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Advertising Poster for the Delespaul-Havez Chocolate Factory The Delespaul-Havez chocolate factory is one of the oldest houses in France, for the manufacture of chocolates and confectionery. Founded in 1848 by Mr. Delespaul-Havez, who specialized in the manufacture of dragees and chocolate candies. The workshops occupied the various floors of a house located in Lille, opposite the old theatre, near the Parisian Passage and which had the sign “Au Parrain genereux” 3. Business prospered rapidly since 1848, Mr. Delespaul-Havez expanded his workshops and began manufacturing chocolate bars.This factory, devastated during the 1914-1918 war, was burnt down in 1922, rebuilt on modern plans; it was the largest chocolate factory in the region north of Paris. Taken over by Générale Alimentaire in 1965, the company merged in 1972 with La Pie Qui Chante. |
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Delespaul-Havez Candy Train, circa 1900 Possibly made by Hess is this circa 1900 candy train produced for the Delespaul-Havez Chocolat Company, a French company founded in 1848 and based in Lille, France. Hess appears to have made many special contract pieces for other companies. Many times the contract pieces involved simple graphic changes, such as the penny toy trains for Carette, the named steamboat and boy on sled for Selright or the “America” battleship made for some un-named American distributor. Other times, mechanical changes were made such as the “Odin” locomotive, a sub-series 300 locomotive with no catalog reference known, but either made for the Danish market or a Danish toy distributor. The survival of this candy train continues to amaze me as these pieces are as fragile as they are rare. |
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Hess Pasted Paper Litho Set Loco: L 6” (15.25 cm) W 2.75” (7 cm) H 5” (12.7 cm) Passenger cars: L 5” (12.7 cm) W 2.75” (7 cm) H 3.75” (9.5 cm) An early Hess pasted paper litho set. Before chromolithography (lithographic printing on tinplate) was perfected, Hess printed images on thin paper and pasted them to their trains. Hess produced several size paper litho sets and this set is the largest I have observed as it measures a full 33 inches (84 cm) long when put together. The locomotive is marked “London” and “No. 5000” with the tender being marked “No. 10”. Brown and yellow passenger cars marked “No. 100”, red passenger car marked “No. 400”. Freight car marked “T2500”. Tab and slot construction, wheels affixed with lead and all pieces having the Hess logo embossed in the frame. |
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Hess for Carette Grand Trunk Train (circa 1910) One of the hardest to find trains produced by Hess for Carette. Shrouded in mystique, this toy is rarely seen or even heard about. Based on the original Hess 1035 train series, it was manufactured for Carette with the number designation of 907 for the locomotive and the “Grand Trunk” livery printed on the side of passenger and freight cars. Passenger cars were produced in blue, brown, red and yellow with the freight car in gray. The Grand Trunk Railroad was primarily a Canadian railroad headed by Charles Melville Hays in the late 19th and early 20th century. Plagued by financial difficulty for years, it eventually collapsed and was nationalized in 1923 after the loss of brilliant railroad executive Hayes on the Titanic sinking in 1912. This railroad was financed primarily by English investors and I can’t help but wonder if this train was ordered by Hays as a promotional product or as a small gift to investors / potential investors. No documentation has been revealed to substantiate this thought. For those familiar with the Downton Abbey series, Hugh Crawley, the British Earl of Grantham was a fictional character who lost a fortune on investments with the Grand Trunk Railroad. |
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Painted Hess 1035 Locomotive First noticed at an online auction site, I thought this locomotive was a graphic variation produced by Hess. After inquiring at the auction house whether this loco had been painted, I was assured by their “experts” it was not and was all original. Quite a disappointment when it arrived, as it was painted. It is an early model with passenger cars having printed and tabbed clerestory and wheel bogies with one piece wheelsets. I decided to keep it as a reminder that “experts” are not always expert in their determinations.
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