Antique Toys And Other Amusements At Pook & Pook With Noel Barrett Auction

Large Sale To Take Place In Downingtown, Pa., On Dec. 7

November 22, 2019

Antique toys and other amusements seems a perfect title for our Saturday, Dec. 7, sale. Along with our usual array of playthings from the past, we have a fascinating group of Coney Island, Atlantic City, Steel Pier, and other amusement park items from the eclectic collection of the late Henry Fox.
Before I went into the auction business some 30 years ago, I had an antique shop in Carversville, Pa., a little village in Bucks County. Rosebud Antiques offered a wide variety of toys, advertising, and all manner of memorabilia, both large and small. Off the beaten track, the store was less of a store and more of a base of operations for my buying at shows and antique markets throughout the country. Not much foot traffic, but more than a few interesting customers finding their way to our doorstep. Henry Fox and his wife, Joann, found me on one of their Bucks County buying forays, and I found a soulmate.
I always loved big and crazy things, a taste that you can only indulge if you have space. I had 30-by-60 feet, the first floor of an old general store, so the shop was a magnet for “big.” Henry loved “big,” and he wanted the giant Regal boot I had. And I had a customer who shared my taste. I visited his home once while he was still alive, one of only two people he ever shared his collection with.
I loved amusement parks as a kid. Henry did too, and among his treasures are items from Coney Island and Atlantic City, including the Steel Peer. Coney treasures include the three-figure mechanical display, “The Gambling Chimps.” It was displayed in the front window of a boardwalk fun house in the early 1920s. Among the other animated displays inside the fun house was a “Magician with Levitating Lady” automaton, one of Henry’s favorite pieces that he restored to working condition. Further down the beach was “The Spook House” dark-ride. This is where Henry found the giant animated gorilla head and other spooky denizens of the dark for his collection. We have photos of both the large gorilla as seen on the ride and the chimps in the fun house window. Fortune telling machines and other penny arcade coin-ops also found a home in the Fox collection.
My comic character collection included handcrafted cigarette ashtray smoking stands of Popeye, Jiggs & Maggie, etc., some of which are pictured in a coffee table book on smoking paraphernalia. A Bucks County folk art collector I never knew and lived only 20 minutes from saw the book and decided to consign some of her stands with us. Her collection really out-classed mine, truly idiosyncratic pieces, each one-of-a-kind. I am thankful that these types of consignments find me by peculiar means.
A wide variety of toys and dolls will round out the sale, space and comic toys, automotive and windups. Cast-iron toys from the Bill and Stevie Weart collection include cars, trucks, trains, and banks. Other consignors also have added pieces in the cast-iron category.
Doll collections from Maryland and Massachusetts will be on offer. Included are German bisque and Italian Lenci dolls, and room boxes contribute to the diversity of the sale. The Fox collection included a nice grouping of Halloween items and unusual Santa Claus figures. Two other holiday collections round out the Fox items as nice selections of Halloween and Christmas pieces.
It’s always exciting when fooling around with antique toys to happen upon something one has never seen. A new find for me is “The Careless Engineer.” The illustrated label on sliding box lid indicates a patent date April 23, 1871, but gives no idea as to its maker. Pieces, when assembled, create a colorful steam plant in paper on wood with a painted tin boiler. The “brick” base houses a robust Ives style clockwork mechanism, and the fly wheel spins at tremendous speed until something goes awry and the boiler blows, a tin section flies off and the whole structure collapses, thus “the careless engineer,” a great find by one of our lucky consignors.
A late addition to the sale is a McLoughlin Bros. “Bulls and Bears - The Great Wall St. Game,” patented 1883, with a vibrant lithograph box lid of a dressed bull and bear standing on Wall Street. The original folding board includes comic portrait vignettes of Gilded Age stock market characters Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Horace Greely. The box is complete with packing inserts. What a treasure to find one in such incredible condition. This is the finest example I’ve ever seen.
The catalog sale will start at 9 a.m. and be comprised of almost 500 lots.
An Online Only Toy Sale will follow on Monday, Dec. 9, at 9 a.m. It will include a large collection of Hopalong Cassidy items, a variety of vintage toys, as well as relatively contemporary pieces highlighted by a large grouping of Star Wars pieces. Online bidding for both toy sales will be available on Bidsquare and on LiveAuctioneers.
For additional information, call 610-269-4040 or visit www.pookandpook.com.

 

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