Elmer’s Auto & Toy Museum Fabled Toy Collection Heads to Auction

WILLOUGHBY, Ohio—The legendary collection of toys from Elmer’s Auto & Toy Museum, Fountain City, Wis., heads to auction Saturday, Oct. 28, at Milestone Auctions. The event is the first in a multi-year series of quarterly sales of thousands of toys that enchanted museum visitors for nearly 30 years. Elmer and Bernadette Duellman were married for […]

All the Moves: Windup Toys

Whimsical windup toys first gained popularity in the 1800s, as large, windup automatons enjoyed by the wealthy gave way to smaller, affordable windups. A wide range of windup toys were up for grabs at a recent Pook & Pook Inc. auction in Pennsylvania. Top price was $8,540 for a Baranger Studios animated lovebird store window […]

Tin Toys

The earliest manufactured American toys were made of tin. Pieces of tin were cut by hand or machine, assembled, soldered, and painted by hand. Tinsmiths used their scrap pieces left over from making lanterns or cookie cutters to make toys. The first “factory” for tin toys opened in Meriden, Connecticut, during the 1840s. Other toymakers […]

Moving Toys

Clockwork toys were produced in quantity in America from about 1865 to 1900. The toys were quite literally made with brass clockworks on the inside to move the arms or legs of the toy. Moving toys were manufactured from painted or printed tin, wood, cast iron, or cloth. Dancing figures, walking figures, cigarette-smoking men, circus […]

Lithographed Tin Toys

Most lithographed tin toys found today were made between 1870 and 1915, although some were manufactured later. All sorts of wagons, fire engines, stagecoaches, and buses are valuable today; locomotives, trains, and horsecars are better; and old tin boats are the rarest. Collectors are especially interested in animated groups of animals or people; toys that […]

Popular Toys and Games Pre 1900

Most of the toys and games popular today were invented years ago. This table helps to date toys by furnishing the approximate dates some toys and games were first manufactured. Toys Starting Date of Commercial Manufacture Board games Late 18th century Cap guns and cap exploders Mid-19th century (most popular 1885-1915) Card games (Authors, Old […]

Tin Toys

Because the 19th-century Industrial Revolution resulted in new technology and the creation of a middle class, the invention of tin toys was possible and profitable. Earlier toys had been made of wood, fabric or ceramics. Tin toys were made in the early years of the 19th century in Germany, England and France. The J. Hess […]

Zeppelin Tin Toy

Q: My husband received this toy zeppelin when he was a young boy. It’s probably at least 65 years old. The box is in good condition and the wording on it says, No. 2017, Strauss Flying Zeppelin. The price on the back of the box is 48 cents. Can you tell me anything about it and […]

Tin Windups

Old toys seem more imaginative than new ones, even though they are often not considered safe by today’s standards. In the early 1900s, lithographed tin toys, especially those made in Germany, were popular. Many had moving parts, a comical look, bright colors and sharp edges. Today collectors keep old toys away from young children for […]

Antique Tin Toys

The government has strict rules about toys with tin parts that could cut a child. Many toys now have plastic parts. Collectors like the old tin toys, especially those that move. Most of the tin windup type toys were made from the 1920s to the 1950s. One popular toy made by Louis Marx Company and […]