Ives Trains Were Early Contributors
To Toy Business

In the early 1900s, one of the companies active in the toy train market was the Ives Corpora tion. It produced mechanical, windup and electric toy trains from about 1910 to the late 1920s - early 1930s.

In 1909, the company produced one of the most elaborate mechanical toy trains sets every made. The set consisted of a heavy cast iron, eight-wheel locomotive, and eight-wheel tender, and eight-wheel passenger and baggage coaches, along with a toy track. Billed as a De Luxe set, everything was on a large scale. The engine measured 13 1/2”, and the accompanying tender, or coal car, was 8”. The colorful passenger and baggage coaches measured 14 3/4”.

The train ran on a two-rail sectional type track made of stamped and formed tin-plated, light sheet metal. It measured 1 7/8” between the rails, and was called No. 1 gauge track.

The Ives locomotive was made up of two half pieces of iron castings. the tender, passenger and baggage cars were constructed of lithographed, stamped and formed tin metal. The lightweight construction of the cars enabled the locomotive to haul several cars easily.

The cars were finished in bright yellow with red trim and black lettering; the locomotive had a coat of glossy black enamel with yellow and gold trim, and wheels of bright red. The lithographed cars had considerable detail, such as an imitated wood body, window and door frames and even rivets.

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Special Cup Protected Mustache

Mustaches required a great deal of care when men wore them long and flowing, or thick and bushy. And after one had been lovingly dyed, oiled and curled, the owner certainly did not want it dragging in his cup of tea or coffee. The mustache cup was the solution.

The mustache cup was simply a cup with a ledge, or shelf, built on one side of the inside top of the cup. On this, the mustache could rest, safe and dry, and the mustache wax would not melt into the hot drink!

The first factory-made ones appeared about 1850, made by Harvey Adams & Co., located in the Staffordshire region of England.

Many other factories made them from that time until about 1900. Some were of fine quality; others were cruder and sold in nearly every tourist area, with inscriptions such as, “A present from...”

The cups were made of silver, pottery and porcelain. They varied in size from demitasse cups to some as large as a quart; most had matching saucers.

The best finds today are from those made by the factories known for quality, such as Derby, Minton and Royal Worcester. Some have relief work and many are handpainted. The souvenir cups of later in the century tend to be more gaudy and more crudely made.

If you see a cup you’re interested in, don’t hesitate too long. They are usually snatched up quickly by collectors. This is especially true if you should be lucky enough to spot a left-handed cup, as these are very hard to find.

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Plastic Figurines Could Be Reassembled

The Ohio Art Com pany, so well-known for its tin-lithographed toys of all kinds, in the 1960s also distributed some plastic figures made by a British company, Timpo. Ohio Art called them “Collector Classics Snap-a-Part Authentic Historical Replicas.” (The historical replicas tended to be generic figures, such as cowboys and soldiers.)

The heads, arms, hands, legs, hair, hats - whatever the figure consisted of - could be snapped apart. And if a child had several different figures, he could reassemble them in unusual ways. The cowboy could end up with the head of an Indian, and the Indian could ride off wearing the armor of a British knight, if the child so chose.

In addition to Timpo, another company, William Britains Ltd, which had made lead soldiers for many years, also produced a line of plastic snap-a-apart figures which it called Swoppets.

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