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Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Auction Details
OTSA 35- Early Flat Soldiers & Rare Britains
PITTSBURGH – On October 14, collectors of antique and vintage toy soldiers will be setting their sights on Pittsburgh as Old Toy Soldier Auctions (OTSA) presents two consecutive auction events whose contents boast outstanding quality and provenance in addition to rarity. The bidding action, via LiveAuctioneers.com and phone lines, will start at 10 a.m. with the distinguished Ib Melchior estate collection of antique military miniatures. A brief intermission will follow the conclusion of the Melchior session, then OTSA will introduce their 2017 Investment Rarities sale featuring Part II of the Bill Jackey collection.
The Melchior collection, which comprises 170 auction lots, consists primarily of 30mm Nuremberg- style flat figures – the oldest type of military figures ever to be offered in an OTSA sale. It encompasses another fabled collection – that of a Dutch army general named Snyders – which Lauritz purchased in 1896. The 2,500 figures acquired from General Snyders were made between 1820 and 1890. The auction includes the actual ledger from the Snyders purchase, as well as a Melchior family scrapbook containing photos, newspaper clippings and other fascinating documentation. “It’s highly unusual for a toy soldier collection to come with provenance like this. You just never see it outside of collections owned by royal families, and those collections are never sold.” Nuremberg flat figures represent the very earliest period of commercial toy manufacture and seldom appear in the marketplace. Most that have survived are found only in museums in Germany and Austria. Within the Melchior collection there are very early figures by Allgeyer (active 1843-1890), Heinrichsen (multiple generations, 1843-1945), Gerhardt Lezius (active 1862 1880), and Christoph Ammon (mid-19th century).
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