Bradley's Toy Village Set #4552 1909 - Pt 4

Here's the last building in Bradley's Toy Village Set #4552, the Village Store. Unlike some of the other paper stores I have, the display windows on this one really don't reveal much of whats inside, just some generic looking meat and groceries and a patron inside the door.. This building is a hybrid store and house - perhaps the store owner's live upstairs as was the case so often back in the day. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Bradley's Toy Village Set #4552 1909 - Pt 3

Today we'll look at the second house in Bradley's Toy Village Set #4552 from 1909. Sometimes we have a romantic idea that things made in the Good Old Days were of better quality than now ('They sure don't make them the way they used to') but that's not entirely so, it's just a misconception. In fact, many things made back then weren't quite up to par. This house is a good example. The color registration is off, making a couple of the sides look blurry and the printing does not match up exactly with the way the houses were cut out of the sheet of cardboard (or the cardboard was cut wrong). Not quite the perfection we cherish so from days gone by. Still, it's another fine example of vintage paper and I like it.  Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Bradley's Toy Village Set #4552 1909 - Pt 2

Milton Bradley's Bradley's Toy Village set from 1909 includes three houses but two of them are the same. Today we'll look at that doppelganger. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

Bradley's Toy Village Set #4552 1909 - Pt 1

Toys & Stuff is pleased to bring you another vintage paper toy: Bradley's Toy Village Set #4552 of 1909 by the Milton Bradley Company. The company was formed way back in 1860 and quickly gained notoriety as a game manufacturer. It was the first American company to produce and sell a complete croquet set and during the Civil War they noticed how bored soldiers were during the lull between fighting and developed a game which the men could carry with them. but it was board games which placed the company on the maps. 

Although strictly speaking today's toy is not a game, if you read the 'instructions' on the inside of the box they certainly tried to make the toy educational. It consists of a paper landscaped playmat, three houses (two of which are identical), a store, and three accessory cardboard pieces with metal stands. The box measures 9 1/4" (23.5cm) L x 7 1/4" (18.4cm) W. The landscaped playmat is quite small measuring 15 7/8" (40.3cm) L  x 6 5/8" (16.8cm) W and when all four buildings and the detail pieces are placed on it it's pretty well hidden. The building walls measure 4" (10.2cm) L x 2 3/4" (7cm) D x 4 1/4" (10.8cm) H (w/o roof). The roofs on all four buildings are the same red roof w/shingles. The roof, when flattened out, measures 4 3/8" (11.1cm) W x 5 7/8" (14.9cm) L

Back on  November 17-21, 2014 we featured the Ready Cut Village featuring five different buildings. There was no manufacturer listed but the stamping's are nearly identical (on today's set all the buildings have peaked dormers while the buildings in the Ready Cut Village have both peaked and rounded dormers). The lithography on the sets are different as well but because of the sizes and basic design the two can be sister sets. Over the next few days we'll look at the different building's included with Bradley's Toy Village. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

The accessory group

One piece metal stands like this were commonly used to hold cardboard pieces back in the day.

Governess Cart

4" (10.2cm) L x 2 7/8" (7.3cm)  H

1909 Touring Car

5 1/2" (14cm) L x 2 9/16" (6.5cm) H

The result of a brutal police interrogation?

Nah, this lady lost her head a long time ago judging by the wear on the piece. She's a vendor and is meant to sit outside the Village Store.

2 5/8"  (6.7cm)  L x 2 1/16" (5.2cm) H