Bertoia’s wraps stellar year with $2.7M November auction of toys and Christmas antiques from prestigious collections
1,600-lot sale featuring rarities from Bob Brady, Jack White, and Curtis and Linda Smith collections was led by a Marklin Fidelitas that sold for $84,000VINELAND, N.J. – Bertoia Auctions concluded a memorable year of high-profile events with a $2.7 million sale of toys, banks and Christmas antiques held on November 17-18 at their New Jersey gallery. The 1,179-lot selection presented on November 17-18 was steeped in toy-collecting history, with an abundance of exquisite, well-provenanced pieces coming from the lifetime collections of Bob Brady, Jack White, and Curtis and Linda Smith. Tippco lithographed tin Santa car, 12in long. Ex Curtis and Linda Smith collection. Sold to a US buyer for a record-setting $60,000 against an estimate of $12,000-$18,000“The interest was tremendous. The number of bidders who signed up for this sale surpassed that of many of our past auctions,” said Michael Bertoia, president and principal auctioneer at Bertoia Auctions. “There was a lot of international participation, including from countries where we had not seen bidders come from before, like Russia, Thailand and even Ukraine.” Regardless, the majority of the auction’s contents went to US bidders in the room or on the phones, with additional successful buyers competing via the Internet.A very rare and iconic tin toy, a Marklin Fidelitas clown train, topped the list of prices realized during the busy two-day event. The 37-inch-long convoy of clowns riding in early vehicles was complete with all original paint – an astonishing level of perfection for a toy so rare that even the most advanced European toy collectors have never actually seen one in person. The Fidelitas came from a British consignor who had received it as a child but was never very fond of it. Because it was not chosen for display in her bedroom, the toy was stored away and forgotten for