Antiques & Collecting: Promotional toys

Promotional toys have been a popular form of advertising for a long time. The doll pictured here is Bandy, an advertising mascot created for General Electric in the 1920s.

Bandy promoted their radios; his name comes from the “big band” jazz music that was popular at the time, even if his colorful uniform and tall hat might be a better fit for leading a marching band. This example, complete with his baton, sold for $504 at Donley Auctions.

Bandy dolls were 18 inches tall, made of wood and composition with jointed limbs and appeared in shop window displays with General Electric radios. They were made by the Cameo Doll Company, known for familiar figures like Kewpies and Betty Boop dolls.

Designer Joseph Kallus created many of their dolls. His designs for Bandy and his fellow radio advertising mascot, RCA’s Radiotron, may have been based on work by illustrator Maxfield Parrish, who designed promotional posters and calendars for General Electric that are highly collectible today.

I have a picture, probably a lithograph, of a young girl done by a 14th-century artist from Italy. There is an inscription on the back of the picture: “Florentine Master / A Young Lady / About 1460 / Museum Berlin.” The picture was passed down to me from my English-American grandmother who traveled widely after having her seven children. She traveled alone throughout Europe and South America during the 1930s. I would love to know the picture’s value, other than aesthetic.

Your picture is a copy of a famous portrait from the Italian Renaissance. Sometimes called “Profile Portrait of a Young Lady,” it has been copied by many other artists, printed on decorative pieces like ceramic plates and reproduced as a color or black-and-white print.

It appears in the reference book “The Picture History of Painting” by H.W. Janson and Dora Jane Janson, first published in 1957. The original painting was acquired by the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin in about 1898 and is still displayed there.

The museum attributes it to Piero del Pollaiuolo, who was active in Florence, Italy, in the 1400s, but some historians believe it was painted by another artist, possibly Piero’s brother Antonio. Your grandmother may have purchased her copy as a souvenir during her travels in Europe.

The Gemäldegalerie licensed copies painted in oil on plywood in the early to mid-20th century. One sold at a European auction a few years ago for the equivalent of about $750 in U.S. currency. Vintage prints sell for less, about $100 to $200.

Tip: Repainting an antique doll’s head never adds to the value.

Current Prices

Shaving mug, occupational, woodworker, in shop, multicolor scene, gilt lettering, marked, T& V Limoges, 3 1/2 inches, $60.

Lamp, electric, banker’s, green shade, cased glass, metal base, fluted column, ridged dome foot, scalloped edge, c. 1920, 7 1/2 x 11 inches, $175.

Railroad, poster, London & Northeastern Railway, family on beach, “An East Coast Tonic,” canvas mount, frame, England, 43 x 53 inches, $1,720.