Skater Doll Label Surprise!

[gerisullivan]

Skater Doll is here and is happily getting acquainted with the other Twinzy Toys in my collection.

Label surprise

This is the label on the pull-toy Skater doll. It's unlike any other label in my collection! In particular:

1) The Twinzy Toy identifying information is typically hand-lettered rather than typeset when it appears directly on the toy or on the sewn-in label. Even the toys that have paper tags were created with a typewriter rather than actual typography.

2) None of the other Twinzy Toys mention the Squier Twins (that would be Blanche and Bernice, aka Auntie Blanche, my great-aunt and sister's Godmother, and Auntie Bun, my great-aunt and Godmother).

3) The drawing of the twins is unique to my eye. Now that I can see its detail, I know the art was also used on the cardboard topper on the two mint-in-package Twinzy Toys I have (a bunny and a small bag containing a block and a ball). On one of them, it's mostly a blue blob. On the other, there's some more detail, but nothing like the detail on Skater doll.

Very exciting! I'm certain the typesetting and printing was done in my Great-Grandfather's tag factory, the American Manufacturing Company. I have the ATF 1923 type specimen book that belonged to Charles Squier, the twins' father; now I have another example of some of the type he owned.

Click on the picture for a few more Twinzy Toy photos, including some showing the trade show booth banner that hung at the New York Toy Fair for many years between the 1920s and 1940s. One of these days, I'll take individual pictures of each of the toys, or, better yet, perhaps batwrangler will come down for a weekend and do the honors. Or another likely suspect, though the subject matter really does suit the bear maker best.

Comments

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

What a cool family heritage!!!

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I would be delighted to do so. (And in your copious free time, you could produce a collectors' guide....)

[(Anonymous)]

This is all very exciting!

Sadly, you lost me on "hand-lettered" vs "typewriter" and "[not] actual typography" vs "typesetting done in the factory." But I am sure these all make sense somehow.

K.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

That was I, as perhaps the "K" told you. This is what I get for posting when I should be packing.

K.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

I'll try to include pictures of all of the above in the Twinzy Toy photo gallery before too long. In the meantime, think of the difference in how the words would look if you picked up a pencil or pen and printed the words "Twinzy Toy" by hand, if you sat down at a typewriter and typed them onto a piece of paper, and if you picked up a book on antique toys and saw "Twinzy Toy" mentioned in the author's introduction to the book. That's "hand-lettered" vs "typed" vs "typography."

The label in the picture was made using real metal type on typesetting equipment in my great-grandfather's tag factory.

Have you been over at fmsv and cowfan's and seen Dean setting type and using his printing press to make invitations or announcements? If so, that's pretty much how the words on Skater doll's leg were applied to the fabric.

Have a great time at Baggiecon! Sorry I'm not there this year; last year was grand.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Neat!

What sort of timing would work well for you? If you're of a mind to visit the Brimfield Antiques Fair, come down this weekend or September 6-7. Otherwise, I should have lots of weekends after mid-August.

In my CFT, I will produce a Twinzy Toy web page, thereby picking up much-needed and long-overdue skills in that area. After that, yes, an informational collectors' guide about them would be fun.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

How neat! It's so exciting seeing you find more things about your family!

[galacticvoyeur.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you have gotten the toys and banner out of storage and put them on display. I'm absolutely certain we had a Twinzy horse similar to the one you have when we were kids. My family wasn't much for keeping old toys around, alas. I did just score the wooden blocks and Lincoln Logs on the trip home last week. Mom was threatening to toss them at any moment. And she would have, too...