Ives,Blakeslee, & Williams Co. Catalogue - Part II

Sunday, October 10, 2016
Overcast and Raining
17 Celsius / 63 Fahrenheit

Ives, Blakeslee, and Williams Co.

Catalogue Reproduction

(Part II)

Yesterday, I added a post about a catalogue reproduction of an 1893 original. Yesterday's content was exclusively iron pull toys, that would be pulled along the road or sidewalk by a string. Today's entry is about the "mechanical toys" or wind-up toys. These toys once wound up , would be able to move by themselves or feature moving people doing some kind of action, such as dancing, or playing a musical instrument.

The toys below can run in a straight line, or if a part of them are turned, will run in a circle.

The toys below can run in a straight line, or if the front axles are turned, will run in a circle.

Below's toys are more sophisticated in nature. The horses (middle photo) move around in a circle, until there is no more energy, and the winner is the one that lines up with the # 60 on the base of the toy. The cat toy has the animal playing a violin on the top of a house roof.

Below are assorted toys that will perform different actions. The largest one (immediately below) 

has 3 people doing different actions and when wound, will run for 60 minutes.

These American toys  developed after the high-quality and lithographed toys from Europe were imported into the United States. The European were more colourful,as the Europeans, especially the Germans had developed lithography (printing) on metal, and had very sophisticated and multi coloured colour themes.

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)

An Ives, Blakeslee & Williams Co Catalogue Reproduction-Part I

Saturday, October 8, 2016
Overcast with rain
17 Celcius / 62 Fahrenheit

An Ives, Blakeslee, & Williams Co.

Catalogue Reproduction

(Part I)

    A great resource for researching toys are old catalogues or their respective reproductions. This reproduction was from a circa 1893 Catalogue "featuring a complete line of toys for home and export trade". It was reproduced by" L.C.Hagarty, a collector of iron toys & mechanical banks, from Coalport, Pa., USA. in 1965".

   I decided 3 posts on this interesting catalogue. In the late 1800's, there were still many toys that included all kinds of wagons pulled by horses. The "horseless carriage, truck , and cars would not appear for another 15 years. This first part is a set of toys that were pulled by a cord. 

 What is most interesting is the price of the toys. Most of the prices of the toys are stated as the cost by the dozen.

What is also interesting is that there is no name as to who the manufacturer was. 

So my question is this: was it customary to not include the names of the manufacturer, or were the toys in this catalogue reproduction of authentic North American manufacturers of toys?

The topmost toy is most interesting because it includes a stable for sheltering the horse and cart, and  I've never seen such a toy before.

 The topmost toy is interesting because of the description of the wagon. It's called a "truck",

which I never knew was called a "wagon". I've usually seen these things titled wagons.

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)