Some Nice Samples from Matuska's Upcoming Auction

Saturday, December 14, 2014
Partly sunny and colder

Some Nice Samples from

Matuska's

Upcoming Auction

   I'm on several auctioneers email lists, so periodically I feet notifications of incoming auctions.I should create a working agenda and forecast what posts I'll create in the near future, but I don't.  I wake up each day and go to the computer, search my e-ma accounts, visit Liveauctioneers, ebay, James D. Julia, and a few other websites.I then go to Tim Horton's, an iconic Coffee chain here in North America, and when I return home,I have an idea what to write about.

  When I checked my email 2 days ago, I saw that Mr. Mike Matuska from Sweden had sent me a notice, but I didn't check the date.  Yesterday, I again checked my email, took a closer look at Mike's email and oh, oh! The date of the auction is  today. Actually, I'm writing this post on december 13, 2014,and posting it - talon about meeting a deadline!

    What I like with Mike's website and the permission that I have to use the photos is that I get to see European toys that I don't  always see in North America.  I even get to see American toys there also. 

Mike's website also has a database of sold items, so when I have Europe on my mind, I venture over to Mike's website and search the database.

Please click here to visit this interesting Swedish website

Mike Matuska's website has both Swedish and English on the site. However, either there was less translation to English than usual or the English pages were not showing up well or at all. So what I did was go to Google Translate,  copy and paste Mikes Swedish descriptions and then translate. The translator is not accurate, and that is why I added an brief explanation and an asterisk (*) to the Skoglund & Olson photos and description.

I had never seen a non-Amercain cast iron toy until Liveauctioneers, and then when I visited Mike's website for the first time.

Meccano made lots of toy kits to assemble.I had one when I was a "kid",because Meccano,being a British company could be found in Canada. American toys rarely came up here, with A.C. Gilbert's kits being from the USA.

Meccano made some "super" automobile and airplane kits, and if you do a search on the Internet you'll find them. Of course, I've also written about them/

What's great about Mike's site is that he has a magnification feature to enlarge his images.

If you change from this blogger view to the Blogger side show view, you can see these images in their large sizes.

If you've ever watched those British period movies or those TV series on PBS (AMerican Public Broadcasting System),you will have seen people dressed up like this from the 1920's and 1930's.

The clothing certainly is from the first 1/3 of the both century. 

The only question I might ave is why some of the figures are "portly" 

( a polite word for being overweight)?

And of course, one of my class of favourites - the cast iron toy. 

It's quite nice, and it's Swedish!

So if you want to see many different European toys that actually go to auction, 

you can visit Mike Matuska's website.

Reading Swedish  is optional!

Thanks for dropping by, and as always,

have a  great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

An Amazing Find of Swedish Cast Iron Toys

Monday, April 28, 2014
              (Sunny and cool)

An Amazing Find of 

Swedish Cast Iron Toys

   Last night, before I shut down my computer, I checked my email and found Mr. Mike Matuska's  email and attachment for his 71st auction. Mike's company is in Sweden, and is called  Matuska doll and toy auctions.  About a year or so after I had been blogging, I thought that I'd like to invite people and companies from around the world to help me blog. This would allow me to write and add toys from the world rather than just what is on ebay (USA and Canada). What's great about being on a mailing list is that I get Mike's latest information on his upcoming auction. This this offers me an opportunity to search for new toys, and of course write about Mike Matuska. 

   When I awoke this morning, I decided to check out the auction, and as I was selecting toys to present, I kept seeing more and more Skogland and Olson's cast iron toys. Skogland and Olson were a fine toy company in the early quarter of the 20th century that made cast iron toys. When I first started blogging, I thought these particulate toys were exclusively American. I was wrong! So for today, before I present Mike's auction # 71, I decided to present his fine selection of Swedish cast iron toys. tomorrow, I'll try and present some exceptional European toys from his upcoming auction.

The Swedish Flag

Please click here to visit a fascinating Swedish auction company and website

The above image is a straightforward screen capture from Mike's website. I like to improve toy photos, and always ask the auction company or collector or seller if I may do this.

