Thank you for sharing, Michael! I suppose you freaked out!

Cheers,
Ranjit

Recall that Malcolm Forbes ran Forbes magazine until he passes a while back. He was a famous collector of many things, perhaps most famously of Fabergé eggs. So, it is not surprising that he had some toys!--MM

Lucky you, George!

Cheers,
Ranjit

You will notice that there is no mention of Marklin train collection on Sotheby's website; that's
because this is a private sale. I was told it will be there through mid-February, but who knows?
Best to check with Sotheby's. I venture a guess that should the sale happen, realized proceeds
could have gone a long way to plug Marklin's debt...

Michael

I was just in NYC ten days ago and wish I knew then what I know now LOL. I would very much like to see at least a glimpse of this very fine collection before It's too late. I guess I should get another train ticket soon(best way to get to NYC). Thanks for the info.

I was hoping they would keep my sale under wraps... I'll have to call my agent, thanks for the alert.

This should be in a museum!

It does belong in a museum, indeed. On the one hand it is treat that such a collection is still around in pristine condition. On the other hand it is a shame that nobody ever got to see it.

I believe that it is not an Auction but a private sale. if M have about 10M USd or a bit more to spare it would be a wonderful addition to teh Museum

NN

Hi Paul,
Thankyou for pointing me in the direction of Noel Barret's description of the Kimball collection. I had literally no idea of the attention and deliberation that had been given these collections over the years. Quite a joy.

regards
Kimball

Happy New Year!

Found a mention of this in the New York Times:

“Jerry Greene, a vintage-recordings dealer in suburban Philadelphia,
has spent 45 years filling his basement with 27,000 toy trains,
railroad stations, post offices, carousels, Ferris wheels and bridges.
This winter he has crammed 3,500 representative pieces into a fourth-
floor gallery at Sotheby’s in New York.

“Two trucks, each 24-ft long brought the little known Jerni Collection
(Mr. Greene named it after himself and his wife, Nina) to Sotheby’s.
..."

Rest of the article is only accessible to registered NY Times online readers.

Michael

Hey, that's only since 1965.
Just shows you what can happen from small beginnings.
What if he had started earlier?

regards
Kimball

Full article in Bloomberg news


http://www.bloomberg.com...27-000-antique-toys.html



NYT

https://www.nytimes.com/...tiques.html?pagewanted=1


TRUCKLOADS OF TRAINS

Jerry Greene, a vintage-recordings dealer in suburban Philadelphia, has spent 45 years filling his basement with 27,000 toy trains, railroad stations, post offices, carousels, Ferris wheels and bridges. This winter he has crammed 3,500 representative pieces into a fourth-floor gallery at Sotheby’s in New York.

Two trucks, each 24 feet long, brought the little-known Jerni Collection (Mr. Greene named it after himself and his wife, Nina) to Sotheby’s. Display cases and pedestals are piled with simulated rock tunnels, spindly pedestrian walkways, glass train sheds and vintage billboards for Vitalis, Sunkist oranges and deodorant soap. Freight cars carry labels for German seafood, Jamaican bananas and French furniture. Trackside signs read “Halt!” and “All tickets to be shown.”

Mr. Greene, during a recent tour of the gallery, rattled off the names of the objects’ mainly European manufacturers and listed how many examples of the rarer models exist elsewhere and what they cost. He paid a few hundred dollars each for most of the toys at antiques fairs, stores and auctions, but occasionally spent five-figure amounts for something that “completed the collection,” he said. He is selling now because there is little left to pursue, he said, adding, “Once it goes on a shelf, it’s just history to me.”

Although toy-train enthusiasts are a tight-knit clan, Mr. Greene rarely socialized with them. He did not identify himself on buying sprees and let only a few visitors into his basement. “I would be considered a closet collector, because nobody knew,” he said.

His daughter, Melissa Greene-Anderson, who helped set up the Sotheby’s show, said, “He was called ‘the man in black who never smiles.’ ” As a child, she did not play with the trains, she said, but her father did ask her and her two siblings to wiggle into basement crevices and retrieve and arrange the toys. “I would wear a conductor’s cap” while clambering through cobwebs, Ms. Greene-Anderson said.

The collection, on view through February, is for sale as one lot for an undisclosed eight-figure price. “I can’t break it up,” Mr. Greene said. “I worked so hard.”

Collectors have kept asking if individual pieces were for sale. When the requests were rebuffed, Ms. Greene-Anderson said, “people could be volatile.”

For those that can't CBS, here's the link


CBS Morning Show Märklin

Enjoy

All, I wrapped up my work trip in NY early so I could spend this morning at Sothebys. The collection is UNBELIEVEABLE. Absolutely incredible in every way. The morning news piece was a huge PR boost, as by the time I left around 1pm Sothebys was packed with people who saw it on tv and wanted to visit.

The scary thing is that 15% of the collection takes up a whole floor of sotheby's gallery! Between the price tag and sheer volume of the collection, I think it might be a really tough sell. I just can't picture it going to a train collector, maybe a dealer with deep pockets who could break it up for sale. Or a wealthy antique baron of some sort who likes it and has no trains.

If you can get to NY make a point to go see it- worth going out of the way for!!

Thursday Daily Mirror newspaper said the value worth £30 Million for the lot.

This is truly a magnificent collection!

Also on BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12489909

Hi all,

Thanks for sharing all these links, I can only say I am completely flabbergasted seeing so much exclusive material in one collection. It makes me wonder; why would one buy all this at once, if the joy of collecting is mainly in finding that one missing piece? Anyway, if I would have the chance to visit it, I would go! But I won't, so I'll just enjoy the pictures. :wink:

Cheers,