Discoveries Still to be Made

Friday, September 6, 2013

Discoveries Still to be Made

   I will never be able to write about all of the toys from pre-1940 and earlier. There are just too many.  Some times, I've seen many, many times, and others, I've never seen before. I was waiting for Bertoia Auctions to post their future auction for November, and now I can say that it's up. I decided to look through and write about some new discoveries. Normally, I choose the most expensive or the ones that have the highest initial opening bid. However, this time, I've  decided to start on page 1 and move along till I come to the end.  well, maybe, not that much, since, after all, there are 2144 lots on 43 pages. I finished today at page 3, and left many toys out to write about for the future. This auction that will occur on  Friday- Sunday of November 8-10, 2013, and it's called  the 

"Christmas Wishes Auction". Bertoia Auctions always has names for their auctions, more-meanfully, when famous collections are being presented. They also publish beautiful catalogues, that both bidders and collectors can purchase. So for today, here are 10 nice items from the auction. They're not all high-priced, but they certainly are very nice, and except for the Hubley Ferris Wheel toy, which I've written about, and the ambulance, I've never seen the other 8.  

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auction's November Auction listings

The above toy was probably made between 1900-1920. The toy is certainly modelled after a very old car from way back. What I just now noticed is how  in the 8 photos with people, everyone is wearing a hat or a bathing cap.   It's interesting how hats have now made a comeback and are back in fashion is this second decade of the 21st century.

Here's another early toy that's probably from the 1910's-1920's.

I'm basing that on the open cab design of the truck.

If the fire chief has to ride in a horse-drawn carriage, then you have to know that this is also an early 20th century toy.

I was surprised that this toy's opening bid price is not high.  However, from the description of the horses having been  "overpainted", I would infer that this is a repaint. Nevertheless, the side cutter  of this toy is most interesting as a toy.

I've seen this toy, as well as a hearse toy, but never wanted to present them. Of course, that's "silly", not wanting to present a toy based on my "queeziness" about certain things. 

I don't know if a milkman figure originally came with the small truck, and if the figure here is that one.However, in the early 1950's I can remember having our milk delivered to our second floor home of a triplex. Then the milk was not yet homogenized, and the cream floated to the top, and was a slightly yellowish-taupe colour. You had to mix the milk and the cream then. Also the milk came in a rounded glass bottle with cardboard caps.  

The item above is a doorstop. If you do a search for cast iron doorstops, you'll have to spend a month going through all of the different doorstops that were made. I've always wondered why so many? Were buildings and doors always poorly made, so that they always swung open, and had to be stopped with door stoppers? I'd also like to know why when I see a vintage movie, I never see door stops!

THis toy is called a "pull toy" for those who don't know.  A string would be attached to the eyelet at the fornt of the yellow board. This toy came with an elliptical axle, so that as the toy moved, the surfing lady would move up and down as if she was surfing.

I've seen and written about this toy, but never had a good close-up photo of the details.   There's is lots of detail to this toy!

So that's it for a sunny Friday here in Montreal.

The day started off cold, but ended up windy and sunny.

Thanks for dropping by, 

and as always have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Old Toy Construction Cranes

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Old Toy Construction Cranes

http://www.bertoiaauctions.com

(Please click on the link above)

    I've been looking at the current selection of modern die-cast toys. Right now, I'm waiting for permissions to use the photos form these sites. I decided to take a look at the "old toys". I already presented to you the fine Kenton Morgan Crane (please see) below in another post about old toys, and today, I'm presenting it to you again, along with a Buddy L crane. These toys are some of the biggest toys that I've come across from that era (1930's). There were larger toys  such as the peddle cars, where children sat themselves inside a car, and moved it by peddling. However these were more mobile toys compared with the play toy.

I'd be curious to know just how many of the above toys were made. Consider  that the great depression was happening in the USA,  wages were low,  and there were no government medical benefits, or unemployment insurance. Any child that was lucky enough to have had such a toy ,
should have considered himself very fortunate at the time. 

What's interesting about bot toys is that the legs or trestles were able to be folded.  That must have been a great relief to any mother who had a limited amount of space in her house!

Many of the current items available today, are more in the category of "models". These items are collected more than they are "played with", and not meant for very young children (under 5) as, there are many small parts that could cause a child to choke. Also, many of these models are die-cast  and could break in the hands of children. And one more thing, the large model cranes that  are based on roe real ones that lift items 30 stories or higher, cost anywhere from $ 400.00- $1200.00 US  and more. These are not toys!


