Cracker Jack Toys

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

Cracker Jack 
Toys

Please click on this sentence to visit this exceptional toy auctioneer's website

    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!

Hake's Americana & Collectibles

Monday, October 31, 2016
Cloudy and Cold
7 Celsius   44 Fahrenheit

Hake's Americana & Collectibles

Please click here to visit this most interesting American auctioneer

Please click here a most interesting history of Hake's Americana & Collectibles history

The above link is from an article in the Antique Trader magazine.

Hake's can best be described by their brief, but well-written  sentence below: statement:

"We have set the standard for quality collectibles and customer service in the world 

of popular culture collectibles since 1967. Your satisfaction is always our first priority."

The company was established in 1967 and is located in York, Pennsylvania (USA). Ted Hake was a college student in the mid-1960's, when he first got into the business of buying and selling all kinds of collectables. Later on, his passion for collectibles turned into a full-time business. Not only does Hakes's auction toys, but they auction off all kinds of collectibles.

Below is a screen-capture of just 1/3 of what subjects they auction.

They currently have a cornucopia of collectibles ranging from posters to comic books, to gum cards and cartoon-related items. If you visit their fine website, I'm sure everyone will find something that can interest them. But for today, I'd like to get back on track for what I wanted to write.

About 10 days ago, I posted about a 1933 Dowst Manufacturing Company catalogue. The company, of course is most known for having produced the famous American toys - Tootsietoys. I decided to do a search for "Tootsietoy Cartoon Characters", and was fortunate to find great results. THe best results were from Hake's Americana & Collectibles. Not only were the photos excellent, but they were large-sized files which best shows the details of these toys.

I removed the colour and lightened the part  from the bottom half of the page. What is still in colour are comic strip characters from the 1920's and later on.

Hake's description best describes these most-interestimng and rare Tootsietoys:

" This popular painted die-cast set of comic characters of the period was produced 1932-1933. Done in two versions; an articulated and more fully painted set as offered and in two-colour non-articulated versions."

I've never seen a complete set of these cartoon characters, so I'm sure they are quite rare altogether. 

Below:

The non-articulated set which also was done in only 2-colours( comic characters and vehicle)

The 2-colour and multiple colour comic characters.

And once again, a comparison of the multi-coloured and 2-coloured comic characters.

While I was screen-capturing these images, I noticed that the final prices at auction were in the 

3-digit price (hundreds) in US dollars. Certainly, this fine set of collectibles deserved this price. You have to remember that these toys are from 1932-1933, and range in size from 2 1/4" (55 mm) to 3 1/4" (82mm)!

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 Fine Grouping of Cast Iron Wreckers

Monday, June 15, 2015
Cloud and rain with mild temperatures

A Fine Grouping of Cast Iron Wreckers

   I haven't been writing much this year because no matter what I try to do, the readership hasn't increased. I joined LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook to no avail. I keep getting e-mails from web designers and companies wanting to place me in the higher ranks of Google, for a fee of course. However, since I write for interest and a hobby, I don't want to incur costs. Google keeps trying to suing me up to their Adsense, but  that won't  make much money (if at all). With about 100,000 

page-views a year, the numbers just aren't there. And most people do not click on ads to be sent somewhere else from my website.

  I also have been busier this year trying to manage my own retirement funds on a self-directed buy/sell Internet site. So far, it's been up and down. I'll probably return to my former site (pad management with my direction) and forget about getting rich fast or even getting ahead. It's harder than increasing readership to my blog!

Last week, I went over to Liveauctioneers, and found a great  auction of all kinds of toys, some of which I hadn't seen before. Today's grouping of cast iron wreckers I've seen, but never so many being sold in one auction. I wrote to American Antique Auctions, and received a reply from Mr. Vince Sarchese. He politely mentioned that I had written about American Antique Auctions before, and of course I could use their photos. I write back and apologized. It's a good thing I wasn't using a computer with Skype. Vince would have seen me change 6 shades to a red-faced embarrassing person! 

