Month: March 2021

A Pair of Ted Williams Cleats, Worn During His Final At Bat, Could Sell for $63,000 or More (Update, April 4, 2021: They Did!)

UncategorizedMarch 26, 2021April 4, 2021

Update: The Ted Williams cleats sold for $70,745. Hooray!

What you see: The cleats Ted Williams wore during his final at bat of his Major League Baseball (MLB) career on September 28, 1960, at Fenway Park. SCP Auctions estimates them at $50,000-plus.

The expert: Mike Keys, chief operating officer of SCP Auctions.

Who was Ted Williams? He was a Red Sox great and one of the best hitters in MLB history. He played 19 seasons with the Red Sox, primarily in left field. He had a tremendous career and was a Hall of Fame player.

Lots of baseball players enter their final career at bat without knowing it. How well-telegraphed was this event? Had Ted Williams announced he would retire at the end of the 1960 season? He had announced his retirement on three different occasions–in 1951, again in 1954, and in 1960. He had had injuries in the early 1950s, but 1960, that was it. People knew it would be his last at bat. He came up in the eighth inning. It was not likely he’d get another at bat, and it was his last game.

So it’s September 1960. No internet, no smart phones. Is Fenway Park full? In 1960, the Red Sox were not the best team. There were 10,454 fans in the stands.

Was that its capacity? I don’t believe so. [Keys is correct. Baseball Almanac says Fenway’s capacity was 33,368 at the time.]

What happened during Ted Williams’s final at bat? How did it go? The first pitch, he took for a ball. A lot of sluggers watched the first pitch anyway then. The second pitch was a high fastball. Ted Williams swung really hard at it. There was no doubt he was swinging for the fences. The third pitch he hit for a 440-foot home run.

That is a long home run, like you only see in the Home Run Derby contest in the All-Star Break. Or Mike Trout. But yeah, he nailed it.

So the crowd goes nuts. Then what happens? He runs the bases very humbly, very business-like, with his head down. He shook the catcher’s hand and got into the dugout quickly.

How do we know these are Ted Williams game-worn cleats, and how do we know he wore them during his last major league at bat? It ties in to Jim Carroll. He and Ted Williams were friends going back to at least five years prior to the home run. Carroll would cruise around town in Ted’s Cadillac and shepherd him around. After the game, Carroll was there to take Williams to the airport. The provenance is Jim Carroll. [Carroll wrote a letter of authenticity for the cleats in 2007 that reads in part: “After the game, Ted started to take off his cleats and uniform to take a shower. Ted cantankerously threw his cleats in a barrel nearby. I sheepishly went to grab them and figured what a great collectible these would make. The equipment manager Jonny Orlando for the Red Sox turned and said “Hey, what are you doing”, Ted then turned around and stated, “No, that’s okay, let the Bush (my nickname to Ted) have ’em.”] They were originally sold in 2007, in a joint auction with SCP and Sotheby’s, and Carroll wrote the letter at that time. Other attributes of the cleats check out–the Spot Bilt tagging, the number 9 inside the tongue.

What did the Ted Williams cleats sell for in 2007, when SCP and Sotheby’s joined forces on that auction? $51,000.

I’ve seen any number of game-worn baseball jerseys that predate 1970, and a few pairs of pants. This is the first pair of cleats I can remember. How rare are vintage game-worn baseball cleats, generally? They don’t come around that often. In 2019, a pair of Babe Ruth cleats sold for $72,000, and had provenance from the Ruth family. Other than that, none have come up for sale. There are more jerseys out there than cleats. Unless they’re from a player like Ruth or Williams, or from a significant game, you don’t see cleats pop up. And game-worn jerseys are easier to authenticate. There aren’t too many cleats authenticators out there. That’s not really a thing that’s done.

Let’s talk about the condition of the Ted Williams cleats and how condition works when we’re talking about game-worn clothing. How do you assess a piece for which you want to see some wear, but not so much that it looks like it’s been dragged behind a bus? You do want a lot of wear on some game-worn items. You don’t want them to look like they were run through a wringer. You want dirt and creasing and evidence he was running around in them. With these ones, in particular, you can see dust and dirt speckling off, still. You can assume it comes from Fenway. It’s still there. They’re well-made leather cleats. They’re by Spot Bilt, a manufacturer of cleats back then. The tagging inside is vintage, everything about the cleats is vintage.

