Antique Toy Cars

Friday, December 8, 2017
Cloudy with sunny periods
1C  34 F

Antique Toy Cars

Please click here to see these wonderful old toy cars

The upcoming auction on December 16-17, 2017 from Morphy Auctions is going to be very interesting in terms of how these old toy  cars are going to be bid upon. Already, some of these  cars have been bid in the 1000's of U.S. dollars. 

I've recently added a few posts about old toy cars from the New Cavendish Books book about 

The 1912 Bing Toy Catalogue.  The reason for those posts was to be able to cross-reference some of today's Bing toy cars with those from the book.

What's interesting to note recently, is that several toy auctioneers have changed their photography style. They've changed from  presenting their toys on a dark background to white. A few years ago, I started to take auctioneer's photos and remove dark backgrounds, and replace them with a white background. I found that this presented toys in their best way, without amy distractions. Bravo to the auctioneers who have refine their photography. 

Below:

German Marklin Hand Painted Open Two Seat Roadster

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Circa 1905. Blueish green enameled color with excellent accented striping. Open rear tool compartment and a leather-strapped-down rubber spare tire. Original nickel finished lamps and clockwork mechanism. Original driver has a broken and missing left hand. Some flattening and wear to tires. Provenance: Donald Kaufman Collection. A great addition for the serious collector.

Condition: (Excellent-Near Mint).

Below:

German Bing Hand Painted Taxi

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Very scarce car. Dark maroon coloring with red and black striping. Taxi meter on right side next to the original driver. Original side and front lamps. Nice roof rack and the Bing Bavaria mark on the back. Only the slightest minor wear. 
Condition: (Near Mint).
Item Dimensions: 12 -1/2" x 5 -1/4" (L x H)  /  318 mm x 313 mm

Below:

German Carette Tin Litho Wind up Limousine

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Circa 1910. Unusually large size variation. Opening doors, nickel head and side lamps, beautifully hand painted original chauffeur and ornate roof rack. Some slight paint loss to wheel spokes. Provenance: Donald Kaufman Collection. 
Condition: (Excellent-Near Mint).
Item Dimensions: 16"  /  405 L.

 Below:

German Bing Hand Painted Clockwork FOur-Seat Auto

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Circa 1904. Top of the line, deluxe Bing touring car. Hand painted, rubber tires, looks to have original nickel lamps. Extraordinary looking car with beautiful color combination. Some wear behind the front seat and minor wear to fenders. Provenance: Donald Kaufman Collection. 
Condition: (Excellent-Near Mint).
Item Dimensions: 10-3/4" L.

Below:

German Carette Hand Painted Auto in Original Box

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Beautifully done in cream with red seat, and spoked wheels with rubber tires. Original side and front lamps. The original box has a label on one side, marked "Made in Germany". Nice and crisp with two inside boxes that were for the composition figures. Figures are well detailed and in excellent condition. There is a cardboard trunk on the back which has been added. There is some alligatoring to paint on the floor board and seat. 
Condition: (Excellent-Near Mint).

Below:

German Bing Clockwork Phaeton Auto

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Four seater car. Hand painted in cream color with nice blue striping, rubber tires, original nickel lamps and lanterns, includes chauffeur. Original "GPN" mark behind rear of front seat. Very little wear. Provenance: Donald Kaufman Collection. 

Length:  13"  330 mm
Condition: (Near Mint).

The last 2 images are interesting from the point-of-view of their being similar in the 

design of both cars. However, the 2 cars were manufactured from 2 different companies. One was by  Carette, and the other by Bing.   You have to look at the 2 cars, and go back and forth in terms of looking for differences between the 2 cars.

1. In the above car, the front lanterns (headlights) 

are lower to the ground that the other car.

2. The above car has 1 driver, a chauffeur, 

while the top car has a driver and passenger.

3. The window frame of the windshield in the above car is 

square with straight lines, while the other car has a square

window frame with rounded corners.

There are some other small differences between the 2 cars, 

but I'll leave  that for you to discover.

If you click on any photo, the photo will enlarge,

 and you will see small images at the bottom of the page. 

Clicking on any of these images will present you with a different and large-sized image.

