penny toys story

As their name implies the tiny toys made in tin have been manufactured to entertain children.

An extreme diversity of items were available at the turn of the twentieth century, all of them are showing the incredible aesthetic qualities and the remarkable use of the lithographed tinplate, the numerous mechanical actions and all of them sold for one PENNY by street peddlers!

To quote David Pressland, author of the reference « Book of Penny Toys », these items can be described as « small toys designed to be sold at a retail price of one penny principally in the years between 1890 and 1935 ».

Nowadays, thanks to a few collectors worldwide, the penny toys are the jewels of a tin toy collection.

Thierry is one of them, acquiring most of the finest penny toys ever made, mainly bought at the great auction sale titled « Fine penny toys from the David Pressland » , hold by Christies London in april 2005.

Above: Race car by German firm Meier, chain driving, 95 mm long.

Left: Green mechanical torpedo by DISTLER

Touring car with chauffeur and Lady by MEIER 85 mm long.

Below: DISTLER scarce tricycle, 115 mm long

Thierry holding a gorgeous penny toy seller man by German toymaker Distler

Left: Issmaier vis-à-vis, all tin and lead fly wheel drive, 110 mm long.

Right: Georg Fischer truck, 90 mm long

Left : A Meier car with simple pressings and driver incorporated into the bodywork, 90 mm long.

Right: A fire pumper by Distler german toymaker, 100 mm long

Below: one of the longer race car made as a penny toy by Fischer. The 114 mm long superb car with a long bonnet aimed at representing a MERCEDES sporting car.

Clockwork: A Distler armoured car lithographed tin in shade of grey with blanck and maroon lining, gold gun turett and grey tin wheels, 75 mm long. A 100 mm long field kitchen by Meier, a cooking car, a mounted gun car by Meier/ 115 mm long.

These military penny toys were mainly produced shortly before 1914 and are typical of the period. Below one of the scarcest penny made by German maker Hess (1826 -1934). The Hess manufacture derived his high reputation from their famous HESSMOBIELmodels, a nice range of clockwork cars made in the twenties and the thirties.

Above: a military field kitchen by Meier, lithographed in grey with dark grey detailing, open cab with driver, with chimney and cooking vessel / 100 mm long.

Below and left: A rare « Spear and sohne » for PARKER garage. The penny toys are a Meier two-door open tourer, a Distler car, a Distler four-light limousine and a Distler two seat open runabout.

Above a display of PENNYTOYS advertising cars made by french toymaker C.R. ( Charles Rossignol)

Johann Philipp Meier founded his firm in Nuremberg in 1879. Using a « dog with a cart » as a trademark, his toy firm had succeeded in development of his penny toy range. The Meier company was the most prolific penny toys makers in the world and one of the leading German firms. The adorable beautifully detailed Omnibus shown here undoubtely evokes the charm of the penny toys as well as any other. 85 mm long, this double decker omnibus is lettered « the electric omnibus company », with bustling embossed figures on upper deck, other passengers at windows below. An alternate issue was sold a sweet container.