And Away We Go!

QUESTION: Now that I’m in my fifties, I look back nostalgically on those cold winter days when snow piled high all around our house and school was closed. Those were the days when I got to spend the day sledding, or as my boyhood friends and I called it, “coasting.” Recently, I picked up this old sled at a flea market. It’s in pretty poor condition, but I’d like to bring it back to life. Can you tell me anything about it? Also, do you have any suggestions for its restoration?

ANSWER: What you purchased isn’t just any typical sled. It’s one made to hold an infant or a toddler or two. It’s also a non-steerable pull sled, unlike the one you probably used on those snowy days, known as a racing sled or Flexible Flyer.

But to really understand where this one came from, it’s important to go back and take a look at how sledding got to be such a popular pastime in America.


The neat thing about sleds is that everyone could enjoy them—young and old, rich and poor. They were quintessentially All-American. To a boy, a sled was his ticket to cheap and exciting wintertime fun. During the 1950s, coasting, as boys dubbed the sport, became the winter pastime of hundreds of thousands of kids living in the northern states.

Though sledding existed in the US since Colonial times, it really didn’t gain popularity until the late 19th century when downhill sledding became an organized sport and sled design a sophisticated art. Racing was what it was all about. Early sleds bore names like the Comet, Reliance, Thunder, or Flying Cloud.

With the invention of the Flexible Flyer, the first steerable sled, by Sameul L. Allen in the late 1880s, sledding drastically changed. Allen’s prominent Philadelphia Quaker parents sent him to the Westtown Boarding School in Chester County, Pennsylvania, as age 11. After graduation, he moved to the family farm in 1861 near Westfield, New Jersey, half-way between Moorestown and Riverton, where he married and became a farmer. Soon he established a company to manufacture farm implements. But since this was seasonal, Allen needed a product he could make in the summer and sell in the winter. He decided to make sleds.

Allen’s first sled, known as the "Fairy Coaster," was a double runner bobsled that held three or four adults. Light and folding easily for transport, the sled’s runners and supports were made of steel with plush seats. But at $50.00, it cost too much to sell in quantity. He began testing his sleds at Westtown School (also known for its part in the development of the game Monopoly), his alma mater.



It wasn’t until he came up with the ideas for a T-shaped runner and slatted seat, both new concepts at this time, that he made any progress. After it was proven, Allen called his sled the “Flexible Flyer,” an appropriate name because the sled was fast considering its weight and size and the only steerable sled at the time.

Allen eventually convinced two great department stores, John Wanamaker in Philadelphia and R.H. Macy in New York, to sell his Flexible Flyers. By 1915, he was selling 2,000 sleds a day.

By 1917, sled manufacturers like Casper H. Oermann of The American Toy and Novelty Works in York, Pennsylvania, built their sleds with hardwoods and nickel plated steel bumpers and grooved runners.

 B. Garton, who began making his sleds in 1879, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, made his sled decks from a special weather resistant five-layered plywood imported from Finland. He then silk screened colorful designs, using a brilliant red paint known in the trade as "Garton Red," on each deck.

Sleds came in two basic types–clipper and cutters. Designed for boys and perfect for belly flops, the long and low slung clipper sled had its deck mounted directly onto low, "squatty" wooden or metal runners which ended in a point. The rider threw himself on the deck and sped down the hill head first. Speed was most important.

The Standard Novelty Company of Duncannon, Pa, produced The Racer and Sno-ball, both nonsteerable sleds, and the Lightning Guider. By the 1920s, it had produced more children's sleds than any other American company. Today, the factory operates as the Old Sled Works, a museum, antique, and craft center.

Bringing an old sled that has seen better days back to life isn’t difficult. But it does take time and effort. To restore any sled, first sand all the metal parts with coarse sandpaper, then medium, then fine. Give the metal parts an undercoating of RustOLeum paint, followed by a second coat of RustOLeum in whatever color you choose. For the most part, these sleds would have had bright red metal parts.

Next, sand the wooden parts with medium sandpaper until smooth, then wipe down with a dampish cloth, preferably an old washcloth. Repeat the process with fine sandpaper. After wiping down the wood a second time, give it two coats of coat of glossy polyurthethane varnish. You may wish to stain the wood using an oak stain first. Of course, you could choose to paint the desk and surround, but these sleds would have had natural finishes.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 24,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about vintage games in the 2019 Holiday Edition, "Games, Games, and More Games," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

QUESTION: I have the opportunity to purchase a collection of about 30 snow globes. Are these collectible, and if so, is this a wise investment?


