Morphy Auctions sets new world
record with $7.7 million
sale of the Steckbeck mechanical bank collection
19th-century J. & E. Stevens Jonah Emerges bank tops prices realized
at $414,000 |
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DENVER, Pa. – On
Oct. 27 as a CBS Television film crew rolled tape, the 489-lot Stephen and
Marilyn Steckbeck collection of antique mechanical banks and related
ephemera set a new world record for a toy auction, grossing $7.7 million. A
near-mint-plus example of J. & E. Stevens cast-iron Jonah and the
Whale/Jonah Emerges bank led the sale’s top 10 with a selling price of
$414,000 (all prices quoted are inclusive of a 15 percent buyer’s premium).
The late-1880s moneybox depicting Biblical character Jonah being expelled
from the mouth of a whale flew past its $150,000-$200,000 estimate to become
the second-most-expensive mechanical bank ever sold at public auction. |
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An
1886 Kyser & Rex Mikado illusionist bank and an 1880s Charles A.
Bailey bank depicting an African-American boy landing a fish at the
end of his pole tied for second place, with each achieving $287,500.
Another tie landed two items in the third-place slot: an 1888 Stevens
bank in which an African-American man kicks a football over a
watermelon, and an 1880s Kyser & Rex Roller Skating bank. Each of the
banks realized $195,500. |
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The
internationally renowned Steckbeck collection was built over a 53-year
period, and its high-profile sale attracted a who’s who of bank
collectors and dealers from throughout the United States, the United
Kingdom and Continental Europe. CBS will air a special feature on the
Steckbeck auction and the world of mechanical bank collecting on a
future edition of its venerable Sunday Morning program. |
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| Watch
for a full report on Morphy Auctions’ sale of the Steckbeck
collection, which will appear soon on this Web site. Morphy Auctions
is a division of Geppi’s Entertainment Publications and Auctions. Tel.
717-335-3435, e-mail
morphy@morphyauctions.com. |
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