Antiques Roadshow

GUEST

This is a piece that we've had on our bookshelf for about 30 years. And it came from my mother's side of the family and that's about all that I know about it.

APPRAISER

All right, well, what you have is a "Boy On Trapeze" mechanical bank, which was advertised as "French's automatic toy bank". And the reason they called it a toy bank was because the action of the bank, as you put a coin into the slot, the boy will revolve and deposit the coin and go around. As the coin became heavier and it was heavier weight, it counterbalanced, so he spun around a couple of times.

GUEST

Oh, okay.

APPRAISER

So the concept was that the boy got to see more action for his money.

GUEST

Okay.

APPRAISER

The actual patent model, which was made out of bronze, worked. The problem is that that one was calibrated so that would happen. When they made them in cast iron, they took away the finesse of the spinning. They still deposit coins, but they don't do as much action. The bank is cast with beautiful filigree and nouveau heads-- Art Nouveau heads-- made out of cast iron. And this one is the best condition we've ever seen. Basically, the bank was established, uh, by Barton Smith for production around 1891. It was produced for about eight to ten years. And as far as we know, after that they went out of business. So it was a limited-production bank. It was very fragile. If the child dropped the bank, it would break those shafts. So consequently, there's not that many that exist today. Paint condition in mechanical banks is everything, as far as value. The last "Boy on Trapeze" bank sold for $8,500.

GUEST

Oh, my God!

APPRAISER

The difference is that this is a lot better. Uh, this one, on the open market today, fair market value would be $10,000 to $12,000.

GUEST

Really?

APPRAISER

Yeah.