Vintage Toy Motorcycle Collection Sold for $15,000

The toy motorcycles from a collection that belonged to magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes have sold for $15,000 in a recent New York auction. The entire collection, auctioned by Sotheby’s, and which included aircraft, boats, cars and lorries, sold for a total of $2.3 million.

The highest prized item in the event was a 3ft-long replica of the 1915 ocean liner Lusitania, which sold for $194,500.

The collection of motorcycle toys from the 20th century included an unusual French clockwork aluminum cycle with Bakelite sidecar stamped “Auto-Cycle Paris”, a nickel-plated cycle with rubber tires and a brown sidecar, a Wyandotte Humphrey Mobile, and a Wyandotte Easter Bunny cycle with sidecar.

The collection also contained a large selection of Japanese post-war toys by Alps, Bandai, Linemar, San, Matsudaya, Nomura and Yone. A boxed Ice Cream Vendor by Nomura, a friction-powered Harley and Venus cycles, Linemar Mickey and Pluto cycles, battery-operated Highway Patrol and expert Motorcyclist by Matsudaya, as well as some later post-war toys were also featured.

There was also an oversized display case containing ten panels of over 170 toys including flats, litographed tinplate, die-cast, slush molds, and cast-iron cycle toys motoring up and down stylized rolling hills with five houses and a painted backdrop of blue skies with white clouds and a single hot air balloon.

The toys in this display span the time from the 1920s to the 1980s, with lengths ranging from 1 to 12 inches. Well-known toy manufacturers from Germany, US and Japan are represented, including Marx, Hubley, and Nomura.

Forbes, who passed away in 1990, also collected of Faberge eggs and motorcycles. It was his father who founded Forbes magazine, which is now run by Malcolm’s son Steve.