SKINNER TO HOST AUCTION OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY,
AUTOMATA, TOYS & DOLLS, NOVEMEBER 3RD IN BOLTON

BOLTON, Mass. – Oct. 20, 2005 –www.skinnerinc.com – Skinner, one of the nation's leading auction houses, will host an auction of Science & Technology, Automata, and Toys & Dolls on Thursday, November 3, 2005 . The November sale is the second pairing this year of fine collectibles from the Toy and Doll department with offerings from the SciTech department, and the auction spans over 300 years of collecting. Beginning at 10 a.m., the sale features over 200 lots of dolls and teddy bears, followed by over 40 lots of toys and banks, 90 lots of automata, 200 lots of mechanical music, and over 250 lots of Science and Technology, including scientific instruments, early surveying equipment, early medical instruments, telescopes, and photographica. The sale features property from several important collections, including dolls from the estate of Olga S. Chase, mechanical music and automata from a noted private collection, scientific instruments from the Collection of Herman Schneider, and telescopes from the collection of Dan Vaughan.

Toys & Dolls
The Doll and Toy department has many strong offerings in this sale, including groups of items from several notable collections. A major presentation is nearly sixty items from the Chase and Schwind families, as well as archival items, molds, painted doll limbs, and dolls from the MJ Chase doll company, which was founded by dollmaker Martha Jenks Chase in 1889. The items represent four generations of dolls and play items held by the family, and include an extraordinary black Mammy doll (lot 175) as well as a black character child (lot 176), Also included are the molds into which the cloth masks for these dolls were pressed as well as several other Chase molds (lots 177-182). Brochures, patterns, shoes and other company supplies are brought to the sale, as well as some lovely family dolls, many German child dolls, which were brought into the Chase family by Elsie Schwind Chase, who in 1940 had married Robert Chase, the last owner of the company. These items are new to the market, coming directly from the family.

Several other private collections are represented, one of which contained several enchanting googlie-eyed dolls including a large and lovely Kestner 221 with big round brown sleeping eyes and a jointed toddler body (lot 120), and an all-bisque Kestner 189 googlie (lot 121). A Demalcol and several Armand Marseille googlies are sure to win hearts.

Other fine German bisque include a Simon Halbig 979 (lot 88), a Kestner bisque head Oriental baby (lot 63), a strong character portrait of Uncle Sam , possibly by Cuno and Otto Dressel (lot 99), two Kammer & Reinhardt 101 pouty children, Marie and Peter, (lots 101, 102), and a K*R 115/A pouty boy (lot 64), and a large Kestner 257 baby (lot 72). Other good dolls include Kestner closed mouth dolls (two are lots 50 and 94), and a selection of very nice German girls.

Several rare German china head dolls are also included in the sale. One private collection features a very rare hatted china dolls (lot 83), others with brown hair and one with a molded pillbox hat as well as a small wigged Biedermeier china. Additionally, a fascinating group of German half-dolls are also being offered, including some by Dressel & Kister, and one with unusual jointed limbs.

From the French side come numerous bebes including a size 10 Long face or Jumeau Triste bebe, designed by Carrier-Belleuse, EJ bebes, Tete Jumeaux, including a 22-inch girl with luminous eyes (lot 124), and Bebe Jumeau Phonographe doll (lot 69). A kicking-crying Steiner baby (lot 68) in layers of lacy garments is included, as well as Phenix bebe (lot 73), a lovely Rabery and Delphieu (lot 54) with very pale coloring, and a brown bisque-head ED (lot 75). Several French Fashion dolls also grace the stage, including one with her original wardrobe (lot 98), and one in a fine cream-colored original dress (lot 86).  

In addition to the bisque dolls, there is a late 18 th century English wooden with its provenance (lot 48), a Pierotti wax baby (lot 44), a group of Shirley Temple dolls including one in her original box with pin and photo (lot 128, but group photo shows several at a piano), cloth including Lenci, Kathe Kruse, and Martha Chase. A wonderful Gottschalck kitchen with furnishings is included (lot 190) as is some Schneegas furniture and other doll house items, a 1930s doll house with miscellaneous furniture, and an assortment of interesting small items and accessories.

To round things out there are a few teddy bears including two blank button Steiff bears from 1905 (lots 208, 209). The 250 toy and doll lots will conclude with about 40 lots of toys, many tin comic character mechanical toys including a Marx Smitty Scooter (229), a Nifty Maggie & Jiggs (227), Jazzbo Jim, Popeye and Disney items, a Carette two-door limousine (240), a Lehmann Ampol (220), a touring car, possibly Gunthermann (lot 232), and an American tin jockey on a horse (249) and an Ives oarsman (lot 250).

Automata
The auction features many wonderful automatons which consistently have appeal to both doll enthusiasts and mechanical music collectors. Many of the offerings come from one private collection and examples include singing birds, mechanical music pictures, automaton clocks, and mechanical dolls. Most notable among the over 90 lots is lot 345, a Gustave Vichy Automaton of a Japanese Mask Seller, estimated $25,000-$35,000. Other very fine examples include lot 365, a rare Jean Phalibois “Gambling Monkey Magician, claimed by an unreliable source to have been made for display in American casinos, which is estimated $10,000-$15,000, and lot 346, a Leopold Lambert Nerghile Smoker Automaton, estimated $10,000-$15,000. Also, lot 336, a rare Vichy Puppeteer with Marionettes and Theater, estimated $12,000-$18,000, and lot 318, a Henry Vichy/Liovet Phonograph Automaton, a rare collaboration between the automata and phonograph industries, estimated $18,000-$22,000.

