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24-B Maine Antique Digest, March 2017
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AUCTION -
24-B
Gunthermann hand-painted tin clockwork clown and elephant playing
a hand grinder, with a music box, 8¾" wide, sold for $2280 (est.
$800/1200). Not shown, two German painted tin clockwork performer
toys, a drummer with a dancing dog, 8½" high, and a hand-standing
minstrel, 5" high, sold for $1560 (est. $300/500). Condition is important
to tin toy collectors.
German lithographed tin clockwork motorcycle, 7½" long,
sold for $3690 (est. $300/400). Motorcycles are strong even
with condition problems.
Painted metal deep sea diver figure,
with his original ax, a glass dome
light, and a rubber-coated wire, 7½"
high, probably Bing, sold for $2460
(est. $400/600).
Scarce Co-operative Wholesale Society lithographed tin
advertising truck for Crumpsall Cream Crackers with battery-
operated lights, 9¾" long, sold for $800 (est. $800/1200). It has
brought more in the past.
Four Swiss Bucherer metal ball-jointed Katzenjammer Kids comic
SABA figures including Captain, Mama, Fritz, and Hans in their
original outfits, tallest 8" high, sold for $1440 (est. $800/1200). All
the Bucherer figures in the sale sold over their estimates.
Mickey Mouse drum major cloth doll,
Knickerbocker Toy Co., circa 1935,
with original outfit, composition shoes,
felt suit, a hat, wooden baton, and
original string tag, 12" high, sold for
$6150 (est. $2000/2500).
U. S. Hardware cast-iron nine-man rowing scull
pull toy with a coxswain and eight rowers, 14¼"
long, sold for $2091 (est. $1200/1600).
Morton Converse painted wood platform
horse pull toy with a dry dappled gray surface
and hair mane and tail, 22" high x 21" long,
with the manufacturer’s paper label, sold
for $3120 (est. $400/600). At the Bernard
Barenholtz sale at Sotheby’s in January 1990,
it had sold for $1540 (est. $2000/3000).
Bliss lithographed paper
“
Rough & Ready” no. 2
horse-drawn fire ladder
truck with two drivers and two ladders, 30" long, sold for $3600 (est.
$1500/2000). Not shown, a lithographed paper over wood horse-drawn fire
pumper, probably Bliss, 15" long, sold for $2040 (est. $400/600).
Knickerbocker Toy Co. Mickey Mouse cloth
doll, circa 1935, dressed in his Sunday best
Easter outfit, 12" high, sold for $7800 (est.
$3000/4000). Not shown, Minnie Mouse in
her Sunday best Easter outfit sold for $3690
(est. $3000/4000). Two larger Mickey velvet
and felt dolls licensed by George Borgfeldt
but unmarked (possibly Knickerbocker),
19" high, did not perform well. One sold for $1968 (est. $3000/5000), and the other
with the same estimate remained unsold. Both are thought to have been among the
first dolls made before standards were set. The one that didn’t sell is imprinted with
patent number 82803 and “Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse.”
J. & E. Stevens
painted cast-iron Bad
Accident mechanical bank,
6" high, sold for $3360 (est.
$1500/2000). Condition is
extremely important for
bank collectors.