A Distant Prairie Province Neighbour Helps Out

Thursday, November 20, 2014
Overcast and cold - and it's not even winter!

A Distant Prairie Province Neighbour 

Helps Out

  Last week a reader wrote to ask me if I know that Lincoln Toys had manufactured tractors. I didn't know that, so I wrote back to ask if she would send  me photos of her rare tractors, and I'd write a post about her and her tractors. I haven't heard back from her, so I decided to search out these rare tractors and found two on ebay that were sold by a Canadian seller - I'm Canadian, eh! They must be rare because they sold for high values that I had no idea would garner these prices!

   I wrote to the seller, and Dana Tumback, a Canadian from Saskatchewan wrote back and gave me his permission. The distance from the Quebec border to the Saskatchewan border is 1544.6 miles or 2485 kilometers. We're neighbours - but very distant ones. However, in terms of human characteristics, Dana is very close. 

   My bother and sister have both driven west at different times, when they moved to Calgary. THe ride is very long,and until you get through Ontario (the province next to Quebec),you think you'll never get out of the province! Saskatchewan is part of three provinces called "The Prairie Provinces". These are for the most part, gently rolling hills that ounce had lots of buffalo and grasslands. Because of the rich soils, the 3 provinces became major world producers of all kinds of grain and seeds.

For those who don't know, Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia.

Even travelling in my home province of Quebec can take a day if you go from Montreal (where I live) to Gaspé.

The Provincial Flag of Saskatchewan

I selected the clipart illustration of some parts of the wheat plant from www.clipartbest.com

These are great sites that allow use of their clipart. I used this illustration to add a watermark for Dana's images.

Dana Tumback is a longtime seller on ebay since 1997. In this computer era, 17 years is a long time,and to be an ebay seller for this long is long! That's 17 years. Naturally, I always like to look at what else Dana has sold,and what he had was quite interesting.I wrote Dana back to ask if I could select some of these "other" interesting items to write about, and he said yes. Nice neighbour!

Please click here to visit Dana Tumback's ebay store

The Lincoln tractor and manure speeder below are "heavyweights" in several ways. First, their die cast (Perhaps aluminum, so I've read but will need to authenticate). Ten the sizes are large, and of course, thirdly and most importantly they're rare!  

I'm not sure if Americans like to collect Canadian toys, but this item had a lot of bidders warning to win this item. Of course, as I've mentioned many times,farm toys and implements are in huge demand on ebay.When I whitened up these images, the toys came out great.

Massey Harris is more known and popular as a farm machinery manufacturer 

here in Canada than in the United States.

I especially like that large coiled spring that acts as a "cushion" for the tractor driver.

Here's another beauty - a  green Lincoln Oliver tractor.

I like how Dana used a wide-angle lens or focal length to exaggerate the tractor. The smaller wheels in the front are much larger in the photo than the rear ones.

What's also noteworthy is the use of decals on the front to replicate the air intake holes for the engine. I would have liked to know why decals were selected instead of an actual cast model design.

I'll have to research the dates when these toys were made. I'd say probably in the late 1950's or early 1960's. BUt what I can say is that these toys have lasted well over time, just like some of the old tractors that toy see on tractor websites.

I like how Dana photographs his merchandise.

 I paired up most of the photographs and they match quite well together. Each photo compliments the other, and has the viewer move back and forth to examine the features.

 ebay made an excellent decision when they reworked how sellers post their photographs. Before, the firs image was free, and all others after that cost. A few years ago, the new system allowed for up to 12 free photos with magnification features. This has allowed seller who have the time and know that more photos help sell more to flourish. 

Of course ebay has found lots of other ways to make more money.

You can see how Dana has a great "photographic eye" for photography. 

Thanks for dropping by, and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

Do You Sell Antique Toy Tractors?

Sunday, February 2, 2014
(Cold and still snowing from yesterday)

Do You Sell Toy Tractors?

  Today's post about  old and antique tractors was supposed to be yesterdays' post before I wrote about the beautiful Keystone toy airplanes - a must see post, if you like toys. Today is tractors, and almost all are cast iron except for the last one  that I just had to present. 

  If you do a search on ebay, you will find that farm toys are very popular. If you look at a typical screen-capture like the one below, you'll see that farm toys are in fact # 3 on the list, although they;re in fact the 4th most popular buy number. Airplanes came in with 31,000+. Why ebay chose to place farm toys ahead of airplanes is beyond me. I'm assuming that they are in high demand, especially the very old ones. I would also theorize that way back 80-90 years,  and even longer ago,the population of the USA was much more rural (country versus city), and more people were in fact employed in farming then. Even today, everyone, including farmers, still collect them.

  I've mentioned before that cast iron toys have a certain "feeling" in your hand with their cold feeling and weight. You have to have one in your hand to understand what I'm trying to say, of course in a very positive manner. As far as cast iron toys go, they were made much more in the USA than anywhere else in the world t the time (1880's-1940's).

