An Exceptional Collection from an Exceptional Couple Auctioned By an Exceptional Auctioneer

Thursday, March 21, 2024

-7° C / 20° F

-16° C / 3.2 ° F. Wind Chill Factor

Clear Skies but Cold and Strong Winds

A Wonderful Collection from

a Dedicated Couple 

The introduction to this exceptional collection by Bertoia Auctions reads as follows:

"The world class Early American Toy Collection of Linda and the late Curtis Smith.

Recognized as one of the finest in quality and condition of pre-1900 American toys, 

this collection is unrivalled with rarity and legendary provenance from all the great 

early collectors and includes many examples from the 

Bernard Barenholtz, Blair Whitton, and Louis Hertz books"

Please click here to visit this fine American Auctioneer Family

You can visit Liveauctioneers and see the results of the Curtis Collection

by clicking the link below:

Please click here on this line

The items that I selected are not the most-expensive sold at auction,

except for the first one.

I decided to select the ones that I was attracted to. I selected toys that were symbols of the many different types of people and professions that lived in the 1800's. This was more of a personal approach than the most expensive or the rarest. I'm sure that many of the people who bid on the wonderful toys in the collection had many different reasons for bidding on their particular item or items that were offered for sale.  

Auctions offer people from any different backgrounds an opportunity to 

bid on toys that they might have wanted when they were children, or from memories

that they've kept from happy times long  ago. 

Carpenter Tally Ho Coach

"This piece has been widely considered the finest example known, completely

original including all the removable figures, a wonderful depiction of early coach

transportation, given the size and weight, these toys often have breaks and certainly do not turn up this nice. Provenance: The Stewart Collection. | The Curtis & Linda Smith Collection. | 26" (66.04 cm) |  All original (Pristine Condition).

The final bid on this rare item exceeded the pre-auction estimates.

Description Below:

"CLOCKWORK LAUNDRESS AT WASHBASIN | Extremely rare example and the  first its been offered for sale in decades.Clockwork is concealed within the wooden base.When activated, she tirelessly moves her hand up and down the washboard similar to Old Aunt Chloe."

Description Below:

"ERZGEBIRGE HAND ACTIVATED FLOWER SHOP | Germany, made of wood

andhand painted,depicts a woman at the counter of a flower shop, rotating the small metal crank on the side of the toy causes her to move side to side as if tending to the store. 

4.5"high (11.43 cm)

Description Below:

"AUTOMATIC TOY WORKS GRANDMA ROCKING CRADLE | Extremely rare piece, early American clockwork toy action involves Grandmother's head moving up and down as one of her

hands fans the baby, while the other arm moves to rock the cradle." | 8" (20.32 cm(long) 

Description Below:

"ALTHOF BERGMANN SHEEP HERDER TOY | An absolutely astounding 

piece, for an early American hand painted tin platform toy, it is enormous and more impressive is that it has survived the last one and a half centuries with nothing more

than a minor repair to the ankle.

Description Below:

"FALLOWS DANCERS W/ SWINGING CHILD BELL TOY | Large example

of an early American tin bell toy, articulated axles cause the upper platform

to rock front and back, resulting in the central swinging child."

Description Below:

"IVES MECHANICAL OARSMAN FLOOR VERSION | Very rare version of

familiar American tin clockwork toy but with wheels on the bottom to carry

the toy in a circular pattern along the floor."  9" (22.86 cm) high.

Description Below:

"IVES MECHANICAL SEWING MACHINE GIRL | Rare example, circa 1875,

a lifelike depiction of girl tirelessly working a sewing machine, clockwork motion

causes her to lean forward as she puts the material in position and moves her foot

on the treadle as the needle rapidly taps.

Description Below:

"IVES THE JUGGLER CLOCKWORK TOY | An extremely rare offering with 

less than a handful known to exist, this is reportedly the finest known to exist, the overly large size is impressive, great action as the Chinese gentleman swings around while white ball circles on top of twirling umbrella.

 

Since starting this blog in 2011, I am constantly amazed that I still enjoy 

writing about toys.  I've learned a lot since then, and I am very thankful to have the generosity of all the people and companies, like Bertoia Auctions, who have allowed me to use their  narratives and fine photography to write.

As always, thanks for visiting, from wherever you are,

and have a great part of the day or night.

My name is (Mr.) Stacey Bindman, and I can always be reached at:

toysearcher@gmail.com 

  

Toy Collections of Collectors

Sunday, January 28, 2018
Sunny
+3 C  37.4 F

Toy Collections of Collectors

You often see collections being auctioned off by collectors. The collectors are very serious and are usually financially secure so that they can purchase the best toys possible. 

