I'm surprised how little information about the Automatic Toy Works is on the Internet. As is so often the case searches turn up the same info over and over, in this case, references to this booklet. The most I've been able to learn is that the Automatic Toy Works of New York was founded in 1868 by one Robert Clay and made a variety of wind-up mechanical toys. However the company was bought out in 1874 by Edward Ives, whose toy company was located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The Fabintoys website says:
Founded by Edward R. Ives, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1868 - 1932. Originally, Ives made baskets and hot air toys. He joined partner Cornelius Blakeslee, a brother-in-law and moved to Bridgeport in 1870 and by the 1880s, they were leaders in quality clockwork toys designed by Jerome Secor, Nathan Warner, and Arthur Hotchkiss. Ives also acted as jobber for other toy manufactures' toys.I'm not sure why Ives kept the ATW name and the New York address. Perhaps when they bought ATW they got the building as well as the stock in trade, and decided to continue issuing ATW's old toys under the original name. At any rate, some of these toys seem to date to the 1870s. ATW patented an "automaton dancer" in 1873 and an auction site dates the Scissors Sharpener to 1874.
It's remarkable how almost all of these figures are racial (or to a lesser extent ethnic) caricatures. I couldn't figure out why a "women's rights advocate," also known as "the suffragette." would be portrayed as a Black woman. The suffrage movement was predominantly white. However I found an article suggesting the toy was meant to be a caricature of legendary civil and human rights activist Sojourner Truth. Truth (born Isabella Baumfree) was active from the 1840s through the 1870s and well-known to the public. She died in 1883. Here is a link to a video of that toy in action:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/BwUUWXXrrbsObviously the catalogue's descriptions of the toy's lifelike movements are rather...overstated.
