Antique Show Finds

I only made it to one big outdoor antique show this summer, but it was a good one. Finds included, in descending order of expensiveness:

-3 antique teddy bears, great characters all
-a set of beautiful antique lithographed wooden blocks
-some vintage plastic space guys
-a bag full of vintage gumball machine charms, rings, and tiny toys
-a vintage Mr. Potato Head fake
-a 1960s Mentor board game
-and a vintage Weeble


Coming soon!

Yard Sale Find: Antique Sulphide Marble

My oldest toy find on this summer's Yard Sale Trail was this antique sulphide marble, a bit over 2 inches in diameter, made in Germany between the 1900s and 1930s. Old sulphide marbles are expensive today, typically priced in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the antique store and auction markets. This one's yard sale price? Just $15!

They're also fragile, consisting of a tiny bisque figurine enclosed in a hand-blown glass marble. The seller had this one displayed resting on the open top of a porcelain vase that was sitting on a hanging wall shelf! Gah! Fortunately I spotted and rescued it before the inevitable tragedy could unfold.

I'm not quite sure what the figure is: bear? badger? chupacabra?

The marble find marked the end of yard sale season here in the north country, where temperatures are already dropping, but I still have one outdoor antique show to report on, and the finds there were tremendous. Coming soon!

Funny Old Bear

This quirky antique teddy bear is 12 inches tall, made from an unusual cotton batting type fabric. His features include a very strange nose, tiny eyes, and one foot pad which appears to have been put on upside down. He's odd, but adorable.

I've never seen another like him, so I can only guess as to his age and nationality...maybe American or English circa one of the World Wars? I've seen the octagonal nose once on an old English bear, and (much smaller) upward stitches also on English teds, while the side-placed ears are found on American and English varieties. This type of fabric was typically used during wartime shortages of wool, which was being used for soldiers' uniforms and so couldn't be made into mohair for bears. If anyone has a similar ted, I'd love to see him (or her) and compare notes!

This is his original nose and mouth stitching. 

It gives him rather a distinctive look and funny expression, 

especially combined with the beady little eyes.

Itty Bitty Steiff Bear

This little Steiff has lots of wear,
but it just seems to have given him even more charm.
The white ted is just 5 1/2 inches tall, circa 1920-30.

He has a totally kissable nose, yes?

He came wearing an old plaid coat that had clearly
been with him a long time, and suits him perfectly.

 Going for a walk...

Antique Teddy Bear and Photo

The value of an antique teddy bear, both financial and sentimental, increases substantially when it comes with a photo of the original owner. If the photo is of the original owner and the bear, the value is even greater.
Such duos are difficult to find, as bears and photos tend to go their separate ways over time. I was very fortunate to find a pair that remained together for almost 90 years.

The hand-colored photo of the little girl, circa the 1920s, is 15 1/2 inches tall, and still in its original frame. 

 

Her 13 inch teddy bear companion wears a rather serious expression. As I look at him, I wonder what experiences he shared with his owner over their long life together.

The two came to me from a dealer who got them at the original family's estate sale. Astoundingly, she didn't get the little girl's name: that would have been a wonderful thing to know, and may have enabled genealogical research. Whoever she was, I hope she would be happy to know that her treasured teddy is now safely settled into my sanctuary for orphaned bears.

Miniature Tin Toy & Candy Shop

I found this antique miniature tin shop on display with a whole town full of other buildings, including a movie theater (with a marquee that read "Moving Pictures"), a drug store, and a red schoolhouse. Sadly I could only afford one, and this was my favorite, of course. Dating from 1914 and measuring just under 3 inches tall, the lithographed tin shop was originally a candy container.

The detail is remarkable
for such a tiny piece.
In the toy window,
you can just make out
a teddy bear, doll,
and red wagon:

German Dollhouse Pastry Shop Revisited

A few months ago, I posted about an antique German dollhouse pastry shop we restored. I've been fiddling around with it since then, trying to get its accessories just right. One of the things I've added is a tiny table and chair, making a little dining corner. The shop is so big, there's plenty of room, and I think the addition has made it more interesting.

