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I have 3 of above make toys. A fire engine, ambulance and a breakdown recovery truck. They seem to be based on early 1930s American design, possibly Ford but as there is an "S" cast onto the centre of the radiator perhaps another make. Does anyone know about these toys, history etc.? Love to know as have owned them for 50 years in ignorance!

Can you take a shot of the marks underneath them? I'm trying to ID them for you. What are the sizes of each car/truck?

Gerald

The chassis is standard across all the models, with the tops attached via the lugs which you can see either side of the 'copyrighted' text. The wheelbase measures 58mm and the length of the chassis is 75mm.

Hope that helps :)

They seem to be some obscure British Brand, I have nothing in my books about them. They could date back to the 30s into the 60s. There were companys in the 50s/60s that make White Metal cars that looked old and sold them at antiques.

Whatever they are, I like them. If I ever come across some info I'll pass it on. You might want to check in with some British Diecast sites, or look for a book on British Diecast, there are a few out there.

Wow, I post that and then hit something, T&B stands for Taylor and Barrett. There products appear to be made out of Lead, not white metal. Looking over auction sites they made a lot of animal figurines and zoo animals and soliders


I found this tidbit too

Taylor and Barrett
Producers of a number of toys, usually made of lead by the hollow casting process. The company was established by two brothers-in-law, Fred Taylor and A. R. Barrett.
Their products include petrol pumps, road signs and street lamps, plus a rather attractive-looking trolleybus, fire engines and related emergency vehicles, an ice cream salesman on a tricycle, plus a number of cars and small commercials dating from the 1930s.
After the Second World War the two partners went their separate ways, forming F. G. Taylor & Sons, and Barrett & Sons, London.
The London trolleybus was produced in two sizes: after the war it continued in production from Barrett & Sons.

So we've had our history lesson today, thanks for the pictures, I learned a new company today

Gerald

Don't go licking them now.

Many thanks for the info that you sent. I have now found some T and B items for sale on E bay and surprisingly they dont seem to be very expensive bearing in mind the fragile nature of materail. As a matter of interest, they came to me as part of an aerodrome toy collection called "Skybirds" which is an equally rare toy, again from the mid 1930s. I guess that at the time they were the only readily available emergency vehicles for an aerodrome. The whole lot was given to me by the widow of a Godfather whose son (aeroplane mad obviously) joined the British Fleet Air Arm at the begining of the 2nd World war and was lost when he zoomed off on his own to intercept another wave of attack.

Yes, I agree, they prices are not as high as I believed they would be. As long as you like them that's what matters.