1977 Louis Marx & Co., Phillips Auction Catalog of Factory Toys
A series of auctions were held in 1977 to disperse toys from the collection of Louis Marx & Co. following the companys sell-off and eventual demise. The auctions were conducted by Sotheby's Parke-Bernet and are well documented. Maxine Pinsky in her three volume reference "Greenberg's Guide to Marx Toys" frequently footnotes the Sotheby's auctions. However, the final dispersement of toys was held by another auction company, Phillips in New York City. Ms. Pinsky makes no reference to this auction. In fact I was unaware that a second auction house was used until I found this original catalog. Over the years I've found six of the original yellow Sotheby's catalogs. In contrast this is only the second Phillips auction catalog I've seen. It's been my personal copy for nearly 15 years. I recently found an upgraded copy so I'm auctioning this one off. The sale consisted of 400 lots. The majority were Marx toys, but several competitors products were also included. The catalog is 36 pages printed in black and white on glossy paper. The jacket was printed on heavy stock glossy paper and featured a black and white photograph of Charlie McCarthy's Benzine Buggy on the cover. The company name, address, and notice of a 10% buyer's premium were printed on the back cover. Out of the 400 lots, 16 were photographed. This was an actual "working" copy with the gallery location hand written on the cover. Notations were made using blue ink on every page. Amazingly this included the selling (hammer) price of every single lot right up to lot 400! This alone makes it an invaluable reference aid. Size: 6" x 9". Sold: Aug: 2008
Price Sold: $ 278