Did I hear you say the Ted Williams cleats have Fenway dirt in them? There’s some dirt in the nooks and crannies of the seams. Not big chunks–dust. We can assume it’s from Fenway.

What are the Ted Williams cleats like in person? What eludes the camera? They’re just special in person. You can see the little grains of dirt and dust, and looking at the cleats part is interesting. They have six spikes coming out of the soles, and they look welded on. It’s really cool to have them in front of me on my desk. You can feel the difference. There’s an aura about these items when they come around.

What is your favorite detail of the Ted Williams cleats? I love the spikes. You can also see the stitching at the bottom of the shoe. These things were just made differently.

What size are the Ted Williams cleats? Size 9 to 9 1/2. That’s Ted’s size.

That’s convenient, seeing as that was also Ted Williams’s number. [Laughs]

Have you tried them on? They don’t fit my feet, but we wouldn’t put them on, the same way we wouldn’t swing a Babe Ruth game-used bat. We’ve put on jerseys before, but we haven’t tried on the cleats.

Well, they’re leather. That’s an organic material. Who knows when and whether they’ll crack? And they’re an old artifact. Since 2007, they have had shoe horns inside that have kept their shape.

So when you were figuring out a presale estimate for the Ted Williams cleats, you looked to the results from when they sold in 2007? It’s based on itself because there’s really no comparables out there. They’re one of a kind. There are no other Ted Williams last home run cleats out there. $51,000 was a big price at the time, and it has already reached that price.

Whoa, you’re right. We’re speaking on March 19, 2021, I’ve just refreshed the lot page, and they’re at $53,594. With the premium, they’re over $63,000.

How meaningful is that–it’s more than two weeks before the auction ends, and they’ve already exceeded the price they fetched the last time they were auctioned? We’re excited about it, of course, and we hope it keeps going, but it’s really a crapshoot. Sometimes, at auction, you see something reach a number and sit there and never move from that bid. Sometimes things go absolutely crazy toward the last day. But we’re glad the cleats are where they are now.

What’s the world auction record for a pair of game-worn baseball cleats? It’s a pair that Michael Jordan wore while playing in minor league baseball for the Birmingham Barons. They sold for $93,000 in May 2020. To my knowledge, his are the highest priced game worn baseball cleats. Michael Jordan kind of owns the shoe world.

Do you think these Ted Williams cleats could set a new record? If they beat $93,000, we’ll be ecstatic. They’re already halfway there. They could certainly get there.

Why will these Ted Williams cleats stick in your memory? Because I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again. They probably won’t come up for sale again [in my career]. I hope whoever wins really cherishes them and takes good care of them.

How to bid: The Ted Williams cleats are lot 43 in the Winter Premier Auction 2021 at SCP Auctions. It opened on March 17, 2021 and closes on April 3, 2021.

How to subscribe to The Hot Bid: Click the trio of dots at the upper right of this page. You can also follow The Hot Bid on Instagram and follow the author on Twitter.

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Images are courtesy of SCP Auctions.

See Ted Williams’s final at-bat in full at the YouTube channel of David Marlin, who filmed it and later donated his camera to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

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A 1932 Marx Brothers Movie Poster Could Sell for $50,000 (Updated March 28, 2021)

UncategorizedMarch 19, 2021March 28, 2021

Update: The Marx Brothers movie poster sold for $40,800.

What you see: A Marx Brothers movie poster for their 1932 film Horse Feathers. It’s a three-sheet poster, which measures 41 inches by 80 inches. Heritage Auctions estimates it at $25,000 to $50,000.

The expert: Grey Smith, director of vintage movie poster auctions at Heritage Auctions.

