#Middlebury #Antiques #Toys
Children’s toys are often miniature copies of full-sized objects in the house. They like to imitate Mom and Dad’s work. A recent Bertoia auction sold a toy icebox with its original pristine box for $1,440. The Gurney toy refrigerator made by Arcade is only 5 1/2 inches high. It is a copy of an 1840s icebox. Although the first refrigeration method was patented in 1809, the icebox for home use dates from the 1840s.
This toy refrigerator can be dated by the square section that held a block of ice, an early type used from the 1840s. It sold at auction in “unplayed with” condition with a pristine box for more than $1,000. (Kovels photo)
The toy has a square door on the right side that covered the compartment that held a block of ice, which was delivered by an iceman in a horse-drawn wagon. Food was kept in the large compartment, and the small section on the right is where the water from the melting ice was collected and discarded each day.
A modern electric refrigerator was made by General Electric Co. in 1927. It is named for the Monitor Top. It remained popular until the 1940s. Today’s refrigerators can be dated by the special section for frozen food introduced in 1924. All of the styles have been copied for toys.
Q: I was just told that there was a bag kept in the privy building used in past centuries. It was quilted from old pieces of cloth and used to save scraps (some say cloth, some paper) to use like we use toilet paper. Is this true?
A: We thought that was a strange question, but we searched our library and finally went online to Kovels.com. We wrote about an exhibit in 2009 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, of quilted privy bags. They also had a booklet showing the collection. The bags were used in the privy to hold the pieces of paper that were to be used like toilet paper. Waste went into the hole in the seat to the ground about 6 feet below. Lancaster, Pennsylvania, seems to have been the center of this tradition with Amish-made quilted bags. As you probably have heard, the joke was last year’s Sears and Roebuck catalog was saved for the outhouse. The only price we have seen for this rare item was $995.
Current Prices
Piano Baby, bisque, child lying on stomach, rosy cheeks, brown molded hair, bare feet, romper, holds pug dog, painted, Germany, c.1900, 9 x 4 inches, $70.
Royal Doulton vase, landscape, cows in field with daisies, flambe glaze, swollen cylinder form, rolled rim, 8 1/2 inches, $175.
Dough Box, stand, burl wood, carved, women, holding hands, field, shaped apron, 35 1/2 x 39 inches, $390.
Toolbox, carpenters, wooden, lift lid, interior compartments and drawers, steel side handles, two riser base, c. 1940, 15 x 28 inches, $675.
TIP: If a thin chain becomes tangled, dust it with talcum powder and the untangling should be easier.
“Kovels’ Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide” – the new 2022 edition with more than 12,500 all-new and real prices, 3,000 color photographs and 500 marks – is now available in bookstores and online.
© 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.
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