Serendipity, the gift of making fortunate discoveries by accident, is a big part of learning about antiques and collectibles.

A friend bought an inexpensive, unusual whirligig about 10 years ago. It was made of a propeller, a metal man and a large advertising sign on the back. Wind turned the propeller, making the man pedal with his legs and move his arms. The entire sign turned in the wind. It looked old and homemade, but research turned up nothing except that the beer advertised was popular in the 1920s. Recently at a show, our friend saw a dealer selling several of the same metal men. The dealer told him that the figures were made of zinc from about 1920 to 1925 in the Midwest.

The whirligigs, the dealer explained, were made by an amateur. To assemble each one, he bought the man, hub and shaft, and then added a fin and a propeller. The best finished metal-man whirligig he had seen sold for $2,600.

Our friend was delighted to learn, just by chance, how his whirligig was made and how much it might be worth.

We recently purchased an oak Mission-style rocker. On the back is a brass plate engraved “Plymouth Furniture Co., Plymouth, Wis.” The seat is leather with straw and horsehair filling. Can you tell us anything about this furniture company?

Plymouth Furniture Co. was in business from about 1900 to 1929. The firm made reproduction furniture – mostly dressers, sideboards and chests of drawers. Like many other American companies working at that time, it also manufactured comparatively inexpensive copies of Arts & Crafts pieces made by craftsmen like Gustav Stickley and Elbert Hubbard.

I have an old barber’s chair. It has a velvet seat, back and headrest. The armrests, base and body are white porcelain accented with chrome. The footrest is marked “The E. Berninghaus Co., Cincinnati, O.” in one place, and “Hercules” in another. When was this chair made?

Eugene Berninghaus made barber’s chairs in Cincinnati about a century ago. He called his best-selling model the “Hercules.” The hydraulic mechanism that lifts the chair was patented in 1901. The earliest Hercules models were made of wood and cast iron with leather upholstery. One of these early models was modified as a major prop for the 1970 movie “The Time Machine.” Your chair, made without wood, is a later model. Early models sell for up to about $1,000. Yours would sell for less, about $500.

My grandmother left me an 8-by-10-inch laminated 3-D picture of Jesus holding a shepherd’s staff. I’m 72 and remember that the colored picture hung in my grandmother’s house as far back as the 1940s. Printed on the back of the picture are the words “Vari-Vue, Pat. No. 2,815,310, Mount Vernon, N.Y., Printed in U.S.A.” Can you tell me more about my picture?

THIS METAL WHIRLIGIG WAS HOMEMADE FROM assembled pieces, including the bicycling

The first patents for what became known as “lenticular” images, like your picture, were granted in 1936. The patents led to the formation of Vari-Vue International Inc. in New York. The firm made millions of what it called animated, stereographic or lenticular images for album covers, postcards, political buttons, Cracker Jack prizes, greeting cards and decorative pictures, like yours. The surface of each image is made of dozens of tiny, cylindrical plastic lenses laid in parallel lines. Below the layer of plastic lenses are several color images, so when you look at the picture from different angles, it changes or seems to move. Vari-Vue and Lenticular are now trademarks owned by Frank Didik. Modern pictures of this type are being made.

I bought a toy switchboard at a yard sale. The set includes a plastic switchboard with dials and switches, and two intercom phones. The box is torn around the corners, but the toy works. In the bottom right corner of the box cover, there’s a drawing of a house with the letters HGT inside. Around it are the words “Selected and displayed at House of Good Taste, N.Y. World’s Fair, Made in USA by Brumberger, Brooklyn, NY 11237.” I would like to know if I should save the toy or let my children play with it.

The ZIP code in Brumberger’s address is a clue to your toy’s age. ZIP codes were introduced in 1963. So, the New York World’s Fair referred to on the box is the 1963-’64 fair. One of the exhibitions at the fair’s “homemakers’ center” was called the “House of Good Taste.” Three houses :quot; traditional, contemporary and modern :quot; were on display. Each house was fully furnished, down to liquor bottles on coffee tables and toys in playrooms. Brumberger made a variety of toys that mimicked adult versions of slide projectors, stereoscope viewers, telegraph sets and telephone switchboards. The switchboard toy is worth less than $50. If you are a collector and want to keep the complete toy and its box in the condition it’s in now, don’t let your children play with it. If you picked it up on a whim, figuring your children would have fun with it, keep the box out of reach and let them play with the toy.

Tip

Do not smoke near dolls. The smoke film and smell will stick to the dolls’ hair and clothing.

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