Maker record
Reed
W.S. Reed Toy Company was an American maker of wooden toys and games based in Leominster, Massachusetts. Founded in 1875, it produced toys into the early twentieth century, including ships and circus toys, as well as games. Many items used lithographed paper applied to wood; some wooden figures instead had stamped images. Its games included boxed formats such as The World's Educator, and its ships ranged from pull toys to more elaborate military subjects.
- Founded
- 1875
- Locations
- Unknown
- Founders
- Albert Reed.
The story of Reed
W.S. Reed Toy Company was founded in Leominster, Massachusetts, in 1875. It made wooden toys decorated with lithographed paper, a technique also used by the Bliss company. Some Reed figures used rubber-stamped images instead. Its range included games, ships and circus toys.
The World's Educator, a boxed quiz game shown in a surviving example dated to about 1890, contained more than 2,000 questions on 32 cards and used a cylinder to reveal answers. Reed also made paper-lithographed ships. An early steamboat, the Pioneer, was a pull toy whose movement turned its rear paddle wheel; later ships made around the Spanish-American War were predominantly military subjects and more elaborate. The company produced wooden toys into the early twentieth century, although a collecting reference dates its end to about 1897.