Questions and Answers

QUESTION:  I recently spent $20.00 to acquire a Fleetwing “Spring To” Flash sled, a pair of ice skates, and some holiday decorations at a local garage sale.  I bought the sled because I never saw one with springs.  Although the sled has some rust on its runners, it is in overall good condition.  I would like to know more about it before putting it out as a porch decoration. – NJ, Shoemakersville, PA

ANSWER:  Auto-Wheel Coaster Company, located at 95 Schenck Street, North Tonawanda, New York, made your sled.

John Snyder founded the Buffalo Sled Company, located in Buffalo, New York.  The exact founding date is open to question.  One source lists 1889 and another 1904.  The 1910 City Directory for North Tonawanda lists the company’s location as 95-97 Schenck at Duckwitz Street.

By 1910, Buffalo Sled’s products included Gilderole and The Roller Sled.  In 1920 the company promoted the formation of Auto-Wheel Coaster Clubs throughout the United States to “develop leadership in boys.”  In addition to the company’s headquarters in North Tonawanda, Buffalo Sled had branches in Terre Haute, Indiana, and Preston, Ontario.  Principal products included the Auto Wheel Coaster Wagon and Fleetwing Steering Sled.

A fire on April 16, 1920, destroyed the wheel department and storehouses. According to the 1921 City Directory, the company rebuilt and assumed a new name, Auto-Wheel Coaster Company.

A 1940 company catalog lists the company’s products as bob sleds, coaster wagons, Fleetwing & Flash steering sleds, hand cars, pedal bikes, porch gates, scooters, sled guards, stake wagons, and work benches.  Because of the seasonal nature of wagon and sled sales, sled manufacturers had to offer a wide variety of children’s vehicles and wood products to remain in business.

Auto-Wheel Coaster Company received Patent No. 2,041,982, for its “Spring Top” sled consisting of four heavy, coil, shock absorbing springs.  Wood parts were made from Northern white ash.  Metal parts were high carbon, spring steel.  The safety runners were grooved.

In 1940, the Standard Model Fleetwing “Spring Top” Flash sled had a natural varnish top with red ornamentation.  The Deluxe Model had a walnut stained top with cream ornamentation, knees and runners painted aluminum, and chrome-plated steel front and side rails.  Other sled models included Coaster King, Fleetwing, and Fleetwing Racer.

Auto-Wheel Coaster Company, blaming union difficulties including strikes and competition, declared bankruptcy in early 1964.  Wheel Industries purchased the company in September 1964 and resumed production.  In June 1968 Tycodyne Industries purchased the company.  Fire destroyed the plant and seven nearby homes on May 29, 1972.  Rumors suggested arson.  The factory was not rebuilt.

The pictures that accompanied your letter suggest your sled dates from the late 1940s or early 1950s.  Given the condition of the wooden top, I suggest cleaning the metal parts with rust remover.  Do not forget to use rust inhibitor once the surface is clean.

Consider the ice skates and Christmas decorations a bonus.  Your sled is worth the $20.00 you paid.  Cleaned up it will double in value.

See Joan Palica’s Flexible Flyer and Other Great Sleds for Collectors (Schiffer Publishing, 1997) and the website of the North Tonawanda History Museum, nthistorymuseum.org/Collection/autowheel.html, for more information and pictures.

QUESTION:  I would like to sell an old cuckoo clock made by the American Cuckoo Clock Company.  It was made in Bristol, Connecticut.  If you have any advice, I would appreciate it. – CB, E-mail Request.

ANSWER:  Germany’s Black Forest (Schwarzwald), located in the southwest corner of Baden-Württemberg bordering France, Switzerland, and the Necker River, is the ancestral home of cuckoo clocks.  Production centers include Furtwangen and Shonack, home of Rombach and Hess.

The website, cuckoos4u.com, contains a brief history of the Black Forest Cuckoo Clock.  The clock’s origins are unclear.  One group supports a Black Forest origin, claiming the cuckoo clock originated in the mind of Anton Ketterer, a clockmaker, around 1730.  A second group contends a Bohemian peddler sold cuckoo clocks to German clockmakers who copied and mass produced them.  The earliest clocks, circa 1750-1850, were Schilduhr (Shield Style) featuring open sides and a circle about the shield which housed the cuckoo.

In 1850 a Furtwangen clock school held a competition to design a new housing for the cuckoo clock.  An Italian architect’s Bahnhäusle (Railway Guard House Style) design with grape leaves surround won.  As time passed, birds, deer, and other types of leaves were added to the decorative vocabulary.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Swiss developed the Chalet Style found in three basic motifs: (1) Black Forest, (2) Swiss, and (3) Bavarian.  Mechanical action features such as dancing figures and woodcutters, often accompanied by the melody from a music box, were added.

A cuckoo clock graced the dining room of my childhood home at 55 West Depot Street, Hellertown, Pennsylvania.  Each day my father wound the clock by pulling down the metal pine cone weights.  The cuckoo cooed the quarter hour once, half hour twice, three-quarters of the hour three times, and the top of the hour four times in addition to striking the hour.  Hence, at midnight and noon the cuckoo cooed sixteen times.  My parents and I never heard the clock.  Guests were an entirely different matter.  The constant cuckooing drove them nuts.  Overnight guests often asked my parents to silence the clock so they could sleep.  The irony, as you may have guessed from my address, is that we lived less than half a block from the railroad station.  While my parents could stop the clock, they could not stop the trains.

Germany exported large numbers of cuckoo clocks to America at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century.  Because of the delicate carving on the cases, many arrived damaged.

The American Cuckoo Clock Company, founded in Philadelphia circa 1900, recruited German craftsmen to come to America to manufacture cuckoo clocks.  The company produced clocks through the 1920s.

[Author’s Aside:  Your Bristol, CT label is a puzzle.  The only American Cuckoo Clock information I found referred to the Philadelphia Company.  My supposition is that either the American Cuckoo Clock Company made special orders for a Bristol clockmaker or this was a successor following the cessation of operations in Philadelphia.]

The American Cuckoo Clock Company clocks had celluloid hands and flat top weights.  The wings of the bird flap when he dips his head and opens his mouth.

Examples in working order retail between $150.00 and $300.00 depending on the elaborateness of the case.  Three or more American Cuckoo Clock Company clocks are listed on eBay each month.  Your best sale route is a private sale.  Auction, whether a local or regional auctioneer or eBay, is your next option.  Be aware that cuckoo clocks, like many other older “wound” clocks, are becoming a more and more difficult sale.

QUESTION:  I have an East German 50 Mark bill that I purchased in Frankfurt in 1981.  I had to talk the currency exchange man into selling it to me.  He was only supposed to sell it if I was going to East Germany.  What is it worth now? – HN, E-mail Question

ANSWER:  I spent time “behind the iron curtain” in the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, a.k.a., East Germany and GDR) in 1968, 1970, and again in 1980.  At the time the official exchange rate was 4 to1 marks to the dollar.  The black market rate was 16 to 1.

The German Democratic Republic included the German provinces of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia, and a portion of occupied Berlin.  The GDR 50 Mark note featured a vignette of Friedrich Engels on the obverse and an oil refinery on the back.  It came in two versions, one with a wide and one with a narrow serial number.

A standard joke at the time, albeit no one told it in public, was German Democratic Republic—Not German, Not Democratic, Not a Republic.  It loses something in translation.

Collecting value is the only value remaining for your 50 Mark bill.  You cannot convert it or use it.  The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: Modern Issues, 1961-Present, 12th Edition (KP Book, an imprint of F+W Publications) edited by George S. Cuhaj values uncirculated wide serial number notes at $15.00 and narrow serial notes at $10.00.  Since you obtained your example from a money exchange, it most likely was circulated, at which point your bill is worth between $2.00 and $4.00 depending on crispness.

Alas, your currency speculation turned out to be a very bad investment.

QUESTION:  I have a collection of Hobbies magazines dating from the 1930s to 1959.  Are they worth anything or should I just junk them? – WH, Bethlehem, PA

ANSWER:  Do not junk them.  They have value.

Hobbies magazine is now Antiques and Collecting magazine and still published by the Lightner Publishing Company (1006 S. Michigan Avenue #500, Chicago, IL  60605).  Assuming you have a complete run, my first recommendation is that you contact the publisher to see what interest they might have in acquiring them.

If you are in the “if you are looking for a good home and no money” mindset, I would be delighted to add them to my reference library.  You also might want to try your local historical society or museum.

Having stated the obvious, your magazines’ monetary value varies from issue to issue depending on the stories found within them.  In attempting to research values, I found numerous issues offered for sale on eBay with opening bid requests ranging from a few dollars to $9.99.  Most went unsold.  My recommendation is to think between $1.00 and $2.00 per issue.  Count your issues and do the math.

If you have full runs by years, offer them for sale on eBay.  Start with a low opening bid.  I recommend $0.99.  A local auction company accustomed to selling antiques and collectibles references is another choice.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth century.  Selected letters will be answered in this column.  Harry cannot provide personal answers.  Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned.  Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5093 Vera Cruz Road, Emmaus, PA 18049.  You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time.  If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.

SELL, KEEP OR TOSS?: HOW TO DOWNSIZE A HOME, SETTLE AN ESTATE, AND APPRAISE PERSONAL PROPERTY (House of Collectibles, an imprint of Random House Information Group, $16.95), Harry’s latest book, is available at your favorite bookstore and via www.harryrinker.com.