Wind our Modern Train and watch as it moves around the all tin track. The tin train passes shipping and industrial buildings as it winds around its figure 8 track. This tin train set was originally made in the 1940s by Modern Toys Masudaya of Japan.

Our Modern Train set measures 9” x 5.5” x 2.5” High with the train. It comes with a key in a very decorative box.

This toy is for collectors, not for children.

This friendly label measures 3.9” Wide x 2.2” Tall and was for “Howdy” Orange Soda produced by the Pioneer Bottle Works in Davenport, Washington. We think the label dates back to the 1920s – 1930s. Obviously, if you drank this soda you’d be saying Howdy to just about everyone you met.

Pioneer Bottle Works was started in 1904 by Arthur Einbeck and his wife Emma in Davenport, Washington. The business was successful and as it expanded, customers were able to order their soda delivered by wagon and then by truck and train. Pioneer Bottle Works serviced communities along the railroad routes of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railroads.

Arthur died in 1916 at the young age of 44. After his death, Emma continued the business, aided by her children, Art and Gertrude, until she died in 1968. The business was left to the two kids who continued to run it successfully until Art, known locally as “Pioneer Pops”, died in 1982. It was the last privately operated bottling works in Washington State and produced 26 different flavor choices including Raspberry, Loganberry, and Pineapple sodas; Lemon Sour; Creme Beer; Chocolate Fiz, Lemon Fiz, and Kola Fiz: Ginger Ale; Cherry and Grape Nips; and finally Howdy's Orange Soda.

This new tin robot is a reproduction of one of the most prized of all tin robots that marked the start of the golden age of robots. It is now acknowledge by collectors to be the world's first toy robot and appeared in Japan in the late 1930s. Little is know about the original company who manufactured it, just the letters K. T. A perfect original in its box would cost around $10,000.

This charming reproduction features a yellow/orange body with black and white details. He has an on/off switch on his back and when you wind him up and let him go, he marches along with a stiff-legged gait as he leans forward and swings his arms.

Our robot measures 8.75" Tall x 4" Wide x 2.5" Deep and comes in a colorful 1950s era box with a key.

This California vintage crate label features a bright multi-faced crystal or diamond in the upper left corner and measures 13” Wide x 4” High. The lithographed artwork is by Schmidt Litho of Fresno, California. The label dates to the 1940s and the grapes were picked, packed, and shipped by Reedley Grape Growers of Reedley, California.

Reedley is located in the central San Joaquin Valley portion of California, about 25 miles southeast of Fresno.  Lying between the coastal mountain ranges and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the valley’s rich, fertile soil produces some of the world’s most intensive agricultural production. Since the 1940s, Reedley has been known as the Fruit Basket of the World because it leads the nation in the shipment of fresh fruit. Lately, the area has also become known for its exceptional recreational amenities including sandy beaches and water sports, numerous city parks, redwoods, and mountain streams.

Our “South” Carolina peach basket label measures 2.6” x 8.75” and is from the 1950s. The label features the outline of South Carolina in the background and the fruit was grown and distributed by Blue Goose Growers, Inc. of Johnston, South Carolina.

The peach industry has been a major economic factor to Johnston and the town carries the title “Peach Capital of the World.”  Located in the rolling hills of west central South Carolina, Johnston was founded in 1870 when the first railroad came through. Gracious Southern homes of the Victorian era line the main streets and provide that small town atmosphere that many Americans think of as the South.

While Georgia dominated the early peach industry, many South Carolina farmers began replacing row crops, such as asparagus, with peach trees in the 1920s. Peach production grew at an incredible pace and in 1946 surpassed Georgia for the first time. In 1948, South Carolina out-produced California to claim the title of largest peach producing state.

Peach production peaked in South Carolina in 1984 with a crop of over 480,000 tons. Since then, due to a variety of factors, production has declined to less than a quarter of that. South Carolina is still the second largest producer of peaches growing approximately one quarter of the country’s fresh peaches.

This wonderful collection of pharmacy labels is from the Newton Drug Company of Seattle, Washington. It features a great group of mostly poison labels with Skull & Crossbones including Sulphuric Acid (2.7” x 1.5”), Calomel (2.5” x 1.4”), Carbolic Acid (2.75” x 1.3”), Tinct. Iodine (2.6” x 1.65”), Nitric Acid (2.6” x 1.5”), and Aromatic Cascara (2.7” x 1.2”). Based on the telephone number of 3375, we think these labels date to the 1920s.

The Newton Drug Company opened for business in 1911, at 676 Jackson Street in Seattle, Washington. The proprietor of the drug store was Joe K. Imai. He operated this successful drug store for 30 years, when the start of World War II, in December of 1941, brought a tragic end to the store. Japanese American citizens who lived on the West Coast were forced by our government to move to "relocation camps" in other areas of the country. The Imai family was given a short time to sell their stock, and the store was closed. After the war, the Imai family returned to Seattle but did not reenter the drug store business. I found a photo of the drugstore taken in 1915 with five people in the doorway. It came from the University of Washington Libraries, Wing Luke Asian Museum.

