Leading a group of 21 clockwork tin toys by Althof Bergmann was this Santa in a sleigh pulled by goats, which was considered a Holy Grail, and a museum-worthy piece; one of its companions resides at the Strong Museum (Rochester, N.Y.). This example rode to a jolly $96,000, the highest price of the sale ($70/140,000).
Review by Kiersten Busch
VINELAND, N.J. — The joy is always in the toys for Bertoia Auctions, which conducted its March 2025 Signature auction on the 15th of the month. The firm gave vintage toy collectors the opportunity to acquire items from the Curtis and Linda Smith collection, the Bradley Kaplan Lionel collection, the Tony Cuff collection, the Ira Bernstein collection and additional lots of cast iron toys and more. President and principal auctioneer Michael Bertoia shared that he was “absolutely” pleased with the results of the sale, which realized just over $2 million. “Two of 500 lots passed. However, one of them actually sold after the auction,” Bertoia added happily.
“The auction was fantastic and performed very well across numerous category types. It just demonstrates that great items bring great prices,” Bertoia continued. He also touched upon the bidding pool: “Bertoia Live online bidding was extremely active. Telephone bidding, especially on highlight items, was quite busy. Absentee bidding in the bid book as well as live attendees bidding contributed to the final total. Live attendees were especially active on American tin, Lionel trains and cast-iron cars. LiveAuctioneers had activity as well, though many of our customers for high-end items were using Bertoia Live as their preferred online platform.”
Slipping and sliding into the top lot spot was a toy that was “considered one of the finest pieces of clockwork American tin ever produced”: an Althof Bergmann Santa in a sleigh pulled by goats from the Smith collection, which raced to a $96,000 finish. The addition of the original and removeable rear yellow toy sack was what made the circa 1800s toy so rare; many other examples either did not have the sack or it was replaced.
Designed as a replica of the Greyhound bus station in New York City, this Ell-Bee 1940s wooden bus terminal was made exclusively for FAO Schwartz and included two Arcade Greyhound buses with their original boxes; the set drove off for $20,400 ($1/2,000).
There was no lack of Althof Bergmann examples in the sale, with 20 additional lots heading to new homes. Prices ranged from $840 for a Mary and lamb with cart to $33,600 for a hand-painted horsedrawn hook and ladder toy with its original hanging firemen figures, which was “the rarest of the very few American tin ladder wagons that have turned up through the years,” according to catalog notes.
Two high-performing lots particularly stood out by surpassing their estimates by a significant amount: an Ell-Bee wooden bus terminal with arcade buses, which drove to $20,400 against a $1/2,000 estimate, and a platform toy by Fallows showing a girl petting a cat, which jumped to $14,400 despite a $2,5/5,000 estimate. Why might that be the case? Bertoia explained, “Two words: rarity and condition. In each case, the condition was absolutely top grade. Combine that with the fact that they are each very rare, and it’s a perfect combination. The Fallows platform toy has a wonderful theme and is just a very charming piece, finding a replacement in any condition would be a challenge. The bus terminal was so clean, it even had its original FAO Schwartz labelled shipping box. This one was a real wild card.”
Just fewer than 40 lots of various toy boats and ships crossed the block, led by two examples which both sailed in at $34,800. The first, a 34½-inch-long live steam ironclad ship by Jean Schoenner of Germany in the 1890s, was “well-armored” and “made in the style of the most advanced warships of the mid-to-late Nineteenth Century,” according to catalog notes. It was consigned from the Tony Cuff collection. The second example came from the Smith collection: a circa 1870 hand painted American tin clockwork motor-operated toy of a monitor war boat by George Brown. A “historically relevant” example, this was only one of a handful on the market, as most are secured in private collections.
Cataloged as “gargantuan” because of its 34½-inch length, this Schoenner live steam ironclad warship made in the 1890s by Jean Schoenner in Germany came from the Tony Cuff collection and gunned down a $34,800 finish ($15/30,000).