I also added a new shopkeeper, who seems to match the surroundings better than her predecessor:

"Hello dears! What can I get for you? 

The coffee cake is particularly lovely today."

Antique Snow Baby Doll

Who is this cutie? A Snow Baby Doll, from the early 1900s. And she's not just cute: she has a fascinating history, too.

In 1893, Marie Peary was born in the wilds of Greenland, the daughter and first child of Arctic explorer Robert E. Peary and his wife Josephine. "Society" was shocked that he had taken his wife along on this expedition, and were concerned for the child's health, but she and her mother seemed to thrive in the Arctic. Mrs. Peary, a former society figure herself, actually hunted caribou and fought off attacking walruses alongside her husband and their guides. Marie and her mother accompanied Peary on several more trips, and photographs of blond, blue eyed Marie dressed in her Arctic furs made it back to America, where enthralled readers followed her exploits in the newspapers. Entrepreneurs were quick to capitalize on Marie's popularity, and produced this novelty, the Snow Baby Doll, in many forms. The best were delightful likenesses of Marie, and appear to be based on this most famous photo.

This example is tissue mint in its original box, which is covered with blue paper dotted with white stars, reminiscent of the polar sky. The doll is 11 inches tall, with a bisque head inserted into a wool bodysuit, the hood still tied with its original ribbon. Integral white felt mittens and boots, trimmed with red laces, distinguish the Snow Baby from the otherwise similar Teddy Girl or Teddy Doll.

A wonderful book about Marie Peary's Snow Baby years was recently released; read about it  here. It's full of incredible images of Marie, her parents, and their adventures.

Antique Photo: Boy with Bear on Wheels

An anxious looking little boy and his bear-on-wheels, early 1900s. 

Antique Carnival Items: Signs, Games, Punks, & More

Hurry, hurry, step right up and see my latest find: a huge lot of antique carnival items!  Most of the pieces are from the 1930s, and have seen heavy use in traveling carnivals. With their handmade nature and patina of age, they have a folk art quality that is very appealing.

First up: this hand lettered wooden sign for a coin toss game,
5 feet long:

Here's a closeup of the hand lettering, 

a fascinating art form:  

 

And, if you look closely at the "5", you can see where the old price of "10" cents was painted over, I'm guessing during the Depression years.

One of the most unusual pieces in the lot was this gigantic wooden sledgehammer, almost 3 feet tall, with a head a foot wide. The bands around the head are thick steel. It was used in the classic carnival High Striker, or bell ringing game, in which a fair goer would attempt to ring a bell at the top of a tall platform by hitting the base. This hammer is so heavy, I have no idea how anyone would have managed to swing it. I had to drag it up my stairs, stopping for a rest along the way...

One of the most interesting finds was another classic game, the milk bottle knock-down. The 7 inch wooden milk bottles were heavily dinged and scraped from decades of use. The game came with a basket full of its original, accompanying baseballs.

The goal was to knock the 3 bottles over with a tossed ball. It sounds simple, but in actuality, it hardly ever happened. Turning over the bottles reveals why: one has been hollowed out, and a lead weight inserted. The hole was then plugged, and the weight made it very difficult to knock over. In the photo below, the gaffed bottle is on the top of the pile.

Some of my favorite items in the find were an assortment of 3 carnival punks, or knock down dolls. In a game similar to the milk bottles, customers tried to knock the punks over to win a prize. The most common form of punk was a clown with a crazy halo of hair, which was made of wool in the earliest examples, like these 11 inch varieties:

The other punk was very unusual; I've never seen one quite like it. Measuring a very large 21 inches tall, it features a hand painted cat on green canvas, with the word "Lux" prominently spelled out, and yellow tassled fringe adorning the sides. It's a little spooky...

Another big sign, a bit more recent than the first and not as skillfully painted, was this 10 cent candy advertisement:

From a selection of shooting gallery targets, I chose this cast iron duck, 5 1/2 inches wide. Like the hammer shown previously, this target is so heavy, I don't see how it could ever have been successfully struck. Its age, wear, and weathering have given it a wonderful primitive charm.