I haven't added any description here because  Mike's website is mostly in Swedish,but for english instructions about bidding. For tomorrow, I'll present some examples of Swedish to English translation. However, web translation sites are not 100% accurate, and so I don't want to add written descriptions that might be incorrect.

I would say that I think that the Skogland and Olson company made these toys mostly in the 

1920's-1930's. The airplane below is particularly interesting because it appears to have a pressed tin (or pressed steel) wing.  The propeller looks like nickel-plated, the tires are rubber, and the rest of the airplane is cast iron.

Mike's website has an enlarging feature that allows you to magnify each toy image. This is great when you want to see all the features and the condition of the toy.

An early 1920's -1930's Skogland and Olson Volvo which can be identified by their unique logo on the front grill (upper photo). Volvo is now owned by an India (Asia) company.

The toy is painted cast iron with rubber tires mounted on painted cast iron (?) hubs. There is a missing spare tire on the spare rim on the back of the car.

The above toy car is an early Chevrolet coupe (USA) made by Skogland and Olson in the 1920's.

Painted cast iron with painted  disk (?) wheels. The metal tires appear to be separate and mounted on metal hubs.

I like the painted blue disk hubs with rubber tires contrasting the bright red bus.

 There are rubber tires mounted on the disk wheels (hubs).

Again, that great blue and red colour theme! 

Painted cast iron with a nickel-plated driver.

This tractor is my favourite of all the Skogland and Olson toys presented today.

Well, I got to leave now. The day is sunny and I have to do my spring "chores"): 

1. Put away my winter tires in storage.

2. Store the salt, shovels, and large snow scoop.

3. Take out the summer chairs.

4. Start taking out the swimming pool leaf scooper and brush.

and on and on…….

(such hardships for a retired teacher!)

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day, 

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Some Selections for the Latest Auction of Matuska (Sweden)

Saturday, November 16, 2013
         (A beautiful Mid-November Day)

Some Selections of the Latest Auction

of Matuska (Sweden)

I've had two previous posts about Matuska. What I like about foreign auctioneers who are not in North America, is that I get to see toys I may not see here.  I'm sure the same holds true for people in Europe, who may rarely see Tootsietoys, Hubley, or Gong Bell toys up for sale there. I'm on Mike Von Matuska's e-mail mailing list, so I often get to know when a future auction will take place. So for today, I selected 10 toys that are up for auction. I didn't necessarily select the most expensive, but I tried to add variety to the choices.

Please click here to visit the Matuska Doll and Toy Auction website

I'm going to ask Mike if he could send me a min-dictionary of the terms that he uses for his toy descriptions. In this way, I'll be able to add the size, characteristics, and any missing parts or damages, if anyone out there would want to bid on these items.

He's also listed on Liveauctioneers, but the language is mainly in Swedish.

So this is my post for today - short and sweet.

I had 2 vaccinations yesterday for the flu and pneumonia, and I'm a bit "under the weather".

I'm sure I'll be better tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting,

and have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Matuska (Sweden) Revisited

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Matuska (Sweden) Revisited

   I was checking my G-mail (Google) mail this morning when I received a bulk e-mail from Matuska. Mike Matuska owns one of the fine auction companies in Sweden, and so I naturally opened the letter, and then went to his website.  Either he's changed it a bit, or I didn't know my way around his site, since I last visited his site. I was browsing about in Swedish, when I realized that I could also  browse in English, which saved me a lot of time in figuring out the translation. Anyway, I discovered his database, and decided to create a post. 

   What's interesting about a European or Scandinavian toy auction house or website  is that you get to see toys that you may not necessarily find in North America. Of course, the opposite is true for Europeans or Scandinavians looking for American toys on European websites. So today's post presents just 1 group of toys, cars that you might not necessarily see in North America. I even narrowed the topic down to wind-up toy cars.

http://www.matuska.se

(Please click on the above address to be redirected to this great website)

All of these cars are wind-ups. I bought a Schuco on E-Bay to see what all the "fuss" was about.

It was a modern Schuco, but built strong, and tough! And it ran quite well.  And when you wound it, it had lots of reserve power to drive quite fast. So that's it for today- short and sweet.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey