Anyway, arks are actually highly collectible, probably because they have crossover appeal, since they find favor among collectors of folk art, toys, and miniatures.  This helps support prices, and it doesn’t hurt that there are so many to choose from.  There are store-bought versions on a relatively small scale, like this one, and then there are early German-manufactured examples, like this one that has compartments for all the animals and measures nearly 3′ high!  In terms of sale prices, though, it’s all about folky craftsmanship and numbers – the one pictured above, complete with approximately 200 animal and human figures, sold for more than $28,000!

Howdy Doody marionette with original box

Television character collectibles were produced by a variety of manufacturers to help sell everything from the shows themselves to cereal and vitamins. Here are two popular shows from the 1950s and 60s and their nostalgia driven collectibles.

The Howdy Doody Show

First aired as a radio program in 1947, Howdy Doody with Buffalo Bob Smith ran for an astonishing 13 years. When the red-headed, gap-toothed western lad Howdy Doody ran for “President of all Kids” the network received 60,000 requests for his campaign buttons. This number represented one third of all US homes with television sets!

Due to the overwhelming popularity of the show, an almost unlimited number of items were made in the likenesses of Howdy Doody the puppet, and his costars, Dilly Dally, Buffalo Bob, Princess Summerfall Winterspring, and Clarabelle the clown (played by Bob Keeshan, aka, Captain Kangaroo). Howdy Doody themed toys were produced in mass quantities, and included puppets/marionettes, clothing, plush dolls, records, wind-up toys, beanies, a humming lariat, cookie jars, figurines, ear muffs, an electric doodler, a keychain puzzle, stickers, comic books and child sized chairs. Children loved Howdy and played with his toys, so vintage toys in excellent condition are hard to find and can run into fairly high sums.

Popeye the Sailor

Composition Ideal jointed Popeye figure, marked Popeye 1935 King Features Syndicate

Popeye got his start in the comics, but soon after, made a successful leap to the silver screen. Between 1933 and 1957, Popeye appeared in movie cartoons 243 times, and by 1935, he was more popular than Mickey Mouse. In 1941, Popeye the Sailor was drafted by the U.S. Navy to help the war effort, and appeared in several cartoons to that end. In the 1960s he became a syndicated television show, and from then until 2004 appeared on television somewhere or other around the globe.

Vintage Popeye memorabilia is plentiful, but much of it on the market has been made since 1980, so collectors looking for authentic vintage Popeye should check carefully. Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto, Wimpy, and Sweet Pea appeared in a wide variety of forms, including comic books, story books, candy cigarettes, Colorforms, coloring books, ramp walkers, wind-ups, banks, figurines, mugs, decals, crayon sets, jack-in-the-boxes, lunch boxes, noise makers, gumball machines, dolls, plush toys, puppets, pins, Pez dispensers and more. As with most collectibles, toys in mint condition in their original packaging bring the highest prices. In Popeye’s case, since he went both healthy and PC, and no longer endorses smoking, his pipes and cigarettes have gone up in value.

-Reference note by p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer.

Reference & Further Recommended Reading:

Boucher Steam Locomotive & Tender, No. 2100 pre-war 2-inch gauge locomotive and Pennsylvania RR tender

Based on searches this week at Prices4Antiques, some people are going to be having an old-fashioned Christmas! We’ve seen searches for toys jump up dramatically and for “little” boys, the top items seem to include a Boucher locomotive and tender along with Lionel train passenger cars, a fabulous LGB circus train, and a Wyandotte mining dump truck. For “little” girls, it’s Steiff squirrel, a Steiff parakeet, a Valenti donkey, and an Arnold Print Works hen with her chicks. Auctions are full of great Christmas gift ideas for the young and young at heart, and so is the Prices4Antiques database. It’s never too late to make a childhood dream come true!

In the days before television, families would often gather of an evening to play board or card games. Kids and collectors still love games, and there is a wide variety of playthings from which to choose.

English Wedgwood & Son burl walnut game box or compendium with chess set, cribbage board and checkers

Chess
Chess has been played for centuries, and chess sets have been created in an almost unlimited range of styles and materials, from a plastic and cardboard Simpsons set from the 21st century to luxurious sets for the very wealthy created of ivory, mahogany, brass and marble. Popular English chess sets made by John Jaques & Son were made from 1849 – 1939, and are referred to as Staunton sets because they were endorsed by Howard Staunton, a chess celebrity.

Vintage Card Games
Thanks to high quality and pleasing graphics, collectors love vintage card games like Famous Five, Happy Families and Snap. Top dollar goes to sets in good to excellent condition in original boxes with instructions.

1933 Parker Brothers Monopoly game marked Chas. Darrow

Monopoly Board Games
Monopoly is the most widely played and sold board game of all times. Because of the ubiquitous nature of this game, it is probably the least collectible in terms of value. Even the oldest sets do not command high prices. Newer sets bring even less, except for some of the “special collector editions” which almost always bring less than the original retail price.

