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Steel toy maker

Shortie

Shortie

master brummie
Can someone tell me what a 'steel toy maker' was in 1911?

I know what it would have been in 1811 but iin 1911 was steel used to make children's toys or would some other item be classed as a 'toy'. I would have thought steel was a bit strong and expensive for toys, but I am happy to be proved wrong.
 
Shortie from what I've read 'Steel Toys' refereed to things other than Children's toys, they were also trinkets, and ladies broaches that kind of thing, often enamelled to look 'Posh' (for those who couldn't afford Gold and Silver)
 
Hi Pom, I had not thought of that, thank you. I thought children's toys would have been made of tin anyway, and not steel, but had not thought of any kind of jewellery, but I can see what you are saying. I shall look further into it. Thanks again.
 
The companies listed as steel toy manufacturers in 1912 Kelly s are below:
STEEL TOY MANUFACTRS.
Marked thus * are Light Steel Toy Makers.
Marked thus + are Heavy Steel Toy Makers.
"•Berkeley & Co. Ltd. 288 Windsor st
British Export Co. (importers), 62 St.Paul's square
Cassell Samuel&Son ,94-98 Lombard st
+Hadley Joseph & Co. 9 Weston street, Bloomsbury street
+Handley & Wilkins Limited (manufacturers of hammers & all kinds of heavy steel toys in general),63Phillips' street, Aston brook
*Heeley James & Sons Limited, 35 Hampton street
*Law & Co. 7St. George's ter.Brearley st
Massingham Geo. 131½ Constitution hill
Myers M. & Son (manufacturers of steel springs & cycle electrical smallware),Charlotte Street pen works
*Perry & Co. Limited, Perryan works,Lancaster street
*Willetts C. T. Limited, 206 Heneage st
*Wynn, Timmins & Co. Ltd. Century works, Commercial street

From this it looks like Steel toys then included pen nibs, tools and cycle accessories
mike
 
Thanks Mike, this sounds very interesting stuff. He lived near Five Ways, so any could have been his place of work. Is Wynn, Timmins & Co the forerunner of Charles Wynn in Granville Street? Commercial Street is just aound the corner, so to speak. I have to admit I would never have thought of a hammer as being a 'toy'. Thanks very much.
 
I tend to think steel toys years ago was tin plate toys, Held together by parts with small tabs on that were pushed into slots in the other part of the toy and bent round to hold the parts together.
They were of coarse made of sheet steel and painted.
Try Google " Tin plate toys."
 
I have not read it all Alf but I have got a plumber's scraper in the shed.
I don't remember any soldered or riveted bits on the small amount of toys I had.
 
STEEL TOYS. Hello, I've just joined the fun! Through my research into the history of adjustable spanners in the UK for a book, I can suggest the following. The term was used only in the B'ham area for items made in steel. There were 3 main categories with what I'd call soft crossover boundaries: Heavy Steel Toys included all handtools such as hammers, pincers, spanners (fixed and adjustable), corkscrews, nutcrackers; Light Steel Toys included ornamental ware such as stampings for drawer handle plates, and practical items like hinges, drawer handles and needles, and: Fancy Steel Toys (term not so often used) included jewellery and trinkets. Remember that gold and silver electroplating was developed in the early 1800s in this area, and all other plating soon became common, so the 'steel' could be protected and visually enhanced.
 
Hello Ron, and thank you. I had no idea the term 'toys' was only used in Birmingham, but I did think it was more or less a Georgian name rather than one from the early 1900's. Very interesting, although I shall never know what my dad's uncle Harry actually made, but it will help others probably too.

Shortie
 
Shortie said:
Hello Ron, and thank you. I had no idea the term 'toys' was only used in Birmingham, but I did think it was more or less a Georgian name rather than one from the early 1900's. Very interesting, although I shall never know what my dad's uncle Harry actually made, but it will help others probably too.

Shortie
Click to expand...


Shortie

here you are

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy
 
While the word "toys" undoubtably is used mainly to describe Birmingham products, I don’t think the term was only used in Birmingham, or that they were only steel. Defoe in 1728 said “ nothing is more evident in trade at this time than that the best knife blades, scissors, surgical instruments , watches, clocks, jacks & locks that are in the world, and especially toys and gay things are made in England and especially London”. I suppose that some might consider toys here to mean toys in the modern context, but I don’t think it likely. John Price Durban in his “Observations of Europe, principally France and Great Britain vol 2” describes the area as “The great toyshop of the world”, as did the Catholic magazine and monthly review, (vol3). Knight, in “Capital & labour” refers to makers of glass toys such as glass eyes.
As to the material of toys, Gill (History of Birmingham) quotes a 1770 Birmingham directory : “these articles are divided into several branches, as the gold & silver toymakers, who make trinkets, seals, tweezers, tooth pick cases, smelling boxes, snuff boxes & filigree work such as toilets, teachests inkstands etc etc. The tortoise toymaker makes a beautiful variety of the above , and other articles, as does the steel, who makes corkscrews, buckles…. and almost all of these are likewise made in various metals.”.
Mike
 
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