Look for Baseball Items in Unlikely Spots
Opening day for baseball is almost here. Collectors are looking for home run balls, bats, gloves, uniforms, pennants, programs and other memorabilia. Who can forget that the Mark McGwire record-setting 70th home run ball sold for more than $3 million?
Savvy collectors never ignore any collectible related to baseball. That includes games, toys, figures, books and pictures that were never found at a ballpark. The best baseball collectibles that are not used in a game are those that picture real teams and real players. Toys often use nameless players because the manufacturers do not want to pay royalties.
Some of the old (pre-1920) toys and games are expensive today. One board game called the Game of Base-Ball was made in 1886. The cover of the wooden box has a colored lithograph that pictures nameless players in the uniform of the day: knickers, high socks and a cap. The baseball field is a rough meadow. The box, lithographed game board, nine lead players, wooden markers and instruction booklet are worth more than $3,000.
Other games called Baseball have been made, including a 1959 game worth $35, and a 1969 game worth about $30. A game showing a real player, Babe Ruth’s Baseball Game, made in about 1926, had 85 playing cards and wooden counters stored with the board in a cardboard box. It is worth about $750.
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Question: For years I have been trying to find out about an artist named Sascha Brastoff. I have a ceramic cup and saucer with this name on the bottom. The cup and saucer are white with a gold and pink floral pattern.
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Answer: Sascha Brastoff (1918-93) designed ceramics, plastics, decorative accessories and enamels on copper in West Los Angeles from 1953 to 1973. He called his firm Sascha Brastoff of California Inc.
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Q Can you give me information on the Coleman lamp I bought at an auction? It is a wick-type mantel lamp with a 7-inch glass chimney, metal tripod, milk glass shade and creamy yellow glass fount. It is marked on the dial, “Model 160, Coleman Ker-O-Lite Mantle Lamp, Coleman Lamp and Stove Company, Wichita, Kansas.”
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A Coleman produced about 5,000 Model 160 Ker-O-Lite mantel lamps. The lamps were made in 1939 and appeared in Coleman’s 1940 catalog. Model 160, which looks much like an Aladdin lamp, was the only nonpressurized lamp Coleman ever made. Coleman specialized in gasoline lamps but also made several Ker-O-Lite brand kerosene mantle lamps from 1913 until the late ‘40s.
The Model 160 lamp originally came with a 10-inch chimney. Customers could buy the lamp with or without a tripod and shade. Original shades were parchment, not glass. So, although your lamp’s fount is original, its chimney and shade are replacements.
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Q In the 1940s, my father bought a 9-foot-tall, ornately carved grandfather clock from a retiring watchmaker in Brooklyn. The face of the clock is unusual: Instead of having the hour and minute hands pivoting on a large dial, only the minute hand is on the large dial, and the dial is numbered from 5 to 60. There are two small dials behind the minute hand, one showing the hours, the other showing the seconds. There are no manufacturer’s marks on the clock face or the wood. The clock does not chime. The pendulum weights are filled with mercury, and the movement is solid brass. What kind of clock is this, and what is it worth?
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A Your clock is called a regulator clock. It probably dates from the 19th century. Regulators have three dials on the face and no chimes. Most were made with very simple wooden cases. They were introduced when mercury or gridiron pendulums made high accuracy possible, and were especially useful in observatories. A watchmaker might have wanted a regulator to help him set his other timepieces. Show your clock to an expert before you try to sell it.
For a listing of helpful books and publications, include a self-addressed, stamped (55 cents) envelope to Kovels, Los Angeles Times, King Features Syndicate, 235 E. 45th St., New York, NY 10017.
Current Prices
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary because of local economic conditions.
* Bobbsey Twins game, twins on the farm, based on the books, Milton Bradley, 1957, $75.
* National Beer tip tray, head of racehorse, the Meek Co., lithograph, National Brewing Co., San Francisco, 1908, 4 inches, $115.
* Pressed glass goblet, Bull’s-Eye with Diamond Point pattern, 6 7/8 inches, $130.
* Well, Here We Are candy vending machine, nickel plated, manufactured by the R.D. Simpson Co., c. 1927, 14 1/2 inches, $275.
* Document box, leather-covered over pine, purple and yellow hand-painted flowers and geometric design, paper-lined, 18th century, 14 by 8 by 8 inches, $475.
* Saturday Evening Girls center bowl, with geometric border, sage green glaze, blue ground, nPaul Revere Pottery, 1911, 4 inches, $550.
* George Nelson side chair, sculptured birch frame, purple fabric seat and back, manufactured by Herman Miller, c. 1954, $600.
* Seth Thomas shelf clock, Parma, balloon style, mahogany case, brass feet, porcelain Arabic dial, eight-day movement, strikes hour, c. 1905, 12 by 7 inches, $895.
* Kiss-throwing doll, bisque head, flirty eyes, four upper teeth, pierced ears, pull string in right arm, rose taffeta dress, S.F.B.J., 22 inches, $950.
