Bertoia Auctions Chases Off the Winter Blues with a Spring Offering of Toys, Banks and Dolls
March 31, 2004
As winter nears its final curtain call for the year, things in South Jersey are preparing to heat up with an April 2-3 sale of fine toys, banks, and dolls at Bertoia’s. As usual, Bertoia’s welcomes your bids live online through LiveAuctioneers.com.
The Vineland, New Jersey gallery is brimming with packed showcases, and the line-up of 1,400-plus lots will offer buying opportunities for collectors at all levels. Billed as a Spring Offering Sale, the two-day auction event will include a true cross-section of toy interests, from popular and recognizable toys to those that rarely hit the marketplace.
Friday’s session commences with a host of comic character toys from all-time favorite comic strips to TV personalities. The highlights include a celluloid Mickey Walker with an incredibly graphic-rich box, Donald Duck the Waddler with original box, nodding Donald figure, and Mickey the Organ Grinder. Together with Humphrey, Popeye, Amos and Andy, Harold Lloyd, Mutt and Jeff, and Charlie McCarthy, expect other characters to compete for podium bragging rights.
Not to be outdone in the toy celebrity category, Fred Flintstone will appear center stage with his own cast of Barney and Dino toys. Varied toy depictions of the Bedrock gang, together with a few original animated cells, will be mixed into the auction, as will toys of the ever-popular Jetson family, including a Jetsons Express Train, Rollover Tanks, and even Rosie, the family’s faithful robot maid.
Tin toy selections include: buses, autos, battery-operated toys, and whimsical types. From Early American tin locos to German penny toys and Japanese robots, collectors will have a wide array from which to choose. All lots are illustrated in full color online at www.liveauctioneers.com.
Friday’s session will go far beyond tin toys. Pressed steel will make its own heavy splash with nearly 100 examples poised to change hands. One favorite in the steel category is a very rare Keystone Circus Truck, which collectors will be happy to note is still roadworthy and in very nice shape with paper litho interior and exterior graphics as strong as ever. The Circus truck will accompany other notables to the podium: a Buddy ‘L’ Coach, Keystone Hydraulic Dump, Buddy ‘L’ Tanker, Express Line and Railway Express versions, Water Towers, Aerial Trucks, a few Tonkas, Doepke, Smith-Millers, Outdoor Railroad Loco, varied cars, tractor-trailers, work vehicles, and much more.
Also to be sold are important robots that, quite literally, were found in someone’s attic a few years ago. Thunder Robot in box, Easelback in box, rare black version “Robot,” Space Scout, Space Trooper, Space Captain, and Radar Robot in box will be presented with other out of this world toy selections.
Friday’s session will not close its doors until 100-plus examples of doorstops make their way to the spotlight. The variety of cast iron themes includes flowers, people, and whimsical pieces for all visual tastes. The highlights feature the rare Bugler, a prize for collectors, together with some outstanding versions of floral designs. A standout lot is a coveted full-figure Whistling Jim.
With day one’s 600 lots out of the way, Saturday’s session introduces another full day of antique toy and doll surprises. You can bank on a great start to the auction, with still and mechanical banks forming a large offering for collectors of pennysavers.
Calls for bank consignments started to reach a fever pitch over the winter for Bertoia’s, and that was probably due to the incredible $24,000 record price established at their previous auction for a mint Boy on Trapeze. The spring sale includes more 100 mechanical examples, and more than 150 still bank examples, creating a spectacular opportunity for, and not to repeat a cliché, collectors of all levels.
A collection of increasingly popular still banks will be offered which includes a rare Sandwich Glass example, Ironmaster’s house, painted House with Bay Window, Alphabet bank, in great condition it should be noted; and many others. Mechanicals start with the Artillery, spiked helmet version, and run into the Zoo bank with many more familiar examples in very nice condition. Examples of note, such as Calamity, Darktown, Eagle and Eaglets, Tammany, Paddy and the Pig, Multiplying bank, and Frog on Lattice should attract special attention at the preview, because their conditions are a cut above the usual. Some of the more uncommon banks to be offered are a Columbia Savings with advertisement, Gem Registering, Bismarks (in two color versions) Indian Shooting White Bear, and Hold the Fort. The Octagonal Fort, Football Bank, Jolly “N” with original box, trade cards, and a host of all-time favorites will be on hand for collectors to discover.
The cast iron offering continues Saturday with autos, buses, work vehicles, and farm equipment. A P&H Steam Shovel is an excellent example, as are the Vindex toys that have been catalogued. Farm toys demonstrated very strong appeal at Bertoia’s November sale and may have left collectors wanting more in great cast iron gems.
Expect a few surprises as an especially fine four-seat brake makes its way onto the block. Complete with eight figures, the brake joins a very desirable Hubley calliope (in orange!) and a small but fine selection of other horse-drawn entries.
Watch for many other goodies on day two, including 20 Britains soldier sets, an assortment of Roly Polys, two Noah’s Arks, wooden wagons, early squeak toys, boxed games, composition candy containers, doll furniture and houses, and an important grouping of dolls.
The doll inventory includes more than 375 dolls and will feature some fabulous additions from the collection of the late Alberta Darby, as well as collections of other longtime doll enthusiasts. Mrs. Darby culled some very nice examples over the years, in a variety of bisque expressions and fashions. Her entire collective assembly will appear in this sale, making it a truly complete auction event. Highlights of the doll session include a rare Izannah Walker doll, Philadelphia Twin Babies, a Martha Chase Mammy, a Kathe Kruse doll, and examples by Kestner, Simon & Halbig, Schoenhut; and china- and wax-head dolls. One of the sale’s star lots is a 10-inch Bru Brevete – a simply gorgeous doll.
If it sounds like a great two days of choices, you can bet it will be. No collector should miss this event, and with LiveAuctioneers.com providing you the opportunity to bid in a safe and secure environment online, there really is no excuse not to take part and fulfill your wish list. The sale is scheduled to begin on Friday, April 2, at 4:00 pm EST, and again on Saturday, April 3, at 9 a.m.
View the full-color catalog and bid on any lot at www.liveauctioneers.com.
Queries: E-mail bill@BertoiaAuctions.com.
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