Thanks for visiting, 
and have a nice part of the day wherever you may be.

Stacey

I Get Lots of Help From My Toy Friends

Sunday, January 20, 2013

I Get Lots of Help From My Toy Friends

(Thanks Lloyd Ralston Gallery and Bertoia Auctions)

    Yesterday, I was visiting  Live Auctioneers when I very interesting "pattern" caught my eye. It was the uncut castings of toy parts. As a photographer, lots of things "catch your eye" when you're photographing people, places, building or things.  That's one of the reasons, among many others (personality, skill, experience, and knowledge), successful photographers earn the "big bucks", and take excellent photos.

   Anyway,  when I search for my next post or an even later future post, I'm looking very fast, and scrolling pages fast.  I know what  images I've posted (memory helps as a photography trait), and anything out of the ordinary will certainly attract my attention.

   In a past auction listing, on April 4, 2009,  the Lloyd Ralston Gallery had some interesting listings. 

These were uncut parts that would be cut, polished and later painted to assemble their highly successful mechanical banks. It turned out the the parts were made from brass, which I didn't know (place that in my brain somewhere!). I thought most companies at the time use cast iron.

Please Click this to go to the Lloyd Ralston Gallery

  Presenting just the pieces would have been just "so-so", and I did find an article on the Net that wrote about them. So I decided to try and find the finished items-painted mechanical banks,from my other friends at  Bertoia Auctions, I found 3 of the 4 banks. The forth is "close" but not identical, and I'll try to remember to find the exacting match.

Please Click this to go to the Bertoia Auctions Website

So for today's post, here most certainly are some very interesting auctioned items both complete and as original parts! 

The above 2 photos do not match in content.

I'll have to try and find the identical matches in the near future.

The above J. & E. Stevens Toy is very rare, and its casting was very complex to pour. I also wrote from the Bertoia Auctions description, that this toy was not a "big seller" at the time. These combining factors led this particular toy to be sold at a much higher final sale price than the rest.

If you go to either the Live Auctioneers / Bertoia Auctions or the Bertoia Auctions websites, you will get a much more thorough explanation as to how this great toy operated. By the way, the auction date was on Friday, November 11, 2011.

   I just heard thunder outside. Yesterday, we had  6 cm (3 inches) of snow after a few days of very cold (-20 C or -4 F). Today, rain and thunderstorms, but with a high of +6 C or + 49 F, and later in the week back to even colder temperatures. Nothing like a yo-yo weather effect to have the flu and colds, not to mention tripping on ice! So everyone, please take care, if you are living in the Western Hemisphere!

That's it for today.

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great day wherever you may be.

Stacey

Celluloid Toys

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Celluloid Toys

    It's funny how you can be familiar with something yet not realize what is is made of.  Ping pong (table tennis) balls are made from celluloid. Aside form that, the only thing that I can remember being made of celluloid was perhaps my sister Brenda's dolls.

   Celluloid was invented  by Mr. Alexander Parkes in Birmingham England in 1855. The material that he invented was transparent, and hard but flexible. Sadly, Mr. Parkes had several bankruptcy failures, and and wasn't able to become wealthy through this marvellous invention of the time. Mr. John Wesley Hyatt acquired Mr. Parkes' invention, and with some experimentation was able to patent a method for covering billiard balls on April 6, 1869. Up to that point in time, billiard balls were made from ivory. The history of the further development and advancement of the material is very interesting, and I would suggest reading the article in Wikipedia, from which I used the written material. The material was considered the precursor to plastics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celluloid

(Please click on the above link to be redirected to Wikipedia)

http://bertoiaauctions.com

(PLease press on the above address to be redirected to a fine and outstanding website for toys)

The 2 toys above have transparent celluloid windshields

I'd  completely forgotten abou the Cartoon character Henry.

I used to read Henry and many other long-forgotten comic characters inthe newspaper.

I remember Al Capp's Li'l Abner, and my all-time favourite is Larson who created a myriad of "weird characters" and situations that kep me laughing every day. 

The combination of firmness with flexibility, and being able to dye the transparent material made celluloid an effective material for many things aside from toys.  The material was lasted for a long time before plastics overtook this material.

Thanks for visiting, 

and have a nice part of the day wherever you are, and also have a great start to the work week.

Stacey