Since that time I have added a few more examples to my collection which I would like to share with our readers.  I am still somewhat picky about what enters my collection, and I also remain somewhat cheap as well.  These three examples ranged in price from $25.00 to $40.00 and I think are among the best ones I have found.

I particularly like the one with the shoe painted on the side complete with “shine” lines on the toe included to exemplify the quality of their work.  Who wouldn’t want shoes with shine lines emanating from them?

I also like the one that wants to almost shame you into getting a shine.  I think the phrase, “Your Shoes are Showing” is a take-off on, “Your Slip is Showing,” something husbands would have to tell their wives before leaving the house in the morning in the 1930’s, 40’s or 50’s.  “Hav Ya Shind Em,” however, is the icing on the cake with this one. The bad spelling only adds to its charm.   I purchased this in Florida from a dealer who told me that this box had recently come out of the ghetto of Flint, Michigan.  I have no reason to doubt him.

The last one is painted silver to give it a classy look to go with the classy shine you would have gotten.  This is the box of an upscale establishment.  Either that or they were just using up a can of radiator paint.

I still feel that shoe shine boxes are great Americana and remain underpriced.  They are great folk art for the budget minded.

After each purchase, I still get the same question:  “Are you starting a new business?”

For more examples of shoe shine boxes, please see my first article right here on The Collector Gene.

The post Shoe Shine Boxes – Part II – More Shine Is Just Fine appeared first on The Collector Gene.

“Antique” is a word that is frequently abused, especially in the past twenty or thirty years. It is often paired with the word “collectibles” and its true meaning frequently overlooked. For something to be truly “antique”, it is supposed to be at least one hundred years old. I would venture to guess that in many antique shops today less than five percent of the merchandise comes anywhere close to that – and that’s being generous.

Finding a true antique, especially something that is rare, unique and – best of all – affordable is, therefore, always a thrill. A case in point is the subject of this article – our miniature slant top desk. Measuring just twelve inches wide by twelve inches tall and about six and one half inches deep, this little guy was entirely hand made by someone with a copious amount of patience and skill. The hours spent making it would have been considerable.

Carol and I found our little treasure in a Pennsylvania antique shop about two and a half years ago. The shop was housed in an old mill filled with very little else but genuine good quality antique furniture. I found the little desk upstairs lying on top of a table. It was in overall good condition but was missing a couple of feet and one of the brass drawer knobs. The dealer, who obviously knew a thing or two about furniture, estimated the little desk to be circa 1860 to 1880. No argument there; I thought about 1870. Carol quickly informed me that this was going to be my birthday present in a couple of months, so it soon disappeared from sight. A great present to be sure but not exactly a surprise.

Amy was able to make two new feet for it using wood from an old picture frame, and it was finished by the time my birthday rolled around. After searching for about a year and a half, I eventually found a replacement brass knob at a flea market. Now our little desk is complete once again.

So why exactly was it made? There is no way of knowing for sure. Most miniature pieces of nineteenth century furniture are assumed to be either salesman’s samples or apprentice pieces made by someone learning the furniture trade. It is certainly possible that it is one or both of those. If it is indeed from that 1860 to 1880 period, I suspect it was displayed in a cabinet maker’s shop in a large city such as New York or Philadelphia and used to show all the latest features available to the prospective customer. All the drawers and doors work and there is some indication of the maker on the bottom of the lower drawers – unfortunately not enough to determine exactly who it is.

Our little desk created quite a sensation when we showed it to some fellow antique collectors recently. It’s not the sort of thing you see very often or ever have the chance to purchase. We’re just glad we were in the right place at the right time.

Shortly after this piece was made, factory-produced furniture at affordable prices would become available to the average American, and local furniture makers would die out. I think this little piece represents the end of their era.

Whatever its origins, it embodies the skill and craftsmanship of a bygone time, and it’s awfully cute, too!

The post Miniature Slant Front Desk – Salesman Sample or Something Else? appeared first on The Collector Gene.

As an artist it is always my goal to own original art work from people I admire.  Of course, original art tends to get very expensive.  The two pieces I am showcasing today were relatively inexpensive, probably because they are unsigned, but their provenance is what I liked most.  They are a fascinating snippet of Disney history that a lot of people don’t know about, and kind of go against the family friendly, squeaky clean, Disney image.  This post is a little bit NSFW (Not Safe For Work since we don’t tend to post this kind of stuff on The Collector Gene).  You have been warned.  Don’t blame me if your boss catches you reading this nerdy article (Bet you never thought you would read Disney and NSFW in the same sentence!).

