SHELTON, Conn. – Veteran film editor Bob Blake, nominated for Emmys for his work on the sprawling TV series Dynasty and Bonanza, built an immense collection of toy cars and trucks to the point he has run out of room. Lloyd Ralston Gallery will sell part one of the Bob Blake Toy Vehicle Collection on Nov. 21. The auction will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

Starting in the 1970s, Blake rounded up American cars and trucks by all manufacturers and all materials – cast iron, pressed steel, lithographed tin, die cast, rubber hard plastic and more.

Among the most impressive toys in his collection are the showy lithographed tin automobiles of the 1950s. A 1950 Cadillac convertible by Gama of West Germany is 12 inches long and carries two composition figures. Like new in the original box, which has minor wear, this friction-powered classic car has a $2,000-$2,500 estimate.

VINELAND, N.J. - A special attraction of the opening session in Bertoia’s Nov. 13-15 Holiday Toy Trimmings sale is the celebrated Dick Ford Air-Flow toy car collection. A comprehensive grouping known far and wide amongst collectors, it incorporates toy versions of Chrysler Air-Flows in cast iron, pressed steel, tin and celluloid.

Dick Ford is known as a “completist,” and the crowning glory of his collection is an actual full-size 1934 Chrysler Air-Flow automobile, one of very few known in an all-original state. Shiny black, in mint condition, and with only 35,000 original miles on the odometer, it may very well be the best of all known examples.

For automotive buffs who like specs, Dick’s classy ride has a 323.54 cu. in. straight 8 engine that can achieve a speed of 95.7 m.p.h. No wonder so many gangsters in those old black & white movies chose Air-Flows as their getaway cars! Bertoia Auctions has graciously shared this video with us, which was taken on the day Dick’s car arrived at the gallery amid considerable excitement. Enjoy the video and don’t forget to log on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com to sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet on any of the lots in Bertoia’s Nov. 13-15 sale. For more info on any item in the sale, including the ’34 Air-Flow, call Bertoia’s at 856-692-1881.

TIMONIUM, Md. – Record prices were achieved at RSL Auction’s 477-lot Bountiful Harvest sale held Oct. 17, 2009 in the Baltimore suburb of Timonium, Maryland. The multiple-consignor offering anchored by top-tier pieces from long-held collections ended up being the company’s most successful auction to date, according to Ray Haradin, who owns RSL Auction in partnership with brothers Steven and Leon Weiss. The sale total, inclusive of 17.5% buyer’s premium, exceeded one million dollars.

“Prices were very strong, and there were a number of world auction records set,” said Haradin, “but what amazed us most was the number of executives from the financial sector who were bidding in the sale, mostly by phone and absentee. They were very competitive and accounted for the bulk of the sales.”

The record books were rewritten from the very first lot of the sale – a boxed circa-1915 Hubley cast-iron Royal Circus Calliope that reached $22,325. Following closely behind, another toy from the Royal Circus series, a Tiger Cage pulled by plumed horses, mint and accompanied by its original box, earned $12,925. A circa-1890 Kyser & Rex cast-iron circus wagon with revolving bear and kangaroo figures also proved to be a crowd-pleaser, finishing at $8,812.50.

DENVER, Pa. – The most convincing proof that quality Americana finds its buyers in any market condition came on Oct. 8-10 at Dan Morphy Auctions’ Fall Sale, which featured the revered Joseph and Lilian Shapiro Americana and folk art collection.

“The sale did over $1.5 million (inclusive of 15 percent buyer's premium), and the usual factors came into play – rarity and condition,” said Morphy's owner and CEO, Dan Morphy. “We specialize in genuinely fresh to the market collections that have been held for many years. When the quality is there and the antiques legitimately have not been available to the public for several decades, the collectors don't hold back. They buy.”

Antique advertising signs, salesman's samples and an extraordinary collection of decorative 19th-century folk art “bride sticks” (implements once used to push down laundry into washing water) generated tremendous presale interest. A beautiful 1890s paper sign advertising Soapine Soap, which previously had been displayed in the president's office at Kendall Manufacturing in Providence, Rhode Island, hit the midpoint of its estimate at $17,250. “It was a rare and spectacular example,” Morphy noted.

FREDERICK, Md. – Mosby & Co. is mixing it up for the Thanksgiving holiday season with an absentee and Internet Fall 2009 Auction featuring 468 lots of toys, antique advertising, sports-related antiques, carnival and circus items; and Americana and Civil War articles. Bidding through all absentee methods, including online through LiveAuctioneers.com, will commence on Nov. 5, 2009 and conclude at midnight Eastern Time on Nov. 22, 2009.

