The Anchor Buggy and Carriage Company

Samuel Levinson retired from the Stuart Manufacturing Company in 1958. The Stuart Company owner, Dexter Balterman, moved Stuart to 337 Fifth Street. Levinson, then 80, stayed at 215 W. Fourth Street to establish another company - the Anchor Buggy and Carriage Company, for creating exact miniature plastic carriage models - based on carriages and buggies made by the original Anchor Buggy and Carriage Company in Cincinnati. Levinson had acquired permission from Anchor in 1935 to use their name.

Anchor made colorful plastic carriage parts which snapped together for easy assembly. The detachable rubbery harnesses in black or brown were made for Anchor solid-bodied prancing horses (see photos). These models were sold in toy stores, department stores and hobby shops. Anchor soft Plastic horses are 3 13/16 inches tall. Known Anchor horse colors are white (most common), black, silver, and gray (solid and marbled).

The known sets from the package inserts are: Two Horse Sleigh (popular in 1885). Some sleigh sets came with 2 full-size blue jingle bells attached to a front chain but were not advertised on packaging or inserts; Runabout (first vehicle of the early West with steel springs); Buckboard (used in the Western frontier); Surrey (1800s canopy-top family vehicle); Sulky (used as a racer); Landau (built for President Grant); Phaeton (six-passenger carriage popular up to the days of the motor vehicle); Victoria Carriage (built for Queen Victoria), Lincoln Carriage (built for President Lincoln); Convertible, Buggy; and Welcome Santa Clause (4 reindeer, Santa and sleigh - rare). Anchor also made Champions, a set consisting of 3 white Anchor buggy horses.

According to Joseph Levinson (Samuel's son), Anchor Carriage toys were especially popular in the Pennsylvania and Ohio Mennonite areas. One newspaper article dated July 6, 1962 reported that Levinson sold a million models in the U.S.A. before receiving offers from companies to market the toys in Europe. And, that he was traveling to Europe that August to complete arrangements with several toymakers who wanted to make and distribute carriage models to the Common Market countries. Small Anchor 1/72 scale models were also made by Hong Kong. (Also see Stuart History.)

The photos on this page show variations in Anchor packaging and Anchor sets. The sheet showing Anchor sets, near the bottom of this page, came inside boxed sets.