Disney animators worked long hours every day tirelessly animating those classic films of your childhood.  Sometimes those guys needed a break, and what did they do?  They drew pictures for fun.  It’s what working artists do.  They create art for someone else all day, and then in their time off they create art for themselves.  The Disney animators were known to draw caricatures of each other fairly regularly.  They would slip them under each other’s office doors to egg each other on, or comment on the events of a day.  These caricatures are highly sought after by Disney collectors, especially if they come from Disney’s Nine Old Men, his top group of animators from the 30’s- the 60’s.

I do not own one of these caricatures (though I happily would), but what I own is another fun tradition from the studios in the 40’s and 50’s.  Pinup drawings.  We all know the classic pinup girl paintings from the 40’s and 50’s.  Varga girls and Bette Page are well known today.  Well, the young men working at Disney Studios were just as fascinated by these paintings as any other red blooded heterosexual male of the time, but when they just drew them it happened to be with a Disney twist.

This one ain’t too naughty.  Well, on today’s standards it ain’t so bad.

Here’s the NSFW picture.  Again, not too bad on today’s standards but pretty racy for the time.

Okay okay.  Insert cartoon wolf howling and stomping his foot on the floor with his tongue hanging out.  Firstly, you might notice the holes in the edge of the paper.  These lovely ladies were drawn on perforated animation paper.  That’s the paper the guys at Disney had laying around.  These are beautiful quick sketches by a Disney artist who was happy enough with his work to add a little water color as well which makes them that much more beautiful and dynamic.  They have a ton of energy and life to them, where you can almost see their movement as they strike their permanent pose.  Clearly this artist was well versed in pinup imagery.

Unfortunately my Disney pinups are unsigned.  There is reference in the book “Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life” by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston (two of Disney’s Nine Old Men) that references artist Fred Moore drawing pinups in studio, but looking at his work I don’t think these are his.

I have seen a signed Ollie Johnston pinup on eBay once before, so we know more than one artist was drawing these pictures.  In fact the eyes on both of my drawings remind me of the eyes on the Centaurettes in Fantasia, which were animated by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, so it is possible one of them could have done these.  This is probably wishful thinking on my part, but I’ll tell myself it’s a possibility.  I can only attribute the works at this point, but it is fun to think an important animator could have worked on them.

I find these fictional portraits to be very beautiful and well executed.  Frankly, I see most pin up drawings and paintings that way.  I also love that they represent a seedier side to the Disney animator.  Yes, Disney animation is family friendly and made for “children of all ages”, but I don’t think the goal of the artists was ever to make things perfect and squeaky clean.  I think they were artists trying to create the best possible quality of work that was possible at the time they were working.  The family friendly nature of things was more for marketing to make the money to create such elaborate and beautiful animation.  I think just like most young men of their day, they enjoyed thinking about naked women as much as the next guy.  Remember, Playboy didn’t come out until the 50’s, and these drawing seem to predate dirty magazines.  What’s an artistic lad to do but to draw naked women for himself?  It was a simpler time.  No one associates Disney with gratuitous sex, which makes these pieces of Disney history all the more interesting to me.  They are proof that these guys were human and had normal human flaws and needs just like you and me.  I guess when you stare at pictures of cutesy animals all day, you gotta do something to bring yourself back to reality.

The post Disney Pin-ups. appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Earlier this year, we posted pictures of this fantastic miniature house that Jim found at a local flea market.  Here it is all dressed up in its Christmas finery.  We considered it a fabulous find when Jim first brought it home, and as 2012 winds down, we’ve decided that it’s our favorite find of the year.

The post Happy Holidays from Collectorgene! appeared first on The Collector Gene.

One of the most popular Krampus collectibles is Krampus postcards.  Krampus became a very popular subject for holiday postcards in the mid-19^th century as postcards became a huge craze in Europe.  Even though Krampus’ job was mostly to punish and scare children, many postcards of Krampus exist that show him reacting more to the sins of adults.  The only card I have obtained (because Krampus postcards can get mighty expensive) is this one from about the 1960’s.  It is a great card with a sort of child Krampus sitting on a pretty girl’s lap.  Clearly, this Krampus is being seen as a more humorous figure than a scary one, and this card was made for adults to send to one another.  Another thing to note about Krampus is that, because he is an Austrian figure, almost everything you find with Krampus on it is in Austrian or German.  “Grub vom Krampus”  translates to “Greetings from Krampus”, and is found on almost every Krampus postcard you find.

This next Krampus piece I have is a paper cutout of the Christmas devil himself.  He is seen here with red skin, but the switches in his hand, the shackles, and the tongue let you know that this is Krampus, not an ordinary devil.  Paper cutouts were used for a variety of purposes in decorating, and there are several designs out there that are being reproduced today.  This piece is one of the more common Krampus pieces that I see, so it is a little bit more affordable for a new Krampus collector.  I found mine in a local shop, but they show up on eBay fairly regularly.

Little fuzzy animals made in Austria similar to this fellow were very popular in the 1960’s, so it isn’t too surprising that they produced a Krampus.  Again, this is a red Krampus, but you still know it is him because he has a little orange tongue sticking out, and switches in his right hand.  This might be the cutest Krampus ever made.  There is nothing imposing about this little guy at all.  He stands about 4 inches tall, which is fairly large for the little creatures made by the ARA company.  Clearly Krampus took on more of a comical role in the 20^th century, which is why some of these cuter and less ominous Krampus items can exist.

My mom found a few of these Krampus ornaments at a flea market.  The dealer she got them from said he bought them in the Czech Republic.  They are really cool, but pose a bit of a mystery.  This ornament is made in the Dresden style, but looks awfully clean and new for a vintage ornament.  I have always heard talk about people finding warehouses with vintage holiday stock and toys in them in Germany and Eastern Europe, but there are also a lot of reproduction holiday pieces that look a lot like the original pieces floating around on the market.  This can make you wonder if the “warehouse” stories are true, or if they are made to fool people into spending more money on reproductions.  Could this Krampus be a great, vintage piece?  Maybe.  Could he be a new piece done to look old?  Maybe.  The bottom line is, he is really cool looking, and I haven’t seen any others on the market to compare him to.   It is probably best to error on the side of caution and say that there is a good chance that he isn’t too old, but he looks great and we love putting him on the tree.  And if he is old warehouse stock, that is a bonus.   There is a whole discussion that could be created right now on vintage a reproduction Christmas decorations coming out of Europe right now, but right now I want to divert into a conversation about some of Santa’s other ominous sidekicks from Europe.

Before learning about Krampus I was in introduced to Knecht Ruprecht, a similar character from Germany, by one of my high school friend’s mom who happened to be a German teacher.  Knecht Ruprecht is a very similar character to Krampus in that he punishes bad children, but he has a beard and looks more like a creepy and mean Santa.  Another similar character is Belsnickle, who is also associated with Germany and the Pennsylvania Dutch.  I think this ornament most likely represents one of those two fellows. He is just another one of St. Nick’s friends doing all of the dirty work, while Santa rewards the good kids.  There are many other mean Christmas characters besides Krampus, but I think Krampus fascinates the public so much because he is so scary and disturbing.  I mean, I wouldn’t want a scary old man hitting me with switches, but I would take that over a devil licking my face and hitting me with switches.  This nice early Knecht Ruprecht/ Belsnickel ornament is a perfect segue into our favorite Krampus piece, a fairly early unassuming box with a fantastic surprise.

This little paper lithographed box holds a secret, and since you already know that we are talking about Krampus, I am sure you figured out that there is a Krampus in that box…

I am a little bit embarrassed to say that we did not know that this piece was most likely a Krampus when we bought it.  The dealer selling it made no mention of Krampus on his price tag, and we just took it for a really neat gag gift with a devil.  After several years of owning this piece, we learned about Krampus and started putting two and two together.  This devil head has black skin and a pronounced tongue, his box has Christmas colors on it, the sentiment of “Think of me” could mean that children should be thinking about Krampus to help remind them to behave at the holidays.  It really makes sense for this piece to represent Krampus.  The one thing that throws me off more than anything is that the box is in English.  Krampus didn’t infiltrate the pop culture of Americans much at all until probably within the last decade.  In Europe his reign of terror was seen only really in Austria, some of Germany, and a little bit of Eastern Europe, but not English speaking countries.  This piece isn’t marked, but is probably German, and the Germans imported a lot of decorations and toys to America.  I propose that this toy might have been produced as a Krampus piece in Europe, but that they sent it to America to represent more of a novelty.  It does work as such.  You don’t have to know who Krampus is to see the humor in handing a person a box with a sentimental message on it, and then laughing at their shock when a devil pops out.  Anyway, that is my thought on the matter.  It is a great Krampus piece, and by far the favorite in our collection.

