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

James D. Julia's Past Toy Auction

Sunday, December 4, 2015
Sunny with some clouds
1 C 34 F

James D. Julia's 

Past Toy Auction

Please click here to visit this exceptional American auctioneer

Most of the toys below are called "pull toys". A string would be attached to the front of the toy, and the child would pull it along the ground or sidewalk. In some cases, the horses would create a galloping motion.  In 2 descriptions below there is the term "transitional". I am "guessing" that this meant that the horse-drawn fire unit was about to change to the motorized vehicle (fire truck). These toys were still being produced in the 1900's when the motorized vehicles first started to appear. Even in the 1910's and early 1920's these toys were still around, and the "real"item,s, as well as toys had already appeared in "real life".

Mr. James D. Julia sold his toy division (the rights therein) to Mr. Dan Morphy.

As such, James D. Julia no longer auctioned toys.The year was 2015. James D. Julia took exceptional and painstaking photographs of all of his toys going to auction. I don't know how long these "past auction" toy auction listings will be up on his website. So if you like toys, may I highly recommend that you visit his past toy auctions - you won't be disappointed!

In the years of these toys ( 1870's-1920's) there was a myriad of these toys with all kinds of names. Below there are mostly wagons, pumpers, and a dray. For myself , I had never heard of all of these terms, and needed a dictionary to understand what each one meant. Other horse-drawn items are the buckboard, the cart, the surrey, the coupe, the Phaeton, the Hanson cab, and probably a few more. People of the times most likely knew all of these names as we do now for vehicles. Examples  of today's cars are are coupe, sedan, SUV, ATV and several others. Then there are the sizes of cars such as  subcompact, compact, mid-size, and full-sized cars.

These toys presented today are from a time long gone. The only places to see these real"vehicles"  today would be in museums, country fairs, and in the movies.

Wilkins Two-Horse Pumper

An early transitional pumper with a silhouetted driver

Length:  14"  355 mm

Wilkins Hose Reel

This is the "mate" to the Wilkins Chemical Wagon.

This toy also contains a unique bell-ringing assembly

under the driver's seat.

Length:  15 1/2"  393 mm

Horse-Drawn Pure Ice Wagon by Harris

Painted cast iron.

Length: 13 1/2"  343 mm

Wilkens Sprinkler Wagon

Very rare and sought after.

Painted cast iron

Length:  14 1'2" 363 mm

Boy's Express Wagon by Pratt & Letchworth

Painted cast iron, with stencilled words "Boy's Express Co.

Length: 17"

Wilkins Two-Horse Hose Reel

Another transitional hose reel with a silhouetted driver.

Wire attached to front wheel causes a galloping motion.

Length:  14"  355 mm

Rare Horse Drawn Chemical Wagon by Wilkins

Painted cast iron with nickel-plated chemical tank

Length:  19 1/2"  495 mm

Pratt & Letchworth Dray

A perfect replica of the dray wagons from the 1880's-1890's.

Removable stake sides, cast iron dray bed with wooden inserts

Length:  13"  330 mm

Welker & Crosby "One-Horse Truck"

Painted cast iron with japanned horse.

This is number 11 in the Welker & Crosby catalogue.

Length:  14"  355 mm

It's been a long time since I added a post about such old toys. As i already mentioned, the reason for posting is that I don't know how long the toy auction results and photos will be on the James. D. Julia website. 

I hope that you enjoy this post.

I just found out that James D. Julia has all kinds of videos on YouTube. 
If you go to the URL below, you'll see an example of a video.All of the video introductions are the same, but the content later on is different for each auction.

Below is the URL for one particular toy auction. These videos are quite interesting and informative.

Please click here to visit a James D. Julia YouTube video

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

The Lehmann Toy Company

Saturday, November 12, 2016
Cloud with partial sunny periods
10 Celsius  50 Fahrenheit

The Lehmann Toy Company

Please click here to visit this exceptional American toy auctioneer

A tin toy, or tin lithograph toy, is a mechanical toy made out of tinplate and colorfully painted by chromolithography to resemble primarily a character or vehicle. Tinplate was used in the manufacture of toys beginning in the mid-19th century. The toys were made from thin sheets of steel plated with tin, hence the name tinplate. They were a cheap and durable substitute for wooden toys. The toys were originally assembled and painted by hand. Spring activated tin toys originated in Germany in the 1850s. In the late 1880s offset lithography was used to print designs on tinplate. After the colorful designs were printed on the metal, they were formed by dies and assembled with small tabs. The lightweight nature of the toys allowed them to be shipped less expensively and easier than the heavier cast iron toys. Germany was the major producer of tin toys in the world in the early 20th century. The most famous German manufacturer of tin toys was Ernst Paul Lehmann who is said to have exported 90% of his toys. France and Englandjoined the fray and it wasn't long before hundreds of thousands of these penny toys were being manufactured. Production of tin toys in the United States started earlier, but began in earnest when tin ore mines were opened in Illinois providing easily available and cheap raw materials. A number of manufactures scrambled to catch up in the beginning of the 20th century, but it wasn't until after World War I, with anti-German sentiment high, that they began to make real gains. There was a growing demand for American produced products and by the 1920s American firms had overtaken the competition. The largest and most successful firm from the 1920s to the 1960s was Louis Marx and Company. Marx produced a huge number of designs and depended on large sales volumes to keep prices down.*

