Heyde Buffalo Bill Wild West Set, ca. 1903
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APPRAISER:
You've watched the "ROADSHOW." You know how excited we get when we find original boxes.
GUEST:
I've noticed, yes.
APPRAISER:
So what's in this box here that says, "Buffalo Bill"?
GUEST:
I guess it was the Buffalo Bill Wild West cowboy show, right around the turn of the century or shortly before, and this shows cowboys fighting, buffaloes, Indians and I bought it at an auction locally here about 21 years ago. My wife was away for the weekend, and I saw, uh... I happened to look in the auction section of the "Journal" here, and it said, "Buffalo Bill Wild West set." I went to the auction. I'd never been to one before in my life. I ended up with this.
APPRAISER:
Your wife wasn't with you, so you could go wild.
GUEST:
No. If she'd have been with me, I wouldn't have gone.
APPRAISER:
And what did you pay for it?
GUEST:
I think I paid about $400 for it.
APPRAISER:
It's made in Germany. It's made by the Heyde Company. We all know about Britons when we think of lead soldiers, but Heyde was the preeminent German manufacturer.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Started in the late 19th century, and this is something they made around 1903. Well, what's extraordinary is... is the large set. What's doubly extraordinary is, no one played with it.
GUEST:
Well, after I had bought this particular piece, a woman came over to me and she said that everything at the auction was her grandfather's estate. Right around the turn of the century, her grandfather was the European sales manager for the Singer Sewing Machine Company.
APPRAISER:
Uh-huh.
GUEST:
He had just gotten married, and he thought that at some time, he would have some sons and this would be a nice present. Except that he and his wife had three daughters, and the three daughters only had daughters. And she had told me that this box had been lugged from house to house to house and had never been played with, and that's why it looks the way it does today. It, it's still tied in original excelsior back behind everything. You can still see some of the straw from the original packing.
APPRAISER:
It's just absolutely extraordinary, and the condition is just unheard of. I did some research and talked to one dealer who had sold a similar set a few years back-- not in this condition-- for in the range of $14,000. This set, on today's market, I think, at auction, could bring in the neighborhood of $15,000 to $20,000.
GUEST:
Well, my father-in-law came in for a visit and looked at it. He looked at it and said, "What did you pay for it?" When I told him, he made one of those faces. So now maybe, um, I did know what I was doing 21 years ago.
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