After a couple of months of devoting desk time to First Day Covers, I decided to do a piece of OLD PAPER ART, and this is the result of a week's worth of pencil-pushing.
A little bit about both of the companies involved with this nice piece of old paper:
The South Bend Toy Company was incorporated December 22, 1882, after being established in 1874. Frederick Badet, a grocery clerk, and John Teel, a woodworker, originally started the company, making croquet sets and other wooden toys. Croquet was that the time, the only acceptable game for women and children to play. About the turn of the century they began to build children's wagons and doll carriages.
The Studebaker Company was founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 under the the name of Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. The company built wagons for farmers, miners and the military. Their factory was located in in South Bend, Indiana. Studebaker asked the South Bend Toy Company to build a number of small replicas of their full-sized wagons to place in dealer showrooms. The only problem they encountered was that the dealers couldn't keep them in the showroom, and Studebaker quickly realized that a smaller wagon for children would be a sales leader. South Bend produced the smaller wagons, and Studebaker sold them through their dealers. South Bend Toy also sold the wagons through the Sears & Roebuck catalog.
Included now in this post is a scan of the Sears & Roebuck catalog page from 1924 advertising the Studebaker Junior. The advertisement was provided to me by Gordon Westover, who builds upscale wagons and restores antique wagons, doing business on eBay as WagonMasterCoaster. If you have a moment and are interested, stop by his eBay store.
I have seen a number of real photo postcards picturing this wagon being pulled by a goat, and apparently photographers used the Studebaker Junior as a standard prop for children's photos.
I recently saw one of these wagons (not restored) at auction, and it sold for $3,300.
Ride on!
I always love seeing your Old Paper Art - but this one...absolutely fantastic! How much fun it would have been to have one of those! I could hook it up to my boxer and head to the market! :)
ReplyDeleteHow very wonderful! And I loved your mentioning wooden croquet sets. When I was a child, we were very short on toys, but our parents got us a croquet set for the 4th of July one time and that was well played with in our big yard. Lots of arguing and "hitting away" but fond memories. We played croquet with our granddaughters when they were young, also. My daughter has that set now. Carol
ReplyDeleteFabulous!
ReplyDeleteStudebaker was a big name in our house after the war. Friends that lived with us, the wife while the hubby was on Pacific Islands as a sea-bee, had moved in with us (me and mom) and their first car was a Studebaker and then the car with the airplane propeller cone for a nose and some people said you couldn't tell which way it was going, became their care of choice. I think they got a new one each year. I have never seen the wagon but it looks like one we kids used to play with.
ReplyDeleteGotta wonder if a Studebaker wagon was featured in any of those old photos my grandfather made with his goat and wagon. I must have a look when time permits.
ReplyDeleteVery cool, MrCachet!
Hi Dave - thought I better get over here and say hello and let you knwo that I'm loving the wagon and I wish my two year old had one so that he could stop running rings around me and pull me along in this fine chariot instead!!
ReplyDeleteStupendous drawing. And thanks for the background information too.
ReplyDeletethanks for the mini lesson...i wouldn't have distinguished the difference!
ReplyDeleteterrific drawing such details!
You had asked me where I found the image I posted at my blog...I found it at a junk store near me for $1. And yes, it is an old photo postcard. A fun find!
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