Buckets of Fun at the Seashore

 

QUESTION: As I was browsing a local antique mall, I noticed an old tin sand pail sitting on a shelf along with a variety of other old toys. Seeing it brought back a flood of memories of vacations at the seashore with my family. Every summer, my father would pack up the car for our week at the New Jersey shore. Two items I made my father pack were my tin sand pail and shovel—indispensable for building sand castles. I never thought of sand pails as collectibles and seeing one on a shelf with other old toys was a surprise. What can you tell me about how these little pails got their start?

ANSWER: Sand pails appeal to both boys and girls around the world. Even those living  from the seashore played with their pail and shovel in a sandbox at school or at home in the backyard or by a lakeside. Sand pails weren’t expensive; costing just a few cents, a small price to pay to set a child's imagination off on an adventure. 

Originally, craftsmen made sand pails of wood, decorated with either a simple designs or lettering hand-painted or stenciled around them to appeal to children. After about 1840 tinsmiths started to use tin to make toys. Initially, they made pails from 12 by 14-inch sheets of tin plate imported from Wales. The small size of the sheets restricted the size of these early pails to about 4 ½  inches in diameter. As tin plate technology developed, larger, thinner sheets became available and tin plate started to be produced in the U.S. 

The designs on the earliest tin sand pails were simple, following the pattern of the earlier wooden pails with few bands of color or some letters applied free hand or stenciled over a japanned finish. Japanning consisted of several layers of paint followed by a coat of lacquer. As the market grew the decoration became more complex, a process imported from France in which tinsmiths employed a mixture of varnish and paint burned on in alcohol, then baked to produce a thin translucence to the finish.

They also used embossing on other pails to accentuate the design or lettering. It usually involved a stamping or rolling process so that parts of the surface were raised up while the pail was still in sheet form. It was then very easy to enhance the raised portions with a second color, using a paint pad or roller. 

A major technological advance came in the late 1880s with developments in lithography allowing this printing process to be applied to thin tin sheets. This innovative process printed with a detail that had previously only been possible on paper. This transformed the making of toys, as well as tin food cans and tin advertising signs. It was then possible to use multiple colors and produce fine detailing and a smooth, relatively hard wearing, durable finish. A lithographic press printed the designs and colors on flat sheets of metal from which toys could be formed using tools and dies.

By the turn of the 20th century a family visit to the seashore had become very popular.  America was on the move on weekends and took annual vacations in places like Coney Island, Atlantic City, Asbury Park, or Cape Cod.

Additionally, developments in the technology of printing processes in the 1930s enhanced the colors and details possible on tin pails, and several of the toy manufacturers employed famous illustrators to design the graphics.

The 1930s and 1940s with the popularity of radio and the movies created new heroes, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Snow White along with the Seven Dwarfs all appeared on pails, spades, sprinkling cans and water pumps. The traveling circus was extremely popular. Exotic animals performing amazing acts along with daring performers and clowns with their crazy antics all have their place on beach pails.

As the years passed, cowboys chasing Indians across the range and other Western themes became popular from the influence of television programming. Then the atomic age with space travel captured the imagination and took its place on sand pails.

Tin sand pails and shovels offered a designer a large surface on which to tell a story. Children could identify with the events depicted on pails by The Ohio Art Company of Bryan, Ohio, Kirchoff Patent Company of Newark, New Jersey, T. Cohn Co. of Brooklyn, New York, or U.S. Metal Toy Manufacturing Company of New York. Toddlers could recite favorite nursery rhymes as they looked at the four sides of a beautifully illustrated square sand pail by Julius Chein and Company of New Jersey, or delight in the exploits of Disney characters.

Children delighted in swashbuckling heroes and pirates and acted out their own stories, their pails becoming little treasure chests to transport shells from the water's edge to their ever growing sand piles. 

People are often surprised at the higher prices collectors pay for Victorian and early 20th-century sand pails. This is particularly true of examples showing early airplanes, dirigibles, steamships, Old Glory, the American Eagle, early teddy bears, early Disney characters. 