By "the best toys possible", I mean that these toys are rare, in excellent condition,they work, and may have come with their original wooden box.

Such  is the case of the mechanical banks presented today.

What is also interesting is the information  about these collections that is available

on the Internet.  If you type in the name of the person with the word "collection", you will find more information about the auction and the mechanical banks. These collections are sometimes worth more than $ 5,000,000.00, and the auctioneers will send out bulletins to various newspapers to promote the auction. This is to garner more publicity and attention to potential bidders. So if you ever want more information about an auction or valuable toy, try searching on the Net.

CALAMITY MECHANICAL BANK - CHOCOLATE BASE
Rare Chocolate Base Color Made by the J. & E. Stevens Company Cromwell, Connecticut – Circa 1905 The "Calamity Bank" portrays collegiate football as it was played at the beginning of the 20th Century. In this particular example, we find two defense tacklers from Yale (blue details) taking down a running fullback from Harvard (crimson details). Wearing only nominal protective gear, many players sustained serious injuries. President Teddy Roosevelt viewed this situation as very dangerous. He planned to incorporate the abolition of collegiate football as part of his platform for re-election in 1904. It's a good thing that his political advisors talked him out of it. Material: Cast Iron  

Provenance: Stephen Steckbeck Collection

Kilgore The Turtle Mechanical Bank
Made by Kilgore Mfg. Co. Westerville, Ohio – Circa 1930 Kilgore affectionately named this little bank "Pokey the Turtle". However for Steve Steckbeck, it was the Holy Grail of all mechanical banks. There was a flaw in the design of "Pokey" and consequently, it has been conjectured that production of this bank was suspended permanently. This theory would explain the extreme scarcity of the Turtle Bank. Only nine specimens are known to exist. Material: Cast Iron  

Provenance: Gertrude Hegarty Collection, Stan Sax Collection, Dick Stevens Collection

(The above 3 collections refer to 3 different people who 

successively owned this mechanical bank at one time)

INITIATING BANK – FIRST DEGREE - MECHANICAL BANK

Manufactured by Mechanical Novelty Works New Britain, Connecticut – Circa 1880 Though the imagery used in the "Initiating Bank" has never been deciphered, it is, none-the-less a very visually appealing and active mechanical bank. Three unlikely companions: a goat, a frog and a black male youth, are seen as participants in some sort of ritualistic initiation. A coin placed in the boy's tray is deposited into the frog's mouth after the lever activation causes the goat to ram the boy in the behind with his horns. This rare bank is almost never found in such beautiful condition. Material: Cast Iron  

Provenance: Stanley Kesselman Collection

CHIEF BIG MOON BANK – RED AND YELLOW BASE
Made by the J. & E. Stevens Company Cromwell, Connecticut – Circa 1899 Charles Bailey's inspiration for "Chief Big Moon" may have come from the frog pond adjacent to the Stevens foundry building. Once again, we find his meticulous, almost obsessive, attention to detail. Note, in particular, the complexity of the hieroglyphics that appear on the teepee and the bas relief images that appear so perfectly, albeit shallowly, around the base. The phenomenal color and action of this bank, along with its unparalleled condition, makes this bank worthy of any serious collector's collection as an upgrade. Material: Cast Iron  

Provenance: Bill Bertoia Collection, Donal Markey Collection, Stanley Kesselman Collection.

ATLAS MECHANICAL BANK

Unknown Manufacturer, Probably produced in the 1890's. A clever capitalist adage appears in raised letters on the top of the Atlas Bank: "Money Moves the World". These words are closely tied to the action of the bank. To deposit a coin, the lever must be pushed leftward, exposing the coin aperture. When released, the globe spins several times on Atlas' shoulders. Thus, in the case of the Atlas Bank, money literally moves the world. Coincidentally, the silver & gold painted finish of the base evokes the opulent wealth and taste of the Gilded Age, the era in which robber barons such as Andrew Carnegie, J. Gould, and John D. Rockefeller ruled as capitalist icons. Material: Cast Iron, White Metal Figure and Paper-covered wooden globe  

Provenance: Leon Cameto Collection, Larry Feld Collection

Surprisingly, I have never seen 2 of the 5 banks above. 

They are:

1. Kilgore the Turtle Mechanical Bank

2.Atlas Mechanical Bank

For myself, they appeared less-complex than other more complicated banks. 

 I probably passed on them in past posts because of this.

Who knew that these 2 banks would hit high prices as the other 3 banks. 

I'll have to be more conscious of toys that may not look that interesting because you never know!

Thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day or evening.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com

Mr. Ezra Walker Writes me Again

Thursday, May 5, 2017
Cloud with Rain
8 C  46 F

Mr. Ezra Walker Writes me Again

    Two days ago, I wrote a post about Mr. Ezra Walker.  In that post, Ezra had a small cast iron bus that needed identification, but I couldn't help him out. Today's post is about an anomaly (deviation).

The toy below is a cast iron Hubley truck from the 1940's. It originally came with a van for hauling cargo. I've seen these toys before, and I would estimate that the length of the toy is between 5"- 6"

(102 mm - 133 mm).

If you look closely at the writing on the undercarriage of the toy, you'll notice that the letter "L" 

of Hubley is either upside down or the letter is an "I". Also, the letters "S" and "A" of

U.S.A. are also upside down.

The question that Ezra asked me is whether or not I had noticed this before. I answered "no. When I was buying toys from ebay, I never purchased this particular Hubley truck, so I couldn't answer him.

If anyone reading this post has the same toy truck, could you please send me photos, as well as close-up photos of the lettering on the underside. I don't know if this toy that came from a particular casting was unique, or perhaps all of the same toy tucks had this upside down writing. However, it would be good to have someone provide an answer to Ezra's question!

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

A Collector of Pull Toys Contacts Me

Friday, May 13, 2016
Raining and 21 Celcius (70 degrees Fahrenheit)

A Collector of Pull Toys Contacts Me

Hey Stacey,

     I don’t know exactly what you are looking for but I will give you some information. I started collecting old wooden toys a little over three years ago after buying a box full at a local auction I attended near Waynesboro, Ga. One of the toys was a Ted Toy-lers Walking Soldier pull toy. I had never heard of Ted Toy-lers so I decided to do a little research. I came across a website, oldwoodtoys.com. The site belongs to Jim and Judy Sneed. I contacted Jim and discovered that Ted Toys were very hard to find. He told me that his wife had sold most of her collection. He had about five or six left along with several parts. I bought all of them. Jim and his wife are the premier experts on Ted Toy-lers toys, along with several other companies.

                  I bought several toys online, and in the process met Peter Thomashow. Coincidentally, Peter was one of the two individuals who purchased several of Judy Sneed’s Ted Toy collection. I bought all of Peter’s Ted Toys as well. Since that time we have become friends and we talk toys almost daily. I’m in the process of purchasing some very rare Toy Tinkers toys from him at the present time.

                  I won an original Ted Toy-lers box online and the seller told me the backup bidder wanted to meet me. He gave me his contact information. The backup bidder was Richard Mueller. I had already heard of him from Jim Sneed. He is known in toy circles as the Pull Toy Professor. He owns a toy museum on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that is incredible to see in person. Richard and I trade toys and I count on him for guidance as I learn more each day about old wooden toys. You won’t find better people that Richard and his wife, Linda. Richard is who bought the other Ted Toys that Judy Sneed sold. Through Richard, I began to progress beyond Ted Toy-lers toys and started collecting many other companies. Richard’s collection consists of toys from over 175 companies. I prefer to collect from approximately 25 different companies.

                  I was searching for toy collectors online one evening and came across an ad in a local publication. It was someone wanting to purchase Rich, Hustler, and Ted Toys. The man’s name was Perry Eichor. I had seen his name on Jim’s website a few times so I contacted him. I struck a deal with Perry that included approximately 60-70 toys. Perry was a major Rich and Hustler collector so many of the toys I purchased from him are rarely, if ever seen. I’m in the process of working a deal with Perry for several Cameo and Ideal dolls.

                  So, along with networking with Jim, Richard, Peter, and Perry; I also network with individuals all over the United States that contact me when they find toys. Brooke Larsen, Gary Cenname, Tracy Tedder, Mike Jones, Keith Spurgeon, and Kevin Mcguire (Playful Plans) to name a few. I let them know when I find toys they might want.

                   I surmise I have about 3,000 toys in my collection. Many are the best known or only known examples. To put it in perspective, I would surmise that Richard has over 10,000 toys. Although I buy anything I find interesting, I concentrate on the following companies: Ted Toy-lers, Hustler, Rich, Toy Tinkers, International, Buck-A-Roo, Scarey Ann, Wilson Walkies, Newton Thompson, Fulton, Hyker, Gibbs, Gluck, Performo, Jaymar, Twistum, Cameo, Ideal, Strombecker, Gong Bell, All Fair, Go-Toys, Reed, Bliss, Bumpa, and Crandall.  Complete toy histories for these companies and many others are available on oldwoodtoys.com. Here are a few reference pics from my collection:

Very rare Hustler Derby purchased from Perry Eichor  

Extremely rare Hiram Hustler Purchased from Perry Eichor

Extremely rare Hustler Sam’s Transfer purchased from Perry Eichor

  

Very rare Hustler Jimmie Mouse. Obtained during toy trading with Richard Mueller

Gong Bell Racer 420. Purchased on Ebay

Hard to find Alderman Fairchild (All Fair) Rabbit Pull toy purchased online

Very Scarce Hustler Rastus and Rachel Pull Wagon purchased from Perry Eichor

As you can see, Steve is quite involved in being knowledgeable about pull toys, as well as knowing many people who collect similar toys. One of these people is Mr. Richard Mueller. If you Google "Richard Mueller", you will find his website and correspondingly his toys.

