Lot 292
AMERICAN MECHANICAL TOY BY THE IVES MANUFACTURING COMPANY, BRIDGEPORT
LATE 19TH CENTURY
Auction: 30 September 2015 at 11:00 BST
Description
with two carved and ebonised jointed dancers in later costume, on an oak box containing the mechanical movement, the lid interior stamped with retailer's mark AMERICAN MECHANICAL TOY CO./ NY.
Dimensions
overall height 25.5cm
Footnote
Note: Clockwork toys were first seen in America in the mid-nineteenth century as a result of improved and cheaper brass clockwork mechanisms. In 1868 Edward Ives, the son of a watchmaker from Connecticut, began manufacturing windup toys. The Ives Manufacturing Company, as it was then known, produced a wide range of fine clockwork figures; from dancing bears to women's rights activists. By the 1880s Ives became the leading manufacturer of clockwork toys and would go on to become the largest manufacturer of toy trains in the US from 1910-24, for which it is best known.