Tootal - The Company History and its products (ties, scarves etc)

[DNO]

It's up to you, of course, Two Types, but it's interesting to have the scarf and the cravat as well. The boxes can't be common.

 

[Two Types]

It's true, boxes aren't common - but it is a rather boring box. I have a 1950s tie box which is beautiful. This one is just a box.

 

[DNO]

That one looks like it was a box that was intended for stores, not the consumer. Looks like its far too roomy for a single scarf. What sort of vintage is the scarf?

 

[Two Types]

I would guess early 1960s. You are right about the box being too large for one scarf - I noticed it says 'scarf assortment' on the side.

 

[DNO]

I noticed the same thing. Despite it's mundane appearance, that may make it collectable.

 

[Two Types]

I am posting these to show the amazing contrasts in certain styles of Tootal ties. These are both from the 'Boys' range. I don't think you can more different than a plain tie and one with a fantastic 1950s space scene:

 

[Two Types]

Here is the detail on another geometric-influenced paisley design:

 

[Two Types]

Here are some more Tootal designs:

 

[Two Types]

I have noticed that some Tootal scarves are not finished with the tassle ends like these:

but are an open tube of fabric with frayed ends, like these:

with this style, the label is sewn onto the side rather than onto the face:

Does anyone know when this change occurred? My guess is that it was sometime in the 1960s.

 

[Two Types]

My latest Tootal ties include this one. It's a 'Red Quality' from the 1950s. The interesting thing is that it is all cotton rather than rayon or a rayon/cotton mix:

This is a 'Standard Quality'. It is incredibly thin and feels very cheap. I am guessing it is from the thirties, mainly because it feels cheaper than some of the other 'standard quality' ties that I own. that said it could be 1940s but cheaply produced due to wartime restrictions. Any ideas?

A 1950s 'Black Quality'. This has quite a distinctive large paisley pattern:

 

[Two Types]

Some more pattern details:

This one was also available in brown

This has a rather curious 'aboriginal art' design. It's the first time I have seen anything like this by Tootal. It seems more like a design they might have produced for curtains or cushion covers rather than a scarf!

Here's a close up from a 'Gold Quality' tie. This is from the period (the dates for which have not been established yet) in which they were proud to move away from rayon to polyester. A sad day indeed. You can really feel the difference in the quality.

 

[Two Types]

Some more pattern detail from scarves:

 

[Two Types]

I have also posted these three ties in the 'Show us your ties thread'.

They have restored my faith in the possiblity of a bargain. I bid for them on Ebay and won them for £0.01 each!

Tootal 'Standard Quality' (i.e. pre 1953)

 

[Two Types]

Some more close ups of Tootal designs:

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Honestly guys, it must be difficult to get image sizes so huge that it would slow down a modern browser on a modern broadband connection. You surely have to try quite hard to achieve the slowness of my browser on this thread. Please, please (!!) do something to minimise your image sizes! (hint - internet image resolution is awful. there's no need to have super high quality images as they can't be displayed in that quality).

Anyway, here's an interesting pair that I bought from the original buyer. He tells me they were both bought in Wolverhampton, probably about 10 years apart, but he can't remember the actual dates. He would have been a young teen when the first one was bought, apparently middle 40s.

Just based on construction, I would have said the black label tie was older, but the white label "seems" older to me.

 

[Two Types]

BK: That will be my file sizes you are referring to. These are actually reduced in resolution (by about 40%) when I crop from the original image. At least that's what the computer tells me i am doing when I save the file. I'll double-check.

As for those labels: The black label does appear to be later. I am basing this on the fact that the style of label is basically the same style as the ones that were used right up to the late 1950s (before the 'Silver' and 'Gold' Quality ties were introduced). I only have a handful of the light coloured labels and they certainly appear very early. Does the label feel stiffer than the black label?

It wouldn't be unlikely for him to have bought both ties at roughly the same time despite the difference in labels. The adverts from the 1930s show shops having thousands of Tootal ties in stock. Some ties must have sat in shops for many years.

P.S. Nice find.

 

[Two Types]

Oops! I've just realised why that label is different. The lighter coloured label is a 'Tootal Croydon'. As far as I know, this was the range produced for North America. HBK bought one recently from the USA which is posted earlier on the thread. And DNO posted some adverts from Canada. It's interesting that the range was also available in shops here.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Yes I thought it strange. These came with a whole bunch of other Tootal's of similar age from the same chap.

re: image size. What program do you use to prepare your images? I use Photoshop. Most of the programs have a "Save for Web and Devices" function which tends to cut the image size to about 10% original.

 

[Two Types]

Yes, I use photoshop. I normally just reduce the resolution size to 'medium' when saving the file. I'll look out for the other option. Cheers.

 

[Two Types]

As far as I can remember, I have never seen a plain Tootal cravat before. It is certainly my first. OK, it's not very nice, but it was 20p:

And here's a close up of another paisley pattern (also a 20p cravat):