The Ferdinand Strauss Toy Company

Wednesday November 16, 2016
Cloudy with Sunny Periods
9 Celsius  48 Fahrenheit

The Ferdinand Strauss  Toy Company

Ferdinand Strauss Co. was founded in New York City. Strauss specialized in importing tin mechanical toys and produced toys from 1914 to 1927. Strauss hired Louis Marx, whom later founded the Marx toy company. Strauss produced (wind-up) toys for the Abraham & Strauss Department Stores and was a pioneer in the friction tin toy industry.*

* Courtesy Fabtintoys.com

The company manufactured pressed tin toys that  had colour lithography on them.  Many of the toys also had wind-up mechanisms in order to have them move by themselves. In the early 1900's, European toy manufacturers had already perfected colour lithography, and were manufacturing many tin toys and pressed steel toys for the North American market. I was surprised to find out that toys from metal were being manufactured during WWI. In WWII, most of the  toy manufacturers had to switch to wood in order to save metals for the war effort. THe toy manufacturers retooled from toys to manufacturing parts for all kinds of military machines.

Most of the toys usually are less that 12" ( 310 mm) , but as you can see, 

have stood up well all these years.

I couldn't find much information on Ferdinand Strauss or his toy company, so if 
anyone out there has information, would you please share it with m,e and my readers.

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Most of the Strauss toys are mechanical wind-up toys. 

I would assume that since wind-up toys were popular at the time, 

Mr. Strauss decided to produce lots of them.

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

A Dozen Strauss Trucks

Saturday, October 11, 2014
   Sunny and cooler temperatures

A Dozen Strauss Trucks

  I've been writing about lumber (timber) trucks,and for a few of the latest posts had the Struss lumber truck with its trailer. However, if you simply type in "Strauss Truck" rather than "Strauss Timber Truck", all kinds of trucks will show as the search results.  I did this by accident, several times, and corrected myself, but knew I would have today's post for an idea. 

   What's noteworthy is that Strauss made at least 12 of these toy trucks all similar in design and with bold colours and the key wind movement. More interestingly, these toys were made for over a decade (1930's-1940's), so they certainly must have sold very well.

Please click here to visit this exceptional American toy auction company

The truck below is a delivery truck and is quite different from the other trucks presented today.

The 3 trucks below are very similar. The main differences are the colour schemes and the titles on the sides of the trucks. Also the sizes are different.

The Strauss Auto Dump Truck below is  slightly;y different with 

the smaller-sized dumpster in the back of the truck.

The Strauss  Tow Truck got larger over a deceased. What I find interesting is that the company stayed with an older-model truck in 1940. What's more interesting is that the newer model 

doesn't have head lights!

Once again, we see the same basic design below. What changes from the 1930's to the 1940's

is that there is a  rear gate that folds down in the 1940's version.

Another type of truck in the Strauss line was the  liquid delivery. There were 2 liquids - water and oil. Here again, you can easily see the similarities between booth the water and the oil delivery trucks. 

The differences are small. The water truck has one filling cap, while the oil has 2 caps.

Smaller differences include the colour themes and the side numbers.

72 for water,  and 73 for the larger oil truck.

The junior-sized truck is smaller, and has no numbers.

Once again notice that the larger trucks don;t have headlights, while the smaller "junior" has them.

There's an old expression that says "if it isn't broken, don;t fix it".

Interpreted, that simply meant that if something worked or was a successful, then don't change it.

In the case of the Strauss trucks, the basic design didn't change much for a deceased, and the designs for most of the trucks, albeit the colour patterns were also similar.

On an assembly line, workers, I'm sure would have been quite proficient and fast at being able to mass produce these toys. Of course, they must have learned from Henry Ford and his assembly line.

Or perhaps they learned, but "altered" from one of his famous lines.

Several years after Mr Ford had proven the  moving assembly line to be very successful, and his Model T Fords rolled off one-after-another very swiftly, Mr. Ford was  asked  a question by a reporter.

"Mr. Ford," the reporter asked. 

"Are you ever going to paint your cars in other colours beside black?

