Look! Up In The Sky!

Thursday, February, 5, 2015
Cloudy and warmer

Look!

Up In The Sky!

   The new season of auctions will soon start again, so I've been perusing through Liveauctioneers, searching for auctioneers and their upcoming auctions. I came across today's post that way, and the Lloyd Ralston Gallery will be having their auction on  February 21, 2015.  For thosewell-know ho don't know, Lloyd Ralston started this fine auction company and was  well known in the auction community,. Sadly, he passed away quite young. Fortunately, his 2 sons continue the tradition, and his fine legacy.

  When I came across the airplane images that you see today, I know immediately that they would "jump off the screen" - a delineation of the old expression- "jump off the page". You don't see multiple toys presented as a single listing often. However sometimes, it's better to sell a grouping rather than one-by-one. Those who are interested will bid,and hopefully for the seller and auctioneer, the final gavel price will be amenable to all. When you have 400+ listings, time is important. The sellers want to finish in good time, and bidders do not want to wait 4-8 hours for a single item.- at least that's how I've felt at an auction.

Please click here to redirect to this fine American auction company

Most of the toys today and tomorrow's post toys span from 1930-1950 in time, and cross over from the cast iron era into the pressed steel era of toy making. When you see a group of one type of toy, the image is much more interesting, and you can appreciate the details of the toy model.

Initially, I wasn't going to add the listing below, because it had a blimp or dirigible ,which really is not an airplane. But I changed my mind. In photographic composition and image content, sometimes adding something "out-tocontext" makes the photo or in this case the 10 images all the more interesting. As you look at the beginning photos, all of a sudden, you are presented with a blimp! 

I also like the 2 accompanying monoplanes.

I just noticed as I was typing, that I erred - I foot to place a slash for the size 4 1/2".

When you see so many toys of the same  type, and that they are all America, you realize just how many toys were made in the "Golden Years" of the industry.  America searched for people to come to Her, and millions and millions of people from around the world took her up on Her offer. You just have to go to Wikipedia and search for the censuses of America from the 1880's - 1950's to realize just how big America grew in population.

With so many people, the American market was enough for most American manufacturers. 

Even today, trying to find American products in Canada can be almost impossible;e. There's just too much red tape to sell here in canada with a mere population of 33, 00,000 people scattered in the second largest country in the world in  land mass.

I was going to write more, and add more detail to the post, and then decided - nah!

Let everyone just look at the fine set of airplanes and relax.

I also was going to make this a post of 20 images,but that would have diluted the overall quality of the airplanes. So tomorrow, I'll add the second instalment of the collection. I purposely selected the word "instalment". It reminded me when I was a kid in elementary school. On sunday,we'd go to the school auditorium, and there would be serial movies of cowboys or space movies such as Buck Rogers.

The Wyandotte Mystery Planes above reminded me of Buck Rogers. The photo reminded me of those "alien invasions" that you'd see when those bad aliens were coming to destroy our planet! Fortunately, today is going to be cloudy, and I won't have to look up in the sky - to check !

Thanks for visiting, and as always

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Pièce de Résistance

Tuesday, April 22, 2014
 (Warm with cloud and some rain)

The Pièce de Résistance

   Yesterday, I introduced you to Stout Auctions (America's Premier Model Train Auctions). I had received their permission to be able to write about them, as well as their excellent photographs. Last week, I had seen their marvellous airplanes, and I absolutely needed to share these with everyone.  However, I had to speak with them to get the "OK". 

  As I like to introduce a new contributor to my blog, I wrote about their main area - model trains. Today, I get to present a  "Pièce de Résistance", which is a French expression for the chief dish of a meal, or in this case an outstanding item or event. Of course, I have presented lots of airplanes in the past, but excellent photography, lots of photos, and nice detailing in the photos helps to make today's post a "Pièce de Résistance".

Please click here to visit the outstanding website of Stout Auctions

I have a feeling that this is a new reproduction of an old Steelcase toy airplane. What's great about Stout's photography, is that you can easily see how the propeller works.

This is an old Steelcase airplane that was repainted. The job is expertly done. Once again, the underbelly photo helps you understand how this  toy would be propelled. These toys were pull toys, that would be pulled with an attached string to the front propeller projection.

What you'll notice about these toys, is that they are also large. You have to remember that most of these toys are from the 1920's-mid 1930's, and aviation had only been around a relatively short time ( Think Wright Bothers and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA, December 1903).

If you look closely, you can see how thick this pressed steel sheeting is.  This reminds me of older cases, As late as the early 1960's). even at that time, cars were made with thick gauge steel. When you tap a car of that era or earlier, it has a firm and sold "ping' to it!

Even the above toy, would be beautiful to restore, and it's still intact and functional after so many years "young".

 This airplane is my favourite. Those "curvy" propellers,  the circular placement of the piston motors, and the large left-sided entry into the airplane is so "old". I also like the old-style type and fonts on the airplane.

This airplane is missing it's metal-coiled wire to connect all 3 propellers, and allow them to turn. If you look around for more of these airplanes, you'll find how exactly the wire allowed the wooden spindles at the end of  metal shafts to turn the propellers.

Here's another well-made toy with lithographed writing on the wing. The large key wound the "motor" to allow the propeller to  rotate and the airplane to move.

It's amazing to think how strong toys were made so long ago, that they would last into the 21st century. 

If you're wondering what the vertical numbers are in the photos, they're the listing number for this auction. The auction is to be help on  April 26, 2014. I added them for those who might want to see the actual listing either at Stout Auctions website, to their respective site on Liveauctioneers.

There's lots more fantastic airplanes and of course trains, but for today this is the 

"Pièce de Résistance".

Thanks for visiting,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

toysearcher@gmail.com