Condition is everything when collecting tin sand pails, as with other tin-lithographed toys. The design may be worth $500 or $5 the only variable with be condition. Rust, dents, missing parts and major scratches have a serious impact on value.

In establishing an antique or vintage sand pail’s value, subject matter of the illustration on it is also extremely important. Size has no real effect on value. Some collectors like large pails to display on shelves or hang from ceilings, while others prefer the mid-size ones to exhibit in small cases. Many more collect all sizes and include the minipails that were first candy containers, grouping them eclectically.

As with any toys, the best examples of tin sand pails, in mint or excellent condition l always sell for the highest prices. Considering what children did with their sand pails, it’s a wonder any survived at all.

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Seashells by the Seashore

QUESTION: Ever since I was a child playing in the sand at the seashore, I’ve loved seashells. I started collecting them and eventually began making shell crafts with them. I’ve seen antique shell-covered boxes at antique shows. How old are these boxes? And why are they decorated with shells?

ANSWER:  When you pick up a pretty shell on the beach or purchase a shell souvenir from a seaside gift shop, you’re following a tradition that goes back as far as the 16th century. A homemade sewing box decorated with shells gathered during an outing at the seashore evokes memories of a wonderful vacation.

Shells from the Far East were rare and expensive collectors' items as far back as the late 1590s. Archduke Ferdinand II devoted four rooms of his castle near Innsbruck, Austria, to shells, fossils, amber and mounted branches of coral. Soon, all over Europe, it was the fashion to decorate rooms with both common and exotic shells.

With the exploration of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the expansion of European trade, interest in sea shells as decorative items grew even stronger in the 17th century. Merchants imported large quantities of exotic shells into Europe, and shell collecting became a serious hobby. 

In the early 18th century shellwork became a popular pastime for upper-class women. They practiced all sorts of shellcraft, including making shell plaques and pictures. To help Georgian ladies with their shellwork, Mrs. Hannah Robertson published The Ladies School of Arts in 1806. In it she described various techniques of shellwork. When Victoria became Queen in 1837, the study of shells and their inhabitants became a popular subject in school. Teachers encouraged their students to take walks along  the seashore to study marine life which led to an increased interest in shell collecting and shellwork.

Ladies covered glove boxes, trinket boxes, work boxes, and musical boxes with shells. They used heavy pasteboard to construct the boxes, using patterns they found in books on shellcraft. Once they had the parts cut out, they lined them with absorbent cotton and covered them with velvet or silk, then they sewed the sides together with strong thread. They then pasted muslin over the seams and fastened the lids with strips of muslin attached with strong glue. The box makers then made a cushion which they attached  the top of the box with a glue and proceeded to cover it with shells. Those who didn’t want to make their own boxes could buy plain ones onto which they could attach their shells.

Many of the Victorian boxes contained mirrors inside the lid and had heart-shaped pincushions attached. Ladies often gave them as gifts and pasted sayings such as "Forget-me-not" and "To My Dear Mother." Some Victorian women glued on paper scraps and pictures cut out from magazines to enhance their designs.
   
To obtain shells for their projects, some ladies would gather them on trips to the seashore. Those who lived too far away from the sea could obtain them from sailors or purchase them from shell dealers.

After women gathered their shells, they soaked them in fresh water for a few hours. Some shells naturally possessed a fine polish and required no preparation for display. In many cases, however, when shells became dry, they lost their natural luster, which women restored by washing them with clear water into which a little glue had been dissolved. The most popular shell, the periwinkle, which lined almost every box, had to be specially treated. The natural, grayish outer scale had to be removed with acetic acid to reveal the pearly iridescence underneath.



After cleaning their shells, women had to sort them according to size and color. It was important to have large quantities of tiny "rice shells," and other small shells in order to fill in spaces. Ladies then laid out their shells to form a design. Roses and hearts were popular in the center of a design. Once they had their designs finalized, women dipped the ends of their shells in a mixture of white wax and glue which adhered them to the cotton batting or paper.

Shell work declined in popularity toward the end of the 19th century though it has never faded as a home pastime.

 To read more articles on antiques, please visit my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 18,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about the Victorians in the Winter 2018 Edition, "All Things Victorian," coming this week.