This vintage poison label dates to the 1920s – 1930s and measures 2.4” Wide x 1.4” High. The label is from the Alter Road Drug Company of Detroit, Michigan. They must have been a nice sized operation since they have two (2) phone numbers on the label, 9361 and 9362. They were located near the intersection of Kercheval Avenue and Alter Road. It is the part of Detroit that borders Grosse Pointe, and represents a poorer part of town. The hardware store from the movie Gran Torino is close to here.

Muriatic acid is a strong, corrosive, inorganic acid (HCl)and another name for Hydrochloric Acid. It is one of the most corrosive acids and particularly distructive to cellulose and human skin. It is used for metal, brick, and concrete cleaning and maintaining swimming pools, as well as, processing leather and making PVC piping. Interestly, it is also appears in gastric acid to help digest food. Now where's my Tums.

A cute classic, our wind-up Paddling Duck has a built-in key. The tin duck features colorful green blue, orange, and yellow lithography. Wind her up and she swims with her legs waddling behind her. She is just too cute to pass up.

Our tin toy duck measures 4” Long x 2” Long x 1.5” Wide and has a built-in key and white box with black graphic. This toy was made in China.

This 1930s era tin toy features a golfer dressed for the time period practicing his putting before the big game. Our tin toy reproduction is made in India to exacting standards with colorful graphics and looks like it was really made in 1930. Pull back the spring-loaded golf club and fire a shot at the fenced inclosed green. This tin toy is not huge, so it sits perfectly on a desk or counter and is great fun to play with.

This is a great looking poison label with the unusual red and green colors on an off-white background. The chloroform poison label measures 2.4” Wide x 1.4” Tall and is from Denton’s Drug Store in Mentone, Indiana. The store was owned and run by Glenn Denton and his wife Louise until he retired to Inverness, Florida in 1970. It was a Rexall store and checkout the telephone number, 47. Our guess is this label dates to the 1930s or 1940s.

The town of Mentone is the self-proclaimed “Egg Basket of the Midwest” because of its large commercial egg production and it has a huge concrete egg in the center of town which they consider the largest egg in the world. Mentone also is the boyhood home of Lawrence Bell, founder of Bell Aircraft.

Discovered in the 1830s, Chloroform (an organic compound) is commonly associated with the old movies when the bad guy used a handkerchief loaded with Chloroform to subdue his target. In reality it has several other uses. Yes, it was first used as an anesthetic since it smelled and performed better than ether, but it was later found to have toxicity and a tendency to cause cardiac arrest. It is a precursor in the production of Teflon and is a great solvent used to produce dyes and pesticides and it can be used to bond Plexiglas together. As a side note, it was used to produce R-22 refrigerant for A/C systems, but is being phased out by government mandate.

This is the “PERFECTO GARCIA & BROS. FINEST CIGARS” nail tag and seal label. This label was used to cover the nail closing the cigar box and to seal the box so the buyer knew he was getting the original cigars. Each label measures 3” Wide x 2.25” Tall and they have great detail, embossing, good color, and gold gilding. These labels were popular during the 1900 – 1930 time periods. This label is just beautiful.

Perfecto Garcia was established in 1905 by four Garcia Brothers. They used Cuban tobacco that was grown on their family owned farms and rolled the cigars in Ybor City (Tampa), Florida. They also owned over fifteen cigar shops in Chicago and most of their marketing was aimed there.

Perfecto Garcia was considered one of the highest grade cigars made at that time. The company claimed to make 65 different sizes of cigars. At it's peak, Perfecto Garcia Brothers employed 1,200 workers and the cigars were rolled by hand.

Due to the Cuban Embargo, Perfecto Garcia's Cuban tobacco inventory dwindled and like many other cigar companies in Ybor City, they sold their business. Perfecto Garcia was sold to Havano Cigar Corp., which brought in machines to roll the cigars averaging 60,000 per day. United States Tobacco acquired the company in 1981 and shut down operations in Ybor City and moved the operation to a modern factory in Yoe, PA.

This rare Egyptian Henna label is from J. C. Japp & Co., Inc. of Cincinnati, Ohio. The label measures 4” Wide x 2.7” High, features the flowers of the Henna plant using wonderful purple, gold, and teal colors, and dates to early 1900s. The labels says its “For Tinting The Hair Beautiful Auburn Shades” and “Any hair matched perfectly”. They also recommend you wear Japp’s Reliable Switches and Transformations (What ever those are). This label is just simply beautiful.

The leaves of the fascinating Henna plant are the source of a red-brown dye widely used for body art, known as Mehndi in South Asia and now popular around the world. Egyptian Royalty were said to dye their hair with Henna leaves. Since 1890 it has been widely used in Europe for tinting the hair, usually in the form of a shampoo, many shades being obtainable by mixing with the leaves of other plants, such as indigo. The plant is mostly found in Egypt, India, Kurdistan, Iran, and Syria.