World-famous Steckbeck collection of mechanical banks headed to Oct. 27 auction at Morphy’s
Oct. 2, 2007
Bid live online exclusively through LiveAuctioneers.com
DENVER, Pa. – The guest of honor at last week’s Mechanical Bank Collectors of America convention wasn’t a person; it was a collection of 489 incredibly rare mechanical banks – the Stephen and Marilyn Steckbeck collection. Clubmembers had the opportunity to view the collection in the Steckbeck home one last time before all of the banks were packed up and swiftly transported to the Geppi-owned Morphy Auctions gallery in Denver (Adamstown), Pa. On Oct. 27, the entire collection will be auctioned in a 489-lot single-owner sale, with real-time Internet bidding provided exclusively by LiveAuctioneers.com.
Acknowledged by experts as one of the all-time greats, the Steckbeck collection was built over a 53-year period, and was seeded with rarities from earlier collections of now-historic stature, e.g., those of corporate CEO Edwin H. Mosler Jr., automobile titan Walter P. Chrysler and pioneer collector F.H. Griffith. There are buying opportunities to please every pocketbook, but because there are so many unique or extremely rare examples included in the collection, some observers are speculating the sale could end up grossing between $5 million and $8 million. In that becomes the case, the Steckbeck sale will make its mark in history as not only the highest-grossing bank auction ever, but also the highest-grossing toy auction of all time.
While most of the Steckbeck banks are of cast iron, many others are of lithographed tin, white metal, aluminum, wood and other materials. Some are exceedingly rare, like the Presto Coin Disappears (one of three known), an extraordinary near-mint Jerome Secor Freedman’s Bank, and one of the few all-original examples of the Kyser & Rex Merry-Go-Round. The Steckbecks’ North Pole bank, ex Hegarty collection, is one of the finest known; and their Kenton Hardware Mama Katzenjammer, which came straight from the manufacturer’s showroom, is in superior, near-mint-plus condition. Among the collection’s acknowledged “unique” examples are a nickel-plated Chrysler Pig, originally owned by Walter P. Chrysler; a Safe Deposit Tin Elephant, and a stock-market-themed Bull and Bear.
Morphy’s chief operating officer Dan Morphy observed that the Steckbecks could have sold the collection privately as a whole but opted to go the auction route “so everyone can have a chance … “It is a dream come true to be handling what I consider to be one of the most prestigious mechanical bank collections of all time. I bought my first mechanical bank from Steve when I was 12 years old, and now it has all come full circle.”
Morphy Auctions will conduct the auction of the Stephen and Marilyn Steckbeck mechanical bank collection on Saturday, Oct. 27. The auction will start at 12 noon EST, with a 30-minute intermission at lot 250. The entire auction catalog may be viewed online at www.liveauctioneers.com, where absentee bids also may be lodged.
Read an extensive, fully illustrated feature article about the Steckbeck collection online at www.toycollectormagazine.com. Click where it says Read It Now, then scroll down to the archived June 2007 issue.
