Next-to-New; Treasures from our Trove

Next-to-New is Austin's oldest consignment shop, founded in 1959 as an outreach ministry of St. David's Episcopal Church. We are the only nonprofit consignment store in Austin. Our profit goes to local charities and helps restore St. David’s Historic Church, an Austin icon on the National Register of historic places. Located at 5435 Burnet Road, our carefully curated and constantly changing inventory comes from donations, consignments, and estates.

Monday, May 3, 2021

Wagon, Ho!

This wonderful wooden wagon harks back to a time when deliveries were by dray horses, not Uber drivers, and houses and apartments had coal cellars to store the fuel used to fire up the boilers and heat homes.

This terrific antique toy is large enough for a small child to ride on and in fact there is a handle that allowed a little rider to steer the horses as he or she perched on the wagon.

Inside the wagon is the label of Jacrim Manufacturing Company of Boston for its "Drive Em" horse and wagon line. Jacrim was founded in 1922 in Malden, Massachusetts. It first produced beautifully crafted and detailed toy wooden ships and sailboats, but soon expanded its line of sturdy wooden toys to the “Ride ‘Em" wagons and carts, forts, trains, and other vehicles. In 1934, Jacrim merged into Keystone Manufacturing Company and was legally dissolved.