I am all about festive cheer at the holidays, but I can’t help but be fascinated by Krampus.  Clearly I am, because I made a Krampus knee hugger this year…

…which is sold out on Etsy.com at the moment, but more will be available soon.  There is always something interesting about learning about strange traditions and characters, and that is why Krampus has become a part of our holiday decor.  He is just a scary little reminder to be extra nice at the holidays.

The post When Your Holidays Need a Little Less Cheer and a Little More Fear, Bring in the Krampus. appeared first on The Collector Gene.

In recent years, 1950’s-60’s Christmas pixies have had a huge resurgence thanks to a little book called “Elf on a Shelf”.  That’s right, for all of you hiding a red and white elf all over your house for your kids that don’t already know this, the design of that elf is based directly on the cute little Christmas knee hugger pixies of the 1950’s and 1960’s.  I have been collecting pixies since I was a kid, so I will admit that it can be frustrating at times when people see my collections and say “Oh, like Elf on a Shelf, right?”  No, not like Elf on a Shelf, because the vintage pixies I have been collecting predate “Elf on a Shelf” by forty to fifty years.  At the same time, it is nice to know that a new generation of kids will be growing up with an appreciation for kitschy Christmas elves just like I did.

My first Christmas pixie was given to me when I think I was about four or five (I can’t remember exactly when).  My father has two antique cars, and belonged to a local antique car club.  Every year the club would have a Christmas party and my whole family would attend.  Usually it was just an excuse for Ben and I to each get one Christmas present early, as every year there was a Pollyanna and my mom would put a gift for each of us in the pile of presents to make a party with no other children but us a little more bearable (my dad was among the younger members of the club, so he was the only one bringing young kids to the party).  One year the women of the club said that they were going to throw out the Christmas tree that they had been using for years and replace it with a new one, so any ornaments anyone wanted were up for grabs.  On the tree was one small pixie elf that my mom took for me, and that is what started my collection of 1950’s and 1960’s pixies.

This is Elfie.  Yes, I know, what a clever name for an elf, right?  I never was terribly clever when it came to naming my toys as a kid.  Elfie is what is known as a “knee hugger” pixie.  If you look at the picture you can probably figure out why, but if you can’t it is because his arms loop around his knees like he is hugging them.  To me a pixie is a toy or decoration with one of those sappy and cute little elf heads, and not all vintage pixies are knee huggers.  They come in all shapes and sizes, and I have found them with all sorts of different bodies and designs.  Some pixie collectors only go for the knee huggers, but I enjoy all 1950’s and 1960’s pixies in my collection.  Knee huggers and pixies also exist for other occasions besides Christmas, but we will get into that a little bit later.

This is Elfie’s cousin.  I never gave him a name beyond that, but he was the second pixie I got.  He is not a knee hugger.  He just has wires in his legs that make him poseable.  Most of the non-knee hugger pixies I have come across have wire bodies like this one, but some of them have plastic bodies, and others have no poseability at all.  For many years these were the only two pixies I had.  I wanted to give them a little bit of prominence in my Christmas display as a kid, so I took a small log cabin doll house I had and turned it into “Elfie’s House”.  I took miniatures and doll house furniture and tiny Christmas decorations and decorated it, and that is how Elfie is displayed each year.  Now there are a plethora of other pixies surrounding the house since I started collecting them more, but the only two elves inside are Elfie and his cousin.  It is a tradition.  Every time I bring it out it reminds me of being a kid and creating it in the first place.  That is my pixie tradition at Christmas, and now that that story is out of the way I want to talk about all of the other cool and interesting pixies I have come across over the past 20 years.

I put this group together to show the various shapes and sizes that pixies can come in.  Only the drum major pixie pictured is a knee hugger, and the rest are pixies with mostly wire bodies.  They range in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and there is even a cute little snowman pixie in the picture that I found at a flea market.  All of these qualify as pixies in my book, and all of them are equally kitschy!

Here are some weirder pixies.  Even though most pixies were made to hang on a tree, several of these are approached as more traditional ornaments than most.  They are lacking the plush doll bodies, and are lacking poseability.  There is also a pencil with a pixie head on top and pixie head on a wire that was most likely used for some other decorating purpose, though I am not sure exactly what.

