The Devil with a Hammer in His Hand

 

QUESTION: I’ve always been fascinated with decorative ironwork. Seeing it on my first trip to New Orleans got me hooked. Ever since, I’ve sought out decorative gates, window grills, and railings. Most of this ironwork is unsigned, thus the creators remain anonymous. Recently, I heard of a especially talented metalworker named Samuel Yellin. What can you tell me about this artful metalworker?

ANSWER: Few people think of hand-wrought iron as being an art form, but metalworker Samuel Yellin produced an incredible amount of forged ironwork he designed and executed along with talented craftsmen trained by him. His designs followed the concepts of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the first quarter of the 20th century. Although he was knowledgeable about traditional craftsmanship and design, he championed creativity and the development of new designs for both intimate or monumental scale, for private homes or large institutions. .

Born in Russia in Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Ukraine in the Russian Empire in 1884, he apprenticed to a master ironsmith at age 11.  In 1900, at the age of 16, he completed his apprenticeship. Shortly afterwards he left the Ukraine and traveled through Europe before emigrating to America in 1900. He headed to Philadelphia where his mother and two sisters were already living. Yellin took classes at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art and within several months began teaching a class in wrought iron work, a position he maintained until 1919. 

He opened his first shop in 1909 with three assistants. Through recommendations by architects with whom he worked, Yellin built an appreciative clientele. He soon received the first of many major commissions, the palatial gates of J.P. Morgan's Long Island estate. To keep up with burgeoning business, the firm of Mellor & Meigs Architects, for whom Yellin had designed and created many commissions, designed a new studio for him on Arch Street in Philadelphia in 1915.

As a material, iron lacks intrinsic value and has little aesthetic appeal. The color is coarse, and it’s often used for the most utilitarian items.. Yellin's ironwork is endowed with a great deal of character and appeal based largely on the visual evidence of its having been crafted by hand. 

Yellin believed there was only one way to make good decorative metalwork and that was with the hammer at the anvil. He was adamant about working from traditional designs. He saw the poetry and rhythm in iron.

He also believed his ironworks should harmonize with their environment. Iron window grilles naturally restrict access and provide security, but Yellin insisted that ironwork must not be seen as a barrier. Ironwork should instead create a visual bridge between people and buildings, and to the space beyond it.

Yellin's gates, railings, lanterns, doors, grilles and numerous other creations not only adorned and decorated the buildings and rooms for which they were created, but also are among the finest in artistic achievement in ironwork.

His decorative ironwork is reminiscent of that in the Middle Ages. Yellin preferred to be called a blacksmith, not an artist or metalworker. He believed a metalworker needed to be both designer and smith, for every hammer stroke became an integral part of the design. His railings were tactile as well as visually appealing. He turned,, twisted, and pulled the iron, demonstrating the physical process involved in manipulating the challenging material. Tenons were important in Yellin's work. He used them to show how he joined the pieces together. These were part of the design, providing texture and dimension to the tops of the handrails or edges of the gates. 

Forging is the process of shaping metals by hammering or pressing them after making them pliant by the application of heat. Forging improves the structure of the metal by refining the grain size thus making it stronger, more ductile, and more resistant to fatigue and impact. Hand-forged iron reached its peak during the 13th and 14th centuries in Italy where ironworkers used it in many chapel screens and window and door grills. 

French and Spanish artisans were responsible for much of the early ironwork in New Orleans, while early ironwork in the northeast U.S. is due to English and American metalworkers: By the Industrial Revolution, cast ironwork replaced hand wrought iron.

From 1921 to 1924, Yellin worked on what was probably the largest commission of wrought iron work: 200 tons of wrought iron for the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City. This massive project required expansion of the shop to 60 forges and 250 workers.

At the firm's peak in 1928, Yellin employed 268 men. The studio received over 1,200 commissions in the 1930s alone. 

Although a heart attack in 1930 slowed his pace and he concentrated on experimental techniques. He died suddenly in 1940 at the age of 55. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Coffee--The Brew of Life" in the 2023 Summer Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Just a Bit of Whimsy

 

QUESTION: Recently, while browsing the booths at an antiques coop, I came across several kitschy ceramic planters. One had the form a sadiron, another had the form of a decorated rolling pin. Neither one had a mark. Do you have any idea which pottery produced these funky pieces?

