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38-E Maine Antique Digest, April 2015
- AUCTION -
Marx Merry Makers with box, one of the nicest lith-
ographed tin toys, with a desirable marquee and a
box with graphic pictures that helped sell the toy.
At 5¾" tall x 7½" wide x 5½" deep, it sold for $2299
(est. $800/1200). Another example (not shown)
without a box and with some spots on the piano top
sold for $786.50 (est. $700/900).
This 1890s Sun Manufacturing Co. bicycle trade stim-
ulator operates when a dropped coin frees the lever
that sets the bicycle wheels spinning. The lever then
stops next to a number on the paper-sided wheels—the
sum of the two numbers would determine the value of
the store credit award. A scarce and desirable counter-
top game that capitalized on the late 1890s obsession
with bicycles, this was an exceptional example com-
plete with internal base-mounted paper labels explain-
ing payout details. The bicycle retains a bright color
and wheel labels. Measuring 13" x 17", it sold on the
phone for $7865 (est. $6000/8000).
Roadster and chicken weathervane, zinc, with threaded fitting, a
woman driving an open roadster with billowing dust behind her
and a fleeing chicken in front, 29" long, in excellent condition, sold
for $2057 (est. $300/400).
A Carette limousine, painted and litho-
graphed, with painted tin driver, robust clock-
work mechanism, rubber tires, beveled glass
in rear windows and windshield, 16" long, in
very good condition, replaced head and side
lamps and some paint loss and repaint, sold
for $4537.50. Another Carette (not shown), a
scarce version with two women as passengers,
missing the frame on the front hood, sold for
$4235 (est. $1800/2200). Condition was the
difference.
This “American Institute of Glacial Cosmogony” sign,
12" tall x 55" long, sold on the phone for $1149.50 (est.
$300/400). Glacial cosmogony was a theory about the cre-
ation of the earth and the universe, a pseudoscience with
roots in the late 19th century. Among its tenets is the idea
that the planets and the Milky Way were made of gigantic
blocks of ice, which affected the creation of the earth. In
the 1930s it became one of the underpinnings of Nazi phi-
losophy and understanding of natural history, according to
Wikipedia.
Baranger Studios in South Pasadena, California, supplied
animated displays to jewelry stores for window displays
from the 1920s until the studios closed in 1977.
Known as Baranger Motions, they were never sold
but rented to small stores across the country. The
motions were in production until 1959. In all, 167
different models were made, most in editions of 30.
Many were dismantled over the years and parts
were used for new motions. In 2001 a
book was written about them by
John Daniel, who was a magician
in Los Angeles. Ten motions were
offered by Barrett, two consigned
by John Daniel’s widow. All but one
were bought by a Tennessee collector
who drove up to buy them and said
he doubled the number he owned. He
paid $13,310 for the turtle bus. The
turtle moves his legs, and his head
wobbles from side to side with the
men and women looking from side to
side, directed by their tour guide with
his megaphone. Its label reads, “Don’t
You Be Slow/ A Diamond Will Win Her Heart.” Only seven
of these are known to remain intact. Issued in 1950, it comes
with its original shipping container.
John Daniel considered the Baranger Rip Van Win-
kle the “most interesting mechanical unit ever built
by Baranger.” When the motion begins, five elves
move their head as Rip wakes up and turns to look
as one elf bowls a ball down the green and makes a
strike and another elf resets the pins. It comes with
its original shipping case. Records show that 20
were dismantled for salvage. This one is near mint,
and it sold to the Tennessee collector for $16,940,
underbid on the phone. Prices of the other Baranger
Motions ranged from $8470 (est. $4000/5000) for a
circus band wagon to $19,360 (est. $3000/5000) for
a pirate ship with metal sails, issued in 1945 and in
like-new condition.
This C.W. Parker labeled carousel camel, thought to be the only known
jumper camel, sold for $14,520. Most carousel camels are stationary and do
not go up and down. Not only scarce, it’s folky and survived with colorful paint
and a rare C.W. Parker decal, though some said the carving was by Charles
Looff. It was once in Leon Perelman’s collection and was consigned by his daughter,
who came to the sale and said she was downsizing and hated to sell her camel.
She then bought a PerelmanAntique Toy Museum sign another consignor had
bought from her father’s museum, which opened in 1969 and closed in 1988
in a Colonial brick townhouse in the Society Hill section of Philadelphia.
Märklin through-arch center span suspension
bridge with openwork steel girders, fenced
pedestrian walkways, and arched faux ashlar
brick towers. The bridge ramps are not orig-
inal. This circa 1912 30" long train bridge
sold on the phone for $6655 (est. $5000/6000).
A Märklin I and II gauge tunnel (not shown),
17" tall x 13" wide x 18" deep, sold to an
absentee bidder for $3630 (est. $1500/2000);
it had restoration. Märklin accessories can be
expensive.
This Enterprise painted cast-iron
and wood country store cheese cut-
ter has a decorated tin screen
cover. The Enterprise Mfg.
Co. made a variety of fix-
tures for country stores in
the late 19th century. This
rare survivor was offered
in the 1904 Enterprise cat-
alog for $16. It is 25" x 25",
the cover is 17" in diameter,
and it sold for $2057 to the same
phone bidder who bought an Enter-
prise #7 coffee mill (not shown), 24"
tall, for $1452 (est. $1500/2000).
Stebbins &Walker seedermodel,
second half of the 19th century,
detailed horse-drawn spreader
with brass plate indicating
its maker as “Stebbins
& Walker Model Mak-
ers Rock Falls, ILL,”
nearly complete, sold on
the phone for $12,100 (est.
$3500/4500). “It turned up
at an
Antiques Roadshow
,
but the lady had already been
filmed for another item she brought,
so I told her it would sell for $3500 to
$4500, and she was thrilled to clear $10,000,”
said Barrett after the sale.
Märklin gauge 1 hospital car, hand-enameled tin
with hinged roof and fully outfitted interior with
seven patients, eight beds, a nurse seated at a desk,
two standing men, a stove, and an ornate cabinet
with opening and closing doors, all in excellent con-
dition, 11" long, sold on the phone for $14,520 (est.
$7000/8000). Barrett said it will go to Europe.
A framed photograph of the “Congress of Freaks”
in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey’s
circus sideshow in 1929 by Edward Kelty, a photog-
rapher who took photos of the circus, sold on the
phone for $5747.50 (est. $2000/3000).