An Ancestor of George Levy Asks for Help

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Overcast 

-2° Celsius / 28.4° Fahrenheit

An Ancestor of George Levi Asks for Help

    E-mail from readers of my blog is like the famous line in the movie "Forrest Gump". That was a great movie in 1994, starring Tom Hanks as a very kind and simple man. Forrest sits down next to a lady, and as he starts to talk to the lady, he later says:

"Life was like a box of chocolates,

You never know what you're going to get"

    And so it is in blogging. I never know what readers will write to me,  and I always try and find answers to their questions. In today's post, I received an 

e-mail from Mr. Adrian Mattes, who happens to be a distant relative (great-grandfather) of the famous German toy manufacturer, Mr. Georg Levy who owned the GELY toy company.

    Adrian had personal information about his relatives, and was kind enough to share some information about them below:

   

 "The company name GELY was a combination of GE from Georg, and LE 

from the family name Levy.  Mr. Georg Levy first worked for the famous company HUKI. The name derived from a combination of the owner - Mr. Hubert Kienberger. "HU" from Hubert, and KI from his family name Kienberger." 

The company was in Germany.

 Adrian's great-uncle Kurt Levy and his family moved to Argentina in the mid 1930's in order to escape from the Nazis. The Levis were Jewish, and thankfully escaped from a potentially horrific end.

  "Georg and his wife Johanna fled Germany in 1938 and lived out their days in England. Their sons Alfred Levy and Kurt Levy also had worked in the toy factory in Nürenberg. Alfred went to work for the Mettoy/Corgi toy company in Northhampton, England. It was Kurt who went to Argentina and we believe worked in the toy business there."

    Adrian had seen some toys manufactured by the Argentinian Toy Company - Matarrazo.  (1930's and later) Adrian's great-grandparents moved to Argentina in the early 1930's in order to escape from the Nazis. They were Jewish, and thankfully escaped from a potentially horrific end.

   Adrian wrote to me and asked a question.

      1.Did Kurt Levy had worked with the Matarrazotoy company in Argentina?

 The reason for his question was because he observed  similarities of the design 

 and type of toys between GELY and Matarazzo.

    I wrote back to Adrian, and said that I would try and find an answer to his question.  I wrote to someone on ebay, who then answered that another person would be more knowledgeable that he. My question was the same as Adrian had written me. 

So far, I have not heard back from the ebay seller.

Below: 

A photograph of  Adrian's Great-Grand-Parents

Below:

A photograph of the original building where Georg Levy 

(Gely toy company) manufactured his toys in Germany.

The young child is Georg's grandson, and his name is John.

A GELY billiards table with players

The GELY toy company name was a combination 

of Ge (George) and Ly (Levy). 

Adrian send me the above photos, which helped with this blog post.

So that's it for today.

I hope someone reading this post will have the answer to Adrian's question.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

As always,

I can be reached at :

toysearcher@gmail.com

(Mr.) Stacey Bindman

oldworldtoys- A Very Interesting Website (Part 2)

Tuesday January 23, 2024

Some sun with mostly clouds

-4° Celsius / 25° Fahrenheit

All About Old Toys

(A Very Interesting website)

(Part II)

Please click here to visit this fine website

This post is the second of 2 posts presenting to everyone

this excellent and very resourceful toy website.

Within the website is a section that sells toys from a circus.

The images below are from a collector who collected over time.

He happens to live in the Carolinas (in the USA),

hence the name of this group of toys. being called

"The Carolinas".

I've barely shown much of this exceptional website.

Not only are is there information about circus toys, but there are

lots of photos, as well as sections of toys for sale, besides these fine circus toys. 

Jim Sneed

most certainly has spent lots of time over the years to create

such a wonderful website.

Not only is the photography superb, but the information on this 

website is "superlative".  I've been blogging for since January 19, 2011,

and I can't even imagine the time and effort that has gone into this unique and encyclopedic website! 

Thank you, Jim 

for this wonderful website.

As always,

Thanks for visiting,

And have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

I can always be reached at toysearcher@gmail.com

and my name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman

oldwoodtoys - A Very Interesting Website (Part 1)

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Overcast (clouds) with no wind

-16° Celsius / 3.2° Fahrenheit

All About Old Toys"

(A Very Interesting website)

(Part I)

Please click here to visit Mr. Jim Sneer's Fine website

This post is the first of 2 that will introduce readers to Old Wood Toys

I'll be writing the next post soon.

    A few weeks ago, I came up with an idea. I would contact people and write new blog posts about them. I've been blogging since 2011, and I thought I'd reconnect with people and see how they're doing.

    Old Wood Toys is a very interesting website. The  creator of this website is Mr. Jim Sneed, and he is very directed to learning, selling, and buying toys. Also there is a membership for those who would like to join. This website is an excellent resource for finding information about the Schoenhut toy company. As well, there are other companies that you  have been written about for everyone to leanr and discover te many toy companies that once existed.

The screen-capture below introduces you to the website. 

**If you double-click on any image, you will be able to magnify (enlarge) it**

There is a very informative and interesting part of the website with regard 

to the company Schoenhut. When you visit the Oldworldtoys website, you will immediately notice the high quality of photography.

Below is a screen-capture that shows you some of the sections

of the website. This website is quite a resource for those wanting to learn about toys, and especially about the Schoenhut company.

If you click on any photo, you will be able to enlarge it

Below is a screen-capture introducing the reader to the 

"Schoenhut Collectors' Club"

Below is the Home Page for Club members

Below is the section to view interesting toys, 

as well as purchase toys that you might be interested in.

 

     Jim Snead and OldWoodToys collect toys

The Chad Valley screen-capture  presents

the viewer with the opportunity to see interesting toys, 

and to buy them as well.

There are "Restoration Services" for those interested 

in having their collectibles cleaned

 

The screen-capture above shows advertising pages 

in the years that the toys were actually sold

This screen-capture (above) shows the many

toy companies that were around "way back" in those days! 

This screen-capture (above) shows a great reference of

toy catalogues

The screen-capture below is a sample page

of a Gong Bell 1940 catalogue

What a great reference and resource  Oldwoodtoys.com is!

You can contact Mr. Jim Sneed by clicking below:

Contact by clicking this

To be continued.............

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night, 

Wherever you may be.

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman

and I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

An Exceptional Seller on LiveAuctioneers

Tuesday January 16, 2024

-6°  Celsius / 21.2° Fahrenheit

Overcast

An Exceptional Toy Seller on

Please click here to visit Marz Auctions on liveauctioneers

Please click here to visit Marz Auctions website

After a long time, I've been trying to get back into writing again. So, a few days ago, I went to visit the Liveauctioneers websites to see if I might be inspired by a new toy seller. A good amount of companies that had their own websites have now moved to to Liveauctioneers to sell their toys, but still maintain their own websites. 

Sure enough, as I was perusing through the many toy sellers, one vendor attracted my attention. 

Their description was very well written, but the last sentence caught my attention.

**We don't just shoot for the Moon, we overachieve and shoot for Marz**

The play on words of their company name "Marz" was comical and brilliant!

Of course, I had to see what toys they had, and again, another great surprise! Their photography is exceptional. It reminds me when after about a year of blogging, and using people's photographs "as is", I decided to remove any different colours that toys were placed on, and simply place the toy on a white background. I found that placing a toy on a white background focussed all the attention on the toys. I did this in the photo-editing software Photoshop. Aside from their placing their toys on a white background, their photography is excellent in terms of lighting, focus, and angling the toys to the camera, which makes the toy more 3-dimensional.

Naturally, I wrote to the company, and I got a reply allowing me to use their fine photos, as well as their descriptions.

 I've made the written descriptions very brief. However, when you visit either LiveAuctioneers or the Marz Auction website, you will see very well-written descriptions of their toys that are up for auction.

Item details:

"Iconic Althof Bergmann Key Wind Fire Pumper with deluxe key wind mechanism.

Toy circa 1885 from New York, NY form Bergmann top features of the day for toys.

The fire engine is drawn by two horses.

16" long x 7" high.

Extra large J.E.P. Seaplane F260 with pontoons and windup key.

Nice original plane with strong windup motor and pilot.

Large wingspan 18" x 12.5" length.

(45.72 cm x 31.75 cm)

Giant Buddy L Wrecker toy truck.

Circa 1928 with a working winch.

28" long x 10" tall (71.12 cm x 25.4 cm)

"Tin Windup Delahane Open Touring sedan in Largest Size.

