Fond Memories of Our Jockey Cycle

We will never forget our Jockey-Cycle, which we sold some years ago, so we thought it would be fun to get out the old photos and share our memories of it.

Made sometime during the 1930's or 1940's, this is a very rare collectible sought after by bicycle and other vintage toy collectors. This velocipede was made by the J. E. DONALSON MFG. CO. in NORTH KANSAS CITY, MO. Some people incorrectly call the company "Donaldson", so you will find mention of it spelled both ways.

Instead of the usual pedaling action, the rider pushes on the foot bars and pushes and pulls on the handles. The seat then pumps up and down and the vehicle moves forward or backward. The small front wheel gives this jockey cycle a very tight turning radius, while the large back wheels and wide stance make it surprisingly hard to turn over.



The original nameplate on ours was still easily readable, but I was not able to get a very good picture of it up close, due to the glare on the metal. I'm not sure if it had been re-painted some time in the past or not. There were some light red brush marks on the nameplate. That is the only clue that it had possibly been repainted.



All the spokes were in good condition, the tires were in excellent shape, and the mechanism worked perfectly. There were many small areas where the paint was missing, but none of the areas detracted from the overall appearance, in my opinion. There was no evidence of rust.

This toy was played with by at least 3, maybe 4, generations of our family. It was a hand me down from my husband's cousin's family, so hubby and his brother both played on it. Then our two children enjoyed it for many years when they would spend time with their Mamaw and Papaw. Eventually the girls got too big to be interested in it, and his parents needed to get rid of it, so they could make more space for the growing girls to spend the night. So we brought it home with us. We put it in the basement, where it stayed until our grandson was old enough to ride it.

Our grandson would beg to ride it every time he came to visit, and it was great fun watching him get so much pleasure from it.

It was sometime not long after he had grown tired of it that we got bitten by the eBay bug, and I decided to see what the Jockey-Cycle might be worth, if anything. To say the least, we were both flabbergasted to find out that it was extremely rare and very valuable! So by the time our twin granddaughters were old enough to enjoy it, sad to say, they didn't get a chance to ride it. Once we found out how valuable it was we just couldn't take the chance they would tear it up!

So we sold it on eBay. Rather than chance it being damaged in shipment, the buyers drove several states to pick it up themselves. They were happy to get it, and we were happy to have sold it for a very good price.

On a whim the other night hubby decided to see if people were still collecting them and found a forum where folks were talking about some pitifully worn and damaged ones. It really made us realize just how wonderful ours had been. We also found a site with pictures of all but ruined ones, which is evidently the condition many are found in today.

So, we wanted to share our photos and story, so people could see what an original one looks like.

Interesting Vintage Collectible HO Train Set up for Auction Soon

I received this email from John, who has a unique item going up for auction at Stout Auctions in PA. It sounds so unusual and interesting that I thought I would share it with you.

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A toy train set with cross appeal will be going on the auction block in June. It is a limited edition item, never offered for sale to the public. It is new in box, and still has the original shipping shrink wrap around the box. The certificate of authenticity states the above, and further explains that it was offered as a premium to salesmen for selling parts and accessories.

It is the Zenith Video Express, and all the cars have the Zenith Radio and Television logo, and I know one box car has " Chromacolor " on the side.

He continues:

I do have a personal stake in this and I will explain! My mother died on the first of February of this year, and was preceeded by my father 2 years prior. The train set was given to him, as he was a Field Engineer for Zenith. I did not want to sell it here in the boondocks of PA, so I sent it to Stout Auctions, since they specialize in train hobbyist auctions.

Unfortunately, I purchased a digital camera after sending it to Stout Auctions, so I have no picture. They do sell catalogs of upcoming auctions, but I know that you can personally contact them, and they would probably send you a picture. I will try to describe it the best my 53 year old memory can muster.

The set was manufactured exclusively for the Zenith Radio and Television Corporation by Bachmann. It is HO scale and contains the locomotive and four other cars laid sideways, in the original box through the clear plastic windows. The outer, cosmetic parts of the cars are some form of heavy duty plastic. The outer shrink wrap has never been touched, save for a small tear, and a slight indentation on one of the plastic windows just beneath. No damage to the car underneath! All of the colors on both the display box and train are as vivid as the day produced. It has never been in a high heat, or direct sunlight situation.

