All Blog Posts (32)

Matt Bevin says he's rebuilding. See the interview:

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-east-hampton-bevin-bells-0531-20120530,0,382782.story?page=2

There hasn't been much good news coming from East Hampton lately. A fire most likely sparked by lighting destroyed the factory and any hope of researching the history of bell making in the records at the Bevin offices. As if that wasn't bad enough, after the fire vandals stole from the ruins bells that were to go to the Salvation Army. There is one good thing coming from East Hampton lately. Many of the residents of East Hampton have been rallying to the aid of Matt Bevin and…

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WNPR/Connecticut Public Broadcasting Network did a program titled "Communities in Recovery" on the

which touches on the Bevin fire disaster. …

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The news from East Hampton CT is bad, horribly bad. The Bevin bell factory burned to the ground Saturday night. On Sunday the phone calls and emails from friends, relatives and fellow collectors around the country started arriving here. Bill Jones, a mechanical bank collector from Connecticut was the first to tell me. I quickly checked the internet for confirmation. It was true. I called a friend in East Hampton, Jay Hansen to see if by any chance the office was…

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The following are some links to news reports of the Bevin bell factory fire

http://easthampton-ct.patch.com/articles/photo-gallery-bevin-bell-factory-fire#photo-10099151…

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I recently attended an auction of items cleaned out of the J&E Stevens factory when it closed. The interesting thing about it for me was that there were many intems that were from N N Hill, Gong Bell and Watrous Mfg. There were bronze patterns for early Gong Bell toys and wheels, a printing block of the Watrous Buster Brown and Tighe toy, and several patterns for N N Hill toys. Years ago I had read about J&E Stevens making the wheels for the other bell toy makers but had never found any… Continue

Recently I acquired some N N Hill documents. Included was a surprise bit of information. There are many letters from the Association to N. N. Hill starting in January 1906 through June 1910 stating their percentage of association expenses based on their sales. Noble Jackson & Hubbard Counselors at Law 42 William St., New York with E. E. Jackson Jr. acted as Supervisor of the Association and the letters are sent from him to N. N. Hill.



There is also one faint carbon copy of… Continue