Who were the Marx Brothers, and where were they in their career in 1932, when Horse Feathers was released? They were really known for their stage work prior to the early 1930s. They were recruited in New York by Paramount to do an adaption of a play they were in called The Cocoanuts. The Marx Brothers weren’t primarily physical comedians–it was all verbal banter, puns, and plays-on-words that attracted the audience. They did this movie and Duck Soup and then MGM picked them up. Most Marx Brothers fans love the Paramount films because they were more loose, less…

Well, they were pre-code–made before the Hays Code. Right. The Paramount films were more loosely concocted stories, all over the place. MGM buttoned them up and gave them a more direct narrative. When they made Horse Feathers, they were at the peak of their popularity in the early part of their career.

The poster touts “The 4 Marx Brothers”. Who’s the other guy off by himself? That’s Zeppo, in the lower right. The fifth Marx Brother, Gummo, never appeared in the films. Zeppo was the straight man to the other three brothers. He didn’t continue to the MGM years.

Do we know who did the portraits on the Marx Brothers movie poster? We do. The man who did them was Sam Berman, an artist working for Paramount. He did a number of images of the Marx Brothers for the poster campaign.

It’s funny how the design layout of the poster plays right into how most people remember them–“Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and… that other guy, what’s his name…” Exactly right. In marketing this movie, they played up the three crazy ones, but they needed to show the other brother. I don’t want to say he’s an afterthought, but there he is.

How rare are vintage Marx Brothers movie posters? Original Marx Brothers material is really pretty scarce. There was quite a demand for many years. I suggest that it was college students who found them in the 1950s and 1960s, who found the fun of those films. They really became popular in those years and the posters were probably sought after and they scooped up whatever they could find.

And that’s how this Marx Brothers movie poster might have survived? College students who ran campus film clubs would ask the distributor to send along any old posters they had kicking around, so they could advertise it? I can only believe that is the case. Local television stations needed product to fill their airwaves and were showing older films constantly. The Marx Brothers were part of that. Their verbal banter, their appearances, and their movements were really fascinating. Young adults discovered them, and it probably led to a run on their films. It’s a guess, but it’s a fair one to make–their posters are desirable.

The appearance of each Marx Brother seems to have been codified by 1932, judging by the Horse Feathers poster. How did the brothers’ recognizability help sell the movie? By this time, their fourth movie with Paramount, their images were pretty iconic. They were really well-known in their screen personas, and they immediately translated to the poster in exaggerated cartoon form. Everyone knew by looking [at this poster that Horse Feathers] was not a serious romantic drama. They could see what it was.

The lot notes describe this Marx Brothers movie poster as “exceptionally rare”. What makes it so? We sold another copy of this one last year for $66,000. The only difference is this copy is in a little bit better condition than the copy that was previously sold, and that other copy was autographed by Groucho. He wrote his name next to his head.

And that’s it? Those are the only two copies of this version of this Marx Brothers movie poster? They’re the only two copies I’m aware of. It’s a coincidence that this one appeared so soon after [the first one sold in March 2020].

Ok, let’s pretend I’m walking to the movie theater to see Horse Feathers. Where would I see this long, skinny Marx Brothers movie poster? Is it in a case outside the theater, or is it displayed inside? Both. It could be outside the theater, in a case, and they put them inside the theater. The most common movie poster is the one-sheet. Three-sheets [which this poster is] and six-sheets are more rare. They’d get used and abused more than a one-sheet. They [the people who ran movie theaters] would take three-sheets and six-sheets and cut out the Marx Brothers’ heads for a display of their own making. This paper was very inexpensive and totally expendable.

What is this Marx Brothers movie poster like in person? What eludes the camera? When people come here to view a poster, they say, “Wow, it’s so much brighter in person,” and it usually is. The photographs are good, but it’s not like seeing it in person. It’s just much more vibrant.

What’s your favorite detail of the poster? The caricatures are wonderful, especially Harpo, whose eyes are wide open.

Sam Berman seems to have given Harpo Marx red hair, though. I wonder why? We don’t know. Bear in mind that none of these films are in color. The studio provided the artists a number of stills from the film, and they used them to create images for the poster.

The Marx Brothers movie poster is described as being in “Very Fine, minus” condition. What does that mean? It’s just saying the poster is very presentable. Very Fine minus means there’s very little, if any, paper loss, and very minor wear to the paper.

