Irish Mail Tin Toys

Monday, February 17, 2014
            (Sunny and still very cold)

Irish Mail Tin Toys

 Yesterday I wrote about Paul who is a fabulous craftsperson who restores the "real" ride  Irish Mail toys. I had decided this week to follow up Paul exceptional restorations with the smaller-sized collectible tin toys. Before I wrote about toys, I had never heard or even seen such a toy or ride called an "Irish Mail" toy - but now I know.

  Europe made most of their toys from tin in the early 20th century, while the USA was using making their toys from cast iron. THe European toys at that time were more complicated with moving mechanisms, and produced more elaborately with color lithography on tin.

Please click here to visit Bertoia Auction's fabulous and informative website

The above is a "real" rideable Irish Mail  coaster.

I added one just in cast you just came to this post.

As you can see, some of the tin toys came as tandem (two riders).

The above one is ornately designed with beautiful gold designs on the back of the sats. This particular toy is quite large and received a high bid price at auction.

Most of the toys were key wound.

This last beautiful toy moves by a friction wheel, which is rarer than the usual key wound mechanism of the time. What I can say is that for a specific type of toy, there were certainly 

plenty of these toys made at the time, and with many beautiful different designs to them.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day or night

wherever you my be,

Stacey

My e-mail address is toysearcher@gmail.com

A Fabulous Restoration of an Irish Mail Toy

Sunday, February 16, 2014
             (Sunny and very cold)

A Fabulous Restoration of an

Irish Mail Toy

   I was very fortunate this week to be able to write both about Don Ulmer (Artistic Unique Model train landscapes), and today's guest, Paul  who restores very old American toys. The latter prefers to remain "low key", but I was ably to get his permission to write about him and his nice work.  It's very nice when you see craftspeople working with their hands to create or restore toys. 

  Today's guest is Paul whose ID on ebay is  cc31jc13 restored an old Irish Mail toy most beautifully, and tut's what caught my attention. I've written about these toys before, and had never heard of them before,. In fact, I've never even seen one up here in Montreal(Quebec, Canada).

Please click here to visit the fine restorations of this ebay seller

 I will be returning later this week to present more exemplary  work from both Don Ulmer and Paul   (ebay ID cc31jc13) , since one post is just not enough for both of these hard-working people.

I have to mention 2 things so you, the readers do not see perhaps a faulty paint job. I played around in Photoshop to add some highlights (brighter areas on the toys), because I was just so enthralled with this superb restoration.  The send thing is that Paul took excellent photos to start with, and  I always appreciate that. It makes my job so much easier to remove the toy from the background.

Above is an authentic advertisement from 1940 that Paul will include with this purchase. 

It's the prices that astound me.  The price is only $ 8.28 wholesale, and $ 14.25 retail, although to today;s pricing it's all relative.

Tomorrow, I'll be posting about mostly tin toys that were Irish Mail toys. 

It's fascinating to go from actual play toys for children to miniature play toys for children.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

Please feel free to write to me anytime at

toysearcher@gmail.com

Irish Mail Toys

Tuesday, June 11, 2013
            another rainy day!

Irish Mail Toys

     This past weekend, I had the idea of presenting toys that were associated with mail . Examples would be rail cars, rail trucks, and even mail motorcycles. Naturally, I went to Liveauctioneers to see what is for sale or what had been sold by all of the auctioneers. What caught my eye was something called an "Irish Mail Toy". I searched for the definition of what that was, but had trouble finding about it. However, I did find 1 site explaining about the toy itself.   The real "toys" were used for movement, quite like a bicycle. However, they had 3 wheels and a young child use his hands to create the movement of this vehicle. A handle moves back and forth to transfer energy to a wheel. The The handle is attached to a long shaft that is off-centered to a round gear. This causes an elliptical type of rotary movement to transfer energy.  The child is seated on the toy and needn't know how to balance on the toy, as it has 3 wheels to stay on the ground.

    What's "funny" about the toy's name is that no matter where the toy might have been made, it's always called an "Irish Mail" toy! So there are German-made Irish Mail toys, American-made Irish Mail toys and so on. There are also "quadracycles" with 4 wheels - 2 in front and 2 in back, just like a car that you can in fact buy today. 

Please click this on this sentence to be redirected to Bertoia's fine website

 The above toy is missing  nuts and bolts that attach the handle the to horizontal drive shaft.

The shaft then attached to the wheel (under the seat).

The toy above was professionally restored.  

What surprised me about the final winning bids, was the fact that all were actually quite low.

Relatively speaking,  in terms of  today, you could buy one of this old toys, bring them to to "new" as the one above, and them give it to a child to play with.

These last 2 toys  are for play and not fir riding. 

Both are wind-ups and operate mechanically like the "real toy". 

And, of course,even though they were made in Germany, they're still called "Irish Mail" toys!

When I cycle, I see  paraplegic (paralyzed from the waist down) cyclists using their hands in a rotary motion, just like the central cam of a bicycle. I wonder if the mechanical design of the Irish Mail" would be more efficient and less tiring than the "regular design?

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey