The history of Meccano Limited continues to fascinate me. So I have 2 Meccano catalogues UK:

1938 A Wonder Book of Toys ref. 13/737 / 1.150 Eng with shop stamp: Meccano Limited, Binns Road, Liverpool 13

1938-1939 The Stars send their Message ref. 13/638/1150 U.K. with shop stamp Meccano Limited, 175 Regent Street, London, W.1, Telephone: Regent 3345.

The Meccano Binns Road Liverpool factory is of course known to me. A lot of information has been provided on this subject, but what role did Meccano Limited, 175 Regent Street, London play in this whole? Was this just a kind of showroom, like Hudson Dobson on 200 Fifth Avenue New York?

Jan Oldenhuis, 30 May 2018.

Jan—-That is most interesting......I don’t remember hearing about Regents Road before. Maybe someone else can weigh in with some information about that address......
Best regards, Terry

Regent Street is a fancy shopping district, home of the Hamley’s toy store, Liberty’s, and other stores, so this would have been only a showroom. Would that we had photos of it!!

I’ve found it....

A wonderful find! I'm guessing by the tape on the windows of both Meccano and Etam that this photograph dates from the war years, when tape was applied to many windows as an anti-blast protection.

Yes, that picture of the Meccano showroom is a wonderful find.

Here is another — the only colour picture I have ever seen of Dinky Toys being painted.

Well at least untill 1935, Meccano had a office and warehouse at Kennington road, wallnut tree walk. The street can be seen at the picture in the letter from Meccano.

John.

And the picture at the top left is that of the Paris Meccano factory.

Terry. I have this Meccano manual of 1929 Meccano Standard Mechanisms with an image of a depot in Elizabeth New Jersey USA

 Jan O

Jan——Thanks for posting that. Interesting, as I thought I had read that Meccano Ltd. had already sold their US operation around 1928.....must have been a little later, as that catalog clearly shows the facility in 1929. In any event, the plant was gone by 1930, and Henry Hudson Dobson was apparently out of a job with Meccano, for several years, and in the employ of the Fleuron Pottery Company.
Best regards, Terry

Meccano historians have apparently been uncertain as to whether the U.S. plant in New Jersey was sold to A.C. GIlbert in 1928 or 1929, but thanks to Jan's find, we now know it was the latter. The plant had been making Meccano in the U.S. since 1922, and catalogues (on Kendrick Bisset's usmeccano.com website) show that a couple of clockwork Hornby sets were imported, with generic engines and cars that could pass for American.

Gilbert moved production to its own plant and continued producing "American Meccano" until 1938. No one seems to know now why they stopped; it may simply have been rationalization of product lines, combined with war looming, or perhaps Gilbert had acquired only a limited license (ten years?) to the Meccano name.

Meantime it must have been a disappointing period for Mr. H.H.D. -- I've been able to determine only that the Fleuron Pottery Company (of Tonawanda, New York) existed only from the late 20s until the early 30s and was never any kind of major player in its field.

Then by the mid to late 1930s, we have Dinky Toys being imported into the U.S. by the "Meccano Company of America," which changes to "H. Hudson Dobson Inc." in 1938. (If GIlbert's "American Meccano" was still in the shops at that time, the potential for confusion sheds additional light on the name change.)

Does anyone have any Meccano Company of America catalogs earlier than 1938?

Jonathan——Interesting that you found Fleuron did not exist past early 1930’s. That would likely explain why I found a newspaper clipping, saying that HHD’s Family was moving back to New Jersey, from New York, in 1933. That also makes one wonder just exactly when he went back to work for Meccano, but I would guess it coincided with them opening up Meccano Company of America sometime in the mid-1930’s.
Best regards,
Terry

Jonathan. I found this picture of a USA Meccano catalogue 1929 on Vectis. According to the accompanying description, it is a Meccano 1929 USA Products Catalog 24-page dated coded 9/28 and includes a number of Meccano and Meccano Sets, with the last page devoted to the American Meccano M1, M2 and M3 sets with all prices quoted in US Dollars. An interesting catalog and printed Meccano Co. Incorporated Elizabeth New Jersey.

Jan O

Many moons ago I managed to purchase many documents issued by Meccano Ltd for a retailer in Cuffley (Herts). All the documents relate to orders and invoices for a cross section of the products available. The period the documents cover are from the early 50's to late 65.

The documents include 

"Samples against your standing order" - which I presume would be the first distribution of new models.

"Invoice for repairs" - which shows the repair number and the date.

"Payment recipts"

"Invoices for Meccano Magazines" - a monthly run from March 51 almost to September 53.

"Credit notes"

"Correspondence "

"Statements"

All the documents are interesting confirming reference numbers, prices and dates of availability. Just wondering if other collectors have the same sort of paperwork and perhaps can fill some of the dates.

David