"Yes"  Mr. Ford,  was supposedly heard to have said answered.

Any colour, as long as it is in black".

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

Please feel free to write to me anytime at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

A Strauss Lumber Truck

Thursday, October 9, 2014
Overcast with rain and later thunderstorms

A Strauss Lumber Truck

Yesterday, I introduced you to N.E.T.T.E. Auctions. Their specialty is trains, but as I have learned,  never overlook what else you might find at a specialist auctioneer. As I mentioned yesterday, we're rebuilding our sunroom in the back of the house. It was never built properly, and last winter was a brutally cold, so we decided this spring to rebuild. With all the noise, you can't help but  think about wood, and that's how today's post came about. I saw a nice timber or lumber truck  on Liveauctioneers, and then decided to look  what other similar trucks I could find. Sure enough there was a nice one at N.E.T.T.E. Auctions, so I contacted them yesterday, and got permission to present them to all, and write about their fine toys.

Please click here to visit this fine auctioneer

What I like about  is they took a very good amount of photos to present this toy.

What you can see from the photo below are 2 things:

1. A very large-sized wind-up mechanism to move the toy.

2. A pivoting rear axle for the hauler part.

The pivoting axle is a small detail, but it's a nice detail that Strauss included. Considering how long that this toy is, playing in a confined area such as a hallway, would allow children to easily manoeuvre the truck as they moved along the long wood hallway floors of the 1930's. They then turn around to return to the original starting point.

It's not the most important detail to know, but it's something to be aware of.

Thanks for dropping by to visit,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

Please feel free to add a comment on  any post

or to write me at:

toysearcher@gmail.com

Ferdinand Strauss

Thursday, January 3, 2012

Ferdinand Strauss

    Yesterday, I wrote about the Louis Marx Toy Company. As it turned out, Louis Marx had started out working for the Ferdinand Strauss Company. However,  Mr. Marx was let go after his sales  and business policies were not liked by the board of directors of the company.

A Written Article by Ferdinand Strauss

(Please click on the above link to find an interesting article written by Mr. Strauss)

   Ferdinand Strauss came to the US at the age of 18 years old. He was a university graduate, and as soon as he was in the U.S. began work selling winder clothing. However, he was always fascinated with mechanical things, and was quite a hands-on person. Eventually, he sold of all things, the harmonica, and did a great job popularizing and selling this instrument. He was able to get financing to develop his love of mechanical things, ad created several different types of mechanical toys. However, the company met on hard times, and by 1922, Louis Marx had purchased the company.

    Many of Mr. Struauss' toys still survive , which are a good indication of their durability and collectibility. They were mostly made of sheet metal that was printed in beautiful colours by lithography. What's also interesting is that many of the toys had unique names speficic to the Strauss line of toys.

    I took all of the images below from Bertoia Auctions at the Live Auctioneers site. Clicking onthe address below will get you there.

Please  go to the Bertoia Auctions page at Live Auctioneers

(please click above to be redirected)

The Strauss Toy Company  actually manufactured 3 different variations of mule, driver, and cart. I've just presented 2 of them.

This was a mhimsical and entertaining toy for young children. When wound up, the chicks would move and peck at "food" in the painted metal bowl. I don't know if the train moved or not. 

Of course, like all other companies of the time, the "usual" line of toy cars and trucks were also manufactured, to bolster the complete line of fine toys.

 Notice how Mr.Strauss varied the spelling of Santa Claus to "Santee". What's also always given me a sense of nostalgia and times gone by is the address of many of the manufacturers on their toys.

The Ferdinand Strauss Corp.

New York, U.S.A.

Just New York,  U.S.A.

That address reminded me of the  movie with Natalie Wood, made in 1947, and also the story about the young girl who wrote to Sanata Claus in the USA. She simply address the envelope to:

Santa Claus,

The North Pole

And 1 final entertaining toy. As the porter moves, a small dog jumps up from inside the trunk.

I'm sure lots of children were entertained for long periods of time with such a funny toy.

As always, thanks for dropping by,

and have a  wonderful day, wherever you may be.

Stacey