An Arcade Avery Tractor Matched to a Hardware Catalogue Page

Monday, July 14, 2014
               Sunny and hot

An Arcade Tractor Matched to a

Hardware Catalogue Photo

   One collectible that antique toy collectors and  regular collectors like to collect are old toy catalogues. The problem is that not many people kept them long ago, and the specify word for collecting paper items not meant to be collected is ephemera. You keep learning the most interesting and odd things when you write about old toys. 

   Last week,  I was very fortunate to get the permission of  a successful ebay merchant who goes by the ebay name of gdawg. He sells lots of fine and old original catalogue pages. But the blest is that a good of the pages are in fact old catalogue pages from hardware stores. At one time, hardware stores across America were the the gathering place to buy all kinds of merchandise. Anytime you watch an American western movie based on the 1850's-early 1900's, you always will see the hardware store in the movie! There were also very large hardware stores located in the big cities, and they also were like department stores that were to follow.

  The fantastic thing about these wonderful catalogues is that they have drawings (illustrations) and photos of old toys with written descriptions. As such, they are excellent references to try and learn about old toys. For today's post, I was looking to write about something else, when I came across an Arcade Avery Tractor in a 1930 page from  a  Blish, Mize & Sulliman Harware Co. catalogue. The company was established in 1871,and was in Atchison, Kansas, USA. The pages that I am presenting from gdawg have been cleaned up by me. Even though they have logos and copyright notices on them , I wouldn't want anyone to use them, since gdawg does in fact make a living from selling these fine collectibles. They make beautiful wall hangings or art when nicely matte-framed with nicely-proportioned mattes.   Make sure to ask for acid-free mattes so that the matte does not acidify the fragile and brown-toned or sepia-toned pages. 

Please click here to visit this excellent ephemera store

The tractor that I am writing about today is the second one on the left column. I don;t think I ever wrote about this one, because its name reminds me of the Avery Label Company, so I would have remembered this particular item.

Imagine that in 1930, the wholesale cost of 12 of these cast iron toys was

 $ 4.00 (US) or  33 1/3 cents. What's also interesting is the weight of each - 1 pound or 454 grams!

What's of interest for people who would use this as a reference is the fact that this particular tractor is painted with a gray enamel paint, with gold strips, and red wheels.

Please click here to visit to exceptional American Toy Auctioneers

Bertoia Auctions is a family-owned and operated business located in New Jersey (USA). When I first stopped selling toys, and decided to ask companies and people (collectors or sellers) if I might be permitted to see their photos and descriptions, Bertoia Auctions was one of the first that I contacted and receive their permission. They are an excellent resource for learning about old toys, and of course, they are a very well -respected and renowned auction company.

The Avery tractor below is painted in a green body with red wheels. This certainly is not the colour theme described in the catalogue

Below are two other variations of the Arcade Avery Tractor.

The one on the left has an all-green body with I assume nickel wheels. 

The one on the right most closely resembles the written description of the catalogue. The body is painted black, with red wheels and a gold trim. If I was actually investigating this specify toy, I would look to see if the original factory one was in fact tray or black. However, the one above is closest to all of the ones presented today.

Of course, if you happen to have a copy of the Arcade 1923 catalogue, 

you'd see the above page reproduction. The description is similar to  the Bertoia photographs, but a question remains - can an actual tray Avery tractor with red painted wheels and gold striping be found?

Of course, this would be more important to a very selective collector,

 but I'd take any of these fine old toys - my budget is limited!

Thanks for visiting,

and as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may live.

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Best Sources of Antique Toy Information Besides Old Catalogues!

Monday, July 1, 2014
       Canada Day
     Sunny, very hot & humid

The Best Sources of Antique Toy Information

Besides Old Catalogues!

  I've seen lots and lots of  today's guest's exceptional material on ebay, but but for some reason, I never contacted him. So a few days ago, I contact gdawg ( This person prefers to remain low key-low profile). I waited for a reply and received one, allowing me to use his great ebay listings. Gdawg is a special merchant who happens to sell very old catalogue pages of all kinds of content.  For today, I selected specific old pages solely about antique toys. However, when you go to his  ebay store, you will be truly amazed and interested!

