A Revisit to American Antique Auctions Brings a Wonderful Surprise

Friday, January 10,2024

-8° C / 17° F

Clear Skies and Damp

A Revisit to American Antique Auctions

Brings a Wonderful Surprise

Please click on this sentence to redirect to this very interesting auction

I like to revisit people and company sites or auction sites to see how 
they're doing and of course, to have a look at their toys. I hadn't written a blog 

post for American Antique Auctions in a long time, so I decided to visit Liveauctioneers. where their auctions are, past and present. I looked at the American Antique Auction's past auctions, and I saw something that immediately caught my attention. It was a doll, but not just any doll!

The title of the auction was:

Antique Toys, Cap Guns, Signs & Machines

The title was too much for one post, so I decided to 

look at the Schoenhut dolls. And then I saw a most-unique doll.

It was Teddy Roosevelt, the USA President from 1901-1909

He had a nickname "Rough Rider" which he was given when he was

 promoted to become commander of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, who rode horses.*

Please click on this sentence to read about Teddy Roosevelt on Wikipedia

I was like a fish seeing a worm! I had to go see this auction, and see what I'd find.

The array of toys was so eclectic and varied, but so appealing. I didn't know 

where to start.  But then I saw the a figure, and I knew this would be 

the theme of today's post. Moreover, there were other figures manufactured by 

Schoenhut.

The Schoenhut Piano Company , which still continues was established in

1872 by Mr. Albert Schoenhut, who emigrated from Germany and founded his company A.Schoenhut Company. Albert Schoenhut was a craftsman who began making toys as a young boy, having been attracted to this hobby from his father and grandfather, both of whom were toy and doll makers*

Please click on this link to redirect to Wikipedia

Another reason for writing this blog post was the fact that I never wrote 

 a post about Schoenhut or their nice toys. Interestingly, the company still 

exists to this day.

Description*(below)

"Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus Animals

 Kangaroo spotted leopard & cat. The leopard and kangaroo have glass eyes.

All appear repainted, Hard to find group"

Courtesy of American Antique Auctions*

Description

Four Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus Clowns

Description

 Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus Animals

Camel with 2 humps and laughing Jack ass

Description

 Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus Lady Acrobat

with ladder. Excellent wooden jointed figure,

7 1/2" (19.05 cm) tall

Description

 Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus Animals. Kangaroo, spotted leopard

& cat. Leopard and Kangaroo have glass eyes. All appear repainte.

Description

 Schoenhut Circus lion with carved mane and painted eyes.

7" (17.78cm) tall

Description

 Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus Monkey & Buffalo.

Buffalo is 8" (20.32 cm) long with painted eyes.

Monkey is 8" (20.32 cm) tall

Description

 Schoenhut 

 Teddy Roosevelt Safari Figure.

Very Rare figure from the safari set.

 Wooden jointed figure,with safari outfit and original belt holding 

dagger and camera, 2 helmets included. 8 1/2" (21.59 cm)

Seldom turns up.

A Visit to American Antique Auctions

Monday, November 4, 2024

4°C / 37.2 ° F

Overcast with rain later

A Return Visit to 

American Antique Auctions

I hadn't written a blog post for American Antique Auctions in a long time. So I wrote to them to ask for permission to write a blog post for them. I received a fast reply from Mr.Vince Sarchese, one of the 2 owners of this excellent auction company. He gave me the permission, but took the time to write a small biography of the company and how the auction toy industry is at this point in time. His writing and description were excellent, and  I  replied that he should be writing a blog. Of course, he's busy enough with his company.

You're probably wondering why I included the guitar below.

The answer was that it was a beautiful guitar that was photographed

so simple, yet it made the Guild Starfire IV Guitar #1357 stand out so majestically.

Of course, I did gather a nice grouping of toys from this auctioneer.

Description

1920's Sturditoy's America LaFrance Water Tower Fire Engine No. 9

Large pressed steel fire truck with working crank tower, 

32 inches ( 81.28 cm) long

Description Above

Bing hook and ladder tin litho garage 

 and fire trucks in composition with 

firemen figures

Description Above:

Tootsietoy travel Trailer and car, 

wind-up streamlined cars

and wrecker, and Kansas race car lot

Description Above:

German tin wind-up beetles. Stock & Co.

and other German toy beetles.

As I checked my e-mail 2 days after I posted this post, I received a surprise

e-mail from Mr. Vince Sarches, one of the owners of

American Antique Auctions.

It was the trio of excellently-photographed 

images of a Ferdinand Strauss Santa Claus with a pair of reindeers.

And so, even it is only the beginning of November,

I would like to wish each and everyone who visits 

and sees this post, a Merry Christmas,

and a Healthy and Happy New Year.