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Toysesarcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman

The December 17, 2017 Dan Morphy Auction

Sunday, November 26, 2017
Overcast 
-1 C  30 F

The December 17, 2017

Dan Morphy Auction

Please click here to visit Dan Morphy's next old toy auction

Everything always changes as time goes on. Today's post is just a sampling of 3 fine old toys from Dan Morphy's upcoming December 17, 2017 auction of old toys. This auction includes fine dolls, as well as cast iron and pressed steel toys.

The auction is titled:

Dec. 16-17 Toy Doll & Figural Cast Iron Day 1

You can find this particular auction at Liveauctioneers:

Many companies of all kinds, including companies that sell old and antique toys, are using Liveauctioneers as a website. The company is able to furnish Dan Morphy and other companies the convenience of conducting the auction on line compared to actual locations of the  merchandise up for sale. Of course, I'm sure buyers can still visit Dan Morphy's locations, all across the USA, to see the merchandise up for sale. 

Description:

German Hand-Painted Carette Limousine with Original Box

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Unusual brown color, beveled glass windows, two sets of nickel lamps, rubber tires. Includes composition driver. Box label designates for a French market. Figure has some damage on right arm and looks to have some repainting. Car has some paint flaking on front left fender and on roof. Provenance: Donald Kaufman Collection. Dimensions: 12-1/2" L. Condition: (Excellent-Near Mint).

German Bing Hand-Painted Clockwork 4- seat Auto

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Circa 1904. Top of the line, deluxe Bing touring car. Hand painted, rubber tires, looks to have original nickel lamps. Extraordinary looking car with beautiful color combination. Some wear behind the front seat and minor wear to fenders. Provenance: Donald Kaufman Collection. Dimensions: 10-3/4" L. Condition: (Excellent-Near Mint).

What's interesting to note is that these 3 toys were from the Bertoia Auction of Donald Kaufman's toy collection from several years ago. I assume that  Investment Rarities Inc. purchased (bid on) these fine toys at the original auction, or purchased them from someone who did bid at that auction. Another interesting fact is that these rarer toys have been placed up for bidding with the range of final final estimated bidding having vastly increased from the Bertoia Auction of Donald Kaufman's original auction, the first time.

German Marklin Hand-Painted Open 2-Seat Roadster

From the Collection of Investment Rarities Inc. Circa 1905. Blueish green enameled color with excellent accented striping. Open rear tool compartment and a leather-strapped-down rubber spare tire. Original nickel finished lamps and clockwork mechanism. Original driver has a broken and missing left hand. Some flattening and wear to tires. Provenance: Donald Kaufman Collection. A great addition for the serious collector. Dimensions: 14" L. Condition: (Excellent-Near Mint).

 As I mentioned earlier, things change as time goes on. In the case of Mr. Dan Morphy, he has expanded his very-successful auction house to include many divisions.  He has an old gun collector division, exceptional automobiles, and even large-sized neon signs from stores of a while ago. Another thing that I noticed is the excellent quality of the photos.  I no longer have to do a lot of retouching to place the toys on a nice white background (foundation). Dan's fine team of people, more-specifically, the photographer has done this all for me.

What luck!

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great time of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

toysearcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman

Some Carrette "Motor Cars"

Sunday, October 16, 2016
Overcast and Raining,
18 Celsius 64 Fahrenheit

Some Carette "Motor Cars"

(matched up to a 1912 Carette Catalogue)

I often like to search my toy books to see if I can cross-reference (match) the toy photo with its' counterpart in a book or catalogue. It's hard and very expensive to find original catalogues from 100 years ago. However, there have been several 100 year old catalogues that have been reproduced.

ONe of these fine books was reproduced (reprinted) in 1979 by New Cavendish Books, with editing by Mr.Alan Levy. And so, I have a great Carette catalogue  book titled 

"The Great Toys of George Carette".

Please click here to visit this fine American toy auction company

I was fortunate to be able to match up 2 motor cars (automobiles) with 

2 catalogue photos (above and below). The catalogue photos have red dots.

What's also interesting to read are the written descriptions and the actual cost of these toys back in 1912. The prices seem low to us now, but only the better-off people 

could afford toys from $ 1.00-$ 4.00 US. 100 years ago.