As we speak on March 9, 2021, the Marx Brothers movie poster has been bid up to $12,500. Is that meaningful, given how far away in time the auction is? Not really. I don’t think so. I tell people all the time that people don’t get involved in bidding until the week before, and really [get involved] when it comes down to the auction block. I have seen posters come to the block with a $10,000 bid and when it’s all over, they sell for $355,000. That’s not unusual. Now that auctions are so immediate and many have access to bidding in real time, people will wait and keep their cards close to their chest until the auction goes live.

Comedy is ephemeral. Horse Feathers is close to being a century old. The Marx Brothers have been dead for decades. Why do they persist? Why are we still talking about them today? The only way to explain it is to go watch a few of their films. They had a unique and really quick banter. It’s sort of like asking what people find enchanting about Charlie Chaplin–City Lights is one of the best films created. It’s incredible.

Why will this piece stick in your memory? I see a lot of good material come through our auction house. I see posters as tangible pieces of cinema history. This poster is a very, very significant piece of cinema history. Fifty years from now, people will look at the auction catalog and think, “Wow, you could buy that for that price.” I think demand will continue to be significant. Museums and institutions will want them.

How to bid: The Marx Brothers movie poster is lot #86138 in the Movie Posters Signature Auction held at Heritage Auctions on March 27 and 28, 2021.

How to subscribe to The Hot Bid: Click the trio of dots at the upper right of this page. You can also follow The Hot Bid on Instagram and follow the author on Twitter.

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Image is courtesy of Heritage Auctions.

Grey Smith has appeared on The Hot Bid many times, talking about a 1929 Russian movie poster for Battleship Potemkin, a lobby card from the 1932 film Freaks,  a unique Japanese movie poster for The Seven Samurai and a 1934 poster for the nudist film Children of the Sun. 

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A Pair of Albert Paley Doors Could Command $50,000 (Updated March 23, 2021)

UncategorizedMarch 12, 2021March 24, 2021

Update: The Albert Paley doors sold for $18,750.

What you see: A pair of entrance doors fashioned in 2004 by Albert Paley, with glass elements by Martin Blank. Hindman estimates them at $30,000 to $50,000.

The expert: Hudson Berry, director and senior specialist for the Modern design department at Hindman.

Who is Albert Paley? He’s one of the nation’s leading and most influential blacksmiths. He was instrumental in the revitalization of the craft, which had declined with the closures in the American automobile industry in the 70s and 80s. Paley’s sculptures can be seen all over the world, and he has made architectural contributions to numerous institutions across America. Through his work as an educator at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he has continued to inspire and foster the careers of the next generation of international blacksmiths.   

Where was Albert Paley in his career in 2004, when he made these doors? And is he still active? The Springborn doors were conceived during his apex. He would have been 59 or 60 years old at the time of fabrication. He’s still fully active as an artist and designer.

How often has Paley worked with Martin Blank? How often have the two worked together on sets of doors or gates? The two artists have a multi-decade history of collaboration. Most take the form of sculpture, but it’s unlikely that they’ve worked on many doors together. Glass incorporated in functional kinetic design on an architectural scale poses obvious challenges, and requires an instrumental key ingredient: an imaginative and open-minded client!  

How do these doors show how Paley has evolved since creating the Renwick Portal Gates in 1974? What do the two sets of doors have in common, aside from their fundamental purpose, and how do they differ? While there are obvious threads that connect the Portal Gates and the Springborn Doors, such as nods to the Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts masters, the Springborn examples showcase Paley’s evolution as a designer. There is an incredible sense of rhythm and motion to the Portal Gates, but they also feel relatively restrained when considered alongside his later works. In the Springborn doors, we see much harder angles in dialogue with almost fabric-like elements placed atop jagged edges, while also incorporating a true sense of depth. All of which, in conjunction with Blank’s glass elements, creates harmonious tension more like that seen in Paley’s public works, with the overall design of the doors transcending the materials themselves.