ANSWER: While many people call these little snow wonders snow globes, others call them
water domes, water balls, snow shakers, snow storms, snow scenes, blizzard domes, and snow domes. They have delighted children and adults for more than a century.

In the late 1930s, Hollywood drew attention to snow globes by featuring them prominently in a number of films. In the movie “Heidi, “ starring Shirley Temple movie, the curly-haired child peers into a snow globe of a miniature cabin. And in the film classic, “Citizen Kane,” Charles Foster Kane drops a snow globe with a replica of the sled known as Rosebud onto the floor as he dies.

Collectibles experts believe French glass paperweight makers first crafted them during the early 19th century. They were basically decorated glass paperweights filled with water and white powder. But they didn’t catch on until they appeared at the Paris Universal Exposition in 1878.

Snow globes containing a miniature model of the new Eiffel Tower became a much sought after souvenir at the International Exposition in Paris in 1889, thus becoming the first souvenir snow globe. These snow-filled domes also became popular in Victorian England. By the early 1920s, they made their way across the Atlantic to the U.S. where the Atlas Crystal Works produced many of them from that time period.

The U.S. Patent Office granted  Joseph Garaja of Pittsburgh a patent for new method of manufacturing snow globes. His process required assembling the globes under water, thus eliminating trapped air. His invention allowed the snow globe industry to go into mass production, dramatically lowering the prices of snow globes. His company, Modern Novelty of Pittsburgh, supplied plastic-based snow globes in every size and shape to retailers around the world for several decades.

In the 1950's, one manufacturer decided to add antifreeze to his globes, so they wouldn't freeze during shipping. However, public outcry against this procedure forced the company to abandon it.

Today, most of the world's snow globes, made mostly of plastic, come from China. But before World War II, the Germans and Austrians made them mostly of glass. The snow found inside has been produced from many materials, including bone chips, camphor and wax, ground rice, pottery flecks and porcelain.  In time the glass became thinner, so manufacturers began to use flecks of gold foil. Currently, makers use white plastic or metallic glitter for snow. In addition, each globe contains distilled water mixed with a little glycol to slow the movement of the flakes.

Today, you’ll find snow globes combined with a wide variety of souvenir-type items, including  drinking glasses, salt and pepper shakers, sugar containers, soap dishes, ashtrays, calendars, thermometers, banks and pencil sharpeners. They can feature landmarks, World's Fairs and other  historical events, as well as famous and even infamous characters from the past.

Snow globes are usually inexpensive, however, they have sold for as high as $1,000. Vintage souvenir snow domes sell for a modest $8 to $25. And while some collectors might mix old and new snow globes, most prefer vintage ones from the late 1930s through the 1970s. Souvenir snow globes from the 1960s and 1970s hold their value best, so if the ones in this collection date from that period, you should have a good investment, provided you don’t pay too much for it.

You also need to see the potential of adding to this collection. You can get a head start with it, but only you will be able to judge what direction you want to take it. Buy only vintage ones. Make sure the water is high and clear and that any decals that may be attached to the base of the snow globe are securely attached and in one piece.

To learn more about snow globes read "A Look at the Wintry World Inside" in #TheAntiquesAlmanac.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 24,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about vintage games in the 2019 Holiday Edition, "Games, Games, and More Games," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

All That Glitters Isn’t Always Tiffany

QUESTION: I recently bought what I thought was a Tiffany lamp. I paid several hundred dollars for it and thought it was a steal. Now I'm not so sure. I cannot find a signature on it anywhere. Can you tell me if you think it's a Tiffany?

ANSWER: Unfortunately, as the old saying goes, "You got robbed." Well, not exactly. No, your lamp isn't a Tiffany. It's not even close. But what you paid for it probably is what it's worth. And as long as you like it, that's what counts.

The sight of what looks like a Tiffany lamp sends some people into a dream-like state, blinded by the dollar signs in their eyes. Others begin to see dollar signs at the mere mention of the name. Tiffany lamps have become the Holy Grail of antique collecting for many people. To find one—to own one—is paramount to winning the MegaMillions jackpot. And there lies the rub.

Because lamps made by Tiffany Studios command such a high price, people tend to lump all stained glass lamps into this one category. They think that any stained glass lamp is a Tiffany and that they’ll be set for life. In a million-to-one shot, they just might be, but more than likely, their lamp had been made by another company. While its not a fake, neither is it a Tiffany.

Between 1895 and 1915, small factories in New York and Chicago produced a huge variety of mosaic stained glass lamps to satisfy a growing demand for stylish lighting designs to complement the new electric lamps. While Tiffany Studios set the industry standard, other companies produced excellent designs as well.

