YORK – Toys, toys, toys are the featured items for the month of December in the Elmer Baker Memorial Showcase at Kilgore Memorial Library in York.
However, these aren’t just any toys.
They’re antiques ranging in age from 70 years old to 116 years old.
Some of the toys were his or his sister’s when they were younger, collector Bob Sautter said.
Others people have given him or he’s picked up at various auctions or antique stores along the way.
“I like old stuff like this,” Sautter said. “There’s some pretty cool stuff out there.”
He has everything from old marbles of different shapes, sizes, materials and colors to a little piano that’s still in tune. He has lots of little, handheld games with BBs that you have to try to get in different spaces or holes.
“I never look for anything special when I go in a shop,” he said. “If I see something I like and I can get it at a good price, then I do.”
In the case there’s a child’s set of miniature wooden and metal gold clubs; a set of old children’s’ books like “The Lone Ranger,” “Popeye” and “Dick Tracy;” a wooden train set and a rubber band game.
The oldest toy in the case is a spelling board from 1886. It’s made of wood and has a circular track that you can move wooden letters around on to spell different words.
Sautter has never had most of his toys appraised. A little while back, he did take several marbles from his collection and waited in line for more than three
hours at one of the tour stops of the TV show “Antiques Roadshow.”
He said that the guy in charge told him that the marbles he brought, sulfide ones with figures inside them, were neat but that the market for them was soft right now. He did say though that he hadn’t seen any like them in awhile.
Although he has a houseful of old toys, Sautter doesn’t have just one favorite.
He likes the snap ball game where you put a marble or wooden ball on one end and then hit the other end and try to land the ball in one of five metal
baskets.
The little wooden wagon full of neatly stacked wooden blocks is also one of his favorites. It came from an auction in York year ago, he said.
"There’s just something about old metal and wooden toys that’s pretty cool,” Sautter said.
Source: www.yorknewstimes.com