It turned out that Bob had already corresponded with Jay Jones, president of Noble & Cooley and maker of The World's Best Drums (www.noblecooley.com), about antique rolling hoops. As a historical note, the Noble & Cooley company letterhead used in 1907 refers to these toys as "rolling hooples" (see image in February 29, 2016 post). A typo, or an invented term to distinguish the Noble & Cooley product line? By contrast the 1907 N&C product catalog uses the more conventional term "rolling hoops." If it were 1970 and not 1907 one might assume Rolling Hooples are what you'd get if the Rolling Stones merged with Mott the Hoople. OK no more bad jokes, this is a classy blog with standards.
The mission of the NCCHP Research Library is to share insightful information with historians and collectors in order to preserve and understand our cultural past. That understanding has the power to help enlighten and inspire future creativity and ingenuity. Bob has been kind enough to provide two outstanding photos, the first is of his Noble & Cooley Hoop Chime 520. The second picture depicts a small child with a similar Noble & Cooley rolling chime toy. In front of the rolling hoop is a pre-1905 Watrous bell toy, along with a stick, a ball,and a small hoop toy. It's a great picture of what is probably the child's pride and joy collection of toys. Imagine what the same picture might have in it today!
We thank Bob for sharing these great images. You can find a wealth of information about antique bell toys at his site: http://belltoys.ning.com/
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| Noble & Cooley Hoop Chime 520, from the collection of Robert Watrous |
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| Child with Noble & Cooley hoop chime toy, pre-1905 Watrous bell toy, stick, ball and small rolling hoop. Image courtesy of Robert Watrous. |