Also from a shooting gallery came this double squirrel target, made of wood, cast iron, and steel, measuring 7 inches tall by 10 inches wide. It would originally have been one small segment in a wide shooting range composed of many similar pieces. After knocking the squirrels over, a hit on the center white circle target makes them pop back up again.

Here's a closeup of the squirrels, 2 inches tall: 

This last item is a bit more recent than the others, probably from the 1950s. It's another great hand lettered sign, 16 inches wide, most likely from a ticket booth.

It's an incredible feeling to hold these items and imagine the places they've been and the people they've seen...I can almost smell the cotton candy and hear the screams of riders on the roller coaster.

Miniature Groceries

Antique dollhouse grocery shops are some of my favorite things to collect. Most were made in Germany, from the mid 1800s all the way through the 1960s. Here are a few accessory pieces I found recently to restock my shelves.

Miniature canned goods (milk, coffee, and sausages): tin cans with paper labels, made in Germany circa the 1930s, 1 1/2 inches tall.

Tiny cheeses: cardboard, composition, and glass. Dish is 1 1/4 inches in diameter, circa 1930s.

Strange Easter Postcard

This very strange German made Easter postcard from the 1900s features all the holiday sights one would expect (chicks, colored eggs), but also a little boy chef who is smoking a cigar while balancing a tray with an apparently live chicken on his head. I do not know why. Perhaps this is some little known European spring time custom, or perhaps the German Easter Bunny also brings stogies.

Teddy Bear Buddies

I found these two antique American bears a year apart, and on different continents, but they look to me like they belong together, and have been so for a long time...

Big Nosed Bear

Possibly the cutest antique teddy bear ever. 

American, circa 1915.

Antique Show Report: Tons of Tiny Treasures

The first antique show of the season arrived this past weekend with the stormy spring weather. I gathered up my pocket change and went to see what treasures I could find. My budget was very limited this time, due to an upcoming vacation, so I tried to look only at very small things. Fortunately, there were a lot of very small things! I found:

Some antique dollhouse "tobacco felt" rugs. These 5 inch rugs were given away as premiums with cigarettes and cigars in the early 1900s. In the same booth, I also got a nice old dollhouse plate rack, complete with its plates.

Next, I got a bunch of dollhouse grocery items, all made of wood with paper labels. The largest can is 1 1/4 inches tall, and they all date from the 1920s-30s.

Pigs in Clover, an absolutely impossible hand-held dexterity puzzle from the 1950s, was next:

And my favorite find of all was a little vintage 1960s troll, 3 1/2 inches high, wearing his original outfit and shoes, with very unusual rooted, variegated hair:

Hi!

Antique Automobile Game

There's a lot to appreciate in old board games besides their game play, like the beauty of their lithography and the interest of their history. One of the best examples of this in my collection is a 1920s auto race game, made by Wilder Mfg. of St. Louis, Missouri. The board features wonderful cartoony illustrations of now-classic automobiles in a road race. 

 The center of the board hosts a great gas station 

with old style gas pumps:

Oh no! You're out of water, and your radiator is overheating!

Go back five spaces...

 

The cars include Cadillacs, Packards, Stutz, 

and a brand I've never heard of, Marmon, 

all driven by maniacal-looking men wearing goggles:

Champ, the Boxing Bear

Although I now collect many different kinds of toys, my first love was antique teddy bears. Within that category, my favorite type of bears are so-called "characters," teddies that have been so loved they are all but worn out. Doting owners often carefully dressed and accessorized such bears, to make up for missing fur, noses, and, in this extreme case, paws, resulting in one of a kind characters with lots of forlorn appeal.

This 14 inch, 1930s British bear has lost all of his mohair, his nose, mouth, foot pads, AND both his paws from excessive hugging, kissing, and playing. But somewhere in the course of his long life, a loving owner knit him a pair of boxing shorts, and stitched little leather boxing gloves to his arms. The addition of a cleverly captioned pinback ("Never Touched Me") completed his makeover, and he is now a fabulous character, indeed.