Please click here to visit this fine American auctioneer

  What I like to see from a toy auctioneer are nice photos with several photos and a decent size for viewing.  Of course, if you've visited me in the last year, you'll have noticed that I have been placing toys against a white background.  Vince's American Antique Auctions has all 3 criteria. All I had to do is adjust the white levels (white, black, and mid-tones), and the toys beautifully popped out against the white.

   For those who don't know, the term "wrecker' was the precursor to the better-sounding term 

tow-truck. With not many roads in the early years of the automobile, I'm sure whenever an accident occurred, the cars were "wrecked" badly and had to be towed. Cars today, of course are built better (except for the "recalls"), and with a cell phone you can easily find a tow truck quite fast. For myself, I started to drive in 1970, when my parents purchased for me a car for me to travel out of town . The drive was about 30 miles (50 km) and several teachers and I car-pooled, alternating cases week-to-week.  I can't ever recall ever needing a tow truck.  I should have used one though. One winter I was stuck on ice and burnt a transmission going back and forth. That was a hard lesson to learn, costing me about $ 700.00 at the time!

   What's interesting about these toys is that they have lasted almost in original condition for so long. When I originally started to write about old and antique toys, I would buy, photograph, and re-sell the toys back to buyers on ebay. I never really made any money (I probably lost money), but I was able to keep taking photos, both as a pro-photo teacher and photographer. Eventually, I stopped buying and selling and asked people and companies around the world for permission to use their photos.

   If you have ever held a cast iron toy in your hands, their is something "mystical" about it. It's heavy and cold, and solid. Also, mostly in the U.S.A. were there these toys. Some cast iron toys were made in Sweden, but for some reason cast iron toys were made mostly in America. 

  Most of the cast iron toys were made in two symmetrical halves (left and right),. They would be  made into one unit by an iron bolt  with a rounded head at one end and a  cut-off end at the other end. This end was slightly longer and would be carefully hammered with a peen hammer (rounded hammer head) to form a slight flattened end to hold the two halved together. I once bought a cast iron toy in two halves, and purchased a cast iron rod to join the parts together. I sweated so much, I though I'd rust the toy, but the toy parts held together, and I was able to repaint and resell the toy.  I'm sure the experienced factory workers at the time would have laughed heartedly at my work!

  Have a look at the written descriptions and the photos. What I especially like is the nickel-plated parts of some of the toys. As well,  some of the wheels are made of wood and are still intact. Even the rubber tires are original in some cases.

That wound wire was meant to hold the dual spare tires to each side of the truck. Several different manufacturers used this ingenious technique to hold different parts of their toy trucks or cars together.

I have most of the old cast iron catalogues that I purchased from the Interent and especially on ebay. I'll try and remember to cross-reference some the toys so that I can specify exactly what they are. 

For the toy below, notice the nice grille that is nickel-plated, It's a beauty!

THe handle is also nickel.  I just noticed that I misspelled the word 

(I wrote" tasker" below in the description.

What's nice below is to see a pair of toys from a similar timeframe. 

The "rumble seat" is especially interesting.

Below, nickel-plating is used both for thew wheels , the wind-up and the tow hook. I remember when a nickel (a 5 cent piece) was in fact made from nickel, and a penny was made entirely from copper. Now a nickel is steel and in canada there are no longer any pennies in circulation. The Canadian government decided to remove it. So when you pay for an item , it's "rounded off" to the nearest 5 cent or 10 cent value.

Here again is a nice pair of toys coming to auction.  WHile I was loping at the couple, I noticed the trunk at the rear end. It's the first time in 66 years that I immediately associated the term "trunk" that we associate with today's cars, with the original "trunk" from way back and log ago. I canl;t believe it took me so long to figure this out!

Once again, you can see the use of nickel-plating on the nice grille. Both toys have nice wooden rims with rubber tires.

The coupe reminds me of the Tootsietoys. These are small-sized  metal alloy-poured American toys.

THese are my favourite small-sized toys (3"-4"/ 76 mm - 102 mm)

 although they are no longer made. 

Finally a pair of very small cast iron toys.  

