Vintage Chein Mechanical Turtle Tin Lithographed Windup Toy #145 *SOLD*

Vintage Chein Mechanical Turtle Tin Lithographed Windup #145 Toy

This vintage 1930-1940’s mechanical turtle lithographed windup tin toy with native rider is manufactured by J. Chein & Co. and features the colorful lithography of a native African riding on a turtle. This turtle was produced between 1930 and 1950, with several variations over the years. The earliest variations all involved the coloring on the shell.; the rarest of these being several shades of green. As times change so did toys, the native rider became a little Caucasian boy rider around the 1950’s making this toy a little more palatable for the masses.

This turtle has a built-in windup mechanism with a dedicated key. When the key is wound and you release the turtle he is scoots across flat surfaces. His windup mechanism is over wound so unfortunately he does not work as he should. Occasionally, you can get him to go a couple rotations forward but we didn’t want to continue to over wind him. His lithos are good overall with the usual patina, scratches, scuffs and chips that are seen with age and play. He is approximately 8” long, 4” high. We encourage you to examine the photographs to get a better idea of condition and quality.

A brief history of J. Chein and Company:

J. Chein & Co. was founded in a loft in New York City, New York by Julius Chein. They produced toys from 1903 until about 1979. Chein specialized in tin mechanical toys, banks, drums, and tea sets. Chein’s tin toys were mostly lithographed. Chein`s line of comic and circus tin toys received wide acceptance in the 1930’s and leading up to World War II.

In 1907, Chein moved to its full production plant to Harrison, New Jersey. In the 1920’s and early 1930’s, Chein produced a popular line of toys under the “Hercules” name, rather than their own name. In the 1970’s Chein became known as Chein Industries, Inc.

In 1979, toy manufacturing was phased out entirely. Then in the late 1980’s, Chein Industries, Inc. was sold to the Atlantic Can Company, who then changed its name to Atlantic Cheinco Corporation. The company was beset with problems with manufacturing resulting from environmental issues. Due to their issues, in 1992 they filed for bankruptcy protection. Atlantic Cheinco Corporation’s assets were then purchased by Ellisco, In. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which was a division of CSS Industries, Inc. In 1994, CSS then sold Ellisco to the U.S. Can Company of Baltimore, Maryland, who continues to produce stamped metal products.