NEW YORK SUN, January 23, 1942
Habit of Thrift Once Made Fun
Mechanical Banks Repaid Savings by Doing Stunts With Coin.
Possibly a
wave of thrift swept over young Americans about 1865, when metal mechanical
banks began to be widely manufactured to encourage children to save by making it
more fun to put a coin into a bank that would reciprocate by doing a trick than
to spend it for candy.
Naturally, with this stiff competition the banks had to
be good. Some went so far as to reproduce, with action, a carnival scene with
merry-go-round, or a circus act with performing clowns and an elephant.
None of these banks reveals its maker's name, though
many are stamped with the patent application. Trade catalogues show that among
the most prominent manufacturers were the J. & E. Stevens Company, Cromwell,
Conn.; the Enterprise Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia; the Kenton Hardware
Manufacturing Company, Kenton, Ohio, and nameless makers at Bethlehem, Pa.;
Buffalo, N.Y., and in Massachusetts. The names of the men who designed the
models for the banks also are unknown, but they were craftsmen endowed with
humor, ingenuity and more than a fair share of skill. In addition to producing a
novel design — and there seems to have been considerable rivalry on this score
— they had to make a model with the many small, intricate parts fitting
perfectly and working smoothly, for if there were the least flaw in the model
the cast reproduction would be spoiled.
The banks that are most like toys are now most highly
valued. On some of them are familiar characters of literature and history. Red
Riding Hood makes her fateful discovery when the mask drops from her
"grandmother's" face, Jonah disappears into the whale, Uncle Sam nods
agreeably while depositing a coin in a carpet bag. No less popular were the
banks where colored minstrels or baseball players go through appropriate
actions, soldiers shoot coins at targets or Indians hunt bears. Another popular
bank, in spite of its grim subject, shows a dentist, armed with a pair of huge
forceps, approaching his cowering Negro patient, who falls backward out of the
chair as the dentist himself tumbles over when the tooth is extracted. One of
the most intricate banks displays a little girl who skips rope.
Mechanical banks flourished in trade catalogues through
the opening years of the century, then their manufacture gradually dwindled.
Today less amusing but more scientific coin banks have taken their place.
A group of typical nineteenth century banks will be
exhibited at the Parke-Burnet Galleries, 30 East 57th street, included in the
sale of property of B. W. Lockwood and other owners from tomorrow.
Group of the mechanical banks which made savings
fun for children of an earlier generation. Part of
a collection on exhibition at Parke-Bernet
Galleries previous to auction sale.