ANSWER: It looks like you found some pieces of Cameo China ware. Cameo China, of Wellsville, Ohio, is one of the least known of the many novelty potteries that once operated along the Ohio River during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Because few of its products had marks, they’re difficult to recognize.

The Cameo China Company, an outgrowth of the Chic Pottery Company, operated in a portion of Wellsville's old United States Pottery Co., side by side with the better known Purinton Pottery, before the latter moved to Shippingsville, Pennsylvania in 1940, and Chic moved to Zanesvifle, Ohio. The United States Pottery Company, a manufacturer of semivitreous toilet and table wares from 1898 until 1932, fell victim to the Great Depression.

John Purinton purchased the pottery in 1936 and began producing colorful, hand-painted "peasantware" and fruit decorated kitchenware. He allowed Dana K. Harvey to use the southern portion of the factory for the Chic Pottery Company Harvey operated Chic Pottery in Wellsville and later in Zanesville, Ohio.

Both Hugh Garee, the mold maker for Chic Pottery, and Sam Corsello, who had  worked for the old United States Pottery, worked for both Chic and Purinton Pottery  during those early years. Corsello did just about everything at Chic's pottery, from pouring slip to firing gold, and Garee designed molds for both Chic and Purinton

Hugh Garee was born in Toronto, Ohio, in1875, the son of Albert and Eathenorah Burchfield Garee. His father, Albert, was a "pottery hand" in New Cumberland, West Viriginia, in 1880. Garre moved to Ontario, Canada, in 1897, and in 1900 worked  in Mimico, Ontario, as a brancher, making "branched" sewer tile at the Ontario Sewer Pipe Co.  He continued to work at various potteries in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.

Garre worked for a number of potteries, including Salem China, Bedford China, Sebring China, Selo Pottery, Homer Laughlin, and Shenango China as a mold maker and/or designer. In 1929, he moved to Minerva, Ohio, where he worked for Owen China. 

In 1946, Hugh Garee and Sam Corsello continued to operate the Cameo China Company while Corsello worked for Acme Craft Ware. Garee, his son Mac, and J.Lee Pickering incorporated the business on October 9, 1948. Cameo operations included a small, 40-foot-long tunnel kiln but were sufficient to keep 21 women employed. 

Mac Garee sold Cameo China pieces at the Garee Scott Clothing Store in Minerva, Ohio, while at the same time advertising Cameo wares in American Home and similar decorating magazines. Particularly popular were Cameo's rolling pin and flatiron planters, usually decorated with a rose decal, and various salt and pepper shakers.

Among Cameo’s known designs are a pair of salt and pepper shakers representing a coal stove and coal bucket, male and female torsos in old-fashioned undergarments, two sizes of a standing alligator, a pair of clasped hands, and a pair of bare feet with brightly colored toenails and a definite orthopedic problem involving the big toe—the best known pieces. The smiling alligator, the most appealing, appeared several years before the Disney movie version of "Peter Pan:" As for the painfully if humorously disjointed feet, Japanese and American copies are far more common than the Cameo originals. Cameo China had the foresight to copyright them, although most potteries paid little attention to copyright laws.

Japanese imports quickly spelled the end of Cameo China's prosperity, however. Hugh Garee's sight completely failed in 1951, and son Mac Garee, who had worked with his father since the age of 13, continued to manage the pottery for a time, working day and night to fill orders. The Garees wisely sold their part of Cameo China to Sam Corsello, who continued to operate it for a few more years with his son Russell. 

Garee used a kick wheel for many years. He created his own tools by hand from kitchen utensils and other readily available utensils.

 produced a leaping fish as a hair receiver for Chic, and later made a very similar shape for Cameo. While only slight differences in form distinguish the two, they can easily be identified by differences in decoration—Cameo used airbrushing more often--- but especially by glaze and density. Chic pottery’s pieces weren’t as well fired, causing fine crazing, and was off-white or ivory color. Cameo’s ware was denser, whiter and less subject to crazing.

Cameo China's lady head vase is one of the few pieces clearly identified with an impressed "C.C.Co. U.S.A." mark. (Both Chic and Cameo often used a small, block-letter "U.S.A." in-mold mark along the inside edge of the base.) The lady head vase is distinguished by sponged gold hair, a gold trimmed flower at the neck and a red, cold-painted flower in the hair. A "Cameo China"mark in gold script mark was also used on some pieces.

