BY JACK HERBERT SPRING IS HERE, finally, and so it is time to bring out the horses once again. Most of the toys we’ll be reviewing today date back to the turn of the 19th-20th Century, when the horse was IT in the field of transportation. Hop aboard, then, for a drawn ride down through the years. There’s not a [...]
BY JACK HERBERT THERE IS a spirit of romance that often manifests itself when dealing with horses. They are creatures like ourselves not machines, and, as such, display emotions, energy, and personality. That may be why we all seem to have a special regard for our early horse drawn toys, whether or not we collect them. There’s a touch of [...]
BY JACK HERBERT IT CAN’T HAVE been very easy to design and produce any toys that might amuse us enough we would want to actually buy them. The toys had to look rather unusual, represent some peculiar activity and, if possible, be relatively cheap. No Marklins in that lineup, indeed. So it is not surprising, is it, that very few [...]
BY JACK HERBERT Today’s article is based on Garbage, and I don’t want to hear any “Oh, yeah, what’s new about that?” Actually, I don’t believe there’s ever been an article written about toy Sanitation Trucks, so let’s break some tradition here today. The collection is the private property of Mr. Vito Turso, who is the Deputy Commissioner of the [...]
BY JACK HERBERTIN THE NOVEMBER 2010 issue of our fair magazine, I wrote an article about Tipp & Company, a fine German tinplate toy manufacturer whose output, especially during the 30s, was magnificent. In it, along with nine other pictures of Tipp’s largess, I featured a rather fuzzy shot. A letter from Olaf Haahr arrived on my desk later in [...]
BY JACK HERBERT How long have you personally been collecting antique toys? That long, huh? Well, by now you must be aware that our captivating little hobby has, in all probability, changed our lives in ways we hadn’t really noticed. Nonsense, you say. You haven’t changed in the slightest, least of all to accommodate an activity that is not fundamental [...]
BY JACK HERBERT Last month we featured an Antique Toy Collector whose toys were primarily on the small side partly because he was able to buy twice as many as he might have if he had insisted on the larger, more available sizes. There’s a great deal of practical wisdom there, I feel. Many of the early toys were also [...]
BY JACK HERBERT A longtime antique toy collector, for whom I recently completed a written appraisal, has concentrated his purchases on mostly mid-sized toys. Through the years, then, he has been able to select a good number of early toys for the same financial outlay that a much smaller group of larger toys would entail. It’s those foot-long-plus toys that [...]
BY JACK HERBERT BISCUIT TINS, as an advertising concept, has not really faded away. Take a good look, next time you’re in your grocery store, at some of the products still proudly proclaim their logos on attractive packages. Some are naturals — Ghiradelli Chocolates in a printed full color San Francisco Cable Car box is a perfect example. These new [...]
BY JACK HERBERT Undoubtedly the most unique Transportation Vehicles since the Ark was the Twentieth Century Airship, ultimately reaching two or three football fields in total length. The gas filled behemoths ruled our long distance overseas travel aspirations for a relatively short time, but they were stupendous—the perfect word for their time. The dirigible consisted of a series of balloons [...]