Way back then people were lucky to earn $ .50 cents (USD) per day!

The photos above are matched to the catalogue scan with the red dot below

 Finally, the last automobile (above) is matched to the scanned

catalogue image below. Notice that this car has glass windows.

Imagine how a toy that's at least 100 years old, was able to exist over

with its' windows so long, without having the glass break!

So that's it for today,

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

Special Post - Can Anyone Help Verify This Toy?

Sunday, December 23,2013
       (Cold and blowing ice crystals)

Special Post

Can Anyone Please Help to Verify This Toy?

   I woke up this morning to check my mail and had a pleasant surprise.  I received the following email letter with the photos that I added below (with some Photoshop):

Hello!

I am a teacher in a Secondary School in Badajoz. It was created in 1845 and between our educational heritage we have found a vertical steam machine, we believe it is G. Carette. We have seen that you own a copy of the book The Magnificent Steam Engine Systems of Georges Carette and we believe that our model can be there.

I send some pictures so you can analyze. Could you tell us if it is.

Thank you very much for everything.

The sender's name is  IES Barbara de Braganza Ciencias Naturales. I do not know what the "IEF" in her title means. I was enthusiastic about the message, but I'm not an expert on toys, and I have never had an steam engine in my physical possession. 

I've tried to do the next best thing - ask everyone who reads my blog to help out. So! If you can verify that this particular steam engine that Barbara sent me photo of is an authentic Carette steam engine, I'm sure every child in that school would be very very happy! It would be like finding a Goya painting in the basement!

IES Barbara de Braganza Ciencias Naturales

My e-mail address is:

toysearcher@gmail.com

I also decided to include many pages from a great book 

from New Cavendish Books for people to compare.

Please click here to visit the New Cavendish Books website

If you are a collector of toys or any other old  or antique collectible, 

New Cavendish Books is the website to go to visit. They have a marvellous collection of books on many different collectibles. I only have the book that I've used to present the pages below,so I'll ley toy be the judge for yourself.

I've placed Barbara's 2 photos at the top and bottom, 

so you wouldn't have to jump up and down to compare.

I hope someone will be able to authenticate the  fabulous steam engine that you see above.

Now this was a post that certainly is "an adventure".

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

my e-mail address again is:

toysearcher@gmail.com

Having Fun with Fantastic Toys - An Introduction

Wednesday, December 18, 2013
               (Very cold in Montreal!)

Having Fun with Fantastic Toys and the Seller

(An Introduction)

   Today's post is somewhat different from my normal post.  I had seen this ebay merchant's toys for a long time. However, what first got my attention is his signature presentation of his toy photographs. He always has a toy book in the background with examples of antique toys. Of course, his merchandise is great and his photography equally matched. I contacted the merchant and Mr. Frederick Pals wrote back. He gave me his permission, and was very interested in how I would work with his photos in Photoshop. I wrote back thanking Frederick, and said that if he wanted, I'd send him a step-by-step series of photos from Photoshop screen-captures to illustrate how I adjust the images. I started out isolating the first toy image of the Carette Limousine, and then decided to "play around" and go one step further. I'd keep Frederick's "trademark" book in the photos,but would remove the colour! When I saw the first result, I was hooked, and decided to continue with more images. However, for today's post, I'm just giving you a "taste", and later in the week, I'll give you the main entree.

Please click here to visit Frederik's Fine ebay Store

The above photo is a typical example of how Frederik presents his merchandise.

                                     

The above photo is the straightforward photo screen-captured from  ebay.  

This is what I usually do - remove the background and the foundation (what the item is resting on).

Here's what I decided to do for today.

I still like a toy presented against a totally white background and foundation.

I find that this best illustrates the toy and its features.

An underside photo of the wind-up (key) mechanism.

The outstanding hand-painted face of the chauffeur.

This is even more "playing around". I still like Frederick's trademark book,

but without the colour. In this photo of the left oblique angle of the car, and the lower camera angle, the true majestic quality of this toy stands out best!

Don't forget that this is just the introductory post, 

and I will add a full post with many toys later in the week.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com