I can’t say enough good things about this seller. I’ve had the pleasure of doing business with him for years and he is fantastic. I appreciate the care with which he describes his items and the many excellent photos that accompany his listings. (How I wish all eBay sellers would follow his lead!)
The faint mark he references on the easel does date this pressing to the later 1940s. This is a tough design to find in such good condition.
04/28 Update: This sold for a strong $202.50.
The stars of this superb lot were the saucers and the handled cups. You just don’t see such an assortment offered as a single lot often. The buyer, whomever it was, must be delighted.
The Germans were able to portray such emotion in their moldings. One can almost feel the anticipation and joy this JOL-headed woman exudes through the skillful rendering of the body. This would certainly be a show-stopper in any display. The seller is a long-time collector who did the hobby a very great service with her publication in the 1990s of The Boo News, an informative, well-written newsletter with a diverse offering of articles. I own virtually every copy Dawn Kroma ever published, and cherish them for their information. If she has any copies left, I hope she’ll offer them up for auction. They are very much worth having as part of any collector’s reference library.
This seems a steep price to pay for this trio of items with such damage. I would have forecast this would have fetched in the $450 range, so the buyer paid a premium.
This has to be one of the finest German tiaras I’ve seen. Can you imagine how rare it is for something to go through nearly 100 years and still look like this with its bright color and intact highlighting? Discerning collectors know what a treasure this is as it has been bid up to $510 as of this writing. It’ll be fun to see what this fetches!
12/17 Update: The ending price was shockingly low - $787 - surely a disappointment to the seller.
Even given the fair amount of surface paper missing this German windowpane diecut brought less than I would have expected. This design is one of four comprising a full set, all being roughly the same size. (Some of the cottage industries producing these windowpanes trimmed the borders some. As long as the trimming doesn’t touch the central image, there is generally no diminution of value.)
Given the condition, especially the very prominent chip, this German porcelain saucer should never have ended at this lofty valuation.
A great example of the vagaries of eBay. One in arguably lesser condition sold on 09/29 for nearly $5900, while this one brought $4173.56. Both figures exceeded what I felt is the sustainable price. I sure am glad I acquired mine long ago.
This 1920s “Minnie Mouse” German diecut crashing cymbals is a surprisingly hard one to find in this condition. The primary problem with this one is the arms connecting to either the main body or to the cymbals (and sometimes both) are weak and sometimes flop around. For each of the three total in this set the white eye paint is often scuffed. It’s nice to see in this glossy condition.
10/24 Update: This sold for $315.
At ~8” high, this is the largest such candy container I’ve ever seen. The seller took a risk at starting it at $498, but the lot has received two bids already. What a monster!
It’s great to see pieces from this larger-than-thought set of candy containers made in Germany beginning in ~1916. Prices for any items from this set have been strong for years. I’ve never seen this particular form before so was doubly curious as to what it would fetch. Please refer to pages 58-60 to see pieces that form part of the collection.
Here’s a great item worth having. The Germans made a line of porcelain Halloween-themed tea set pieces in three sizes from 1908-1932. This green leaf saucer should measure 3.25” in diameter, and would have been made for their smallest tea set size. An otherwise identical pattern in orange was also made. Please refer to pages 119-121 for other items from these desirable sets.
10/15/Update: This sold for $392.77, quite strong considering a cup and saucer set sold the same day from the same seller for $421.
Although I am so very happy that this seller received such prices for many of their listings, I am confounded by this ending price. The seller very clearly outlined the condition issues, yet this devil bat diecut still brought a record price. Was it simply auction fever? I worry that results like this signal that the hobby is becoming restricted to the well-heeled.
This is arguably the very best design of the set to which this German mini-diecut belongs. Its intricacy while maintaining such a small form-factor is appealing. Prices this season have been extraordinarily strong, which causes me to wonder where all the money is coming from. Typically, at this point in the cycle, prices start to droop due to many, many listings and the depletion of the more casual collector’s monetary resources. I haven’t seen that repeated this cycle to the extent I forecasted. One theory is that our hobby is experiencing an influx of well-heeled new collectors. (Thankfully, I started collecting in the 1980s!)
I’ve received lots of questions as to my opinion on this lantern. Given that I owned the larger and one-of-a-kind parade lantern made by the same artist or artist’s collective from 1997 through 2017, I am confident that it is genuine, dating from 1908-1912. (However, short of personally examining it, this is only an opinion. Don’t rely on it for anything.) I feel that the mouth insert is not original. Please refer to page 129 for more on the parade lantern.
10/04 Update: This lantern brought $5600, significantly in excess of the $2500-3000 they’ve brought over the last 5 years.