Please click on this sentence to redirect to the 

American Antique Auctions site on Liveauctioneers

An Easy Way to Identify a Bing Toy

Saturday, December 2, 2017
Overcast and Un-seasonally Warm
3C  38 F

An Easy Way to Identify

a Bing Toy

Please click on this sentence to see this exceptional auction company

Below:

Bing German Tin Large 11 Inch (280 mm) Open Limousine. 

Period driver not original to car but looks good, missing an arm. GBN mark.

Below:

Bing Open Tourer Limousine 9 inches (228 mm) with Driver. 

Fine working German tin toy

The above scanned image is from the 1912 Bing Catalogue.

The image is of the Bing logo that was lithographed on Bing toys.

The blue arrows in the 2 photos below are pointing 

to the Bing logo at the back of the 2 toy cars.

The History of the Bing Toy Company

Bing or Gebrüder Bing ("Bing brothers") was a German toy company founded in 1863 in Nuremberg, Germany by two brothers, Ignaz Bing and Adolf Bing, originally producing metal kitchen utensils, but best remembered for its extensive lines of model trains and live steam engines. Ignaz is also known for his discovery and development of the Bing Cave, a show cave in Germany.

The company produced fine pewter and copper tableware before embarking on toy production in 1880, their first teddy bears were released in 1907. By the early 20th century, Bing was the largest toy company in the world, and Bing's factory in Nuremberg was the largest toy factory in the world. Although Bing produced numerous toys, it is best remembered today for toy trains and liver steam-powered toys. In addition to toys it made scientific and educational novelties, and a huge range of kitchenware, tableware, office equipment, record players, electrical goods and so on.

The "Nuremberg Style" of manufacturing toys on steel sheets with lithographed designs that were stamped out of the metal, formed, and assembled using tabs and slots, was perfected by Bing. This manufacturing method remained in widespread use well into the 1950s, long after the Bing company had been dissolved.*

*Please click here to visit Wikepedia and the History of the Bing Toy Company

Antique Board Games

Friday, December 1, 2017
Overcast and unseasonably warm
3 C 38F

Antique Board Games

Please click on this sentence to redirect to this fine auctioneer

I recently wrote about American Antique Auctions toy auctions.This post today is their second lot of interesting toys and board games.  I'm writing only about their board games. In this day and age, I often wonder if children and their parents play board games. People and children are so pre-occupied with "things", work, and school, that I think there is not much room for board games. When I was young in the 1950's , I played board games such as Monopoly or checkers, and of course deck of card games. Today, everywhere I go, not only are parents "playing" with their cell phomnes, but even children have their own cell phones as well. If they don't have cell phones, then they have Apple Ipads, or some alternative version.

Below:

1890s Pig Games Parker Bros. 

Milton Bradley Litho

Below:

1900s Milton Bradley Round The World Game & Parker Bros. 

Hedrick Van Loon's Wide World Game with metal game pieces.

Below:

Wonderful graphic litho games lot. Parker Brothers Fun at the Zoo game, McClougllin Bros. Little Ones Zoo, Milton Bradley Mother Goose with game boards, cards and pieces. Beautiful antique game lot!

Below:

1890's India Oriental Explorer Game 

& 1920's Hoot Gibson Play Clothes Game

Below:

1890s Bradley & Spear Litho Games. Great graphic litho 19th century games 

with clown marble insert and full postal pieces in the German games.

As of today, most of the listed items above are being bid on, with a range of 

$ 20.00 U.S-$ 110.00 US. The immediate above lot, is being bid for $ 110.00 U.S. 

with 5 people bidding on it.

I'm sure, these games boards would make fine Christmas gifts for children (even adult ones).

However, most likely these game boards will be collected for people who collect things. Nevertheless, these antique board games are excellent collectables just for seeing what games people played 100-120 years ago!

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great time of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

Cracker Jack Toys

Thursday, November 30, 2017
Sunny with some cloud
3 C  38 F

Cracker Jack 
Toys

Please click on this sentence to visit this exceptional toy auctioneer's website

    I was on Liveauctioneers looking at the upcoming auction from American Antique Auctions, when I came across some interesting toys. Upon closer inspection, the toys turned out to be from Cracker Jack.

   For those who don't know, Cracker Jack is a famous candy that is molasses-coated popcorn. It used to come in a box, but lately comes in a plasticized bag. Also, there used to be a toy in the box, but in 2016, the current owner of the company , Frito-Lay decided to stop including a toy in the box. The company was  registered in 1896, and their famous slogan was "The More You eat The More You Want".

   When molasses is added to  popcorn, the popcorn sticks together.  The creator of Cracker Jack was  Mr. Frederick William Rueckheim, and eventually he bought out his partner in the company, and brought in his brother Louis. Louis found a solution to "stick popcorn" by adding a small amount of oil to batches of popcorn. This added a small coating to the popcorn kernels, and prevented them from sticking together. There was also peanuts in the boxes of Cracker Jack.