What can we tell, just by looking, about how difficult these doors would have been to make? I’d say even in the hands of a master blacksmith such as Paley… extremely difficult. While we don’t know how long it took from commission to completion of the doors, Paley is said to have spent 3,800 hours over the course of seven months to complete the Renwick Portal Gates commission. Of course, the Springborn commission came 30 years later in Paley’s career, but it’s still an incredible display of virtuosity and material intelligence. Paley has a reputation for raising the bar with each project, and the Springborn doors are no exception.

How much input did the Springborns have in the design and appearance of the doors? I can’t speak to the level of collaboration or involvement the Springborns had with the overall look or specific details of the project, but we know from researching their relationships with other artists in the collection that their standard practice was to let them have total creative freedom.

The lot includes the original proposal drawing from Paley. How rare is that? Do most Paley works that come to auction lack their design drawings? The majority of Paley’s works that include proposal drawings are commissioned by larger institutions. In this instance, we are thrilled to have access to the original proposal, which would only come to market under a very specific set of circumstances.
 

What are the Albert Paley doors like in person? What aspects elude the camera? Depth and scale, for sure. While we have an incredible photography department here at Hindman, an image on a smartphone just can’t replicate the presence of two seven-foot sculptural steel doors. And the tactile experience can’t be understated. The textures of the various materials are incredible, and an integral part of the experience. The steel presents as warm brown, with a rust-like appearance, but is actually quite smooth to the touch, similar to Blank’s glass elements. The internal glass isn’t simply frosted, it’s got an incredible pebbled texture intersected with inset vertical soft waves that seem to mimic rain on a window. If these were backlit, the effect would be almost cinematic. You could only imagine coming home to these on a daily basis, an interaction that would likely never get old. 

What is your favorite detail of the Albert Paley doors? To me, the doors are a holistic experience. Having assembled them and spent some quality time with them, I still think of them as chamber music or an ensemble cast–the interchange of the two mediums is so intertwined that choosing a single favorite detail starts to dismantle them. 

Is the door design meant to be purely abstract, or are there colors, details, or other features woven in that have special meaning to the Springborns? Unfortunately, we didn’t have access to the Springborns’ correspondence with the artist on this particular project.

Could you talk about how well the Albert Paley doors work as a functional, integrated piece? Sadly, due to COVID-19 restrictions, I was unable to experience the doors in situ. But their construction is extremely robust, with every detail exquisitely crafted and tooled. Even the doorknob is a small sculpture unto itself! The doors also include all of the necessary hardware to facilitate full functionality once they arrive at their new home. I can only assume they are truly gratifying to open and close. 

I see that the doors are not mirror images of each other, but they share some shapes in common… I find the dialogue of symmetry juxtaposed with asymmetry to be the most compelling element of the design, and it changes depending on how close you are to the doors. That dialogue can also be seen as a recurring theme in Paley’s work. For me, this is Paley alluding to his adoration for artists such as Hector Guimard, Louis Majorelle, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Louis Sullivan.

What did Paley and Blank do to ensure that the glass elements would be robust enough to serve as part of a functional set of front doors? They’re extremely well-engineered. The glass elements are held in place with a series of rubber gaskets and adjustable hard rubber setscrews to ensure that the glass isn’t compromised with regular use. And while the glass is hollow, it’s also quite thick-walled, and it’s less nimble than it appears. 

How often do pieces by Albert Paley come to auction? Using LiveAuctioneers for metrics, and with the inclusion of the pieces in the Springborn Collection–as of March 2021, we are currently at 429 works, going as far back as 2003.

What is the world auction record for a work by Albert Paley? It’s a sculpture from 2013, titled Harlequin, which sold for $55,000 at Rago in 2018 as part of The Albert Paley Archives Part 1 auction. Of course, we hope the Paley works from the Springborn Collection will sit in the top percentile of achieved prices, if not setting new auction records themselves.

With these Albert Paley doors estimated at $30,000 to $50,000, a new world auction record for the artist could be set. What’s your opinion—could it happen? Could this lot do it? Yes. Given the importance of the client and how rarely Paley’s architectural private commissions come to market, the potential is certainly there for these to break and exceed any previous auction results. 

