Mystery Rolling Hoop

Recently toy collectors Bill Jones and NCCHP member Bob Watrous shared photos of a rolling hoop in Bill's collection. It bears a strong resemblance to a Noble & Cooley rolling hoop from the same era but we have not located the hoop in our N&C catalog collection. That could be because most catalogs before 1890 were destroyed in the 1889 factory fire and there are gaps in the catalog collection after that.

The hoop has wooden spools (clackers) that slide up and down the hoop's spokes as the wheel turns, making the kind of noise that kids love, and would drive adults up the wall. To add to the din there are metal jingles (aka, clangers) in between the sliding wood clackers. These look a lot like the same jingles ("zills") used in Noble & Cooley tambourines.

Rolling hoop with clackers and jingles (Photo courtesy of Bill Jones)

 

Close-up of clackers and jingles (Photo courtesy of Bill Jones)



Bill's rolling hoop looks like it's in great condition. These toys were not built to have a long life and were easy to damage during the course of play. Few have survived. Here's the similar hoop from the Noble & Cooley catalog:

1901 Noble & Cooley "Giant Rolling Hoop" using additional clackers due to the larger hoop size. This hoop has a smaller diameter hub, perhaps to achieve a longer "throw" for the clackers to travel between the hub and hoop rim,
thus creating more momentum and of course, MORE NOISE!
(Image from the NCCHP collection in the Internet Archives)

If you have a similar rolling hoop or can shed any light on the maker of Bill's hoop (confirm Noble & Cooley or another maker), please drop NCCHP an email at NCCHP.org@gmail.com