Unique Art
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Unique Art Manufacturing Company was an American toy company, founded in 1916, based in Newark, New Jersey that made toys, including wind-up mechanical toys, out of lithographed tin. One of its early products was a wind-up toy featuring two tin boxers.
The company scored a hit in the 1940s when it acquired the rights to a popular comic strip and released the Li'l Abner Dogpatch Band for Christmas 1945. The windup toy featured Abner dancing, Pappy on drums, Mammy with a drum stick, and Daisy Mae playing piano. Unique followed with a Howdy Doody band several years later.
In 1949, Unique began producing lithographed tin O gauge toy trains. Competitor Louis Marx and Company responded with a new line similar in size to Unique's, but with lithography that looked more realistic. Unique found itself unable to compete, and withdrew its trains from the marketplace by 1951.
Unique Art continued to produce toys into the 1950s, including tin vehicles, but the company's eventual fate is unclear.