12. Rare American Mechanical Dancing Toy by Edward Ives
12.
10” (25 cm.) Standing upon a wooden box with dove-tailed construction and containing a hidden mechanism are two carved wooden black dolls with loosely jointed shoulders, hips and ankles, and having sculpted hair and painted facial features, painted gloves and stockings, and original costumes. When keywound, the figures dance about in a carefree manner. Condition: generally excellent. Comments: Edward Ives, Connecticut, circa 1880. Value Points: wonderfully-preserved early American toy. $800/1300
13. Five Rare and Delightful Early German Paper Mache Squeak Toys
11. Early American Folk Wooden Dancing Doll on Platform 16” (41 cm.) One-piece head and torso with sculpted bosom, carved wooden head of black-complexioned woman with highly-defined facial features, glaze-painted black center-parted hair, wooden loose-jointed arms and legs, painted yellow stockings and black shoes, wearing original costume, and attached by a coiled metal rod to a wooden platform which, when bounced up and down, causes the doll to dance loosely about. Condition: generally excellent, left lower arm missing. Comments: American, mid-1800s. Value Points: rare folk art toy with especially fine detail of facial sculpting, original costume. $800/1200
14
5 ½” (14 cm.) h. boy on dog. Each is of paper mache with leather or cloth enclosed bellows base that causes the toy to squeak when squeezed. Included are a boy riding a dog, a lady standing in a chicken yard with bird cage and seven birds or chickens, a baby in a cradle, a boy on a rooster, and a hunch-backed Polichinelle sitting alongside a cricket and having added mechanical action of his right arm. Condition: very good to excellent, some darkening, one bird head missing. Comments: Germany, circa 1875. Value Points: rare and delightful early toys with amusing themes. $1500/2500
14. Pristine American Cloth “Philadelphia Baby” for J.B. Sheppard Store of Philadelphia 20” (51 cm.) All-cloth doll with pressed and oil-painted facial features and brown hair with delicate stippling onto forehead, deeply-defined eye sockets, brown painted eyes, feathered brown brows, fringed upper lashes, accented nostrils, stitched-ears, closed mouth with very full lips, stockinette stitch-jointed body, oil-painted lower arms and legs, bare feet, antique costume appears original. Condition: generally excellent. Comments: known as the “Philadelphia Baby”, the distinctive doll was commissioned for the J.B. Sheppard Department Store of Philadelphia toward the end of the 19th century; the quality of artistry and workmanship is superb and distinctive, yet the actual maker remains unknown. Value Points: rarely found American doll with superb sculpting details and perfectly-preserved original painted finish. $2500/3500