Pixies come in all shapes and sizes including GIANT PIXIES!  I threw in a few more traditionally sized knee huggers for comparison, so these guys are pretty big.  They range from 14” – 18” in height.  The large pixies are tougher to come by, and when I see them they are usually not knee huggers, even though we have found one giant knee hugger (the guy on the right).  I think that these guys were more likely given to children as dolls rather than used as traditional decorations in their day.

In this grouping I have decided to show a few more unusual pixies.  The one with the closed eyes in the middle doesn’t have a terribly elf looking face, and reminds me more of Elmer Fudd.  He is not a design I come across too often.  With the little blonde guy next to him, the dealer I bought it from thought it was one of the Rice Krispies mascots, Snap, Crackle, and Pop.  I don’t think so, but it is a bit more unusual a face and I see where he was coming from.  The little red and white guy is an example of a pixie with a plastic doll body.  He is one of the smallest in my collection standing about 2” tall.

Obviously Christmas is the time of year for most pixies, but they do sneak into other uses throughout the year.  Why create new head sculpts for your holiday decoration company when you can reuse the same thing over and over again?  Pixies and knee huggers exist for almost every holiday, and were used for other souvenir doll purposes as well.  Some of these next guys are pretty strange.

None of the non-Christmas pixies are easy to find, but I have come across the Hillbilly knee huggers a few times in the wild.  I love the guy in the middle with the little plastic feet!  I am assuming that these were sold as souvenirs somewhere because I am not sure why else they would exist.

“Mexican Elfie” is one of my favorites.  Why you would put a poncho and sombrero on a pixie is beyond me, unless you are purposely trying to be ironic.  The other little guy is a sailor.  Again, I assume these were sold as souvenirs somewhere because I have no other explanation as to why they exist.  I can just picture Mexican pixies lining the shelves at South of the Border…

I mentioned earlier that they made pixies for almost every holiday.  Well, here are some that I have come across.  The Easter Bunny is a more unusual form, and the Halloween knee huggers like this witch are very popular.  Most of the other holiday knee huggers I find don’t have pixie heads, so the pilgrims are kind of interesting in that regard.  Collectors really go for the non-Christmas holiday pixies and knee huggers, and they are not easy to come by at all.

One great thing about pixies gaining popularity again thanks to “Elf on a Shelf” is that sometimes you get cool new ideas for pixies.  My mom and dad found this alien knee hugger on their cross country trip.  As far as I know, they didn’t make a vintage alien, so this is a really cool new idea.  Of course I prefer the vintage pixies for my own collection, but sometimes the new stuff can be really interesting as well.

Speaking of new pixies that are super cool (get ready for some very shameless self-promotion right now) I have produced my own Krampus pixie!  You know Krampus.  He’s the Austrian Christmas devil that punishes bad children while Santa rewards the good ones.  This little guy is made right in my studio in the heart of the Collector Gene archive (our house).  I do everything myself.  I sell them on Etsy.com and eBay, in case anyone out there is interested.  Now that I am done shamelessly plugging my business (which is called Plastictastic, by the way and you can like it on Facebook) I can get back to talking about Christmas pixies.

One of the best parts about collecting pixies is that, in general, they are pretty inexpensive.  They were popular in their day, and a lot of them show up at flea markets and yard sales.  Of course, the non-Christmas knee huggers and pixies are a bit tougher to come by and that adds some expense and challenge to collecting pixies, but I think it just makes it more fun.  Whether you buy them to hide around your house for the kids for a month, or buy them for the love of kitsch, it really doesn’t matter.  To me, they will always remind me of Christmas because of my silly little tradition, and it is nice to see other kids creating Christmas traditions with knee huggers and pixies today.

The post For the Love of Christmas Pixies! appeared first on The Collector Gene.

I really liked the Nashville store.  First of all, it’s in a great old brick factory building, the Marathon Motor Works.

We were heading into Nashville on I-40 from west to east, and our GPS took us through the city, past Fisk University, for quite a few blocks.  Getting back on I-40 was very easy.  The whole Marathon Motors complex looks like something being re-purposed into a trendy shopping area.  Next to the Pickers’ store, for instance, is a candy store.

Unlike the Iowa store, which had an intimate feel to it, the Nashville store is quite a bit larger.  I’d say it has close to three times the square footage.  If nothing else, it has very high ceilings.  Whoever arranged the stock did a great job.  It was almost like walking around through a really cool museum of wacky retro stuff.  (And, since the prices were astronomically high, just like in the Iowa store, we knew we couldn’t afford anything, so it WAS like visiting a museum.)  This is the view when you first walk into the store.

