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Cast-iron toys made by the Hubley Manufacturing Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, include wagons and carts pulled by circus animals and horses, fire engines, motorcycles, construction vehicles, and mechanical and still banks in the shapes of
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Cast-iron toys made by the Hubley Manufacturing Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, include wagons and carts pulled by circus animals and horses, fire engines, motorcycles, construction vehicles, and mechanical and still banks in the shapes of animals and figures. Antique and vintage Hubley toys from the 1890s to World War II are the most prized by collectors. In 1894, when John Hubley founded the company, the business plan was to get into the model-train business, which had been pioneered in the United States by Ives and in Germany by Märklin. In those days, model trains were still pulled or wound up by young engineers, unrestricted by the tyranny of tracks. That changed, though, in 1900, when Joshua Lionel Cohen sold his first electric train that ran on a small track. That same year, Ives created tracks for its model trains, and by 1910, Ives was offering electric trains on O-gauge tracks. Alas, Hubley was unable to capitalize on the electric-toy-train revolution, and so, in 1909, it sold off its train inventory and shifted its attention to its lines of cast-iron toys. These ranged from firefighting vehicles such as hook-and-ladder wagons and pumpers to transportation modes such as gigs, surreys, and phaetons, all of which were pulled by cast-iron horses spurred on by cast-iron drivers. After World War I, Hubley became known for its cast-iron circus toys, which depicted a fictitious company called the Royal Circus. Toys in this series typically included a pair of black or white draft horses pulling calliopes, caged animals such as giraffes, and vans honoring farmers or showing off clowns. In many cases, the painted cast iron is supplemented by cast aluminum, stamped tinplate, and even glass. Another genre of vintage cast-iron vehicles for which Hubley is known are its police wagons, which feature a quartet of uniformed officers and a pair of horses that bob up and down as the wheels under the animals turn. Other vehicles common to early...
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