Home 

Auction $ 
Sy - Index
Grif - Index
A - Z Index
Scrapbook 
Animations 
Slide Show 
  YouTube 
Puzzles
Foundry 
Search 
Links 

 Join    

 Adv    
What's New 
Web Notes 
   Feedback   
 
MBCA
Members
Web
 
A-Z Index  
Date Index 
Conventions 
Scrapbooks   
European Tin 
Videos 
Notes  
 

 

THE COLLECTOR'S GUIDE, April 1942, Pages. 21 & 22

Valuable Toy Banks

Possibly a wave of thrift swept over young Americans about 1865, when metal mechanical banks began to be widely manufactured to encourage children to save by making it more fun to put a coin into a bank that would reciprocate by doing a trick than to spend it for candy.

Naturally, with this stiff competition the banks had to be good. Some went so far as to reproduce, with action, a carnival scene with a merry-go-round, or a circus act with performing clowns and an elephant.

None of these banks reveals its maker's name, though many are stamped with the patent application. Trade catalogues show that among the most prominent manufacturers were the J. and E. Stevens Company, Cromwell, Conn. the Enterprise Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia; the Kenton Hardware Manufacturing Company, Kenton, Ohio, and nameless makers at Bethlehem, Pa., Buffalo, N. Y., and in Massachusetts. The names of the men who designed the models for the banks also are unknown, but they were craftsmen endowed with humor, ingenuity and more than a fair share of skill. In addition to producing a novel design—and there seems to have been considerable rivalry on this score—they had to make a model with the many small, intricate parts fitting perfectly and working smoothly, for if there were the least flaw in the model the cast reproduction would be spoiled.

As the New York Sun points out, the banks that are most like toys are now most highly valued. On some of them are familiar characters of literature and history. Red Riding Hood makes her fateful discovery when the mask drops from her "grandmother's" face, Jonah disappears into the whale, Uncle Sam nods agreeable while depositing a coin in a carpet bag. No less popular were the banks where colored minstrels or baseball players go through appropriate actions, soldiers shoot coins at targets or Indians hunt bears. Another popular bank, in spite of its grim subject, shows a dentist, armed with a pair of huge forceps, approaching his cowering Negro Patient, who falls backward out of the chair as the dentist himself tumbles over when the tooth is extracted. One of the most intricate banks displays a little girl who skips rope.

Mechanical banks flourished in trade catalogs through the opening years of the century, then their manufacture gradually dwindled. Today less amusing but more scientific coin banks have taken their place.

Mechanical banks are wanted by Wm. F. Ferguson, 280 4th Ave., New York; T. C. Thayer, 74 Wall St., New York; Dr. A. E. Corby, 44 Wall St., New York; Andrew Emerine, Fostoria, Ohio; Garland Hughes, Grand Rapids, Mich.' Jas. C. Jones, 10902 Edgewater Drive, Cleveland, O.

Herewith are given prices obtained at auction for some old American painted metal mechanical banks at a sale recently at the Parke-Bernet Galleries.

RIFLE PRACTICE BANK. An infantryman fires the coin through a target and into a tree trunk. Length 9-1/2 inches. $10.

DARKTOWN CABIN BANK. Colored boy, standing in a door of a cabin, turns a somersault and kicks the coin under the roof. Height 4 inches. $17.50.

WILLIAM TELL BANK. The above worthy shoots the coin off junior's head into a tower. Length 10 inches. $17.50

PUNCH AND JUDY BANK. Judy, confronted by Punch, deftly scoops the coin into a slot at the rear. while dodging the blow. Height 7-1/2 inches. $20.50.

BIRD AND FLEDGLINGS BANK. Two chicks in a nest receive the coin from the mother bird. Length 8 inches. $32.50.

TRICK PONY BANK. Horse in front of a manger, which receives the coin from the horse's mouth. Length 7 inches. $20.

MURPHY AND PIG BANK. The pig deftly kicks the coin into the open mouth of the seated Irishman. Height 8-1/2 inches. $27.50.

SPEAKING DOG BANK. Little girl in red frock seated before an evidently pleased brown retriever. Height 7-1/2 inches. $25.

BOY BIRD NESTING BANK. Boy on a breaking branch, which falls depositing the coin in the trunk. Height 8 inches. $30.

INDIAN AND BEAR BANK. A befeathered kneeling Indian fires the coin into a brown bear. Length 10-1/2 inches. $32.50.

TAMMANY BANK. Seated boss with gently nodding head receives the coin into his breast pocket. Height 6 inches. $10.

DARKTOWN BATTERY BANK. Three baseball worthies. The batsman misses the ball (coin), which disappears inside the catcher. Height 9-1/2 inches. $32.50.

HUMPTY-DUMPTY BANK. Bust of the above worthy, who swallows the coin and rolls his eyes. Height 6-1/2 inches. $17.50.

SURPRISED OWL BANK. The owl turns his head and receives the coin inside. Height 7-1/2 inches. $10.

BULLDOG BANK. Ferocious black seated bulldog, which evidently swallows the coin. Height 7-1/2 inches. $10.

TREED MONKEY BANK. A lion with expectant open mouth receives the coin hurled down by a monkey. Length 9 inches. $30.

ARTILLERY BANK. A bombardier standing by a mortar, which fires the coin into a tower. Length 8 inches. $22.50.

FIVE BANKS.  Varying in form, including a state house, Independence Hall, Owl, Elephant and Excelsior bank. For the lot $42.50.


 [ Top] [ Back ]