Beach Pails: Classic Toys of the Surf and Sand
by Carole Smythe, Richard Smythe
Category: Antiques & Collectibles

With their vivid color metal lithography graphics and sentimental images, vintage sand pails recall the golden days of summer in a most enchanting way. From the earliest Victorian examples, produced when seaside vacations were the new leisure-time pursuit, to futuristic 1960s pails emblazoned with outer-space motifs, these childhood playthings of the past now command impressive prices on the collectibles market.This evocative, lavishly illustrated art book captures the beauty of these toys with full-color photographs of beach pails and other sand accountrements including shovels, strainers, sand movers, conveyors, sifters, and more. Informative background text on the best-known tin sand toy manufacturers accompanies page after page of pails illustrated with World War I dirigibles, 1930s and 1940s cowboys, postwar alphabet and nursery rhyme motifs, early Disney characters, and much more. It's a dazzling look at a hot collectible with enormous nostalgic appeal.Carole and Richard Smythe are antique dealers specializing in vintage sand toys. They live in Huntington, New York.