One of the recognizable things was the huge Piggly Wiggly head.

There was a fabulous canvas circus sideshow sign up on the ceiling.  Who wouldn’t pay money to see a pig with an elephant’s trunk?

There were great advertising pieces, funky one-of-a-kind things like the giant bib overalls or the 1940’s slacks with the first names of Big Band music greats (Benny, Bing, Frankie, Dina, etc.), rusty bicycles and motor parts, and manikin heads sporting hats, helmets, and goggles.

As we did in the Iowa store, we searched for something small and affordable.  It was tough.  They had a lot of 1990’s music trade magazines that were supposedly picked from Mickey Gilley.  Priced at $5, they fit the bill.  We also found a wire basket with a handful of paper items in it for $5 each.  There was an ad for the Chile pavilion at the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo.  (That’s the same exposition where William McKinley was shot by an assassin.)  Five dollars didn’t seem too outrageous at all.  Those were our “old” finds.

As with the Iowa store, there were plenty of t-shirts, hats, magnets, shot glasses, metal signs, paper fans, playing cards, etc., etc. for sale.  (I particularly liked the baby onesie that said, “Future Picker” on it.)   I’m sure sales of those items are the main source of revenue for the store.  There definitely were a lot of shoppers – or at least “lookers” – at this shop.  There were two counters for sales, one to the front left side of the store and one in the back, staffed by pleasant young people who looked like they could be college students.  Based on what the young man who waited on me said, it sounds like Mike shows up about once a month at the store.

We’re glad we’ve seen both of the American Pickers’ shops.  If you’re a fan of the show and ever get to LeClaire, Iowa or Nashville, Tennessee, do stop in.  Then, when you watch the shows, you’ll have a reference point when they show interior/exterior shots.  Believe me, things never look the same in person as what you imagined.

The post Last Travel-Log from the Road – 10/4/12: Antique Archeology-Nashville Submitted by Carol appeared first on The Collector Gene.

The devil is in the details as they say and the closer I looked at the details of this piece, the more excited I was starting to become.  I asked the dealer the price and was pleased to hear that it was only $20.  I also asked the dealer if he had any idea where it came from and all he could tell me is that it came out of a house sale in North Jersey – not much help there.

What I noticed that I thought was unusual, among other things, was that it was in an asymmetrical frame.  Now if you think about it – making an asymmetrical frame is not the easiest thing to do. Whoever did it would have to be a pretty good carpenter.  I also noticed that the background was painted using an airbrush along with hand painted details.  That’s not the easiest thing to do and certainly not typical of a mass produced decoration.  The most obvious part, of course, is Donald Duck himself and his furry friends, who are getting Donald all tangled up.  This was all hand done and carefully cut out perfectly in every detail.  It is also beautifully painted by what I suspect was animation paint.  Donald is mounted about a half inch in front of the background giving the piece a three dimensional effect.  Also, every Disney piece I have ever seen is marked with a copyright – and this is not.

Here is a close up of some of the figures.  Notice the incredible jigsaw work around the dog leash and small detailed areas.  Also, notice the airbrushed background.  The paint on the figures has extremely fine detail, and the paint job has next to no brush strokes.

The back of the piece has no markings to speak of, which is very unusual for a Disney piece.

There is sloppy paint and ink on the back of the piece, which suggests that this piece was never meant to be sold to the public and that this piece was in no way mass produced.  It truly is a mystery piece.

So what have I found?  Well I still don’t know exactly.  What I think I have found was something created in house at Walt Disney Studios to be used as a wall decoration possibly at the Walt Disney Studios or somewhere else with strong Disney connections.  It could have simply hung on the wall in an office or hallway or possibly been some sort of decoration at Disneyland.  The artwork also reminds me of cover art on the Donald Duck comics of the era.  Some connection there perhaps – who knows?

Whatever it is, it is one of the coolest Disney pieces I have ever found.

I would be thrilled to hear from our readers if they have any ideas about this Disney mystery.

The post 1950’s Donald Duck Wall Decoration – A Ducky Disney Whodunnit appeared first on The Collector Gene.

This little house is not a doll house,  The roof is removable, but the inside is completely hollow.  There is a small hole in the center of the floor on the inside that might have been for rigging lighting for the house,  This piece could have been an architectural model, a student model, or maybe even a very elaborate train platform model.  Whatever it was made for, it is simply adorable, and we all just love it.

The post Pick of the Week: Miniature House appeared first on The Collector Gene.