Mechanical Music
The sale also features 200 lots of mechanical music, most of it from a private collector who had collected the pieces over a span of 20 years. Noted lots include lot 422, a Full Organ Harmonium Longue-Marche Interchangeable Musical box, estimated $15,000-$20,000, lot 425, an early Key-wind Overture Musical Box by LeCoultre, no. 11607, estimated $10,000-$15,000, lot 470, a Regina 27-inch “Dragon Front” autochanger, estimated $20,000-$30,000, lot 474, an Emerald Polyphon 22-inch Folding Top Disc Musical Box no. 78, estimated $20,000-$25,000, lot 475, a 24 ½ inch Polyphon, no. 4824, estimated $9,000-$12,000, and lot 483, a rare Stella 17 ¼-inch musical hall clock, no. 2437, and lot 490, a rare Miraphone 18 ½ inch Combined Disc Musical Box and Phonograph, estimated $15,000-$20,000.

One interesting item is lot 496, a coin operated Cast-Iron Buffalo Head Perfume Dispenser by Continental Novelty Co., Buffalo , NY , estimated $2,000-$3,000. Another unusual offering is lot 500, a rare coin-operated “Automatic Monopol” Chalet, estimated $8,000-$10,000.

Science, Medical, Photographica, and Globes
The sale concludes with a wide array of scientific artifacts. The 250 lots includes technical apparatus, timepieces, surveying and navigation equipment, telescopes, microscopes and medical devices, photographica, globes and planetaria.

Notable mechanical, surveying and navigation lots include lot 520, a Mahogany Engineering Model of a Windlass by Joseph P. Manton, descended in the family of the maker, estimated $2,000-$3,000, and lot 575, a rare dated Colonial Surveyor’s Compass by Thomas Greenough, estimated $2,000-$3,000.

Two great timepieces are lots 537 and 538. Lot 537 is a Silver and Tortoiseshell Pair sun and moon watch by Henry Harper, 17 th/18 th century, estimated $3,000-$5,000. Lot 538 is a Binnacle Timpiece by Morris Tobias, estimated $3,500-$5,000.

Telescopes in the sale are headlined by lots 624, a lacquered Brass 2-inch Refracting Table Telescope by Dollond, estimated $2,000-$3,000, and lot 628, a Brass 3-inch Refracting Table Telescope by Broadhurst, Clarkson, estimated $2,000-$3,000. Fine microscopes include lot 644, a Culpepper-Type Microscope, England c.1730, estimated $8,000-$12,000, lot 645, a lacquered brass Folding compound Microscope by J. Swift & Son, London , No. 286, estimated $1,000-$1,500, and Lot 647, a lacquered brass Griffith club Microscope by Bausch & Lomb, No. 936, estimated $2,000-$3,000.

Fine photographic offerings include several lots of 19 th century photographic prints, tintypes, daguerreotypes, photograph albums, ephemera, and early cameras. Lot 732 is a Daguerrian Camera by C.C.Harrison, estimated $6,000-$8,000. The camera has wonderful civil war provenance, as it came down from a Louisiana family, directly descended from the original owner.

Several globes in the sale come from Hermann Schneider, a collector from Martha’s Vineyard , who published scientific books for children. His collection was purchased largely in England and Italy in the 1960s and 70s. two notable globes include lot 737, Newton ’s 3-inch New and Improved Terrestrial Pocket Globe, dating back to 1766, estimated $3,000-$5,000, and lot 754, Wilson ’s New 13-inch Celestial Globe, 1837, estimated $2,000-$3,000.

One of the most unusual offerings is the last lot in the sale. It will surely appeal to collectors of 20 th century scientific material and space enthusiasts. Lot 757 is a NASA Hazbot III Prototype Mobile Robot, a vehicle developed by NASA in 1990 as a prototype teleoperated mobile robot for remotely exploring combustible and hazardous atmospheres. In 1994, NASA loaned Hazbot III for use in the Kurt Russell/James Spader film “Stargate”, which featured the robot as the messenger that moves between two worlds. The robot is estimated $20,000-$30,000.

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About Skinner
Skinner, Inc. is one of the nation’s leading auction houses for antiques and fine art and the only major auction house headquartered in New England . With expertise in over 20 specialty collecting areas, Skinner draws the interest of buyers from all over the world and its auctions regularly achieve world record prices. Skinner provides a broad range of auction and appraisal services, and it is widely regarded as one of the most trusted names in the auction business. Skinner’s appraisal experts regularly appear on the PBS-TV series, Antiques Roadshow, and its specialty departments include American Furniture & Decorative Arts, Paintings & Prints, English & Continental Furniture & Decorations, Fine Ceramics, Jewelry, Couture, 20 th Century Furniture & Decorative Arts, Fine Musical Instruments, Asian Art, Fine Judaica, Toys, Dolls & Collectibles, Science & Technology, Oriental Rugs & Carpets, American Indian & Ethnographic Art, and Discovery. Skinner galleries are located in Boston and Bolton , Mass. For more information on upcoming auctions and events, visit Skinner's web site www.skinnerinc.com.