Rare mechanical banks sell for extraordinary prices. Only one clue to the "Twins" mechanical bank (one of the rarest banks) existed in 1966, when one of the early books about banks was written. At the time, a brass version attributed to "Johnson" was known. It evidently was patented by Charles C. Johnson, who designed banks for the J. & E. Stevens Co., a famous manufacturer of mechanical banks.
Several other toy banks used the same theme: A bank building has doors that reveal a teller or tellers. Give a coin to the teller. When the lever is pulled, the teller moves into the bank and deposits the money.
This rare mechanical bank sold for $140,000 in May 2000 at the Thomaston Place Auction of Thomaston, Maine.
The Twins bank has two tellers. As one goes inside to deposit the money, the other moves outside to wait for the next coin. Experts attribute a similar bank to John Hall, who also designed banks and had some manufactured by J. & E. Stevens. A painted version of the Johnson Twins bank was auctioned in 2000 for $140,000.
At a flea market a few years ago, I purchased a coffee table shaped like a cobbler's bench. Inside one of the drawers is a brass plate that reads "Sprague & Carleton, Makers of Fine Furniture." I have tried, without luck, to locate the firm. Can you help?
Sprague & Carleton worked from 1900 to 1929 in Keene, N.H. It was known as Ira M. Sprague Furniture Works before it became Sprague & Carleton. The firm made reproductions of early American tables.
My light blue pottery cookie jar is in the shape of a heavyset monk. Near the bottom of his cloak are the words "Thou Shalt Not Steal." The mark on the bottom is "Red Wing." Do you know its age and value?
Red Wing Potteries Inc. of Red Wing, Minn., worked from 1878 to 1967. The company is best known for its art pottery and dinnerware.
In the late 1930s, Red Wing started making cookie jars. Your jar, called "Friar Tuck," was first sold in 1941. It was designed by Charles Murphy, one of Red Wing's noted artists, and was made in blue or green.
Murphy's three cookie-jar designs Friar Tuck, Katrina the Dutch Girl and Pierre the Chef were Red Wing's most popular cookie jars. Your cookie jar sells for $100 to $180.
Have you ever heard of "brain glass"? I collect unusual old lamps, and a dealer has offered me a bronze-finished Deco lamp with what she describes as a "brain-glass shade."
The terms "brain glass" and "brain shade" are not technical. They're words collectors use to describe globe-shaped glass shades with shallow grooves. The pattern of the grooves makes the glass shade look like the surface of the human brain.
My father-in-law had a small collection of political campaign memorabilia that he left to us. Mostly there are buttons and ribbons.
But one of the smallest items we nearly threw it away is a metal pig a little more than an inch long. There is a tiny glass lens at the back end of the pig. If you look into the lens, you see a magnified photo of Rutherford B. Hayes. I know he was elected president in 1876, but was this pig made at the time?
You have a great political collectible that was made during the 1876 U.S. presidential campaign. The magnifying lens enlarging the picture in the pig is called a Stanhope. It was named for its English inventor, Charles Stanhope (1753-1816). Stanhopes were used in jewelry and various novelties.
Your little pig was a political joke made by a New York firm, Fish and Simpson. The company made the same derogatory charms for the candidates of both parties.
The presidential pigs were apparently first sold in 1872, and they continued to be made until 1912. They sell for $125 to $500 or more, depending on condition.
My 6-year-old son reminds me of Dennis the Menace. Is there a stuffed Dennis doll that I might find at a flea market?
Hank Ketcham's "Dennis the Menace" debuted as a daily newspaper cartoon March 12, 1951. Ketcham based his cartoon child on his own son, Dennis.
Ketcham did not cash in heavily on toy-licensing agreements.
We have come across Dennis the Menace phonographs, hand puppets, cereal spoons and pin-back buttons, as well as plastic rings, figurines and squirt guns. But we have never seen a stuffed doll.
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