Companies such as Duffner & Kimberly and Gorham, made lamps of a quality equal to Tiffany Studios and created styles that appealed more to the Victorian taste, although on its way out, that the American middle and upper middle class preferred. Some companies, like Wilkinson, made high quality bases, and took short cuts with their shades. Others, like Unique, focused on creating complex shades and paired them with simpler bases. Many copied Tiffany’s Art Nouveau designs—in many instances almost exactly—and many copied each other.

Tiffany lamps are about the most flamboyant art objects ever produced in America. They attract celebrities, speculators, and decorators, whose buying whims have driven the Tiffany market into a frenzy and then leave it a shambles when the next fad comes along. For the last few years, the market for these wonderful leaded-glass lamps, most produced during the first two decades of this century, has been recuperating from a decade-long manic-depressive binge.

During the 1950's, a few pioneer collectors began looking at the sensuous floral lamps made by Louis Comfort Tiffany and his Tiffany Studios. Louis was the son of the founder of the famous New York jewelry firm, but for most of his life he preferred painting, the  decorative arts, and interior design.




During the 1960s, interest in the lamps grew rapidly because their restless, fragmented, colorful designs fit nicely into eclectic, psychedelic decorating schemes of that time. Inflation in the 1970's drew investors, speculators, and celebrities into a market where prices sometimes doubled from year to year. Recession in the early 1980's drove those buyers from the market, and prices collapsed. Since then, prices for  some lamps have moved back to, or even above, their former highs; but the market is still very selective one.

The current record price for a Tiffany lamp is the $528,000 paid in December, 1984, at  Christie's in New York City for a large floor lamp with a shade in the Magnolia pattern.  The lamp was one of several being sold by record producer David Geffen, who had been a major Tiffany buyer during the era of hectic growth. Although it was set long after those halcyon days, the record was more a last gasp than a portent of things to come. Today, authentic lamps made by Tiffany Studios and signed either “Louis Comfort Tiffany” or “Tiffany Studios” on the rim of the shade go for as high as $30,000. No wonder there are so many “Tiffphonies” out there.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 24,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about antique clocks in the Fall 2019 Edition, "It's That Time Again," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.

An Iconic Toy That’s Lasted Over a Century

QUESTION: When I was a kid back in the 1950s, one of my favorite toys was my set of Lincoln Logs. I have a little grandson now and was doing some Christmas shopping the other day when I noticed a set of Lincoln Logs on the shelf. I didn’t know they still made them. So I bought him a set. I hope he gets as much enjoyment from them as I did. Can you tell me anything about this classic building toy? How did it get its start?


ANSWER: Lincoln Logs have long been a favorite toy of little boys. And they didn’t just appear in the 1950s. In fact, they appeared in stores sometime between 1916 and 1918 when John Lloyd Wright was working with his famous architect father, Frank Lloyd Wright. He based the model for the toy on the foundation structure of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, designed by his father, consisted of interlocking wooden beams.

When he returned to the U.S., John Wright organized The Red Square Toy Company, named after his father's famous symbol, and began marketing the toy in 1918. He obtained a U.S. patent for it on August 31, 1920, for a "Toy-Cabin Construction". Soon after, he changed the name of his company to J. L. Wright Manufacturing. The original Lincoln Log set came with instructions on how to build Uncle Tom's Cabin as well as Abraham Lincoln's cabin. Subsequent sets were larger and more elaborate. The toy was a hit, following as it did Tinker Toys and Erector Sets introduced a few years before.



This all-American building set consisted of square-notched miniature logs used to build small forts and buildings. The logs measure three quarters of an inch in diameter. Analogous to real logs used in a log cabin, Lincoln Logs come notched so that they may be laid at right angles to each other to form rectangles resembling buildings. Additional parts of the toy set included roofs, chimneys, windows and doors, which bring a realistic appearance to the final creation. Later sets, packaged to build specific theme buildings in which the number of pieces ranged from 120 to 240 pieces, included animals and human figures the same scale as the buildings.

And though the early sets contained pieces made entirely of wood, the company unsuccessfully introduced sets made entirely of plastic in the 1970s, but soon went back to using real wood.

The original Lincoln Log toy set included a set of instructions on how to build the cabin from the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, as well as instructions for building Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood cabin. The Lincoln Logs became popular quickly, and the basic initial set was soon expanded to include more logs of a greater variety of sizes. With the increased number and sizes of logs, children were able to build much more types of buildings and could exercise their creativity to a much greater extent when playing with the logs.

