Antiques Q&A
Our expert shares the scoop on memorable Christmas goods, from children’s records to a jolly candy container and vintage cookie cutters.
Our expert shares facts and figures about antiques.
Question:
This Santa Claus novelty lamp is on display at the Tiffin Glass Museum in Tiffin, Ohio. I’d like to have one in my Christmas collection. How much should I expect to pay?
Answer:
The Tiffin Glass Company was a subsidiary of the United States Glass Company when it introduced a series of figural lamps in the 1920s. The hardest to find is the 10-inch-tall lamp that depicts Santa Claus in a chimney. The painted glass shade rests on a round base of black glass. The Santa lamp cost $1.75 in a 1926 mail-order catalog, which amounts to about $25 today. Other lamps in the series include an owl, a parrot, lovebirds, several flower baskets and a girl in a hoop skirt. While most of these lamps normally sell today for $200 to $300 each, the scarcity and desirability of the Santa lamp drives the price to $1,000 or more. Surviving examples sometimes have paint loss, surface scratches and chips, which reduces the value.
RESOURCE: Tiffin Glass Museum, 419-448-0200, www.tiffinglass.org.
Question:
I found several Christmas-themed 45 rpm records at a flea market. One that intrigued me most was titled “Winter Wonderland” on one side and“Mr. Snow”on the other. The illustrated record sleeve states that it’s a Golden Record priced 29 cents and features The Golden Sandpipers and the Jimmy Carroll Orchestra. I paid a dollar apiece for the records. Are they worth much more than that?
Answer:
Golden Records was a Simon & Schuster record label based in New York. It was conceived in 1948 by children’s music producer Arthur Shimkin, who went on to found Sesame Street Records with the Children’s Television Workshop in 1970. Golden Records combined children’s stories with melody, releasing them as singles. The records included nursery rhymes, fairy tales, Christmas songs, Bible stories and educational songs. Jimmy Carroll was an arranger for the orchestras of Mitch Miller, Harry James and Vaughn Monroe before becoming an orchestra leader himself in the 1950s. The Golden Sandpipers was a quartet who sang for Golden Records, most notably the theme to “Mighty Mouse.” Vintage children’s records with sleeves like this are offered by online sellers for as much as $30 apiece, while most are priced about $10.
RESOURCES: IMDb, www.imdb.com; AllMusic, www.allmusic.com.
Question:
What can you tell me about this 5-inch-tall figure of a stern-looking Santa Claus? Its head comes off and the body is hollow.
Answer:
Sweets have been a Christmas tradition for decades. Papier-mâché figural containers such as this were a novel way to package candy for children in the early 1900s. Many figures ranged from 3 to 6 inches tall and separated at the neck so the hollow body could be filled with candy. They were sold by department and variety stores and mail-order houses at Christmastime. In addition to Santas, such containers also depicted reindeer, rabbits, dogs, pigs and cats. These containers were first made in Germany. Many were also made in Japan in the 1920s and 1930s. This papier-mâché Father Christmas candy container is an early German example in nice condition and is worth about $200.
RESOURCE: Christmas Revisited by Robert Brenner (1986: Schiffer Publishing, 610-593-1777, www.schifferbooks.com).
Question:
I don’t play piano, but I was attracted to this 32-page book of Christmas music because of its illustration of Santa Claus with his reindeer and sleigh. It was published in 1945 by Belwin Inc. in New York and has a cover price of 60 cents. Are music books like this very collectible?
Answer:
The piano was a prime source of entertainment in many homes in the first half of the 20th century, and publishing sheet music was big business. John W. Schaum (1905–1988) was an American pianist, composer and educator. He founded the Schaum Piano School in his hometown of Milwaukee in 1933 and eventually began composing piano music for teaching purposes. His first music book, published in 1941, was titled “Piano Fun for Boys and Girls”, which he developed into a series of method books called the Schaum Piano Course. Over the course of his career, Schaum wrote many more books and hundreds of pieces of sheet music, many for Belwin Inc. Schaum’s Christmas Album was in print for many years. Copies can be readily found priced $10 to $20.
Question:
I’m told this Santa Claus is a “Harold Gale.” It is about 15 inches tall. Who was Harold Gale?
Answer:
Harold Gale, a clothing store display manager from Kansas City, Missouri, began making Santas for use in department store displays in his home workshop around 1946. He and his wife, Viola Gale, soon started the Harold Gale Santa Company in Kansas City and developed their lines of Santa Claus figures over the next decade. They are best known for making large animated storedisplay Santas. Gale began producing these smaller Santas for the retail market in 1957, and they became best-sellers. In 1960, Gale produced more than 100,000 Santas, from department-store displays to the smaller ones marketed to the public. Production of the smaller Santas increased dramatically during the 1960s. These Christmas-decoration staples, wearing white plastic boots and belt, are usually priced $40 to $75.
RESOURCE: “The Joy of Collecting Harold Gale Santas for Christmas,” Holidappy, www.holidappy.com.
Question:
I found this set of Christmas cookie cutters priced $20 at the Springfield (Ohio) Antique Show & Flea Market. The box indicates they were made by Aluminum Specialty Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Was that price a good buy?
Answer:
Aluminum Specialty Company produced Alumode-brand kitchenware and Kiddykook-brand toy kitchenware in the 1950s. This set of Christmas cookie cutters—also “ideal for party sandwiches”—dates back to that decade. The company’s other products included a doughnut maker and molds for making gingerbread houses. Aluminum Specialty Company’s most famous product was its space-age Evergleam-brand aluminum Christmas tree. Introduced in 1959, it became a 1960s sensation and cultural icon. In that decade, the company produced more than 1 million aluminum trees as well as colorwheel projectors and revolving tree stands. The tree’s design was simple—aluminum branches tipped with aluminum-foil needles inserted into a wooden trunk. These items are more collectible and command a higher price. As for the company’s cookie cutters, $20 is a fair price.