Noble & Cooley

[BellToyBoy]

Many of you in the rings that revolve around the antique toy world probably know of Noble & Cooley for their toy drums. Those that revolve around the Civil War history world know of their drums that kept the beat at so many bloody battles. Others in the rings revolving around the music world know of them for the custom drums they are still making today, some 150 years after they started making drums. For me I know of them for a little side line they made for a short while, chime hoops.

Noble & Cooley made chime hoops for about thirty years from the 1880s through about 1910 and possibly longer. Along with many other toy makers they were part of the National Novelty Corporation. They have somehow survived despite all the odds, and they have somehow kept all their old records, equipment and even some left over stock.

I'll write an in depth article later, but for now here's a link to a blog on their web site. Many thanks to archive volunteers, Dick Rowley, and Thom Gilbert, at the Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation Research Library for making the documents available:

www.ncchpresearchlibrary.blogspot.com

Their web site:

www.ncchp.org

Life is good,

Bob Watrous