Bertoia noted two additional examples which sold for much higher than their estimates: a 53-inch-long hand-painted tinplate and wood Robert E. Lee paddle wheeler boat, which powered to $19,200 against a $2/4,000 estimate; and a boxed set of four paper-over-wood bliss boats pre-dating the Spanish Civil War which had provenance to the Dick Claus collection and sailed past their $6/9,000 estimate to achieve $14,400.
Steam powered toy ships aside, the man-powered variety was represented by three lots, with a double oarsmen toy by Ives earning the highest price at $33,600. The “extremely scarce” toy featured a team of two rowers and was made circa 1870s. This specific example was featured in both American Clockwork Toys (Atglen, Penn.: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1981) by Blair Whitton and American Antique Toys (New York City: Abrams, 1980) by Bernard Barenholtz. Additionally, a lithographed racing scull by Orobor rowed to $14,400, while another Ives boat, this one a single oarsman, docked for $4,200.
Banks of all shapes and sizes, with prices ranging from $240-$24,000, were well represented in the sale, with a mechanical Mason bank, featuring two masons working on a chimney, leading the group of 56 with a smoking $24,000. The bank, which had provenance to the Bob Brady collection, was cataloged as a “sensational example,” and even included its original box.
The highest price for a mechanical bank, $24,000, was earned by this Mason mechanical bank by Shepard Hardware Co., which included its original wooden box ($20/35,000).
Other notable top sellers in the bank group included a J&E Stevens Co., mechanical example purchased by the Smiths from the Rich Garthoefner collection, which showed a girl skipping rope. She hopped to $20,400, partially due to her rarity: the girl’s orange dress was a variation of the bank that was scarcely seen. Another J&E Stevens Co., bank followed right behind at $19,200, this one featuring three Boy Scouts camping in a grassy field with a teepee for shelter.
Bertoia also directed attention to two additional banks that stood out to him during the sale. One was a J&E Stevens Co., Darktown Battery baseball mechanical bank from the Smith collection, which hit a home run for $15,600, knocking its $6/10,000 estimate out of the park. The second, an electroplated cast iron payphone safe still bank by the American Toll Telephone Co., called in at $4,200, despite a $700-$1,000 estimate. The “scarce example” was able to accept 25-, 10- and five-cent coins.
Toys made of cast iron, wood and tin were not the only ones offered in the sale, however. A group of 15 Steiff animals attracted bidder attention, with all the lots selling, with prices ranging from $1,200 for a white bear to the $22,800 earned for an apricot rod bear with its original elephant button. One of the earliest teddy bears that Steiff produced, this example dated to circa 1905 and featured a pronounced nose with a gutta percha nose tip, as well as shoe button eyes. Other animals in the menagerie included a Somersault elephant ($3,600), a rare Peter Rabbit ($2,700), a circus elephant ($2,400), a wool-covered cat on wheels ($1,680) and a jackrabbit ($1,560).
Steiff animals were led by this apricot rod bear made circa 1905, which crossed the block for a cuddly $22,800. Sporting long mohair, this example also included its original elephant button and was 17 inches long ($10/16,000).
A unique category in the sale was antique squeak toys, represented by 35 diverse lots. The offerings, which included animals such as cats, ducks, rabbits, dogs, pigeons, storks, squirrels, peacocks, lions, parrots and lambs — as well as assorted humans doing various things — ranged in price from $150 for a seated lion squeak toy from Germany to $4,200 for a Victorian-carved wooden birdcage marked “P. Cederberg 1878” filled with 15 squeak toy birds.
Bertoia confirmed that the majority of the highest-selling lots mentioned stayed in the US. As for upcoming sales, he shared, “I have not confirmed the date yet, but we are planning both an April and a May auction to include toys, banks, advertising, an early motorcycle and motorbike collection and more.”
For information, 856-692-8697 or www.bertoiaauctions.com.
