History Museum (Canada)

      Lawrence  wrote to me to find out if I could give hime an estimate for his airplane. I did a search, but couldn't find a price that I might provide to him. He remembered that on ebay, there was one that sold for $ about 1500.00 US dollars, but he couldn't find the specific link. 

     I wrote Lawrence back, and invited him to send me photos and dimensions, so that I might write a blog post about his fine airplane. I am also inviting anyone who might have any information on this 1950's Lincoln Toys toy to send me any information and links to any sites that had sold this airplane.

  The dimensions of this Lincoln Toys airplane are:

Length:   9"   230 mm

Wingspan:   15"   380 mm

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

A Toy Boxmaker of Fine Replacements

Thursday, May 2, 2019
Overcast
11 C  52 F

A Toy Box Maker of

Fine Replacements

To contact DRRB Reproduction Boxes, Please Click Here

      There are many people who collect old and antique toys. There are people who just look for the toys, whereas many collectors actually like to have the original box that came with the toy. Depending on the box's condition and the better the shape of the original box, the added value to the toy there is.

     There are also people who collect toys, or who grew up with their toys, but they don't have the original boxes.  As a result of this, a  "mini-industry" developed that manufactures reproduction boxes identical to the originals, but for their age.

One of these companies happens to be DRRB REPRODUCTION BOXES.

"QUALITY REPRODUCTION BOXES FOR MODEL CARS

All our reproduction boxes are handmade individually and are the closest matches to the original that are available anywhere in the UK or worldwide. Compare our quality with that from elsewhere. Our reproduction boxes make ideal companions to your high quality restored models or for your mint, or near mint models that have lost their original boxes."

     When I came across this nice website, I wrote to the company, and got a reply the next day from Mr. Robb Barlow, the owner of the company who lives in Great Britain. He reproduces replacement boxes from Dinky Toys, French Dinky Toys, Corgi Toys, Matchbox Series, Spot-On, Budgie, A Crescent Toy, Lone * Star, Tri-ang MINIC, Morestone Series,  and Scaleextric.

I asked Robb a few questions about the process by which he makes his boxes.

Robb obtains original boxes from friends, clients and other dealers. He carefully scans then, but doesn't open up the boxes. He scans all of the sides and ends, then using software retouches the scanned copies to remove stains, damaged spots, scratches, and handwriting. From there, Robb then accurately reproduces the colour, before making a proof box. From there, limited numbers of boxes are made for his inventory.

It's always interesting to find  new interesting material for my blog, and thanks to Robb, I was able to write this post for today.

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Tosearcher@gmail.com

A Rarer Kingsbury Milk Truck

Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Cloudy with Sunny Periods
8 C 46 F

A Rarer Kingsbury Milk Truck

       I received an interesting e-mail last week.  Mr. Bryan Westmoreland sent me photos of a Kingsbury Dairy Truck. The name on the truck was  Biltmore Dairy Farms.  Bryan had wanted to know if this particular truck was rare. I searched on the Internet for this truck, but could not find any yellow Biltmore Dairy Farms Kingsbury Trucks.  I wrote Bryan back to say that I found a white Kingsbury truck with a Borden's Dairy decal written on the side, a red Dairy truck, but no yellow Biltmore Dairy Farms Kingsbury truck.  I wrote Bryan also to ask if I might use his nice photos, and he replied yes. I did this in the hopes that perhaps someone out there might have information about this truck. I mentioned also to Bryan that perhaps, this yellow truck might have been customized for the Biltmore Dairy.

The photo above illustrates the unique wind-up mechanism that the Keene Toy Company of Keene, New Hampshire had for their toys.

"Company history and description of the company Kingsbury Mfg. Co., Keene New Hampshire, USA
In 1895 Harry T. Kingsbury bought the company Wilkins and with the Clipper Machine Works and led her long continue under the old name. At first cars were produced. The Wilkins line was abandoned during the First World War in favor of the Kingsbury models. They manufactured famous models of aircraft, trucks, and buses. 
1942 the toy production stopped during the Second World War and was no longer included. Everything was sold to Keystone in Boston. The company still exists as Kingsbury Machine Tool Division, as a supplier to IBM, General Motors and GE. "**

**Courtesy of  https://www.historytoy.com/

If anybody has any information  about this Keene (Kingsbury) yellow toy truck, would you please comment on this post at the bottom, or simply write to me at my e-mail address below.

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

Some New Bliss Toys from Bertoia Auctions

Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Cloudy with Sunny Periods
8 C 46 F

Some New Bliss Toys

from Bertoia Auctions

     Bertoia Auctions was one of the first auction houses to allow me to use their excellent photographs.  This fine and famous auction house exclusively auctions old and antique toys from all over the world.  The Bliss toys presented today were from a recently-held auction of April 12, 2019.

Even through Rufus Bliss founded R. Bliss Manufacturing Company in 1832, it is not exactly known when  they started producing toys. The earliest mention of toys can be found in the “New England Business Director of 1871.”

R. Bliss Manufacturing Company was originally founded to produce wooden screws and clamps for piano and cabinet making. Rufus Bliss is known for inventing a machine for cutting wood screws rapidly and more accurately than had been done in the past. These toys cross the borders of collecting with their folk-art designs. They are known for their high quality, beautiful colors and artwork. R. Bliss Manufacturing Company sold their toy making division to Manson & Parker of Winchendon, Massachusetts in 1914. Toys carrying the Bliss name were produced until 1935 but only a few toys were marketed during these later years.**

**Courtesy of www.oldworldtoys.com / Mr. Richard Mueller Jr.

The above toys achieved final selling prices ranging from $ 330.00 - $ 660.00 US Dollars.

What's interesting about these toys is their very good condition, considering many of them are easily over 100 years old!

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Livesteam Paddlewheelers

Monday, April 8, 2019
Cold and Sleet (Rain with Ice)
-1 C  30 F

Livesteam Paddlewheelers

Please click here to visit Peter's fine website

Please click here to see one of Peter's Steamboats in action

     I've had a cold or the flu last week, so I wasn't felling well. I always take a flu shot in November, but I guess this year, I got the wrong strain of the flu vaccine. Interestingly, I heard from several readers last week. One of them is Peter G.

In Peter's own words:

I "accidentally" found your blog packed with very interesting toy subjects, bravo ! 

I build large RC metal steamboats from scratch, and also (when time permits) restore antique steam boat toys for customers. I always loved steamboats, maybe partly thanks to a cruise, when I was, aboard famous "France". We lived not far from Lake Geneva (Switzerland); this clearly sealed my passion for the paddle steamers. In 1975, I was a 10 year old kid, and we used to build and fly RC planes with my father. The transition to building RC (Radio Controlled) steamboats was obvious to me.

    Peter also answered some questions that I asked of him. Building and restoring model paddlewheelers is his hobby.  He also builds models "from scratch" , meaning mostly everything is made with his own hands! Each model painstakingly takes between 2500 - 4000 hours of work - WOW!

    The model below is from a collector who asked Peter to restore it. , and "allowing him to do it the way Peter wanted"! " A collectorI know had bought this Carette and then realized it was in such a poor state, he realized that he  wanted the toy to be restored.

  "Of course, if a toy has a few scratches and is in decent shape, a collector will keep it as is, and eventually get the missing parts replaced (very hard to find) or rebuild. I had to get this old greasy toy to bare metal, disassemble, repair, and straighten it all up, then start rebuilding. I didn't go to the "like new" level, as I thought this toy would tell a better story the way I went"

Below are some photos of  before and after the restoration.

Peter certainly has his hands full to restore this model! The "Unterwalden" is a ship that Peter built, and you can see later in a YouTube video below.

    For myself, writing this post was a pleasure, as well as learning a little bit about radio-controlled RC) steamboats, paddle boats, and their restoration.  It was also a great introduction to this fascinating world of restoring model ships!

An Exceptional Set of 1920's Buddy L vehicles comes to auction

Sunday, April 7, 2019
Sunny with clouds
9 C  48 F

An Exceptional Set of 1920's Buddy L vehicles comes to auction

      I'm always when readers write to me. And so it was with Mr. Myron Frank.  Myron had inherited a set of 10 Buddy L cars and trucks, and was asking for advise as to what these fine early 1920's Buddy L toys would garner at auction.

"Hi, I have a small collection of Buddy L trucks.  They were my Dad's and he passed.  I know these have value, but not sure the actual retail.  

There is a local toy auction house that will put them up in April, but with no certainty on sale price, and there is also a lot of "trust" involved in the auction process.  e.g. we will sell them but you just trust us on what they sell for.  

I am attaching photos of the ten trucks we are considering selling.  Any estimate of value appreciated.  Also, if you would like to make an offer on the lot, let me know.  The trucks are located in Central Indiana.  

Thanks, Phil F. " 

      I'm not an expert on the value of toys, so I didn't want to give  any incorrect information to Myron. What I did suggest however, was to do a search on the Bertoia Auctions website, a very famous and successful toy auctioneer.  I also suggested for Myron to visit the  Liveauctioneers  website.

    There are innumerable factors that determine the price of what a toy (or anything else) will sell for at auction. The time of year, a local auction or an Internet auction, the number of people bidding on the toy. As well, sometimes you'll find a toy at one time will sell for more than at another time.

Please click here to visit the Bertoia Auctions website

Please click here to visit the Liveauctioneers website

Please click here to visit the ebay website

Interestingly, the ebay website was the one website that offered the most number of these Buddy L Flivver cars and trucks.

          Myron's collection most certainly is a fine collection. I especially like the "dust" that has collected on these toys over the years.  I wish Myron great success as his collection goes to auction