  When I studied professional photography in Providence,Rhode Island (USA), I wanted to add some art to my bare walls. Naturally, I had very little money. One day, I decided to go to a few garage sales just for curiosity sake. Being inquisitive, I came across some very old 1920's or 1930's magazines full of beautiful coloured cars from that era. I purchased the magazines, carefully removed the pages, then mounted the pages on some black matte board. You can mount pages such as these with special material that melts when heated and acts to stick the pages to the mount board. It's especially important to use acid-free mounting board and acid-free tissue because  the acid will destroy the catalogue pages, or any other material (e.g. photos). I checked to see if this material still exists and it does. One of the major companies in the film/photographic paper era was Seal, and now it is called Bienfang-Seal . You can still purchase this material. You'll have to read the labels to see how to use this material. If you do go to garage sales, you might be lucky enough to find a mounting press. This is a large-sized heating element made of smooth iron. The larger sized units can mount paper to matt board as big as 3' x 4'  (.904 M x 1.22 M).

Please click here to visit this most-interesting ebay store

This is how a page might look. In this case, the Butler Company had 

used rose-coloured paper for their 1902 catalogue. 

In other cases, very old paper will yellow with age.

What AI did below is to remove all of the colour so as to make "copying" less-attractive.

Gdawg makes a living from selling these fine original catalogue pages.

All of the pages below with a front and back page, thus they appear on this post in pairs.

What I find especially interesting is that on most of the catalogue pages, 

there are no identities as to who the manufacturers of the toys are! If you were to search who the manufacturers were, you'd probably find the names of Hubley, Dent, Kenton, Champion, or Kilgore - all large cast iron companies of that time period.

The steam engine was one invention that helped create the Industrial Revolution. Naturally, toys were manufactured to replicate (duplicate) the movements and utility of these exceptional machines of the day.

It's interesting to see cast iron toys being described simply as "iron" toys.

You can see Gong toys here on this page. Of course, the Gong company was a very famous manufacture of this type of push or pull toy.

Cast iron banks were very popular in the 1870's-1920's and the catalogue companies carried plenty of them. These are the more traditional banks, but if you search my blog for "cast iron banks, you will see the decorative banks that  are called mechanical banks.  A mechanical  bank ail take a coin and through a single or multiple set of motions will have characters (people or animals) deposit the coin inside the bank.

This week,  just added an excellent post from about these great cast iron toy stoves.

If you've never read my posts, here's something that I always admire.  Today,a cell phone company manufacturer will sue another for something  such as rounded corners on the case design. However back in the 1900's many of the different cast iron manufacturers would make similar toys, and if the name of the manufacturer was not pressed into the case iron, you would be far pressed to figure out which company made the original toy!

You will have to view these photos in slide mode (Google Blogger).

What you will be amazed at are the prices of these toys at the turn of the 19th century!

Many of the toys above were in fact made in Germany, yt once again,

 there is no identity as to the manufacturer.

I mistakenly thought these were carriages for dolls! Of course, had I looked at the prices, I would have realized they were for babies. These are very expensive items for that time. What is even more interesting is that you pay additionally for patented brakes, special wheels and rubber tires!

I left the baby carriages in for this post, because they exemplify the vast diversity of merchandise that was sold through these catalogue companies. Notice also that the above page is page # 700. At the time, many people lived in rural (country) areas of the USA, and the highway system was almost non-existent. As such, people and local stores would receive their mail, food, clothing, and merchandise through the railway system.

If you ever have the change to bid for these exceptional pages or even these old catalogues, by all means do so. And if you find these catalogues at a garage sale, buy them! If you want to learn history in the most interesting manner, this by far (As far as my humble opinion goes) is the best way!

This is my 800th post so far.

I would like to thank all of my readers and contributors

 who have helped me and read my blog over the last 3 years.

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be

Stacey

 toysearcher@gmail.com