 *Courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_toy

In the 1880's Germany and Europe had already developed advanced print techniques on metal using the lithography process. Salaries were low, and the Lehmann company produced 1000's of different toys for the European and North American markets. An offshoot of these type of toys (lithographed wind-up toys) was the "penny toys". These toys were inexpensive to manufacture and were literally sold "for a penny". If you go over to Bertoia Auctions and search for the 

November 11-13, 2016 Auction, you ail find at least 100 penny toys that were sold. The prices started at $ 100.00 , not bad for a 1,000,000 % profit. Of course, your great-great grandfather or grandmother would have had to pass the toy along through several generations of the family to yield this handsome profit.

For this Bertoia Auctions auctions, it's truly amazing to see just how many toy the Lehmann Company manufactured so long ago. And these toys are just some of the toys that they manufactured! What's even more amazing is that these toys are still around today, and many of them still work!

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 New Hubley Discovery

Tuesday, June 15, 2015
      Rain and cold (66F / 18C)

A New Hubley Discovery

  I didn't think that I'd write so soon about American Antique Auctions, but here's the latest post, just after yesterday's.  It's another unseasonal day (rain and cold), and the stock market isn't doing any better, as I try to manage my retirement funds. I decided to take another look at  American Antique Auctions' upcoming June 20 auction, and found today's wonderful cast iron toy.

  I thought I'd seen most of the Hubley cast iron toys, but this one easily "popped off the page".   It's quite small for a Hubley, but  it belongs in the famous "woody" type of car that became especially popular with California surfers in the 1930's  and later. If you ever say a movie about California surfing, you'd surely have sen one of these cars. The outside panels of these real cars were in fact  finished with wood that was lacquered.

Please click here too visit American Antique Auctions' website

Rarely do I write a post with just one item, but today I decided to . I'm sure that I'll edit this post and add more nice toys from this fine American auctioneer. There are lots of other toys that I have not seen, including a nice grouping of Schoenhut toys that came as wooden kits to be assembled.

Until today, I had only known Schoenhut to make fine animal figures, so today's other discovery, among many others was a "Eureka Moment" for me.

It's nice to be writing again, even though I'm not writing daily. There' no pressure for me, although I had tried to write daily. And finding new knowledge about toys, always makes writing all the more pleasurable.

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Not Yet Seen Toys from Copake Auctions

Sunday, May 31, 2015
Very Cold and Cloudy
 9C or 48 F

Not Yet Seen Toys from Copake Auctions Inc.

  It was a great day to write today. Yesterday was 31 C ( 88 F), and today it's freezing  (9C or 48 F).  Of course, I can't complain. The other day, it was 47 C (116.6F) in India.

Whenever I finish a post ,I will write to the contact person at a company or the person from whom I had the permission to post and of course use their photos. Since I'm returning again to write after a 5 month hiatus (rest break), I wrote to Copake Auctions Inc. and specifically to Mr. James Thompson. James is the  website/technology, marketing & media person at Copake Auctions Inc. That's certainly a big title and lots of responsibility. I like to ask the person that I contacted just to proofread the post for anything that he or she might like me to change, add, remove, or edit. James thanked me, and provided me with an address for a search on Copake Auctions Inc. for "toy- 2006-present".

   Of course, I'd written about Copake Auction Inc.'s toys before, but it didn't hurt to take a look at what James Thompson had sent me. No sooner had I  looked at the first 2 pages of 10 (total 466 toys), did I select 4 toys that I had not seen before. Actually 1 was a "mascot" for RCA. 

Please click here to visit Copake Auction Inc.'s start page

Please click here to visit the search results for "toy-2006-present)

Below is a nice articulating horse with a Sheffield Farms Company milk wagon. I don't see a string, but the toy look like a "pull toy". There's no date provided for the toy, but it appears top be early 20th century or slightly later.

The photography is very good, and I especially like the wide-angle close pup of the roof of the wagon. That illustrates the roof quite well, and shows you the iron step for the milkman to step up to the wagon.

Here's something that I had not known before - another RCA figure - RCA Radiotrons.

Everybody who is older that 60 certainly know the most famous  RCA Mascot. 

Hint: He is a dog

Answer: Nipper

Answer:

 Here's another discovery for me-another articulated toy with a horse and buggy.

I think that this is also another pull toy. I selected this because of its' realism, that reminds me of those travelling salesman samples.

And here's yet one more "discovery". I think I've mentioned or posted a toy from "Oh Boy", but not this one. It's quite large for a toy, and certainly illustrates the early types of car racers that it was modelled after.

This post was certainly an "eye-opener".  I was able to find 4 new toys that I had not seen before in a matter of a few minutes, and the fun of it was that I found them on an exceptional auctioneer's website whose specially is antique bicycles, but of course sells other merchandise.

As the expression goes "leave no stone unturned"…..

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