Shooting to the top of the sale was this Marx prototype windup Speedboy 4 motorcycle with soldier, ammunition box and spring-loaded cannon that will shoot projectiles. A private collector took it home for $16,380 ($6/9,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring, Photo Courtesy Milestone Auctions
WILLOUGHBY, OHIO – The first of several toy sales that Milestone Auctions typically conducts annually took place on January 29, with 875 lots offered. The sale achieved a total of about $500,000 and saw just 19 lots passed from the podium for a sell-through rate of more than 97 percent.
“I thought it did fantastically well,” Milestone’s general manager Miles King said after the sale. “All of my consigners are happy. The market is very strong and hopefully it continues.”
Toy prototypes – unique pre-production pieces – are a niche collecting category for which Milestone has achieved top prices in previous years. The sale offered 11 examples for collectors to compete for and four featured in the sale’s top ten lots. King said the prototypes came from two different United States collections.
The highest price in the sale – $16,380 – was achieved for a Marx prototype windup military motorcycle that sold to a private collector. The toy depicted a Speedboy 4 motorcycle with an ammunition box and military cannon on the back that was spring loaded and would shoot projectiles. The bike had hand-painted details, as well as the soldier and cannon and was marked on the bottom “Erie Returned 11-24-39.”
“The box was the rare part, it’s very, very rare to have one for that toy,” Miles King said of this Marx windup Indian Motorcycle and side car that included its original box. It brought $9,360 — the second highest price in the sale — from a private collector in the United States ($4/6,000).
Bidders came to the rescue for a Marx prototype windup Red Cross motorcycle with rider and Red Cross box on the back. It finished at $5,850.
Another Marx prototype that outperformed expectations was a tin windup Tom Corbett Space Cadets rocket ship that was used for the prototype of the Buck Rogers Rocket Ship. Hand-painted Tom Corbett details were throughout, and it was marked on the bottom “Erie 8-6-51. It was the first prototype of its kind King had ever seen and rocketed to $6,435.
Toys often do not survive with their original boxes so ones that do are particularly desirable to collectors. Another example by Marx – though not a prototype – was a windup Indian motorcycle and wide car that did have its original box that featured wonderful graphics of an early Indian motorcycle. King said it was one of the finest looking Marx boxes he’d ever seen and that the toy had reportedly been discovered in a collection of parts and accessories from an old Indian Motorcycle dealership. The prototype for the piece brought $4,680 while a production version made $1,931.
Manufactured in the late Nineteenth Century, this cast iron water tower fire wagon by Wilkins measured 44 inches long. Bidders pushed it to $8,190 ($4/6,000).
King noted that the sale included more cast iron toys than usual, which he also thought did well. Top sellers among the category include an oversize cast iron water tower fire wagon made by Wilkins in the late Nineteenth Century. It was 44 inches long, a length the catalog noted was the largest cast iron horse-drawn toy ever produced. It doubled its low estimate and sold for $8,190. Another cast-iron piece that doubled its low estimate was a large Popeye motorcycle by Hubley that was complete with its original driver; it found a new home for $3,510.
Not all of the buyers were American. A collector in Europe paid $5,850 for a 40-inch three funnel ocean liner with clockwork mechanism by Bing, circa 1915-1927. According to the catalog, it was the largest size Bing made and survived in largely intact original condition, with only two small streamer flags being replaced.
Milestone Auctions will sell toys in April, sale date to be announced.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium but may not include additional online buying surcharges. For more information, www.milestoneauctions.com or 440-527-8060.
