It doesn’t pay to knock these pricey ninepins

Give a boy a ball; he’ll throw it. Set up a frame of skittles; he’ll delight in rolling a flopper, which is the same as a strike in skittles parlance.

Skittles, a form of the bowling game ninepins, has been played in Europe since the 3rd or 4th century, but for children the game blossomed fully—and all too briefly—in the workshops of German and French toymakers in the late 1800s.

The colorful figural skittles, which served as bowling pins, sometimes came equipped with a matching figural holder. Mounted on small wheels, the receptacle doubled as a pull toy. These are the sets collectors crave.

Rolling a small, hard ball at the molded papier-mâché skittles set up in a diamond arrangement would send them flying, spinning and crashing against floors, woodwork and furniture. Little wonder these relatively fragile toys became scarce.

Some forms are considered rare. One such skittles toy was a camel with nine Arab-figure skittles, which sold for $33,000 at a Noel Barrett auction in May of 2006.

“Apparently no one had ever seen that form,” said Barrett, who also had sold a clown skittles set for big money – $25,000 – the previous October.

Whether the figural skittles sets were ever widely available on the American market is unclear. “I see them illustrated in a series of catalogs of French toy stores. I don’t recall seeing them in any catalog cuts from America,” said Barrett.

The existence of at least two American Indian-theme skittles would seem to indicate the toys were intended for the U.S. market. “There was a small group of them … two or three Indians in a collection that came out of Canada. Whether that was French influence, I don’t know,” said Barrett. “Using American Indians would certainly suggest that (they were made for the U.S. market), but then again there was a lot of interest in Europe in the American Indians and the Wild West, particularly in Germany.”

Morphy Auctions sold an excellent Indian-theme skittles set for $3,750 in their April auction. The set included all nine little Indian figures in a 23-inch-long holder depicting an Indian chief lying on his side. “This Indian has sort of a whimsical look. There’s another Indian skittle that has the more-typical Indian features with the long face and the prominent nose. I think that version is a little more desirable,” said Morphy’s appraiser John Morphy, M.D., who is Dan Morphy’s father. “I have been collecting antiques for 40 years and have probably seen a dozen sets,” said Morphy, suggesting their survivability was low. “Children literally destroyed them because they threw hard things at them.”

By virtue of their being the targets at which the ball was aimed, it is the small skittles figures that were most prone to damage. This explains why many sets are missing one or more pieces. “The major thing would be a body part like the ear on a rabbit or an arm on an Indian, something like that,” said Morphy. “They were usually broken and then thrown away or misplaced and lost.”

The skittles in Morphy Auctions’ April 4-5 sale were in remarkably fine condition, with only slight paint loss. A rare frog skittles set that lacked two of its dressed frog figures. Having minor paint scuffs and replaced wheels, the German papier-mâché set was expected to bring $2,000-$4,000, but achieved almost four times the high estimate: $18,135.

“I have seen the rabbit and the Indians, but I’d never seen the frog before. It’s pretty rare,” said Morphy.

Barrett said the skittles have attracted increased attention in the last 20 years, but have always been prized by collectors.

As an antiques collector, Morphy said that he has probably had 10 opportunities to own a set of skittles. “They weren’t cheap even back in the ’70s and ’80s. They were like $3,000 to $5,000 then,” he said.

“Even some of the collections I know that have skittles in them, very few have a complete sets of the smaller skittles. They’re missing one or two.” And finding a replacement is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Morphy added that some collectors will have a replacement skittle made to complete a set.

Collectors are more likely to find the skittles holder without the figures. One such example was a German papier-mâché peacock in Morphy’s April sale. In excellent condition, the 21-inch-high peacock was expected to sell for $2,000-4000. It ended up selling for $3,510.

Value lies in both the skittles figures and the figural holders, especially if the figures are unusual or special. A set of nine Steiff animal skittles, about 8 inches tall, had a $1,000-2,000 estimate, but soared to $18,720 at Morphy’s sale. A set of eight composition skittles depicting men of various occupations, also included in Morphy’s recent sale, was expected to bring $500-1,000 and eventually sold for $702. The set included three balls because, unlike 10-pin bowling, a skittles player gets three rolls per frame.

Morphy noted that skittles having metal wheels are usually German, while many of the French-made skittle sets are mounted on wooden wheels. “Frequently the wheels are missing because they were metal. Even if the wheels have been replaced that doesn’t hurt a great deal. I’m sure it reduces the price by a few percentage points, but nothing dramatic,” said Morphy.

In many sets, the skittles are decorated identically and reflect a single theme, such as soldiers or sailors. “It’s neater when they are all different. Like the Indians, they’re all dressed differently. The frogs are all dressed differently,” said Morphy.

The passage of time has elevated skittles from mere toys to decorative objects that find their way into fine antique shows. “Primitive Americana dealers that don’t deal in toys might have a set of these in their booth,” said Morphy. “You can have a Philadelphia highboy and put one of these (skittles) beside it and it would look cool. They have a nice, soft look to them,” said Morphy.

The Game of Skittles

German monks in the 3rd or 4th centuries played a game in which they knocked down a club called a kegel by throwing a stone at it. The kegel symbolized a sin or temptation. Today the German term for skittles is kegelen. Even in America, bowlers sometimes were called “keglers,” although the term is seldom heard today.

Skittles has been a popular target sport in Europe since medieval times. It has long been a popular pastime across England, especially in inns and pubs. The game is still popular today in England, Ireland and parts of Scotland, although the rules vary regionally.

Typically skittles are arranged in a diamond pattern consisting of 1-2-3-2-1 configuration. Unlike the children’s toys that featured figural skittles, the adult version is played with plain wooden pins, which vary in size depending on where the game is played. Skittle sizes range from 6 inches in Wales to 12 inches in Devonshire.

In Old English skittles, or London skittles, players do not roll a ball, but hurl a flat, round, loaf-shaped cheese made of lignum vitae wood directly at the skittles, without its hitting the floor first. A cheese can be as large as 12 inches in diameter and weigh eight to 12 pounds.

Western country skittles is the most popular and basic form of alley skittles. The alley is about 24 feet long.

Skittlers' terms

Beaver: when a player fails to knock down any pins in a hand, a k a duck, spider and sunshine.

Flattener: a ball that knocks down all nine pins.

Flopper: when a player knocks down all nine pins with one ball.

Frame: a full set of pins standing.

Hand: a player’s turn. The length of a game is usually eight hands of three balls.

King pin: Located at the front of the frame, the king pin is sometimes taller than the others.

Pitch: the lane on which the game is played is also called an alley, the length of which is usually about 24 feet.

Spare: when a player knocks down all nine pins with two balls, entitling him to a third throw at a full frame.

Split: any pins left standing after the first ball has been thrown.

Strike: knocking down all the pins in on the first throw.