Cameo's 6-inch-high "Mammy and chef cream and sugar set" been recognized; it was patented Sept. 1, 1949. Finally, a "Golf bag and two clubs" was patented June 11, 1951, undoubtedly one of the last pieces that Hugh Game designed before he lost his sight. Although unmarked, the golf bag planter with two clubs has rather prominent "USA 51" impressed near the bottom. 

 Hugh Garee's distinctive and considerable ability from the pottery novelties produced by Cameo China alone. A much better idea of his skill is gained by examining the wide variety of shapes he designed for Chic Pottery.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Advertising of the Past" in the 2023 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

The Beauty is in the Cards

 

QUESTION: One of my passions is to visit historic houses. In many of them from the 19th century, I often see beautiful coverlets on the beds and sofas. House docents have said that women produced these coverlets on a special type of loom. I know they were done on a special kind of loom, but I forget what it was called. Can you tell me more about this special loom?

ANSWER: The unique designs of those coverlets were possible by the invention of the “Jacquard” loom. But coverlets weren’t the only types of weaving produced on this loom. By the 1850s, factories began using larger versions of the Jacquard to produce not only coverlets but two-sided carpets. Before the Jacquard loom, complex, figural designs were more difficult to produce alone on the same loom. 

Joseph-Marie Jacquard, a French weaver and merchant, patented his invention in 1804, he revolutionized how patterned cloth could be woven. His machine made it possible for complex and detailed patterns to be manufactured by unskilled workers in a fraction of the time it took a master weaver and his assistant working manually. 

A Jacquard loom wasn’t a particular type of loom but a control mechanism that’s added to a variety of looms. 

The spread of Jacquard's invention caused the cost of fashionable, highly sought-after patterned cloth to plummet. It could now be mass produced, becoming affordable to a wide market of consumers, not only the wealthiest in society.

To weave fabric on a loom, a weaver passed a thread, called the weft, over and under a set of threads, called the warp. The weaving of threads at right angles to each other  formed the cloth. The particular order in which the weft passes over and under the warp threads determined the pattern. 

Before the Jacquard system, a weaver's assistant, known as a draw boy, had to sit on top of a loom and manually raise and lower its warp threads to create patterned cloth. But this was a slow and laborious process.

The key to the success of Jacquard's invention was its use of interchangeable cards into which small holes had been punched, which held instructions for weaving a specific pattern and took over the time-consuming job of the draw boy. 

When fed into the Jacquard mechanism, fitted to the top of the loom, the cards controlled which warp threads should be raised to allow the weft thread to pass under them. With these punch cards, Jacquard looms could quickly reproduce any pattern a designer could create, and reproduce over and over.

The designer first painted a pattern onto squared paper. Then a card maker translates the pattern row by row onto the punch cards. For each square on the paper that wasn’t painted in, the card maker punches a hole in the card. For each painted square, he didn’t.

The cards, each with their own combination of punched holes corresponding to the part of the pattern they represent, were then laced together, ready to be fed one by one through the Jacquard mechanism fitted to the top of the loom. 

When the mechanism pushed a card towards a matrix of pins in the Jacquard mechanism, the pins passed  through the punched holes, activating hooks to raise their warp threads. Where there were no holes the pins press against the card, stopping the corresponding hooks from raising their threads. 

A shuttle then travels across the loom, carrying the weft thread under the warp threads that have been raised and over those that have not. This repeating process causes the loom to produce the patterned cloth that the punch cards have instructed it to create.

The Jacquard mechanism is a device fitted to a loom that simplifies the process of manufacturing textiles with such complex patterns as brocade, damask, and matelassé. The resulting ensemble of the loom and Jacquard machine is then called a Jacquard loom.

Unlike regular looms which are faster and less expensive to operate, looms with a Jacquard mechanism are slower and costlier to operate.

Threading a Jacquard mechanism was so labor-intensive that weavers threaded many looms only once. They then tied subsequent warps into the existing warp with the help of a knotting robot which tied each new thread  individually. Even for a small loom with only a few thousand warp ends, the process of re-threading could take days.

