Smith House Toys spring auction Rare Howdy Doody toys and advertising highlight the spring sale of the Smith House Toy & Auction Company. Also on the block will be space toys and robots, comic character toys, and other treasures.
News-Antique.com - May 02,2007 - There will be something for every collector -- and some things very few have ever seen -- in the spring sale of the Smith House Toy and Auction Company. Famous faces from early comic strips, comic books, science fiction and television adorn toys in tin, celluloid, plastic and wood in the phone and online auction that opens May 20 and ends June 8.
Anchoring the auction will be the second batch of toys from the Howdy Doody treasure chest of Alan “Mr. Mint” Rosen. The renowned Montvale, N.J., collector, who sat in the TV show’s Peanut Gallery in the 1950s, built his amazing roundup of 2,000 items over several decades. For this sale, he will be offering some of his top-shelf toys. The Clock-A-Doodle, a windup tin timepiece by Bandai, comes with its original hang tag and box. It’s expected to bring $2,500 to $3,500. A very rare Linemar Howdy Doody Band, with Clarabell the Clown on piano, is estimated at $1,500 to $1,800. Other hard-to-find pieces include a tin Howdy Delivery Truck, a lunchbox featuring Howdy and Princess Summerfall Winterspring in its shipping box, and the Magic Puzzle Ball in its cardboard display. It took 25 years for Rosen to convince a Connecticut Howdy Doody “fanatic” to sell him the future-telling toy.
Leading a pack of about two dozen mechanical men will be the elaborately lithographed Musical Drummer Robot, in original box. A Lavendar Robot with box, a Piston Action Robot, and a Door Robot will also march by.
Filling out the spring auction will be an array of Japanese tin automobiles, American and Japanese tin windups, and dozens of battery-operated toys.
For information and a catalog, contact Smith House at P.O. Box 129, Telford, Pa., 18969; call 215-721-1389; or visit www.smithhousetoys.com.
