W. S. REED TOY Co.

 

History The W. S. Reed Toy Company, founded in 1875 in Leominster, Massachusetts, produced many beautiful wooden toys until the early 1900s. Most of their toys had lithographed images applied in the style of Bliss. Some, however, had images rubber stamped onto wooden cutouts as shown in the great Reed Circus shown below. Click here to see Noel Barrett's gallery of pictures from one of his auctions.
Reed Circus The Reed circus was assembled around a center spoke that was driven by a hand turned crank and pulley arrangement. The performers were attached to the center spoke with dowels. The performer's legs and arms were articulated using a metal eyelet at the joints. Lady rider on  white horse. Clown and monkey. Clown horse rider. The Reed circus is  held together with  small dowels.
Reed Games Reed made many popular games. They are beautifully lithographed. The World's Educator game shown here from about 1890.
	Beautifully lithographed paper cover the wood box for this game. Patented May31, 1887. This game originally sold for about $1.00.
	This quiz game contains over 2000 questions on 32 large cards. Questions are from history, current events (of the 1800s), conundrums, and interesting facts. Answers are coded on the cards. The cylinder at the right side of the box performs decoding to locate the correct answer.
Some Reed Ships Reed made fine paper litho ships much like those of Bliss.
Photo courtesy of Richard Mueller The steamboat Providence ca 1887
Photo courtesy of Richard Mueller The battleship Boston ca 1900	Reed New York ca 1901-02 (Click on Thumbnail to see larger image.)
Click here to see Noel Barrett's gallery of pictures from one of his auctions.