RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1399

Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2013 

Questions and Answers

QUESTION:  For the past 30 years, a New York Friars Club poster for a November 1 “BEEFSTEAK DINNER” has hung on my wall.  Irving Berlin was the chairman of the Arrangements Committee for the event.  In the upper right hand corner is a cartoon by Rube Goldberg.  I contacted Rube Goldberg’s granddaughter, curator of the Goldberg estate, who authenticated the signature.  I had someone look at the poster who told me it was worth $800 or more.  This was before I identified the signature of the cartoonist.   What is my poster worth now that I have identified the cartoonist as Goldberg? – K, Groton, MA, Email Question

ANSWER:  The New York Friars Club, famous today for its celebrity roasts, was founded in 1904.  It evolved from the New York Press Agents’ Association.  Its membership, initially all male, consists of comedians and other celebrities.  Shortly after the club was founded, it held tribute dinners honoring theatrical celebrities.  The first Friars Frolics took place in 1911.  The first “roast” occurred in 1950.  [See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Friars_Club.]

November 1 was a Sunday in 1914.  The combination did not appear on the calendar again until 1926.  Given the dinner price of $2.00, chances are the poster dates from 1914.

There is no question that Ruben Garrett Lucius “Rube” Goldberg (1883-1970) is the artist of the drawing.  The critical issue is the origin of the cartoon.  Is it printed as part of the poster or was it added later?  I was not able to make a firm determination from the photographs that accompanied your email.  Given the busy nature of the information on the balance of the poster, it is hard for me to image that the upper right corner area would be left blank by the poster designer.

The poster needs to be examined by an expert.  Consider calling the print curator at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  Make it clear you are only asking to have the cartoon drawing authenticated and do not want an appraisal of the poster.  Curators can do the former.  They are professionally prohibited from doing the latter.

It is easy to throw out numbers.  An $800.00 estimate for the poster, assuming the Goldberg artwork was one-of-a-kind, appears pushing the upper limits of the poster’s value.  If the artwork is printed as part of the poster, a value between $200.00 and $250.00 appears reasonable.  If the artwork is unique to the poster, its value is closer to $600.00.

Since antiques and collectibles value is transitory, the following provisos apply.  First, the poster will sell for more in the New York City market than elsewhere.  Second, if the poster falls into the hands of an autograph dealer who will mat and frame it to enhance its presentation, the final asking price might well exceed $1,000.00.  This is an artificial price based on the presentation enhancement.

QUESTION:  In the late 1950s, I purchased an HO Penn Line GGI locomotive kit.  The engine was an electric powered unit.  I recently discovered the kit and would like to sell it.  What are your recommendations? – D, Reading, PA

ANSWER:  Frank Dill’s “A Short History of Penn Line” appears on the website http://www.hoseeker.org/pennlineinformation.html.  Robert (Bob) Faust, Albert (Abe) Mercer, and Linwood Stauffer founded Penn Line Manufacturing, a maker of HO scale model trains, in 1947.  The plant was located in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, initially in a room rented from Carver’s Dairy on Chestnut Street.

The founders chose HO over the larger S, O, and O27 gauges because they felt HO was more compatible with the growing hobby of model railroading.  A decision was made to die cast the locomotives using printer’s lead, thus allowing greater detail and enough weight to pull a large size train.  Although the name of the company was chosen based on plans to model Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives, the first engine produced was the Reading Railroad’s Crusader.  As the company grew, it moved into a former cigar factory located on 35 South Franklin Avenue.

Penn Line introduced prebuilt freight and passenger sets in the early 1950s.  The passenger cars were made by Fleischmann, a German company.  The cost of sets ranged from $24.95 to $64.95.  Penn Line faced stiff competition from Athearn, Custombilt, Gilbert, Kasan-Auburn, Fleischmann, Tyco, Varney, and others.

Penn Line introduced the GG-1 electric locomotive in the late 1950s.  An advertisement from that era reads: “This great new all-metal electric locomotive has all the beauty and drama you want for your layout.  Fine quality, in the Penn Line tradition, is apparent in every fantastically accurate detail.  There are two automatic headlights, with only one operating in direction of travel—indestructible nylon gears—lighted number boards—super detailed metal castings—complete set of decals, including striping.

