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| Tin steamboat on wheels pull toy, circa 1880 Possibly made by Hess as it appears to have tab and slot construction. Hess was a pioneer in the German toy industry and early patent holder of this type construction along with many other patents for their toys. Soldered construction with multi-colored spirit varnish decoration and “waves” embossed into the platform. Dimensions of this toy: L 12” x H 6” |
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Tinplate castle with soldiers on wheels pull toy, circa 1870 Maker of the tinplate castle with soldiers guarding each end is unknown, but is typical of the toys that Hess was known to produce. Much embossed tinplate with multi colored spirit varnish decoration and soldered construction. Dimensions: L 13.5” x H 8.5” |
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Hess Prelitho locomotives, circa 1890s The smallest and the largest of locomotives Hess offered in the 1890s. The smaller (penny toy) size was offered with painted passenger cars. Later, paper litho was offered on this set and finally, lithography direct to tinplate. The largest used printed paper lithography which was pasted onto the locomotive and cars. |
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Hess pre-litho locomotives with wheel variation, circa 1880s These two locomotives are identical with the exception of the wheels. Loco on left has complicated multi-piece constructed wheels. Loco on right has much simpler, one piece stamped tinplate wheels. A patent number is not stamped on the left wheel although it says “patented” and a patent (No. 36181), dated October 28, 1885 is found for this method. The right loco has “Deutsches Reich Patent No. 44408” (January 29, 1888) stamped in the metal. |
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Hess pre-litho penny toys, circa 1870s L 2.5” (6.4 cm), W 1.13” (2.9 cm), H 2.13” (5.4 cm) These pre-litho penny toys are all hand painted and have the early Hess logo embossed into the bottom metal frame. Cast metal wheels with cast metal figures soldered to a tinplate platform. Animal figures include horse, lion, dog, deer, elephant and I am sure there were others. Bottom right shows the early Hess logo embossed into frame. |
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Hess Pre-Paper Litho Train, circa 1880s Shown is an early hand painted set before Hess pasted printed paper litho to the sides of their product. This was a very early attempt to get away from the fragile cast metal wheels on toys of the period. This locomotive uses the earliest Hess patented method of wheel production for the driving wheels of the locomotive. All of the wheels on the loco and cars were of multi-piece tinplate and wire construction; a laborious method which drove Hess to produce a much simpler, single piece, stamped tinplate wheel. The locomotive driving wheel design was generally used for construction on later models, whereas the 4 spoke multi-piece wheel design was abandoned early on. An interesting observation in the transition of wheel production in the Hess workshop. |
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Hess Different Size Prelitho Locomotives, circa 1880s In the early years it was not unusual for toy manufacturers to produce different sizes of the same toy. Whether this was for pricing concerns or size of the child is uncertain. This practice was discontinued after a time as Hess standardized their products. I am sure market demand probably had much to do with this decision. Shown are three different size locomotives with the same styling produced by Hess with only the largest size being absent.
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