TV Movie & Character Games
Character, and TV and movie tie-ins are very collectible, especially for the most popular TV shows and movies. These included 1950s Nancy Drew games, Twiggy Game by Milton Bradley and 1960s James Bond Thunderball. Early Star Wars games are highly collectible, as are early Disney games, as the rules of cross-over appeal apply to game collectors particularly. Newer and more common games such as the Mad Magazine Game and cartoon character games from the 60s and 70s typically are less valuable.

McLoughlin Bros board game- Dash For The North Pole

Vintage and Antique Board Games
McLoughlin games from the 1870s to 1910s like District Messenger Boy, Steeple Chasing and Magnetic Fish Pond are collected for their high quality lithography and handsome graphics. Collectors love games with tin game boards and playing pieces. Games with Bakelite pieces, even if they are incomplete, always have value, as collectors buy mah jongg tiles, poker chips, backgammon pieces, dominoes, etc. for jewelry making.

Games, especially antique and vintage examples aren’t just for kids. Collectors enjoy their high quality lithography and eye catching artwork, and are willing to pay real money for the pleasure of owning fine examples of these appealing playthings.

-by p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer.

Reference & Further Recommended Reading:

Set No. 28 of Britains lead soldiers, the mountain gun detachment of the Royal Artillery

History of Lead Soldiers
The earliest mass-produced figures were made in the 18th century in Germany. These were referred to as “flats, and were produced by pouring a tin alloy through a two piece mold that was clamped together. Semi-flats soon followed. These were more dimensional that flats, but not as three dimensional as solids, which were cast in a mold and made of solid led alloy. Solids were cast as one piece or parts that were then assembled, and soon became the most popular form for figures.

Lead Soldiers by Britains
Vintage and antique toy soldiers for play and collecting are loved by boys young and old, and nobody did them better than Britains. Famous for quality and knowledge of authentic arms and uniforms, Britains was established in 1845 in London after French and German manufacturers demonstrated the success of mass produced figures as toys for children and models for collectors.

A Britains No. 2090 Royal Irish Fusiliers set with 8 figures in the original box

Hollow Cast Lead Soldiers
In 1893, Britains had a major production breakthrough with the development of a technique for hollow casting. In this process, the outside layer cooled forming a skin and the excess still-liquid lead was poured out of a hole. In the days of cheap labor and expensive materials, hollow figures meant that Britains could manufacture their figures for lower costs than their German counterparts.

Dimestore & Plastic Toy Soldiers
Britains still manufactures popular toy soldiers, although they ceased the production of lead toys in the 1960’s, switching emphasis to plastic. In the 1920s through the 1960s, little boys could purchase bags of plastic dimestore toy soldiers for pennies. These plastic soldiers are also collectible. Look for Barclay, Manoil and Jones toy soldiers in hollow cast lead, Auburn figures in rubber, and Marx soldiers in plastic.

In 1972, Britians reintroduced the metal soldier. Collectors look for complete sets in original boxes, although any vintage toy soldier in good condition is desirable, depending on amount of paint loss and rarity.

Two boxed sets of the "British Heavy Brigade" issued as set 169 by Britains in 1999

Toy Soldier Condition & Values
Most antique and vintage toy soldiers, whether plastic or metal, saw a lot of action, and consequently, condition is an issue. These soldiers suffer from paint loss, battle wounds in the form of chips and missing limbs, and broken swords and firearms. Hard core toy soldier collectors express condition as a percentage; the higher the percentage, the greater the amount of original paint on the figure. Top dollar goes to the toy soldiers with the most original paint.

Toy soldiers have been made to represent every era of history, including Roman foot soldiers, Napoleonic fighting men, and American and British Revolutionary War soldiers. Made of plastic, metal or rubber, toy soldiers are popular as both playthings and collectibles.

-by p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer.

Reference & Further Recommended Reading:

Rare red base Guinea marble, with electric yellow spots

I think one of the reasons we all love summer is that summer days offer some sort of permanent portal to the summer days of our childhood.  Want to feel young again?  Roll down the windows and crank the pop music of your generation.  Grab a towel and a magazine and go lounge by the pool.  Head down to a street festival, pick up a funnel cake, and sit around in the twilight enjoying that simple, yet contradictory, summer feeling of being simultaneously itchy, a bit too warm, and content.  For instance, this coming weekend, many folks looking to revisit childhood will be heading to Wildwood, New Jersey for the festivities surrounding the National Marbles Tournament.

The folks at the National Marbles Tournament take their marbles seriously and so do collectors.  It’s thought that marbles originated in Pakistan, with the earliest examples being, of course, stone, although very early clay and glass marbles have also been found.  A variety of games can be played with marbles and their popularity really began to explode in the last half of the 19th century when mass production of marbles became possible.  For quite a time, Akron, Ohio was the marble capital of the world with more than a dozen companies in the area producing them.  (In fact, Akron’s home to the the American Toy Marble Museum.)  There are dozens of slang terms for marbles, terms that still carry the flavor of 19th-century mibster slang (a mibster is one who plays marbles) – mibs, milkies, aggies, clayeys, commies.  Most of them describe either the material or the internal appearance, and don’t be fooled by their size, because little marbles can bring big bucks at auction!  (Check out the one pictured above….)  As with anything, collectors care about condition – playing is hard on glass and ceramic marbles – but the size, color and design can all affect value.  Definitely worth spending one of your nostalgic summer days poking around in your folks’ basement!

