Shovel All The Coal In McLoughlin Brothers Picture Blocks
By Ken Foust Shovel All the Coal In McLoughlin Brothers picture blocks by Ken Foust In the 1890s, any boy who was on favorable terms with Santa Claus could assemble a sizeable toy fire department. Toy makers produced a nearly endless variety of pumpers and ladder wagons in every size a young man could want, […]
In Toys We Trust
By Morton Hirschberg In Toys We Trust by Morton A. Hirschberg The history of toys and toy manufacturers has long been a subject discussed in books and articles. Yet, one of the most fascinating aspects of toy history has only been written about in fits and starts—monopolies. In this article I attempt to cover, as […]
Felix Frolic
By Carl Lobel FELIX FROLIC! THE TOY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD* *(THE TOY WORLD) by Carl Lobel The Felix Frolic tin wind-up toy was made by J. Chein & Co. of Harrison, New Jersey, circa 1926-1927 [Figure 1]. It is an iconic toy for a number of reasons, the overall size being reason No. 1: […]
Auburn Rubber Company Innovation in Motion
By Dave Leopard The Auburn Rubber Company, based in Auburn, Indiana, was originally the Double Fabric Tire Company, which was established in 1910 by Auburn residents William H. Willennar and A.L. Murray. As the Double Fabric Tire Company, they made inner soles and tire patches before expanding into a line of automobile tires and tubes. […]
Tale of the Toonerville 4 No 2 Alike
By Carl Lobel When viewed separately, three of the four Toonerville Trolley lithographed tin wind-ups appear to be the same toy. It is only when you have them side by side that you can see differences and sometimes the differences are very subtle. The three Toonervilles starting on the left, were made in Germany in […]
Polyrama Panoptique
By Mara Bosboom Hi, my name is Mara Bosboom and I work for the Toy Museum in Deventer, the Netherlands. I recently completed a one-month internship at the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood in England. As I have done a lot of work on optical toys in my own museum, my job at the […]
World’s Oldest Toys
Excerpted by Christina Rubin Vying to be the World’s Oldest Toy: Is it the 4,000-Year-Old Rattle Found in Turkey or the 4,000-Year-Old Doll’s Head Found in Pantelleria, an Island off the Coast of Italy? A team from the Ankara University Archaeology Department discovered a ceramic rattle that contains small pebbles, and dates back to 2,000 […]
Fountains? What Do You Mean Fountains?
By Roland Digilio When meeting another collector for the first time, the conversation will invariably turn to what we collect. Often, upon explaining that I collect fountains, among other things, I usually get a puzzled look, so I thought I would share some of my fountains and the history behind them. I don’t know when […]
A Very Early Locomotive
By Marty Maloy A bit of historical background is in order for full appreciation of this extremely rare find, an early American-style toy locomotive found quite dirty on a mantle in Philadelphia where she sat for many years. England was responsible for all the major developments in early steam locomotives. Consequently, America imported its first […]
An Arithmetical Pastime
By Anne Cartwright This hand colored, linen-backed game was published in 1798 by John Wallis, London. It is a race game in spiral form designed as an educational tool. As its subtitle explains, it was “intended to infuse the rudiments of arithmetic, under the idea of amusement.” There are 100 spaces, each having either a […]