Likely by Pinard of France, as it is the largest in a flight of 3 cars offered circa 1918.

Attributed to Pinard, but we have seen it also J.E.P. of France.

Hand wrought in tin. 

Approximately 19" (48.26 cm) in length"

"Althof Bergmann Key Wind Fire Pumper with deluxe clockwork key wind mechanism". 

Toy circa 1885 from New York, NY firm Bergmann.

16" long x 7" high (40.64 cm  x 17.78 cm)"

"Deluxe" service airplane

22" ( 55.88 cm) wingspan" 

" Large Fleishmann / Carette Battleship of this series at 21" (53.34 cm)

Eight single barrel guns. Twin smoke stacks with twin towers and pennant flags."

Original tin battleship with German navy flag and anchor. Windup with original key."

You might want to visit the Marz Auctions website either at their website or on 

In either case, both sites are excellent in terms of either bidding on toys that you might like or researching a toy that you would like to know more about.

So that's it for today, on a cloudy, cold, and snowy day 

here in Montreal,Quebec (canada).

As always, 

Thanks for dropping by, 

and have a great part of the day or night, wherever you may be.

I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

and my name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Cloudy with sunny periods

-3° Çelsius / 26.6° Fahrenheit

Going Back to Old Auctions

with Dan Morphy Auctions

on LiveAuctioneers

Please click here to visit Morphy Auctions website

I started to blog in 2013, which seems like so long ago. I didn't know where I would be going with writing a blog post on old and antique toys, but having retired from teaching, it was a start. You can visit my first post, to see how I started writing about toys.

Initially. I was buying and selling toys, but that was expensive. Unlike the USA, up here in Canada, and specifically in Montreal (where I live) there are not many old and antique toys to be found. I searched and did find some toys, but not the ones that I had seen in the USA. 

I started buying and selling, with American toy sellers and individuals on ebay,

but with the exchange rate with the Canadian dollar and the US dollar, and shipping, I was losing money! So what I decided to do, is to ask American toy sellers if I might use their photos, and write about their toys. Sure enough, most of the people that I wrote to gave me their permission, and I was on journey to write about toys.

One of the people the I wrote to was Mr. Dan Morphy and his company 

Morphy Auctions.

Even way back in 2013, Dan Morphy was an excellent seller. He had a very good staff, and he sold lots of toys, among other merchandise. I always got the sense that he would do very well in the future, and so he has. 

Bravo, to Dan!

My purpose today wasn't just to write about Dan Morphy and his excellent company, but to write about what I discovered only just yesterday. I was visiting

live Auctioneers© and decided to see if I could find auctions from a long way back (10 years or more). And sure enough, I made that "discovery"!

I was able to find a Dan Morphy Auction from June 24, 2016!

And so, all of the presentations today are in fact from that auction, that is still recorded in a giant computer database at live Auctioneers© headquarters,

and can be accessed by anyone.

 

Length:  24 1/4"  (61.195 cm)

Name on back is "Comet"

Circa late 19th century

Size: 22"/ 55.88 cm

Attributed to W.S.Reed Company, this is a toy

simulating the type of ferry that was utilized between Staten Island 

and lower Manhattan along with several other larger

metropolitan cites. Featured in Antique Toy World Article. July 1991

Page 90 

Size 13 1/2" / 34.29 cm

Circa 1890. Pul toy on wheels.

Marked "Pilgrim" on both sides.

Simulated (Painted) waves on the bottomsides of the boat.

Length:  28" / 71.12 cm

Late 19th century. Unmarked, but probably Bliss or Reed.

Length:  36" / 91.44 cm

Circa 1908

Wind-up motor on the bottom. Has been finished in maroon.

Length:  15 1/2" / 39.37 cm

How to search for past auctions of a seller:

Above:

1. Go to live Auctioneers©  

2. Search for your auctioneer and enter the name and the year

3. You will see results that vary in content and years

4. Among the results, you will see a range of different years

5. Search for the year that you want

Above:

The arrow is pointing to the year 2016

The interesting points that I was making, is that you will find:

1. The prices of auctions from the past.

2. Find toys that may not be selling right now because 

they were very collectible at the time, and now

they are not showing because of their increased value.

So that's all for today.

As always, have a great time of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

(my name is Mr. Stacey Bindman)