   If you want to read the fascinating story of Cracker Jack, please visit wikipedia at the link below:

Please click here to be redirected to Wikipedia

Collider Image used from the Internet

   The toys that came in the Cracker Jack box were actually quite small, since they had to fit into the box.  The toys appear to be made from a soft metal such as tin. I would also "guess", that some toys would have to be bent into shape and assembled, since as you can see below, some of the toys are quite big when assembled.

    THe T

Below:

Groupings of Cracker Jack toys from the 1920's

    What's interesting to note is that as of today (I am writing this post on November 27, 2017), the starting bid for these groupings is set at $ 20.00 U.S. That's certainly interesting, since the  in 1915, a 1 1/4 ounce of Cracker Jack could be purchased for 5 cents (U.S.)! Now if you happened to inherit these toys from your grandparents and sold them, you could have made a great return on them!

The American Antique Auctions Company

Monday, November 27, 2017
Sunny with Cloudy Periods
-2 C 28 F

The American Antique Auctions Company

Please click here to visit this fine American Auction Company

    A few days ago, I was on the Liveauctioneers website, when I came across a very nice and eclectic grouping of toys up for auction. The auction is scheduled for December 2, 2017, and promptly begins at 07:00 A.M. As with several of the auctions companies that I have written about in the past,  American Antique Auctions is conducting their listings and auction on Liveauctioneers.

Below:

3 separate listings from the auction.

The listings are for Tootsietoy toys.

Below:

2 sides (left and right) of a reproduction page 

of a 1933 Tootsietoy catalogue. 

Tootsietoy in the 1930's and later on was "the" small toy company that was very prominent in the USA at the time. It even surpassed Dinky Toys from Great Britain. These small toys (about 4" or 100 mm in length) are still very prized and are very collectible even today.

The 3 toys below are part of a diverse and eclectic group of toys from this auction. These toys also are quite collectible, and there a lot of them in the auction.

You might want to venture over to Liveauctioneers and the American Antique Auctions site. Their toys exemplify a broad array of collectible toys from a while back, and the photography from this auctioneers is excellent in terms of showing the toys and their condition. Even if you might not be interested in buying, the  bidding on this collection of toys will give you a sense as to how the bidding goes (fast or slow, in high demand or not), as well as giving you an idea as to what the prices are.

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great part of the day or night,

Wherever you may be.

toysearcher@gmail.com

Stacey Bindman

The J.Chein Toy Company

2016-10-14
Overcast
15 Celsius / 59 Fahrenheit

The J.Chein Toy Company

J. Chein & Company was an American toy manufacturer in business from 1903 through the 1980s. It is best remembered today for its mechanical toys toys  made from stamped and lithographed tin produced from the 1930s through the 1950s.

Founded by Julius Chein in a loft in New York City, Chein's earliest toy production was a line of premiums for the Cracker Jacks snack line. The American Can Company provided the lithographic printing for Chein's early output until 1907 when Chein opened their own full production plant in Harrison, New Jersey. With their new facilities, they were able to produce piggy banks noisemakers and model horse-drawn carriages. They also manufactured a number of toys under license from such companies asKing Features Syndicate and Walt Disney Productions, producing Popeye, Felix the Cat and various Disney character toys.

In the 1920s and early-1930s, Chein produced a popular line of toy trucks under the "Hercules" name, rather than their own name. They heavily exploited the toy vehicle market with a wide range of toy boats and wheeled vehicles. They also produced many noisemakers such as tambourines andrattles a mainstay; their coin banks were also consistently popular.

In 1926, Julius Chein was killed in a horse-riding accident in Central Park. Control of the company passed to Chein's widow who then turned the management of it over to her brother, Samuel Hoffman, who was already the founder and CEO of the rival Mohawk Toy Company. Under Hoffman's direction, J. Chein & Company expanded and prospered, producing many increasingly complicated mechanical toys. They had particular success with circus and amusement park-themed toys such as roller coasters, Ferris wheels and carousels. These toys command high interest from collectors today and are considered prime examples from the "golden age of toys".

During World War II, J. Chein & Company suspended toy production, instead producing nosecones and tail units for bombs and casings for incendiary devices. After the War, Chein returned to toy production with considerable success. However, as the 1940s drew to a close, they encountered increasing competition from Japanese manufacturers who produced mechanical tin toys for lower prices.*

* Courtesy Wikipedia
Please click here to visit Wikipedia and the J.Chein History

Please click here to visit this excellent auctioneer

Many of these toys are still in existence, and can still be found in very good condition. You have to remember that the J.Chein Company produced a vast amount of toys for the Woolworth COmpany. In the 1920's-1940's the Woolworth Company was in its' heyday. There were many, many stores, and the J.Chein Company filled all of those stores with their toys.

Thanks for visiting,

and as always,

Have a great part of the day or nboght,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com