Factories had to choose the looms and Jacquard mechanisms to suit the requirements for their product. They used larger capacity machines or multiple machines which allowed greater control over bigger designs woven over the width of the loom.

The Jacquard attachment first appeared in America in the early 1820s, probably by one of the many German, English and French hand weavers who had immigrated from their native countries in Europe. These immigrant weavers tended to settle in areas with populations of their own ethnic group and near sources of good quality wool. Many brought some type of Jacquard attachment or at least the experience to use one. Some even developed their own devices based on Jacquard's idea and patented them in the U.S.

Jacquard weavers derived the patterns and motifs they used from well-known folk traditions of Western Europe. The designs of most Illinois coverlets can be traced back to Ohio and Pennsylvania coverlets. The center field patterns were either a large, repeated symmetrical motif on two-piece ones or a centered medallion on single-width coverlets. Floral motifs appeared most frequently, in the Four Lilies and Sun-burst, Four Roses, Octagonal Four Roses, Four Leaves and Four Acorns, and Four Bellflowers patterns. Star and Sunburst designs were also common.

Families in the 19th century often used Jacquard coverlets when taking long journeys in a horse-drawn carriage or stage coaches. In America, the practice of making coverlets using Jacquard looms began to fade during the fourth quarter of the 19th century. The import of cheaper materials into the U.S. became a difficult hurdle for weavers to overcome.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Advertising of the Past" in the 2023 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Affordable Italian Majolica

 

QUESTION: Recently, I’ve fallen in love with Italian majolica pottery. While some consider it garish, I find the colorful motifs uplifting. The prices I’ve seen for it online seem to be all over the place. But there are some lovely pieces available for around $50. Is this a good item to collect? The styles also seem quite varied. Can you tell me more about its history and about some of the styles?

ANSWER: Compared to English majolica, the Italian versions, for the most part, are still relatively low in price, so therefore, affordable. And as with any other antique or collectible, you should collect what you like, regardless of what other people think. Italian majolica of one sort or another is still being produced from Tuscany in the north to Sicily in the south. 

Even though the English Victorians displayed the bright colors and fanciful shapes of majolica pottery to give the appearance of wealth, no one made majolica like the Italians.  

So what exactly is majolica ware? Majolica is a soft and porous earthenware with molded designs that artists hand decorate in brilliant colors. It has a thick coat of clear metallic glaze made up of metallic oxides added to clear lead sulfates which produces its vivid colors.

This type of pottery originated over 2,000 years ago in North Africa, where potters introduced the technique of adding an opaque tin glaze to baked clay. During the 8th century, when the Moors joined together to conquer Spain, they brought the secrets of majolica with them.

During the Renaissance, Spaniards exported their version of tin-glazed pottery to Italy from Majorca, an island shipping port in the Mediterranean. The Italians called the colorful pottery “majolica,” as this was how they spelled the Spanish island's name.

From the late 13th century, potters in central Italy, especially in and around Florence, refined production of tin-glazed earthenware. But it wasn’t until the 15th-century that potters began to appreciate the full artistic potential of majolica. Famous 15th-century sculptor Luca della Robbia wanted to add color to his creations, and the new material was perfect. He and his family became renowned for creating large wreaths of naturalistic majolica fruit. The success of their wares encouraged the production of majolica in both Arezzo and Siena.

But by the second half of the 15th century, Florence had lost its pre-eminence as a center of majolica production, and its manufacture scattered out among small communes..

Potters from Montelupo set up the potteries at Cafaggiolo. In 1490, twenty-three master potters of Montelupo agreed to sell the year's production to Francesco Antinori of Florence. Montelupo provided the experienced potters who the Medici family set up in 1495 at the Villa Medicea di Cafaggiolo.

In the 16th century, potters began to produce majolica at Castel Durante, Urbino, Gubbio, and Pesaro. The early 16th century witnessed the development of istoriato wares on which artists painted historical and mythical scenes in great detail. And by the end of the 16th century, potters in Venice, Padua, and Turin and as far south as  Palermo and Caltagirone in Sicily began producing majolica.

The variety of majolica styles that arose in the 16th century defies classification. Dozens of styles emerged with even more sub-groups, each with its own shapes and decorative motifs. Italian city states encouraged the pottery industry by offering tax relief, citizenship, monopoly rights, and protection from outside imports.