Please click here to visit the exceptional website of Bertoia Auctions

For myself, and I'm sure many other  people, there is a beauty and attraction of cast iron toys that is totally different from later-era toys. The manufacturers had to create a mould that would allow the molten iron to form well, as well as present he details of the toy. When cast iron was later replaced by pressed steel (USA) and later tin, more details could be presented with more moving parts. What I've always especially liked is the nickel-plated drivers on the farm tractors. I can remember when a nickel (a term for our 5 cent coin) was in fact made from nickel! Nickel was an expensive metal to use at the time, because it was rarer, and you had to electroplate a smoothed metal shape under it.  However, the metal did an exceptional job at shining the driver, and of course to prevent rust from forming, as you can see from many of today's examples that are shown today.

If you enlarge the image above, you'll notice that the driver's hands are like gloves or mitts and fit into the 2 levers of the tractor. This particular driver type is rarer than the others with regular-looking hands.

Here's another nickel-plated driver with those "gloved-shaped" looking hands!

The blue-red colour combination is certainly different for a tractor,and is very appealing to the eye.

I hadn't seen this  farm toy before. It's from the Wilkens toy company,that was later purchased by the Kingsbury toy company from New Hampshire (USA). It's simply beautiful. Also, its' quite old, since not all toys in the cast iron toy era (USA) were always made from cast iron. 

My surprise was the lower price that this particular toy was purchased for. I would assume that was because the toy was restored. If I had to have a farm toy in my collection of toys (not cast iron), this one would be it.  Bertoia Auction's excellent photography certainly presents this pair of toys in the best way. But for me, it's the beauty of the toys themselves. The wind-up mechanism with all of those repeating wheels, the yellow colour of the driver with the grey,black  and red colours is fantastic. As well, there are the wooden wheels. Then there is that simple but "elegant" cart with the silver-grey wheels, and the red and yellow curvature of the sides. And of course, the chained "tracks".

Thanks for visiting,

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

Early Cast Iron Tractors - Mostly Arcade

Wednesday, May 23, 2013

Early Cast Iron Tractors

(Mostly Arcade)

    There was an article on the weekend in the NYTimes discussing how American Farmers have depleted a huge underground aquifer in the mid-west of the USA. It took hundreds of thousand of years for the aquifer to evolve, and within 100 years, the water is almost depleted. SOme farmers haven;t been able to grow crops because of the cost and lack of water or rain, and have resorted to raising livestock, which do not need as much water compared with raising crops. Of course, that article led me to think about farm machinery, ergo the topic for today. I've written many times about cast iron toys, and even presented tractors, but I've never had a whole post on the topic.

    I started out screen-capturing all tractors,but soon realized that the majority of them (from Dan Morphy) were in fact Arcade, so I changed today's theme to focus in on just mostly Arcade cast iron tractors.  Most of these tractors were produced in the 1920's-1930's give or take +- 5 years either way.

    It's interesting to note that cast iron toys seem to have been more prominent in the USA than in Europe, and one doesn't really see that many cast iron toys elsewhere.

Please click on this sentence to be redirected to Dan Morphy's fine website

All the the items with their original boxes came from the same auction, and most likely from the same collector.

The 2 tractors above are similar, but for their wheels and tracks. 

I haven't provided enough details on today's tractors, but I would guess that the earlier manufactured tractor came with the more expensive (to produce) nickel-plated wheels and tracks. 

I would guess that this green Oliver tracor is a more modern design.

 THis one's my favourite. I like the differentiation of this model from the others. I'd say that it's older from the others for 2 reasons:

1. The driver has an older-style design both in terms of the face, clothing, and hat.

2. The engine is exposed on older-model toy tractors (and real tractors)

Absolutely Beautiful with a capital "B". 

The same model as the one above it, but in a different colour scheme.

Again, I'd guess that this model is an older one form the rest, especially from the one below.

Here's  an interesting toy "Ten" modelled after  Caterpillar. 

Notice  how it comes with  chain tracks, rather than the traditional track design.

Have a look at the front and rear wheels of this tractor compared to the one below.

The A.C. Williams (with the green wagon) has almost identical rear larger wheels, but the front smaller ones are different. That would be a good way of identifying the difference between the 2 manufacturers.

The larger-sized tractor is the Arcade,while the smaller tractor and wagon are A.C.Williams.

I found a nice article with lots of information about Arcade tractors.

Unfortunately the article has only 1 photo. Nevertheless the information is useful, when I'll try and find time to add more information to the photos above. 

The link is:

Please click this sentence for the fine article by Mr. Bill Vossler

It was a rainy and cloudy day today, 

hence my posting a day early. 

At least it's good for the farmers.

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey