32 28th July 2012 international events A $1.8m sale to really


■ Märklin’s Providence paddle steamer brings record $215,000 in Claus sale


Roland Arkell reports


£1 = $1.50


DOCUMENTED in the book The Allure of Toy Ships: American & European Nautical Toys from the 19th and 20th Centuries, the Richard T. Claus collection is widely acknowledged as the best toy boat collection in America and, some say, rivals the very best in Europe.


A Pennsylvanian chemical wholesaler


with an encyclopaedic knowledge of his 30-year hobby – his 2005 volume presents a complete and unbroken timeline of toy boat-making across two centuries – Dick Claus was also a stickler for condition and looked to upgrade from good to great whenever possible. As he narrowed down his collection


after publication of the book, the result was the cream of tinplate boats by premier European manufacturers. The other result was a sale which the


Vineland, New Jersey specialists Bertoia Auctions (15% buyer’s premium) will long remember, alongside the $12.1m, five-part Donald Kaufman collection, as among their very best. To benefit the bank balances of


both buyers and seller, the collection is being offered in two tranches. The first offering of 210 lots sold across two hours was on May 12 – the rest will go


The top lot of the Richard T. Claus collection sold by New Jersey toy specialists Bertoia Auctions was this Märklin paddle steamer Providence, c.1900-02 sold at $215,000 (£143,350).


under the hammer on November 10. Part I of the Richard T. Claus collection


was the second major sale of European tinplate boats in the space of as many years. Who can forget the huge Forbes collection at Sotheby’s New York in December 2010, when, among so many yachts, battleships and liners by the likes of Rock and Graner, Carette, Bing and Fleishman, a Märklin model of the Lusitania made $160,000 (£106,670)? Certainly not Dick Claus who was actively bidding at the sale. “Once a collector, always a collector,” commentated Rich Bertoia. On a smaller scale in the UK, the Ron McCrindell collection was sold by Special


Auction Services of Greenham, near Newbury in April when a c.1904 Märklin ‘first series’ battleship, HMS Terrible, went to a Belgian telephone bidder at £76,000. So was there a risk of flooding the


market? In a word, No. The Claus material was just too good


to miss and more than 100 bidders (many of them from Europe) reserved seats at Bertoia’s gallery, while scores of others waited patiently either by their phones or computers to bid online through Live Auctioneers. Already $1.8m (£1.2m) is in the bag


– a cool half a million dollars more than the pre-sale high estimate of $1.3m (£860,700). There were boats here by a full cross


Gunthermann eight-man scull with coxswain– $27,500 (£18,350).


section of European makers from the familiar to the obscure, but it is difficult to look beyond the veritable fleet from the fabled Göppingen factory, Gebruder Märklin. Combining the best of man and


machine in their production methods, Märklin boats from the first decade of the 20th century rank among the most elegant, the most colourful and the most expensive tin toys ever made. Most collectors dream of owning just one. Dick Claus had dozens. Made during the first flowering of


Märklin’s creative genius c.1902 was a 2ft 2in (65cm) riverboat titled Providence


to the side paddle and (like many of the boats in this sale) dressed with the Stars and Stripes for the American market. Alongside the Märklin paddle steamer Chicago (featured on the dust jacket of Claus’s book and for sale come the autumn) it is among the best-known toys in the collection and last on the market in 2007 when sold by Noel Barrett for $90,000. It is detail that separates Märklin from


the many other German productions of the period and here nothing was overlooked: cabin windows with painted curtains, a funnel held steady by chains, lifeboats (one a replacement) hung on davits and a captain standing on the prow deck. It was one of three majestic boats in the Part I sale to carry a six- figure estimate but in fact doubled hopes at $215,000 (£143,350) – a record for a tinplate boat at auction. The buyer was in the room and


bidding on behalf of a US collector. Of those who actually won items,


Bertoia said it was a 50-50 split between European and US buyers. The largest models in the Märklin


fleet, larger indeed than the aforementioned Lusitania model c.1912 that measured 3ft 2in (96cm), were the series of ocean-going liners measuring a massive 3ft 10in (1.17m). A battery-driven model of this size was recently offered by James D. Julia in


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