Cipriano Piccolpasso compiled an important mid-16th century document that discussed  the techniques of majolica painting. He noted the work of individual 16th-century masters like Nicola da Urbino, Francesco Xanto Avelli, Guido Durantino and Orazio Fontana of Urbino, Mastro Giorgio of Gubbio and Maestro Domenigo of Venice.

During the 18th century, majolica wares came under increasing competition from porcelain manufacturers. To  face this competition, majolica potters introduced the process of third firing, called  piccolo fuoco in the mid-18th century. After the traditional two firings at 1750°F, potters painted the vitrified glaze with colors that would have degraded at such high temperatures, then fired the pieces a third time at a lower temperature, about 1100 to 1200°F. Potters introduced new vibrant colors, particularly red and various shades of pink obtained from gold chloride. 

Historians believe that one of the first to introduce this technique in Italy was Ferretti in Lodi, in northern Italy. Lodi majolica had already reached high quality in the second quarter of the 18th century. With the introduction of the third firing technique and increasing interest in botany and scientific observation, potters developed a refined production of majolica decorated with naturalistic flowers.

The Ginori family founded a factory to produce majolica in Milan in 1735. The company's head chemist, Giusto Giusti, began experimenting with traditional majolica techniques in the 1840s, and the company began producing outstanding examples of Victorian majolica in the 1850s.

Ginori made monumental display vases and wall plaques to decorate the halls and stairwells of middle class Victorian homes. The company's 's specialty was its “grotesque” decoration. Taken from ancient Roman art, the bizarre creatures were a combination of animal, human and plant forms. Ginori was a very successful majolica producer and enjoyed royal patronage. Most majolica items made by the firm are marked with a crown above the word "GINORI. ".

Ulisse Cantagalli of Florence was another large producer of 19th-century Italian majolica. From the 1870s until 1901, Cantagalli produced a tremendous amount of majolica to be sold at moderate prices. A company catalog dated 1895 lists almost 1,100 majolica pieces. Catagalli's early wares were replicas of the reliefs by della Robbia. His luster glazes showed a strong Spanish-Moorish influence. The company’s pieces bear the mark "CANTAGAL FIRENCE" and an encircled rooster seal.

Production of Italian majolica wares continues today, mainly in reproductions of the historical style. Contemporary majolica looks different from old majolica because its glaze is usually made more opaque with cheaper zircon rather than tin. However, some potteries specialize in making authentic looking Renaissance-style pieces with genuine tin glaze.

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Advertising of the Past" in the 2023 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.

Happy Meals for Happy Kids

 

QUESTION: I was going through some boxes in our attic and discovered one filled with those little toys my kids used to get in McDonald’s Happy Meals. Most people, especially mothers, consider these junk. Do they have any value or should I just toss them?

ANSWER: Believe it or not, some of those little toys are actually little treasures, depending on their condition. McDonald's is famous for its Happy Meals, and kids the world over I have been fattened up on weekly doses of them for over 40 years. Since the early 1980s,  the main hook has been the toy included with the meal. 

Many collectors of McDonald's memorabilia are mostly interested in toys that relate to specific McDonald's characters, but there have also been many tie-ins with established movie, TV and toy lines. Those tie-in items appeal to collectors who are specifically interested in what the Happy Meals promoted.

The first major tie-in to the action adventure market was with Star Trek. The series  returned from TV limbo in the form of a highly promoted film in 1979, and producers planned a huge promotion. This included Star Trek Happy Meals based on the movie. Six different boxes featured activities. One box encouraged kids to fill in the dots to complete a picture of the Enterprise while another offered a chance to decode a message with Mr. Spock, and so on. Toys and premiums included plastic Video Communicators, iron-on transfers of the characters and the Federation symbol, and "Navigational" wrist bracelets. 

Just as collectible are the items that McDonald’s made available to their restaurants, such as display signs, a cardboard Enterprise, and, rarest of all, a silver smock worn by McDonald's employees, which featured an emblem that combined the Star Trek and McDonald's logos. 

Another heavily merchandised franchise was The Dukes of Hazzard, the campy rural action show that dominated TV in the early 1980s. In the summer of 1982, McDonald’s  test marketed a Dukes of Hazzard promotion in St. Louis. The items included plastic cups with pictures of the various characters, and vacuumed plastic meal containers in the shape of the vehicles from the series, including the General Lee car and Daisy's Jeep.

Hot Wheels came to McDonald's in 1983.The cars were the subject of a national promotion, but there were also certain cars distributed only on the East Coast, and some only on the West Coast. Others appeared nationwide. McDonald’s offered 14 Hot Wheels cars in Happy Meals at any given location. There were "Collect All 14" store displays that included these 14 cars. The cars from this promotion individually sell for  $10 to $15, but the 14-car display unit commands can sell for between $300 and $400.

E.T. was a huge promotion for McDonald's, thanks to the family-friendly appeal of the movie. Although E.T. appeared in theaters in the early 1980s, the first Happy Meal with an ET theme didn’t go on sale until 1985. It offered  two different box designs and a series of four posters depicting scenes from the film.

Hasbro, the toy industry giant, got into Happy Meals with a combined promotion for Transformers and My Little Pony. Transformers, robots that became vehicles and other mechanical devices, were one of the top selling action figure lines of the 1980s. Each original Happy Meal promotion include four different small Transformers. Today, they sell for between $40 and150 each for diehard Transformers collectors and up to $100 if they’re still in their cellophane baggie packs.

Ghostbusters, the cartoon TV show known as the Real Ghostbusters spun off of the hit movie, became the next big craze for kids in the action/adventure genre. Ghostbusters appeared in McDonald's Happy Meals in 1977 with four different boxes and school supplies based on the Marshmallow Man and Slimer ghosts seen in the film and cartoon series. These included a pencil case, ruler, note pad and eraser, pencil and pencil topper, and pencil sharpener. All are difficult to find and highly collectible.

Hot Wheels returned in 1989 with more cars available in different regions. There was a 12-ear display that now sells for $300, followed by repeated promotions, shared by Mattel's other titan, Barbie, throughout the 1990s.

Not to be outdone, Matchbox also had a promotion in 1988, featuring a 16-car counter display and cars that now sell for $8 to $10 each.

The I990s proved to be even mare interesting for action-adventure tie-ins, as several popular super heroes became involved with Happy Meal promotions.

1991 saw McDonald's teaming with Disney to promote Hook, the retelling of Peter Pan with Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman. The official Hook Happy Meal boxes, which featured striking artwork, contained four Hook floating bathtub toys.

A tie-in with the TV cartoon version of Back To The Future caused some controversy. The assortment consisted of four rolling toys, but Doc's time traveling Delorean car had wheels that small children could remove and swallow. McDonald's issued an advisory to parents, urging them to avoid giving the cars to small children. The next big promotion also had its share of problems.

In 1992, McDonald's was ready to cash in on Batman merchandising and featured a big promotion involving Batman Returns with four vehicle toys, including Catwoman’s car. 

For some reason, Halloween toys are usually big hits. The Ronald and Pals Haunted Halloween McDonald’s Happy Meal set featured a 20-inch display used at McDonald's restaurants in the 1990s. The company ran their 1998 promotion nationally during October. Unfortunately, many store managers trashed most of the displays afterward. The promotion included six toys—I am Hungry, Witch Birdie, Black Cat Grimace, Jack-o-lantern McNugget Buddy, Ghost Ronald, Scarecrow Hamburglar and Ghoul.

The McDonald’s Happy Meal for Disney Toy Story2 in 1999 includes pretty much every recognizable toy from the "Toy Story 2" movie. The complete set included an incredible  20 toys, which doesn’t seem possible for the movie.

Not all McDonald's toys were tiny plastic junk. Some, like It’s Happy Meal Girl Doll from 1997,  were big plastic junk, part of a series of Happy Meal baby dolls. Actually, these dolls were surprisingly well made for something produced by a burger chain.

And while the intention of Happy Meals was to get kids to eat McDonald’s foods and make them happy, those same little toys are making many collectors happy as well. 

To read more articles on antiques, please visit the Antiques Articles section of my Web site.  And to stay up to the minute on antiques and collectibles, please join the over 30,000 readers by following my free online magazine, #TheAntiquesAlmanac. Learn more about "Advertising of the Past" in the 2023 Spring Edition, online now. And to read daily posts about unique objects from the past and their histories, like the #Antiques and More Collection on Facebook.