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com

To search the Prices4Antiques antiques reference database for valuation information on hundreds of thousands of antiques and fine art visit our homepage www.prices4antiques.com

J.T. Houghton Excelsior Illustrated Alphabet Cube Blocks

When did toys become so complex?  Until about eight, my life was complete with a Raggedy Ann doll, my trusty rumbling Big Wheel, a checkerboard, a mismatched set of Legos, a tub of crayon stubs and a heap of recycled scrap paper.  And access to the garage….  Honestly, when I think of the amount of trouble I was able to get into with a limited supply list, I realize that my brother and I were sort of the MacGyvers of childhood mischief.  And yet today, I’m facing down an industry that wants me to believe that from birth, a child requires a constant battery-fed diet of bouncing, flashing, chiming, beeping and buzzing!

Cast iron Royal Esther toy stove by the Mt. Penn Stove Works

Clearly, there are collectors who agree with me, choosing to treasure the nostalgic relics of their childhood.  Toys that were popular years ago are still popular with collectors today.  Simple toys like miniature stoves (without lights and working knobs), wood blocks (like the ones pictured above, without interlocking tabs designed by MIT engineers), and barnyards full of animals (that do not make noises and are not fully-articulated) often bring great prices at auction.  As is the case with many items, rarity contributes to value, and most children’s toys and board games are rare simply because they don’t survive being “loved” for years, meaning that moms tend to toss them when cleaning out closets.  It’s important to keep in mind that because rarity affects prices, some of the most common toys and games like Monopoly actually don’t always bring large sums.  Unusual games that few people have heard of, like Going to the Klondike and The Stanley Africa Game, tend to bring stronger prices, especially if they’re from the early days of board and parlor games in the late 1800s.  All of this leads to a second value factor buyers should keep in mind: condition, as game pieces end up missing, boxes cave in and paint wears off over time.  We often hear about toys in original boxes bringing great money, and that’s probably in part just because retaining the box is a convenient shorthand way of conveying that the toy has been well-cared for over the years.

With vintage toys commanding strong prices, it pays to double-check when you’re cleaning out closets or sorting through a picnic table full of things at a yard sale.  Just make sure you count all the pieces to guarantee that you’re not “Sorry!” about your purchase!

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com

Click here to browse all toys in the p4A database.

Ives cast iron walking horse drawn "Victory" cart, circa 1890, sold for $1,237 at Davies Auctions

Davies Auctions held a multi-owner sale on Feb. 27, 2010 at Judi’s Catering Banquet Hall in Lafayette, Indiana. The merchandise consisted of cast-iron and tin windup toys from two collections (including the longtime collection of John Lippman), a variety of vintage Christmas collectibles, and a selection of antiques, primarily country and Americana smalls. Only a few pieces of furniture were offered.

Snow and freezing drizzle in Indiana the night before the sale made the roads slick, but the weather didn’t appear to keep away bidders. A standing-room-only crowd was supplemented by a fair number of phone and absentee bids. Ninety-two lots of toys were cataloged. There were numerous uncataloged lots. The auction was promoted on Davies’ Web site, as well as AuctionZip, but there was no Internet bidding.

“I thought it did just fine,” auctioneer Doug Davies said of the sale. “There were probably a few soft spots.” In specific, he said prices for holiday items were down a little, and that the Baird advertising clock might have done better. However, the toys did well, with bids from as far away as Pennsylvania and Florida, while one floor bidder was from Kansas. The Alfred Montgomery painting also saw strong interest and did well for its size.

Successful bidders paid a 10 percent buyer’s premium.

-Don Johnson, Editor, p4A.com

Early child's sled with foliate and bands decoration

In this modern era, sledding may be losing steam.  Before long, you’ll probably be able to stay inside and go for a sleigh ride with your Wii without even having to put on your snow boots!  But, at one point, sledding was a huge part of childhood, and there are so many references to it in childhood classics.  Those of us who grew up sledding know why – the cold, thrilling, all-too-short rush downhill was worth spending hours in the freezing winter air, trudging uphill over and over for another go.

While my brother’s frequent crashes cracked up our plastic sleds with startling regularity, early sleds like the one pictured here were built – and decorated – to last, and those same factors have made them popular with modern collectors.  Sleds or sleighs that retain most of their painted decoration have become folk art, as have the unique home-crafted creations made out of odd bits of metal or carved wood.  The better the decoration and the better the preservation, the better the price!  From early experimental sleds and small pony-drawn sleighs to later storebought Mickey Mouse models, there are buyers for them all.

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com