Bobbleheads started as porcelain dolls
Bobbleheads are popular sports collectibles. Most baseball teams offer the souvenir dolls at special-promotion games, but today’s are made of slick plastic and often wear fabric uniforms.
Early toy bobbleheads were made of painted papier-mache. The head bobs up and down because it is attached to a long-weighted neck that’s suspended in the neck’s hole.
The idea came from 18th-century porcelain figurines that had moving heads and hands. The major German porcelain factories made complicated nodders. One was a group of women drinking tea; their heads and hands moved.
A nodder that came to auction recently was a smiling Leprechaun with a winking glass eye. Five inches tall and made in Germany of a composition material, it’s a St. Patrick’s Day collectible. Such items are not as popular as Halloween or Christmas collectibles, and the buyer paid just $59 for the charming fellow.
Q: Is it true that furniture from the U.S. House of Representatives is sometimes sold at auction?
A: For many years, there were few rules about the furniture that belonged to the government in the congressional buildings, the White House or other federal buildings. It is said that President Lincoln’s wife sold some of the furnishings because she needed money to live on, as there was no pension for the wife of a president. Now there are pages of instructions about buying and selling official furnishings.
We have seen several Victorian chairs from the House of Representatives sold. They were made in 1857 by a famous New York firm, Bembe & Kimbel. They featured carvings of three stars, oak branches and laurel. In 2008, a chair sold for about $19,000.
Current prices
Prices recorded from throughout the U.S.
■ Murano vase, orange creamsicle swirl, free form with in-folding rim, Italy, c. 1960, 9 x 9 inches, $145
■ Mountaineering pack, back board, hardwood, rope, webbing and adjustable straps, climbing tools, 1940s, 27 x 15 inches, $265
■ Lamp, conch shellshaped, etched with Mount Vesuvius volcano scene, tiered round wood base, electric, 1970s, 7 inches, $500
■ Carousel decoration, clown head, carved and painted wood, conical hat with pom poms, late 1800s, 13 x 4 inches, $2,300