Why will these Albert Paley doors stick in your memory? Glenn Adamson wrote in his catalog essay for this lot: “Art-curious visitors to the home of Robert and Carolyn Springborn didn’t have long to wait. They were greeted right at the entrance by one of the collection’s most spectacular works”. That sums up the gravity of the Springborns as collectors and patrons. These doors truly served as the grand overture to the collection as a whole, setting the stage for surprises to come after you entered the home.

How to bid: The Albert Paley doors are lot 37 in The Springborn Collection of Contemporary Craft, a sale taking place at Hindman on March 23, 2021.

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Images are courtesy of Hindman.

Albert Paley has a website.

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An Apothecary Trade Sign Could Fetch $2,000 (Updated March 11, 2021–Nice!)

UncategorizedMarch 5, 2021March 11, 2021

Update: The apothecary trade sign sold for $6,500, more than triple its high estimate. Nice!

What you see: A lighted apothecary trade sign, covered with colored pieces of glass and dating to the 1920s. Cowan’s Auctions estimates it at $1,000 to $2,000.

The expert: Ben Fisher, director of Americana for Hindman. [Hindman and Cowan’s merged in 2019.]

What, if anything, do we know about who might have commissioned this apothecary trade sign? I would say maybe it was commissioned from a specific shop. I believe it’s late 19th century in inception. There are ads from the late 19th century from Travis, McLewee & Ferry in New York, and this sign looks almost identical to the trade signs made by that company, which specialized in artistic gas fixtures.

Where does the circa 1920s date for this apothecary trade sign come from? It’s based on an invoice provided by the consigner.

Does the appearance of the sign point to a 1920s date? Admittedly, the electrification of the sign is confusing. I’m 99 percent certain it was fitted for gas [originally].

I see that the apothecary trade sign is meant to look like a mortar and pestle, but what is that cone-shaped metal thing full of holes sticking out of the top? What does that do? It’s almost an exhaust or a chimney, a manner of expelling the smoke that the gas flame would have emitted. It’s really built into the cover. It’d be difficult to remove without replacing or altering the cover.

It started out as a gas fixture and at some point, the sign was converted to electricity? I’m not sure what the original gas element looked like. I think it would have been easy to convert it to electricity in the 20th century and in any period since then. My assumption is [the conversion took place in] the last quarter of the 20th century.

So it morphed over time. It was updated so it could continue to be used for its purpose. How many people do you know who have a gas line running through their kitchen? The sign had to be changed in order to be used. It’s a cool thing. Not a lot of these illuminated apothecary signs exist.

I think of antique trade signs as being two-dimensional, or flat. Setting aside cigar store figures, is it unusual to come across a sign like this, which is three-dimensional? I don’t believe so, no. I do see a lot of two-dimensional signs, but there are loads of three-dimensional signs. Carved barber poles are 3-D objects. Shoemakers’ signs, hat-makers’ signs, they all have three-dimensionality to them. This is remarkable in its rarity and condition. It’s not remarkable for being a 3-D trade sign from the 19th century.

How does the apothecary trade sign work? Do all the lights go on at once, and off at once, or do they light up as individual, graduated bands? It has a single lighting element, one bulb. You turn it on and all the beads [the glass elements] light up. Some light up more than others, but you turn it on, and every bead is illuminated.

How many glass pieces, or beads, are there on this apothecary trade sign? It has 195. They are glass, but they’re all secure. Some have tiny chips on the edges of their interiors, but there are very few of them.

Is the sign solid? It’s hollow.

What can we tell, just by looking, about how hard the apothecary trade sign would have been to make? I’d say the most difficult part of the process was creating the glass inserts. They either molded these beads out of glass, or made the shape of the bead and hand-cut it to facet it. As for the metal, I don’t think it was very hard for a competent metalworker to fashion.

Does it have a patina or pattern of wear that hints that it spent some or all of its life outside, or was it displayed indoors? It probably lived part of its life outside. When Paul [Paul Bentley, the consigner] acquired it, it had certainly been restored and cleaned up, but there’s oxidation that suggests exposure to the elements. I’m fairly certain that at some point, it lived outside, but definitely not all its life.

I think I see glass beads in white, blue, amber yellow, and red. Did I get all the colors, or did I miss any? You got them all. The late 19th century business card indicated that the gas fixtures company was able to make glass of ruby, crystal [white], and emerald color.