“With both trucks powered and supporting the new Pittman DC-70 motor, there’s plenty of power for every job on your line….the GG-1 will pull over 100 cars.  It will operate over standard two rail track…or, with the flip of a switch, current can be fed from an overhead wire through either one of the fully-working pantographs….”  The cost of the kit was $34.50.

In 1957, Penn Line issued 10,000 shares of Class A Common Stock, which had no voting rights.  The stock never paid a dividend.   The company moved to a new building on Franklin Street.  Penn Line’s expansion occurred as model railroading was starting to decline.  In 1962, Penn Line introduced slot cars in an effort to save the business.  The effort failed.  Penn Line went bankrupt in 1964.

I talked with Roger Fenske, who sells used HO equipment and accessories and is a member of the Grand River Valley Model Railroad Club in Wyoming, Michigan.  He informed me that the die cast metal used by Penn Line often deteriorates over time.  It develops miniscule cracks, often unseen without a magnifying glass.  He shared an experience where he picked up a Penn Line GG-1 engine, and it broke apart in his hand.

Not all examples deteriorate.  Roger estimates the value of a GG-1 kit in very good condition around $50.00.  Penn Line GG-1 locomotives appear regularly on eBay.   Many sell for less than $50.00.  Your best sales opportunity is to take your kit to a local toy train show and offer it to a dealer who specializes in HO.  Take any offer above $25.00.

Several contemporary manufacturers offer the GG-1 locomotive in HO and N gauges.  These sell for $75.00 and above.

QUESTION:  I have a case containing a handheld plastic viewer and a set of slide stripes picturing Pontiac automobiles.  When a strip is placed in a viewer, the images appear three-dimensional.  The style of the Pontiac suggests the slide series dates from 1957, 1958, or 1959.  The slide set was used by a salesman to show potential customers the variety of models and colors available.  What is my slide set worth? – J, Schuylkill County, PA

ANSWER:  Based on your description, the commercial set was mostly likely made by Tru-Vue.  Tru-Vue of Rock Island, Illinois, made three-dimensional filmstrips between 1931 and1951, at which time it was acquired by Sawyer’s, the manufacturer of ViewMaster.   Sawyer’s bought Tru-Vue to obtain its Disney characters license.

Sawyer manufactured Tru-Vue film cards that were pulled through a hand held plastic viewer.  Tru-Vu had rivals.  The salesman’s kit could just as easily have been manufactured by one of them.

I have seen commercial kits such as the one you described in the course of my career.  Some were designed for training purposes.  Others were used by a manufacturer’s representative when calling on potential customers.

You need to pin down the exact year of the cars featured in the slides.  In the 1950s, there were distinct feature changes in each model year.  The prime reason for doing this is that your principal buyer is an individual who has restored one of the models shown.  A collector of Pontiac memorabilia is another possibility, but this person will not value the sales kit as highly as the person who owns a car from that specific year.

The value of your sales kit depends on how true the color remains on the slides.  35mm slides from the 1950s have a tendency to fade and/or show significant color change.  If the sales kit’s slides are in pristine condition, its value is between $85.00 and $100.00.   If the colors have distorted slightly, cut the value in half.  If the colors are badly distorted, the sales kit’s value is $20.00 or less.

QUESTION:  I have a child’s plastic accordion made by Emenee.  Does it have any value? – D, Reading, PA

ANSWER:  Emenee, located in Flushing, New York, produced musical toys for children between 1955 and 1968.  Ohio Art Company bought 51 percent of the company’s stock in May 1968 and moved the manufacturing operations Stryker, Ohio.  When the two companies merged in 1973, Emenee ceased to exist.

Emenee produced a variety of children’s accordion toys.  Prices on eBay range from $9.00 to $35.00, albeit one overly optimistic seller is asking $99.99.  An Esty seller wants $48.00 for an example.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Selected letters will be answered in this column.  Harry cannot provide personal answers.  Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned.  Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI 49512.  You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time.  If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.

SELL, KEEP OR TOSS?: HOW TO DOWNSIZE A HOME, SETTLE AN ESTATE, AND APPRAISE PERSONAL PROPERTY (House of Collectibles, an imprint of Random House Information Group, $17.99), Harry’s latest book, is available at your favorite bookstore and via www.harryrinker.com.