Schuco Three Little Pigs, ca. 1935
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GUEST:
I inherited them from my Aunt Geri and Uncle Ralph, and they were a very wealthy, uh, couple. They didn't have any children. They did a lot of world travel, and when they passed away, I got the Little Pigs.
APPRAISER:
How long have you had these Little Pigs?
GUEST:
Probably 20 years.
APPRAISER:
Three Little Pigs, was a 1933 film, and it won the 1934 Academy Award for Best Short, Cartoon. It's a classic Walt Disney film. And these were made to market with the success of the film.
GUEST:
I thought that maybe they might be Steiff, because they came from Germany.
APPRAISER:
And you saw the "Made in Germany" on the boxes and...
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
They're not Steiff, but they're another company from Germany that's just as interesting as Steiff. It's Schuco-- you can see here at the base of the foot, it says "Schuco." Schuco was a company from Nuremberg. They started making toys in about 1915. They made teddy bears. They also made a lot of wind-up toys. And by the '30s, they made these great Three Little Pigs. We have Fifer Pig on the end there. We have Fiddler Pig in the middle. And do you know the name of this guy?
GUEST:
Drummer.
APPRAISER:
He's Practical Pig. Now, Practical Pig was the pig that had the brick house that the wolf couldn't blow down. And in the movies, Practical Pig plays a piano, but it would be hard for the toy producers to manufacture a piano. So they turned Practical Pig into a drummer. The other great thing is the fact that you have all the original boxes, and the corners are crisp, the labels are perfect. All the original keys are there, too. They're just in exceptional condition. The set at auction would be $2,000 to $2,500. Let's wind one of these guys up. (tinkling)
APPRAISER:
(chuckles)
GUEST:
They're cute, they're very cute.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, yeah.
GUEST:
I like them a lot.
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