Ah, this apothecary trade sign doesn’t have any emerald beads. That’s disappointing to me, in that I think emerald is a more interesting color. But red, white, yellow, and blue aren’t bad either.

The provenance information on the lot page says “American Garage, Los Angeles, California”. What does that mean? American Garage is an antiques shop in Los Angeles. It’s temporarily closed [due to COVID-19 restrictions]. The consigner bought the sign there in 2010.

Has the apothecary trade sign been rewired for LEDs (light-emitting diodes)? It just has one central lighting element in the center. You can use any household light bulb to attach to it. It has a very simple solution.

What is the apothecary trade sign like in person? What aspects elude the camera? The scale of this is really something to be desired. It’s 29 inches tall–a large and very charming thing. I don’t know if you get that if you don’t see it in person.

Is 29 inches kind of petite for a trade sign meant for outdoor display? Other examples of these signs can be as small as 20 inches.

How many other examples are you aware of? More than a dozen? There are very few others. Certainly less than 20.

What’s your favorite detail of the apothecary trade sign? The thing I like most about it is the colored dots of light it leaves on the wall when it’s illuminated. There’s something very whimsical about it. Put it on a shelf in the corner and multiple walls will show polka dots on them.

Like a disco ball? Sort of. It’s funny–if you put it on a rotating platform, there would be a disco light aspect to it. I would love to see it lit with a flame to see how light reacts to it. Imagine being on a street and passing under it as colored lights dance on the ground.

Did the makers of the apothecary trade sign know it would cast little dots of multi-colored light when it was illuminated, or was the effect a happy accident? I would love to think they had the forethought, but it might be how it turned out.

What condition is the apothecary trade sign in? It’s in good condition. It operates, it functions. Given the changes to how it functions, some might be concerned, but electricity might be the only way to preserve what its purpose is. Also, it’s been cleaned. There’s no verdigris and the very little oxidation that exists suggests that it’s been outside.

Would the sign be worthless if it didn’t light up? It’s certainly a sculptural, wonderful thing to look at. If it didn’t function, fewer people would bid on it. Even if it was sold unelectrified, someone who is capable could convert it to electricity.

About that–as of February 25, 2021, the day we’re speaking, the apothecary trade sign has 62 watchers and has drawn four bids, the largest of which is $850. Is that meaningful at all? I tend to follow the numbers on LiveAuctioneers, and how many watchers and bids there are before a sale. Usually, it’s a good indicator of how it will perform.

Have any identical or similar apothecary trade signs come to auction? There was one that came up 20 years ago at Morphy’s. It sold for $2.000. I think this one is comparable.

What’s the world auction record for a trade sign? Putting aside traditional Samuel Robb [cigar store Indian] figures, it was an elephant-shaped boots and shoes sign for John M. Dyckman, which sold in October 2019 at Sotheby’s for $56,250.

Why will this piece stick in your memory? This is probably the only one I’ll ever get to handle. I’ve been doing this for 12 years, and I think it’s the only one I’ve seen in my career.

How to bid: The apothecary trade sign is lot 0015 in the American Folk & Decorative Arts auction at Cowan’s Auctions on March 9, 2021.

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Images are courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions. Images of the late 19th century advertisement are courtesy of Ben Fisher.

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A Vintage Jumbo NFL Bobblehead Could Fetch $25,000 (Updated March 12, 2021)

UncategorizedMarch 2, 2021March 12, 2021

Update: The jumbo NFL bobblehead sold for $19,600.

What you see: A jumbo NFL bobblehead, made in the early 1960s and styled as a player for the San Francisco 49ers. Huggins and Scott estimates it at $15,000 to $25,000.

The expert: Bill Huggins of Huggins and Scott.

The lot notes say the jumbo NFL bobblehead was distributed by the Otagiri Mercantile Company. What do we know about the company? Is it still in business? As far as I can tell with our research, it is not. It’s a company out of Japan in the 1950s, when these bobbleheads were mostly made. Then it kind of went away. I didn’t find out what else they might have made.

