GUEST: This was a toy from my father's collection.

He was an avid toy collector for many, many years.

Following his passing in 1993, I took approximately 50 or 60 of his toys.

His collection was several hundred toys.

APPRAISER: Wow.

GUEST: And I focused predominantly on the holiday theme.

Christmas and the Disney themes.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And what happened to the rest?

GUEST: They're, uh, they went to auction.

APPRAISER: This is a classic lithograph tin toy from the 1920s and 1930s.

It was made by a company called Ferdinand Strauss.

Two major makers of tin wind-up toys of that era, '20s and '30s was Louis Marx and Ferdinand Strauss.

They were the best of the best of that era.

Marx was the much more prolific.

But Ferdinand Strauss's toys were to my mind much more inventive, much more colorful.

One of the great things about Strauss toys, his toys had some of the greatest lithography and some of the greatest artwork.

And the colors are really vibrant.

Here he is being pulled by the reindeer, and here he is putting out his toys, and it's just a fantastic piece.

The golden era of the lithograph tin toys in America were the '20s and '30s.

You see it has the patent dates of '21 and '23.

The market on these values have sort of softened up, which is a generational thing.

GUEST: Yes.

Right.

APPRAISER: You made a good choice in keeping with the holiday stuff because that market is quite strong.

In today's market, the run of the mill example of this is in the $400 to $500 range.

But this is not run of the mill-- this is an exceptional example.

It has the, even-- I've never seen this-- the original reins.

There's no question, you can see the little knot here.

I mean, it's extraordinary.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

APPRAISER: I think this example on today's market would easily sell for $800 to $1,200.

GUEST: (chuckles) APPRAISER: So you kept the right one.

GUEST: (chuckles) APPRAISER: But, let's see.

GUEST: (chuckles) APPRAISER: What's the best part of these tin wind-ups?

GUEST: For me, it's the sentimental value of my father.

APPRAISER: But I mean in general.

GUEST: In general, whether they work or not.

(laughs) APPRAISER: Yes, and that's one of the key elements of, of popularity in a toy.

GUEST: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

APPRAISER: And so we're going to have to make a, make this work.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: We're gonna give it a good wind to get it going.

So let's see what happens here.

And now he's coming back.

GUEST: (chuckles)