I can't remember ever seeing such a small cast iron toy. Back then, toys were quite inexpensive, and to produce such a small cast iron toy, to me, is an anomaly. Of course, back then  a cent (penny) was a  lot of money and five cents was even more.

I'll have to remember to see if I can find out why Arcade and Hubley would make toys so small.

In the world of old toys, there's always something new to be found and to wrote about!

You can find this particular set of toys at Liveauctioneers.

Please click here to visit American Antique Auctions auction at Liveauctioneers

Thanks for visiting,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Some Highlights from Bertoia Auctions's Recent Auction

Monday, May 11, 2015
Cold and lots of rain

Some Highlights from 

Bertoia Auctions

Recent May Auction

   When I was feverishly on a daily basis, I would venture over to my "regulars". One of these was band still is Bertoia Auctions. The Bertoia Family was one of the first to allow me to use their photos after, I stopped buying and selling toys on ebay. At the time, I decided to stop buying and selling because the market was slow on  ebay and I was limited in the toys that AI could write about. Budget constraints limited me to what I could afford, and I really didn't make much money, if any at all. Having the permission to use other people's photos placed me on a different level of writing.

   I now could write about toys that I  could never afford, and allowed me to write about toys that I never had seen before or even heard of in terms of where and who had manufactured them. Bertoia Auctions is located in Vineland, New Jersey, U.S.A. and sells only toys. Here, you'll find great collections that have been written about on the Internet, as well as individuals who have fine toys who wish to sell them at auction.

   When I recently decided to return to writing, but not to the hectic pace as before, I naturally ventured over to Bertoia Auctions. Their May 8-9, 2015 auction had just finished,and I  decided to "have a look".  Of course, that's like saying, I just watch a hockey game for 5 minutes, or read the first page of a new book - you can't! So I set the viewing to "highest bids" and  just selected a mere 4 fine toys that I had not seen before. I didn't even get past page 1!

Please click here to visit this fine American auctioneer

There was no  date as to when this nice Marklin train might have been made. I selected it because of the nice streamlined design. There are nice curves, and the tender (the coal bin) is covered, allowing for a faster movement on the railway tracts. Notice also that the wheels areas are ale covered,so there is less air resistance to slow down the train.

I selected this fine American toy from one of the early manufacturers - George Brown. Sadly, George Brown did not live a long life, but his legacy of fine toys will live forever in the history of American toys. His toys were made in the latter half of the 19th century. He designed them himself and even patented many. He also even designed the mechanics for wide-up toys that were self-propelled.

I just wrote about a George Brown toy on May 8, 2015, so it was quite coincidental to find another one of the George Brown toys on the highest number of bids criteria for my selection for today's post. What I like about these toys is that they are "true" antiques - well over 100 years. Also I usually can identify them without a book.  They have a "youthful" design about them. I can readily ID the horses from their larger breed, and their bushy tails. And lastly, the stencilling - it's  also "youthful". By that, I mean that it isn't overly sophisticated as one might find from the German lithography of the early 20th century. ANd one final point - the hand-painting on the toy, especially the horses- simple but elegant.

One of the best things that I like about Bertoia Auctions is that produce superb catalogues for potential bidders and buyers of their auctions. The photography is excellent, and there are nice researched descriptions to accompany the items.

What I like in the above lowest photo is the low camera angle.  What I have done in the last year and a half is to remove any background or foundation (what an item rests on). In the above photo, the gait or pace of the horses is majestically captured in George Brown's original design, as well in the craftsmanship of the skilled workers who assembled the toy. The horses appear to foot like Pegasus.

The high camera angle in the immediate photo below gives a different perspective to the toy. I like how the photographer has turned the horse at an angle from the omnibus. AS well, the beautiful gait of the pair of horses is beautifully captured as they trop in unison together.

Below is a beautiful demonstration model of the famous Hispano-Suiza sedan.  When I have more time, I'll try and find the approximate date as to when this particular car would have been manufactured.  If you've visited my blog before, you'll know that one of my favourite "non-toy" categories is the salesman's model.  I've written only about the American salesman's model's, but I'm sure if I continue to write, I will find  more European salesman's  models. 

What I like about this category is that the items are well-scaled of course, and the detail is fantastic. 

The American models that I have found are true to scale, and best-of-all they actually have all the moveable parts that would allow them to work!

I like how the spare tire on the passenger's side is beautifully covered and protected by it's metal part of the car.  Also, notice how the doors open "backwards". The hood ornament is beautiful, and reminds me the the cars of the 1950's when I was growing up. Of course, the American cars did not have such illustrious hood ornaments as the  one below, but they had them. I miss those nice ornaments that were around back then!

I would have liked a photo of the engine under the hood, but still, there is lots of detail to be seen.  This particular toy is exquisite. The wheels for the tires were hand made at the time, and took a long time to make.  As for the mechanics of the toy - chain driven, it reminds me of the early Mack trucks that I have had the privilege to write about.  Some of them were also chain driven, and the MAck Truck certainly gained its reputation for its ability to drive through the toughest of road conditions of those early times.

I've also never seen this toy before, so it is an eye-opener for me. Best of all, this toy was also self-propelled, but through steam, which was quite elaborate for the time.  It's certainly beautiful. Notice also that both the Hispano-Suisa and the Lorry below are right-sided driven.

I'll be returning to this auction in the future to find more toys that I haven;t seen before and to write,. But if you venture over there, you'l see for yourself what fine toys there are that are true "treasures form the past".

Thanks for visiting, 

and as always, 

have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Carpenter Single Ladder Burning Building - Model II

Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Partly cloudy with normal temperatures

The Carpenter Single Ladder Burning Building

Model II

  Earlier today, I posted a fine and very rare toy from the Carpenter toy company. It was a two ladder burning building cast iron toy. There were three slightly different models made, and I wasn't sure if I'd fine all three. I did find the third one. This particular model  is the second one with two stories and one ladder.

  I found this one from the James D. Julia Inc. company which is one of my many friendly companies who allow me to use their photos. Not only are they one of the finest auctioneers in North America, but I first discovered that they regularly sold what are called salesman's models. These are exact small-sized (scaled down) models of actual machinery and other items. You have to visit their site to see these most fascinating items.  If I could ever afford them , these definitely would be my type of toys!

Please click here to visit this exceptional American auction company

"Originally found in a Massachusetts attic many years ago and until recently resided in a private collection. Perhaps this is one of the greatest and most amusing toys ever manufactured. The Carpenter firm (Port Chester, New York) modeled this toy after the brownstones of NYC. The elaborate cast iron facade is mounted on a wooden base with a cast iron sidewalk. There are three documented versions of this toy, this is the two-story version having a damsel on a fiery balcony awaiting the fireman below to ascend the ladder and bring her down to safety. Down below is a second fireman with a fire hose attached to the hydrant, attempting to extinguish the fiery blaze. A most uncommon feature of this toy is an open side door with cast iron jamb. A toy that appeals not only to the serious toy collector but for anyone who appreciates the rare and unusual. SIZE: 16-1/2″ h x 6″ d x 7-1/2″. CONDITION: Overall near excellent original condition. Original ladder has old inpainting (50+ years?) with original yellow paint visible in spots with original climbing fireman. Woman in balcony and fireman tending hose are old replacements. These slight drawbacks are insignificant compared to the importance of this scarce and desirable piece"*

* Description Courtesy of James D. Julia Inc. 

This particular model is in exemplary condition as you can see.

The figures in the cast of characters in this scene are beautiful moulded in cast iron. The lady has her  arms and hands in a circle allowing for her rescuer to catch her with his right hand.

He's the fireman climbing the ladder. 

You can see how much these figures were handled from the beautiful patina

 that has polished and smoothed out  the paint over the years. 

I believe that the string to have the firman move up the ladder is missing. You can look at the previous post to get an understanding as to how the action of saving the lady would have worked. 

So this is a "short and sweet" post, apart of a triad (3) that I decided to door these wonderful  Carpenter Company toys.

Thanks for dropping by, and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com