Three main subgroups – cataloged in 150 lots and spanning a century of production from the 1860s-1960s – will be offered within the general category of “Toys.” Early tin toys are dominated by always-popular antique German examples – “good solid pieces,” said Mosby & Co.’s founder and owner Keith Spurgeon. “One of the top lots is a clockwork Weightlifting Clown that lifts the old-fashioned hundred-pound weight with his teeth. Collectors of European toys know this one. It’s very desirable.”

A second tin-toy standout is a boxed, 1920s Little Giant Zeppelin pull toy measuring 25 inches long and made by the New York company Baer & Strasburger. “It has a great-looking pictorial box with a Manhattan scene that includes the Statue of Liberty but pre-dates the Empire State Building,” said Spurgeon. “It’s always fascinating to see a toy that I have never seen before, like this one.”

VINELAND, N.J. – The Bertoia family has taken great pleasure in welcoming a global community of bidders to its ongoing series of sales featuring the Donald Kaufman collection, and they’ve kept that international approach in mind while planning their 2,100-lot Holiday Toy Trimmings sale, scheduled for Nov. 13-15, 2009. Internet live bidding will be available from anywhere in the world through www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

“We have equally strong selections of American and European toys to offer bidders, as well as some Japanese rarities,” said Bertoia Auctions associate Rich Bertoia. “While we keep the standard high for things we accept from consignors, not everything in the sale is necessarily a high-dollar item. We like to go after things that are interesting, and this sale is loaded with interesting things.”

 PITTSBURGH - Ray Haradin's Old Toy Soldier Auctions will present a 640-lot selection of antique and vintage figures in an absentee, phone and Internet auction closing Nov. 21. The spotlight will focus on two important collections known to toy soldier enthusiasts worldwide: the late Dr. James "Doc" Wengert's collection of figures, vehicles and other scale-model toys related to military medicine; and the 30-year Britains collection of Deutschebank managing director Vincent C. Banker.

A third-generation physician, Doc Wengert was a U.S. Navy flight surgeon who served in Vietnam. Later in his career, Wengert changed his specialty to psychiatry and worked at V.A. hospitals in his native Nebraska. Throughout his life he harbored an interest in military medical figures - doctors, nurses, orderlies, stretcher bearers, wounded soldiers - and all the accoutrements a collector might desire in setting up a miniature M.A.S.H. unit, like operating tents, field kitchens, rescue dogs and emergency vehicles.

Doc Wengert was well respected among his fellow collectors. "He had a deep knowledge of the history of military medicine, and he never missed attending the Chicago Toy Soldier Show," said the event's co-promoter Steve Sommers. "He could spot a Red Cross on a made-in-Japan tin bus across a crowded flea market. No paint variation or casting difference in a figure was too subtle for Doc's eye."

PITTSFIELD, Mass. (ACNI) – The online antiques newspaper Auction Central News is reporting that Donald Kaufman, co-founder of KB Toys and one of the world’s great collectors of antique toys, has passed away.

According to the report, Mr. Kaufman, who turned 79 last Thursday, died of a heart attack at his Massachusetts home on Monday, Oct. 12, 2009.

Last year Mr. Kaufman made the decision to sell his 60-year collection of primarily antique automotive and comic character toys at auction. The Vineland, N.J., company Bertoia Auctions produced the first in a series of auction sessions to disperse the approximately 10,000-piece collection over the weekend of March 19-21, 2009. The Kaufmans attended the auction, preview and auxiliary events, and Mr. Kaufman delivered a brief address to the audience prior to the auction sessions, expressing his wish that everyone in attendance could “go home with the toy [they] wanted.”

CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Fall ’09 Online Vintage Toy & Collectible Auction is being touted as among the most impressive and diverse online auctions of its kind in years and a spectacular opportunity for collectors to bid on an expansive range of classic toys and memorabilia with no reserve prices.

Registration and bidding for the Fall ’09 Online Vintage Toy & Collectible Auction from Serious Toyz is already under way. The sale offers collectors an unparalleled selection of superior vintage toys and collectibles. The auction ends Friday, Oct. 9, at 10 p.m. Eastern for Part One (Character and Classic Toys, 504 lots), and Saturday, Oct. 10, at 10 p.m. Eastern for Part Two (Toy Vehicles, 576 lots). LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding. The online auction is also found at www.serioustoyz.com.