Kenton Morgan Traveling Toy Crane, ca. 1930
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APPRAISER:
You came in from Los Angeles. What, you brought about four or five boxes of toy trains, right?
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
They were kind of rough condition.
GUEST:
Yeah, they've been played with a lot.
APPRAISER:
But then in the box I saw some of these pieces.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And you managed to put it together. Well, it's a great little toy. And tell me how you came about getting it.
GUEST:
Well, the trains were my grandfather's and handed down through the generations. I got them when I was in my childhood, and...
APPRAISER:
Did you ever put this together when you were a kid?
GUEST:
Actually, I don't think at the time I figured out how to put it together so it just sort of sat in the box.
APPRAISER:
So it was just in the box. And we found the pieces. It was kind of exciting to see. It's a really... it's a neat toy. Some people, if they saw this, they might think it was a salesman sample just because it has the name on it. No question it's a toy, made by the Kenton Toy Company, in Kenton, Ohio. They started business 1890s, and they've been in business up through a little bit after World War II. And this is a wonderful toy. It's the Morgan Crane. Morgan is still in business today. They started in 1860. And this toy was probably made in the late '20s, early '30s. It was a very complex toy. It's interesting when they have a toy that's branded by the company they're representing. It's exceedingly rare. And the wonderful thing about a toy like this, it is fully operational to demonstrate exactly how it works. It comes over this way.
GUEST:
Yeah, if you...
APPRAISER:
It travels that way. And then this moves the equipment, the bucket. And then this can open up to drop the load. It is a rare toy. One of the reasons it's rare is because it's very hard to put together, just like you discovered.
GUEST:
I figured that out.
APPRAISER:
You often lose pieces and once you lose pieces, you don't have a toy.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
All that added to the fact that they probably made very, very few. Now, it does have those two issues. This little break right over here, this little support here. And then the other thing, there was a lever here, which allowed this to be lifted up. But both of those things are repairable, and it does show some play wear. And I think even with those condition issues, I think on today's market, at auction, it would bring around $10,000 to $12,000.
GUEST:
Wow! That's amazing.
APPRAISER:
It is amazing, isn't it?
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
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