There’s a disagreement over the origin of the name “Lincoln Logs.” The current distributor of Lincoln Logs, Basic Fun, Inc., claims they were named after former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln because he was born in an old-fashioned log cabin, plus the name invoked patriotism during World War I when Wright invented it. But those friendly with John Lloyd Wright or those who knew people who knew John said the name came from Frank Lloyd Wright’s original name of Frank Lincoln Wright, or even that the name was a play on the term “linking logs,” which is what the logs did.

The toy’s packaging featured a simple drawing of a log cabin, a small portrait of Lincoln and the slogan “Interesting playthings typifying the spirit of America.” Capitalizing on both a nostalgia for the frontier at a time when the United States was becoming increasingly urbanized and a wave of patriotism in the wake of World War I, Lincoln Logs became an instant success.

Originally carved from redwood, the notched building logs are now manufactured from stained pine. Lincoln Logs peaked in popularity during the 1950s when it was among the first toys mass-marketed on television. The toy’s rustic brand tied in perfectly with popular children’s shows such as “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier” that were watched by tens of thousands of young “baby boomers” on their black-and-white televisions.

John Lloyd Wright sold his company to Playskool in 1943 for only $800. The copyright for Lincoln Logs eventually passed to toy companies Milton Bradley and Hasbro. Since 1991, the rights to produce Lincoln Logs have been licensed by K’NEX, which announced in 2014 that the stackable wooden construction sets would again be manufactured in the United States after years of being produced in China. In late 2017, Basic Fun, Inc., of Florida, bought out K'NEX, when it filed for bankruptcy. Pride Manufacturing, of Burnham, Maine, manufactures Lincoln Logs for Basic Fun. Over 100 million sets have been sold worldwide since the first ones appeared in 1918.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 24,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about antique clocks in the Fall 2019 Edition, "It's That Time Again," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.

Onions Galore

QUESTION: I have several plates by Meissen with what I believe is called the Blue Onion pattern. Can you tell me more about it?


ANSWER: The Blue Onion pattern is the Meissen company’s most popular and has been for over 250 years.  Because Meissen never copyrighted it, more companies have copied it than any other ceramic pattern. But the pieces made by Meissen, itself, stand above the others because of the way its workers meticulously hand painted the design on each piece.


After Marco Polo introduced Chinese blue and white porcelains to Europe, the demand rose until by the beginning of the 18th century, Europeans clammered for more and more of the finely painted pieces. To satisfy this demand, the East India Company established trade with China and brought to Europe as much of the blue and white porcelain as it could.

But try as it might, the East India Company couldn’t keep up with the demand, so in 1710 Augustus the Strong formed a new porcelain company to produce blue underglaze decorations like those of the Chinese. Johann Gregor Höroldt, a talented porcelain painter who had worked for the Du Paquier Porcelain Company, a competitor of Meissen’s, perfected the blue underglaze paint, which the Meissen Company used to decorate its wares with the Blue Onion pattern, in 1739.

The model for this unique pattern most likely came from a flax bowl from the Chinese K'ang Hsi period, dating from 1662-1722. Originally, Meissen called it the “bulb” pattern. However, since Europeans were unfamiliar with the fruits and flowers shown on the original Chinese pieces, the Meissen artists created hybrids that were more familiar to the company’s customers. The so-called "onions" really aren’t onions at all, but stylized peaches and pomegranates modeled after the original Chinese pattern. They made the flower in the design a cross between a chrysanthemum and a peony and wove the stems of both the fruits and the flower around a stalk of bamboo.

As production continued, Meissen changed the pattern slightly. Originally, the fruits on the border pointed inward with the stem on the edge. But they altered this design by pointing the fruits alternatively inward and outward.

Not only did the Blue Onion pattern become Meissen’s most popular, but it also was its least expensive to produce. The company made money by using lower-paid “blue painters” as well as   apprentices to do the decorating. In addition, the pieces decorated with the pattern didn’t need a third firing which was necessary to fix the enamel decoration on Meissen’s other wares, plus the company decided not to add gilding to the standard pattern.

The Blue Onion pattern achieved popularity again during Victorian times when home furnishings became darker and heavier. It complemented the more elaborate Victorian furniture styles preferred by the new wealthy middle class. Immediately after the Civil War, the pattern took off. Everything from napkins to tablecloths, utensil handles to enameled cooking pots featured it. By the 1870s, the Meissen Company had adapted it to fit nearly every shape of porcelain ware it produced. To distinguish its Blue Onion pattern from those of its competitors, the company put its now famous emblem of Blue Crossed Swords at the foot of the design’s bamboo trunk in 1888.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Article section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the other 24,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about antique clocks in the Fall 2019 Edition, "It's That Time Again," online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques & More Collection on Facebook.