I haven't added much written dialogue on of my own, As Steve did a fabulous job with his written narrative. It's certainly amazing how may different toy manufacturers of these pull toys that exist, and whose names I have never come across until now.   It's great to have readers communicate with me, because I like to "discover" new "old toy manufacturers" from way back when.

Thanks to Steve Mayo, I'll have plenty of new manufacturers to search out over the summer.n

Thanks Steve for your help and willingness to share your knowledge and toys with us.

As always,

thanks for dropping by,

and have a great day,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

toysearcher@gmail.com

The Exceptional Penny Toys of Max Berry - Part II

Friday, October 24, 2014
Partly sunny and colder

The ExceptionalPenny Toys of Max Berry 

Part II

  There's an exceptional auction coming  in November from Bertoia Auctions who have been chosen to represent the fabulous collection of toys from the Max Berry Collection. Mr. Berry is a well-respected and internationally-renowned international grade lawyer. He also happensedto collect  exceptional and rarer toys  over his long and illustrious career.

   Yesterday toys were Part I of this sorry about Mr. Berry's penny toys. Today is another fine grouping.  I've asked you, my readers to study the 2 groupings of toys, and see which go the two are the more expensive ones, starting of course with the initial opening bidding price. Tomorrow, I'll post the answer in another post.

Please click here to visit this fine American toy auction company

I left soft of the background in this photo because there didn't seem to be enough depth to the photo. This is a non-articulated (doesn't have any moving parts) toy. It also happens to have a small door at the back (the sled) where candies could be placed inside the golden-coloured tin box.

This toy is animated, meaning that it moves. When the small lever at the back of the toy is pushed in, the decorated egg rises like a bucking horse, and a bunny (rabbit) appears from under the egg.

Punch and Judy were a famous fictional pair of fictional characters  a long time ago. 

They always squabbled (fought) and were always getting into trouble!

There's a mother animated toy with a candy box at the base.

What's interesting to note is how the manufacturer chose to have the bear muzzled ( the mouth closed with a leather strapping). Long ago,  bears would be captured and trained to perform in circuses and on the streets. Nowadays, this action has been banned in many countries and rarely is seen around the world.

I have a very good memory for remembering visual things,and this fine toy below I can remember having placed it in one of my posts. What I like about the penny toy is to try and see where tone small bendable points are in order to see how the toy was assembled. There is a small rod through the centre of the boat, so I would presume that the boar moved up and down as a young child rolled it along the floor.

What's also amazing is to realize how small these toys actually are.

This one is a mere 3 1/2"  (89 mm)- about the length of my middle finger long.

My height for relative comparison is 5' 9" (1.75 M). 

I wonder how many of these toys were broken when parents walked over them in the house?

Being a German manufacturer, I'm sure the Meier company made toys that illustrated all kinds of 

German figures from the German culture, as well as some fictional literary characters as well.

I'm always amazed to see animals totally out of content in their natural world.  The best example are animals of all kinds pulling carts. In the case of the toy below, a monkey is riding a large-sized dog.

The acrobat is quite articulated and rotates over the bar. However, what I find quite exceptional is the toning and colour gradation to the acrobat's face. You'll have to view these images in slide mode to see them best. I purposely made these images extra-large for that purpose.

 I've come across a few toys that required the use of string tied to I assume two posts stuck in the ground or 2 nails hammered into walls. (I don't think parents would have approved of the latter option). The best example that comes to mind are the toy Zeppelins, or the tin space ships (e.g. Buck Rogers) from the 1930's.

This toy would have been quite interesting for a very young child to see. Not only would the toy move along the length of the string, but the propellers would rotate.

Finally,  a very long toy (in miniature toy sizes) measuring 6 1/2"  ( 165 mm).

It's interesting to see how much detail was lithographed into all of the toys, considering how small they were. In the case of this toy, each of the four horses are different from one another.

And as an"added" value, this toy happened to be a storage for candies!

Thanks for dropping by,

and as always,

have a great part of the day or night,

wherever you may be,

Stacey,

toyearcher@gmail.com