So it pretty much disappears by the 1970s? I believe so, or the dolls weren’t being produced by then.

Why might the Otagiri Mercantile Company have wanted to make jumbo NFL bobbleheads for the 14 American football teams that existed in the early 1960s? At that time, the NFL wasn’t anywhere near as dominant as it is now, and the first Super Bowl was years away. What convinced the company that it could turn a profit off these toys? I’ve been doing this for 40 years now, and have sold several of the jumbo NFL bobbleheads. The story among hobbyists is these were promo dolls sold at airports in the United States, probably in the 14 cities that were home to the teams. They [the airport stores] would put the big bobblehead up, and little bobbleheads around it, and you could buy the little ones.

So the jumbo versions were display-only? Yes, I believe the big ones were not designed to be sold. I think they were designed to be eye-catchers for the little guys.

These jumbo NFL bobbleheads stand about 15 inches tall. Is that what qualifies them as “jumbo”–being 12 inches tall or taller? Yes. The regular ones were about five to six inches tall.

Do we have any notion about how many of these jumbo NFL bobbleheads were made, and how many survive? The lot notes say the company might have produced as many as five jumbos per team. Five is a guess. Very few were produced, and very few survive. I’m in the Baltimore area. We’ve sold half a dozen of the Colts ones, but that’s the area we’re in. They were very, very regional. I think this is the first San Francisco 49ers one we’ve ever handled.

I see an NFL logo on the bobblehead’s left foot. Did the Otagiri Mercantile Company get the league’s permission to use it, or not? I think they just stuck the logo on. Today, if you were to reproduce a logo owned by a team without permission, you’d get sued real quick. Nobody cared back then. Probably, the league was happy that somebody was promoting the sport.

The jumbo NFL bobblehead has the words FORTY NINERS written on its chest. Did the team not have a logo then? I’m not really sure, but the red and silver coloring of the uniform is consistent with the 49ers colors.

Do the jumbo NFL bobbleheads look basically the same–same face, same pose, but different colors of uniform and helmet? Yes, and I believe the numbers on the backs of the players are always double zeroes.

How might these jumbo NFL bobbleheads have been made? They probably poured ceramic material into a mold of some sort. It hardened, and then it was painted.

Painted by human beings? I would think somebody painted them individually. When you get the smalls, they’re a little bit different in the painting. You can tell they’re not rolled out on a factory assembly line.

And the jumbo NFL bobbleheads are 100 percent ceramic? Yes. Today, bobbleheads are made out of hard plastic. You can throw them against the wall and they won’t break. These, they’re very fragile. You drop ’em, you have a pile of dust.

How did these toys manage to survive at all, given that they were made in such small numbers, from a highly breakable material, and were never meant to be sold? I don’t know. When the promotion ran out, whoever ran the gift shop or the hobby store might have given them to someone, or taken them home. [The world auction record for any bobblehead belongs to an early 1960s jumbo Yankees bobblehead from the same Japanese company. It sold for $90,000 at Heritage Auctions in October 2019.]

What is the jumbo NFL bobblehead like in person? What aspects elude the camera? The crudeness of how it was made. If you held it in your hand, you could tell it’s very fragile.

What condition is the jumbo NFL bobblehead in, and what sorts of condition issues do you tend to see with these oversize vintage toys? We’ve found indentations on the shoulders and flaws at the backs of the heads, where there are hairline cracks from people pushing the head down to make it bob. This one is described as being in “near mint” condition. That’s very rare to find, based on what they’re made out of.

Why will this toy stick in your memory? For the size of it. It’s so unique, compared to thousands and thousands and thousands of other bobbleheads that we sell all the time. We see so few of the big ones. It’s rare to find a jumbo at any time.

How to bid: The jumbo NFL bobblehead is lot 937 in the Winter Auction held at Huggins & Scott. It opened on February 26, 2021 and continues until March 11, 2021.

How to subscribe to The Hot Bid: Click the trio of dots at the upper right of this page. You can also follow The Hot Bid on Instagram and follow the author on Twitter.

Images are courtesy of Huggins and Scott.

Bill Huggins appeared on The Hot Bid previously to discuss a 1903 World Series program printed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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