ADO Ko Verzuu design small truck – Fantastic Vintage Finds
A little piece of Dutch design from before Dutch Design was a “thing”. A Small wooden car, which looks simply made at the first glance but reveals some interesting features up close. I found this 1950’s toy truck together with a late 1980’s M.A.S.K. truck…quite an unexpected combination.
Most of ADO made cars and trucks are around 50cm or 20 inches but this is a lot smaller with its 23 cm or 9 inches. Still it wears the ADO-badges as proud as its larger siblings…and it has every right.
What is ADO and who is designer Ko Verzuu?
Simple question…long answer…short. Ko Verzuu, was the leader of the ADO-workshop. He worked for ADO from the early 1920’s up until 1955. In that periode Ko is head of design and drafts many great model toys. He also made sure to incorporated contemporary artistic trends. Including details of the Dutch art deco movement the “Haagsche School” and “De Stijl” as well as additional features from the expressionism movement. His designs are sweeping and simple, yet sophisticated, sturdy and possible to craft in larger numbers.
ADO was in that period still known as a workshop to help treated tuberculosis get back in shape for a job as part of the treatment in the Sanatorium in Apeldoorn. The ADO is an acronym for “Arbeid Door Onvolwaardigen”, translating roughly to “Worked by amateurs”. Later in the 1960’s ADO became a full workshop with paid workers and the acronym was altered to “Apart-Doelmatig-Onverwoestbaar” meaning “Different-Purposeful-Indestructible”.
The small blue and yellow Ado truck with silver front
A closer look at this small truck reveals a lot about the labour that went into it. Do not mind the wonky wheels this is due to use. And talking about the wheels, these are metal with holes and rubber tires, where the earlier wheels were wood or solid metal with rims. There is a red one sold here with an earlier black badge and wooden wheels with rubber rim. That was from the early 1950’s, it also shows (half) a load. So it put the design of the car in the Ko Verzuu design window.
Since it is a straightforward build and a smaller car I would assume these were made in larger numbers and for a long period, since most designs were much larger and there for more expensive and harder to build. Where the painting below shows that the quality control was faithful to the amateurs and their paint job.
While the paint job was a bit rough, the paint scheme was rater elaborate with an unnecessary silver hood and yellow accents. But mostly this silver piece stands put because by tilting it a little backward and rounding the bottom it flows nicely and gives the car a real presence. It is also mirrored by the simple side plates. Together with the mounting points of the axels the car gets a more sturdy stand and a great appeal. Even with its wear and tear (cracked roof, bend loop for a pulling rope and wonky wheels)…it is a great survivor with all its original parts.
It is made of layered wood/ multiplex that lends for a detailed finish but brakes when not sawn with care. For the larger models this wood was also used as plywood creating beautiful round shapes.
A brave survivor
Unfortunately this small cars were also the easiest to destroy for small kids getting bigger and the design of the roof was less then sturdy…when broken off it would become a safety hazard and I can only cry when I think about all those little guys disappearing into the fire place. I will make sure this survivor will get treasured.
You can find the full ADO story on the website adospeelgoed.com in English. It also shows many models and original catalogs to browse through. It is an ongoing project as an historical homage to the workshop and their great designs. The above picture is from their digital 1953 catalog, you can find the catalogs here. It shows it was nr. 373 from their wide selection. Offered with metal wheels without holes in the color orange. So the blue one is probably from a later year but getting close to discovering its true origins!