Toys showed super strength at VCA’s spring auction

LAS VEGAS – Victorian Casino Auctions has developed a reputation for providing collectors with unparalleled opportunities to buy quality items from diverse genres. Bidders hit the jackpot at VCA’s hugely successful four-day event May 30-June 2, which highlighted a spectacular assortment of over 1,000 antique toys. LiveAuctioneers.com provided Internet live bidding.

Many of the toys were Japanese windup designs from the 1950s and 1960s. The auction also featured some highly sought-after items including antique slot machines, coin operated machines, jukeboxes and advertising collectibles.

While in-house bidders kept the place packed throughout, they had to keep pace with the astounding number of both phone and online bidders. Based on the success of the auction, specifically in regard to the reception the antique toys received.

While the entire weekend was a smashing success for VCA, it was the reception the antique toys received that really stood out. Many of the race car and space-related items brought in out-of-this-world prices, including a rare Mobile Space TV Unit with Trailer from the 1950s in near mint condition with the original box, which sold for $4,800. An Atom Jet a-58v friction race car that represents the largest of the toy cars made in the 1950s brought in $4,200. A Space Patrol Volkswagen R-10 that features an astronaut driving a rocket-powered Beetle convertible (because sometimes you just want to cruise along an alien planetary landscape with the top down) fetched $3,000. Superman made a super impression on more than one occasion, with a rare Superman Airplane by Louis Marx from the 1940s in great condition with original box bringing in $1,680. The Man of Steel figured into a equally rare Superman Tank toy in mint condition with original box, which one lucky bidder brought home to his collection for $3,600. Toys featuring other pop culture icons such as Popeye smoking a pipe and Mickey Mouse roller skating fetched $1,265 and $1,560, respectively.

Japanese toys were not the only hit, as German toymaker Lehmann made quite a few notable sales. One example is a Man Da Rin No. 565, which features two coolies carrying a Chinese man in a sedan chair. It sold for $2,280. Another, the Duo-Rooster Pulling Rabbit windup carriage from the 1930s, sold for $1,680.

There was plenty more besides toys, with a large collection of rare cookie jars piquing bidders’ interest. An American Bisque Herman & Katnip cookie jar, one of only six known to exist, sold for $1,560. A Sinclair Oil Green Dinosaur cookie jar from 1943 sold for $1,800.

Other diverse highlights include a 5-cent early countertop bicycle trade stimulator from 1898 that went for $9,000, a life-size replica of the Lost in Space B9 Robot that brought in $8,625, a pair of Belcher Mosaic stained-glass windows in wooden frames (from the former Liberace’s Restaurant) that sold for $6,000 each, and a Henry Gautschi & Sons cylinder wooden music box from the 1890s that sold for $4,313. Most likely the single highest priced item was a 1-cent Pulver’s Kola-Pepsin Happy Hooligan Gum vending machine from 1899 that fetched $15,680.

For more information or to learn about consignment, call Dan Sidlow at 702-382-2466 or email him at vca@lvcoxmail.com.

 

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

 

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ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

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