Wilkins Cast Iron Horse Drawn Fire Pumper *SOLD*

Wilkins Cast Iron Horse Drawn Fire Pumper

This turn of the century horse drawn fire pumper is museum quality.  The toy is around 120 years old yet retains about 90%+ of the paint and is a very complex casting without cracks, repairs, breaks, or issues.

Paintwork is extensively detailed throughout with black horses and gilded accents like reins.  The tongue and body of the carriage is red with golden highlights.  The boiler is gold and quite a few hand painted flourishes accent the detailed casting.  One can see stars and rivets and intricate curves.

Wheels speak to the toy and they are in fantastic condition.  We see “Sunday wear” on the bottoms with worn paint and deep black darkening from age.  That said, the wheel sides are in still bright yellow with most paint present and hand painted pin striping.  Wheels match and we feel this is a desirable variation of the prancing horses.

Our toy uses a Wilkins only tongue/double tree that can be pushed in and slightly twisted to remove the horses.  Horses can then be played with on their own with a galloping cam below the feet.

This exact toy was sold out of New York “in the day” from the store “Mint in Box” for much more than our asking price.

Length is around 20″ as shown in the picture and weight is an estimated 8 pounds of metal.

A brief history of Wilkins Toy Co. of Keene, New Hampshire:

1890 – 1919 (see also Kingsbury)
Founder: James S. Wilkins
Specialty: One of the earliest manufacturers to produce toy automobiles, circa 1895. Another Keene, New Hampshire, firm, headed by Henry T. Kingsbury, bought out Wilkins that same year, but the toy line carried the Wilkins name and trademark until 1919.