The art of lithography: later years-Part II by Keith Wills
“The art of lithography: Part I” ap- peared in the February, 2013 COLLEC- TOR CONSIST .
C
hromolithography for model trains of such high status began in the late 19th century Ger-
many and was called the “Nuremberg Style.” There was a fanciful range of low end to high end models of remark- able realism, considering where our own early manufacture was at the time. German imports were thought of as the best. They were quality models. When Ives began making O gauge clockwork trains in 1901, its first mod- els were knock-offs of lithographed Iss- mayer and Marklin precedents. How- ever, Ives soon discovered its own identity with designs that made it dis- tinctly American. It became the quality American line with artwork setting it apart from other domestic tin printed manufacture.
Lionel scorned lithography as cheap and preferred enamel and rubber stamping and only gave in after it bought into Ives in 1928. Following the 1929 Wall Street crash, Lionel itself was in serious trouble as it continued with newly printed Lionel-Ives, later Winner and later still 027 models. They were colorful and playful but not terribly inspired. Some lasted until 1942.
In the late 1930’s, Louis Hertz con- sidered lithography superior to other production methods of the time. Those methods were a mix of unrealistically enameled steel and scale detailed mod- els. He tried to influence tinplate com- panies, unsuccessfully, to return to li- thography for the greater realism Ives and Dorfan once produced. Lionel in- troduced brightly colored enameling in the 1920’s with shiny brass or nickeled details such as ladders, brake wheels, name plates and car numbers. All of these were abhorred by Hertz but they were soon followed by Ives and Ameri-
1927 DORFAN O GAUGE FREIGHT CARS
can Flyer who needed to compete effec- tively. He felt Ives and Dorfan had been best by far, and they were. We will examine several examples of fine li- thography, the type to which Hertz wanted to return. Ives was the earliest company to rep-
resent prototype realism, meaning au- thentic railroad heralds and car data on its many freight cars. An example here is a 1929 (judging by its trucks) New York Central Lines five-inch box- car. It displays capacity, weight, named air brake manufacturer, plus exterior and interior dimensional data. The only unrealistic note was “Built in the Ives Shops.” The company’s longer, bet- ter proportioned nine-inch cars, a scale 36-feet long are as convincing. Ives was alone with this type of realism. Then came Dorfan.
Dorfan ran counter to enameled rolling stock, and being scion of Ger- man Fandor, it was natural to carry on its German lithographic heritage. Its O and Wide gauge cars are remarkable for their fidelity as their 1927 exam- ples show. While remaining stubby on high tinplate trucks, these cars had heralds and data much as Ives had
IVES 1929
manufactured. This was the kind of in- formation that Lionel and American Flyer could not stamp on enamel. Its 14-inch long, Wide gauge car bodies rode lower with even more refined de- tail. One can understand Hertz’s ap- preciation of Ives and Dorfan’s art, for it was art.
American Flyer printed O gauge rolling stock from the start, some with simple joyful, playful art, others with well done realism. Wide gauge freight cars arrived in 1927, the enamel era; so were never printed.
Lithographed
Wide gauge passenger cars, however, dated from 1925 before becoming enameled shortly after. The most beau- tiful in this writer’s opinion, are the 4080, 4081 and 4082 19½″ baggage- mail, Pullman and observation cars. Smaller 14½″ lithographed cars were equally fine, but the length of the 4080 series imparts a near scale quality, al- most 57³/₈″ scale feet and were very at- tractive. There is a prototypical grace
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