In closing, link/contact info is: www.stoutauctions.com, e mail Katy ( Really nice girl ) katy@stoutauctions.com, ph # 724.528.1500.

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Sounds interesting, doesn't it??!!

Searching - INFORMATION Jewel Tea CREAM WOODEN CANISTER with BLACK HANDLES

I have had things on eBay in the past. My name is glassy-chic.


I am not looking for the piece, I have the piece. I am 71 years old, and it was my grandmother's. I have tried to search it, and I don't see anything like it. I don't even know what it is called, but I know that my grandmother had flour in it..

Thank you,

Shirley
If you can help Shirley with information about her antique wooden flower canister please Contact Us, including Post Code #031009-1 in your reply.

Finding the GOOD STUFF at Estate Sales is Getting Harder

We've been going to yard sales and Estate Sales almost every Friday for several years now as part of our Date Day. And we always have a good time, just because we are together. Oh, we're together at home, too. But we are doing our own thing - me on the computer and hubby reading a newspaper or using his computer. Not exactly activities that lead to paying much attention to each other. That's what makes Fridays so special for us, as we carry on more conversation in that one day than we probably do all the rest of the days of the week combined. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but it sure feels that way sometimes.

But of late the sales have been much less unique. It seems like all the paper items that fascinate us so much - all the real junk - has been thrown out before we get there. Hubby has said more than once that the big bags of garbage at the curb are where most of the items we would be interested in probably are.

There's been much less to rummage around through for most of this year. We still have a good time, but we're not finding as many treasures as we used to. That has led us to spending more and more time looking for the plush animals and soft dolls for our Dirty Butter Plush Animal Shoppe. At least we can still enjoy the hunt for those hard to find baby toys that people sell, not realizing how valuable they will be to a family who are desperate to replace some lost lovie.

We have kept a few of the treasured memories from our vintage finds. We have one 1800's autograph book of the lady's friends that is very interesting reading. They didn't just sign a name, but wrote short poems and notes to each other. And there's a lock of hair sewn into it. I used to take it to school and show it to my students and read a few of the entries to them.

I recently ran across a website where they sell an amazing number of old diaries, along with some handwritten letters from some famous people, and also some extremely old letters from everyday folks. If you are as fascinated by these windows into a time gone by you might enjoy looking at Tuscon Tiques Collectibles. I certainly enjoyed seeing all the interesting letters and diaries.

I can't imagine how they could have accumulated so many different hand written ephemera, but they have renewed my interest in this type of collecting and made me hope that we will again run across that perfect Estate Sale, where all the "good stuff" was not thrown away before they started the sale.

Do You Know What This Is?????????????????

One of our readers has been trying to figure out what this unusual vintage item is.

I found your blog and noticed that it mentioned that if someone was looking for a 'particular vintage collectible' to contact you. I'm kind of working in reverse... I'm wondering if you would know what this item is...

Its total length is no more than 6 inches. I'm really at a loss, and would appreciate any help you can offer. Or if you can direct me to someone that could help, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance!
Sheila

The first thing that popped into my mind was that this is part of a desk set from the quill pen era. They used fine sand in a container to pour on the paper, so the ink would dry without smearing.

The other thing that came to mind is some kind of unusual open salt, back when people didn't use salt shakers at the dinner table.

I did suggest that Shelia email Kovel's Komments, on the chance they would choose her object to identify for their free newsletter. If you know another place that might be able to help, please let us know.


OK, I put out my guesses.... now it's YOUR TURN.

WHAT DO YOU THINK IT IS????

SANTA .... He's EVERYWHERE!!

We have always had a lot of fun finding unusual items at Estate Sales on our Friday Date Day, but this little Santa decoration caught my eye, and the more we looked at it, the more unusual it appeared. If you click on the picture, you will see that all of the dolls in Santa's stockings have sad faces! Doesn't that seem strange to you?

So, it's not surprising that it was a Santa collector who bought him from us on eBay. I struck up a conversation with Brian, and asked him if I could share some of the pictures of his collection that he sent to me. He plans to write a book about Santa collecting, and it looks like he has plenty to write about!