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Micro Signage

Could it be any more British? Wardie’s wonderful miniature newsstand sported great period signage.

by Douglas R. Kelly

 

My great friend of many years, Renny Schoonmaker, likes to call these kinds of things “go-with items.” These are the displays, the ads, and the accessories that came with—or were marketed with—the main act. In my case, and in Renny’s, that main act often is vintage toys, and more often than not, it’s toy cars.
One of my favorite categories of go-with items is the toy sign. These little numbers sometimes came with sets of toy cars, but they more often were sold as sets of signs. Meccano of England offered road signs as part of its Dinky Toys line starting in the mid-1930s, and many makers of die-cast, tinplate, and plastic toy cars eventually included road signs among their product offerings – a natural accessory for young customers who wanted to add to their miniature roads and villages. In fact, we have our friends in the model railroading community to thank for many of these miniature signs, as many were aimed at that side of the toy hobby.
This tinplate Road Closed sign has nice, sharp edges, unlike the die-cast metal signs flanking it.
This tinplate Road Closed sign has nice, sharp edges, unlike the die-cast metal signs flanking it.
The “Dead End” and “One-Hour Parking” signs shown here are typical of the 1930s and 1940s signs, being die-cast metal and sporting raised metal letters. The One-Hour parking sign says “MINATOY” along one edge, a company about which I know very little, other than that it apparently was located in New York. The Dead End sign says “AUTHENTICAST” on one edge, which was a toy sign series made by Comet Metal Products in New York, and that name I do know as I’ve seen it on sets of toy signs over the years. These small (about 1.5 inches high) signs aren’t hard to find and generally are quite affordable, and I think they look period-perfect when placed next to a toy car of the right size/scale.
Could it be any more British? Wardie’s wonderful miniature newsstand sported great period signage.
Could it be any more British? Wardie’s wonderful miniature newsstand sported great period signage.
The Plymouth billboard ad is a cardboard insert placed in a plastic sign frame, and these also are fairly easy to track down today despite being 75-ish years old. They were made by Lionel, the model train people, and the frame is 5.75 inches in length. I think one of the great things about these is they advertised real products: Juicy Fruit gum, Underwood typewriters, Shell gasoline, and so forth. They really add to a model railway layout or a shelf full of toy cars.

I stumbled across the “ROAD CLOSED” sign a year or two ago at a flea market and bought it just because it’s made of tinplate. No maker’s mark or anything on it, but nice sharp edges of the kind that we somehow all survived back in the day.
If you’ve read this far, you’ll be glad to know we’ve saved the best for last. Take a close look at that green newsstand … I had never seen this piece before, although I do have a couple of other Wardie Product items in my collection. This appeared at the Allentown, PA toy show last Fall, an event that always produces the rare, the beautiful, the stuff that dreams are made of, as the saying goes. London-based Wardie (actually B.J. Ward Ltd.) made all kinds of figures and small buildings and signs as part of its Master Models line for model railways, and this “bookstall,” as the end flap of the box describes it, just radiates British charm. It also has lots to look at, with signs for various newspapers and even for Players cigarettes. The name of the business is W.H. Smith & Son, newsagents and booksellers, and Mr. Smith (or son) can be seen inside the newsstand, arranging the periodicals. As a collector of vintage comic books, I grabbed a loupe and carefully examined the inventory, but the publications are too small to tell whether there are any Wonder Woman or Human Torch books in the bunch.
Lionel’s plastic billboards advertised actual products.
Lionel’s plastic billboards advertised actual products.
The newsstand is OO gauge, a British scale that equates to about 1:76. So far, this is the only toy newsstand in my collection – but now I’m wondering whether Plasticville made anything like this among their stores and houses. For now, I think I have a 1:76 scale 1950s Jowett Javelin sedan that’ll look just right parked next to W.H. Smith & Son, newsagents.

Douglas R. Kelly is the editor of Marine Technology magazine. His byline has appeared in Antiques Roadshow Insider; Back Issue; Diecast Collector; RetroFan; and Buildings magazines.