Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus Band, ca. 1910
GUEST:
Well, I know they're Schoenhut, and I found them at a farm auction in Wisconsin about, oh, eight, nine years ago. I have never seen another set of them. It was a box that looked like junk.
APPRAISER:
Uh-huh.
GUEST:
And I bid five dollars on it. And that's what I got it for.
APPRAISER:
Well, what do you think they're worth?
GUEST:
I would say they're maybe worth about $100 apiece, pricing out some of the other Schoenhut items.
APPRAISER:
It's the Schoenhut Humpty Dumpty Circus, which was made by the Schoenhut Company in Philadelphia. A lot of people think Schoenhuts were made in Germany, because it's a German name. But they were made in Philadelphia, starting in the 1890s. And the circus was made well into the early '30s. We've had pieces of the Humpty Dumpty Circus before on the ROADSHOW, some of the animals.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
And of course, I've always considered this Humpty Dumpty Circus the... one of the first play set toys ever made in America, and one of the great classic American toys, because it allowed the child to recreate that fantastic circus. Probably one of the most rare components of it is the band.
GUEST:
The band.
APPRAISER:
You absolutely made a fabulous find. And this felt is almost perfect. Usually, these are moth-eaten. Now, they're a little dirty. All these pants could be cleaned up. You're missing a helmet here or there.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Of course, you see this fella here with the bent limbs? You know why he was able to sit down?
GUEST:
He was usually on top of a bandwagon.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, he was the driver of the bandwagon. But it's an absolutely fantastic set and very, very hard to find in pretty amazing condition. In today's market, I would value this set at easily $10,000 to $12,000.
GUEST:
Great.
APPRAISER:
So...
GUEST:
I'm very pleased.
APPRAISER:
I think you did... you did very well.
GUEST:
I did very well.
Appraisal Details
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