These Marx Brothers Made Name in Toys
Louis Marx started his career as an office boy in the toy firm run by Ferdinand Strauss. Marx eventually became a director of the company, but in 1921 he decided to start a company with his brother.
The Marx brothers’ company specialized in tin toys, electric trains and windup toys. Its colorful toys are popular with collectors.
There is some confusion about the Marx toys of the 1940s. A Japanese offshoot of the Marx company made toys marked “Line Mar” that were much like the American-made Marx toys.
Marx toys usually were marked “MAR” in a circle with an X through the letters. Line Mar toys were similarly marked with the name “Line Mar” in a circle.
The toys and the boxes that held the toys sell for high prices today.
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Question A Windsor chair was left in the basement of the house I bought. The chair looks like wood, but it’s metal with a wood-grain finish. The label on the bottom says, “Canton Art Metal Co.” When was the chair made?
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Answer Chair manufacturers started using metal for chair parts in the late 1830s. As early as the 1850s, cast iron and steel were used to make garden and indoor furniture. By the 1870s, metal furniture was being made for offices, libraries and schools.
The Canton Art Metal Co., founded about 1880, specialized in metal institutional furniture that was meant to last longer and take more wear and tear than wood.
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Q How can I tell if my bowl and pitcher bedroom set is complete? I have a large bowl, pitcher, soap dish and small bowl. The set is decorated with blue flowers.
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A It’s hard to tell if your set is complete. Such sets could have many pieces. The sets were made to be used in a bedroom in the days before bathrooms were common.
The bowl and pitcher usually were used for hand and face washing. The small bowl was a waste bowl for the dirty water.
A set also could have a toothbrush holder and other small pitchers and containers. The largest set we have seen had 16 pieces.
The rarest piece generally is the chamber pot, which usually doubles the value of the set.
A four-piece set such as yours is worth about $150.
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Q My 24-inch vase is bronze with long silver flowers on the sides. On the bottom is the number 3681B, a diamond-shaped mark enclosing a large H over M and an A and S, and the words “Sterling on Bronze, Pat. Aug. 27.12.” Any information?
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A The mark on your vase identifies it as the work of the Heintz Art Metal Shop, a metalworks company that worked in Buffalo, N.Y., from 1906 to 1930.
The shop, owned by Otto L. and Edwin Heintz, made decorative wares such as vases, desk sets, picture frames, lamps and bookends in various shades of bronze accented with sterling-silver overlays. The company perfected its silver overlay process in 1912, and used Art Deco, Art Nouveau or Arts and Crafts designs.
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Q While cleaning out my grandfather’s attic I found a metal object marked “Varney.” It is a cup with a hook sticking up as if to be used to hang the cup. There also is a long spike attached to the side of the cup, as if it was meant to be stuck in the ground. My mother remembers that it had something to do with my grandfather’s days as a miner.
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A You probably have a miner’s candlestick, used to light the way in mines before electric lights. The hook held the cup on a beam or ceiling crosspiece so the light from a burning candle could shine down. The spike was forced into wood in the mine tunnel if light was needed and there was no place to hang the cup.
The Varney model was patented in 1885. It is worth about $75.
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Q I have a necklace made of 42 enamel-covered copper plates linked at one end with copper loops. The name “Matisse” is engraved on the back of the last link. Could it have been designed by French artist Matisse?
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A Your necklace was made by Renoir of California Inc., a copper-jewelry manufacturer that worked in Los Angeles from 1946 to 1964.
In 1952, Renoir of California introduced a line of enamel-covered copper jewelry called Matisse, Ltd.
The company had no connection with the French painters Pierre-Auguste Renoir or Henri Matisse.
Your geometric necklace is the company’s Peter Pan design, named for the popular 1950s collar style.
If you’d like a listing of helpful books and publications on antiques, send a self-addressed, stamped (55 cents) envelope to the Kovels, Los Angeles Times, King Features Syndicate, 235 E. 45th St., New York, NY 10017.
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Current Prices
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary because of local economic conditions.
* Advertising calendar, McCray refrigerators, 1931, 12 colorful pages: $30.
* Yellowstone Park playing cards, 1920: $35.
* Calling-card case, mother-of-pearl with floral inlay tortoise shell, 18th century: $135.
* Barnum & Bailey circus program, 1914, “The Wizard Prince of Arabia”: $165.
* Sterling-silver 15-jewel pocket watch and chain, Arabic numerals, Longines Watch Co., marked “Bigelow Kennard & Co., Inc., Boston”: $175.
* Peter Max inflatable pillows, set of eight, pop-art design, various colors, each signed in the image, circa 1969, 15 by 16 inches: $320.
* Maple globe stand by Edward Wormely for Dunbar with 1953 Rand McNally globe, 35 by 19 inches: $495.
