Auctions: Erector sets, music boxes, and phonographs offered at auctions

Memorial Day weekend will again offer a variety of country sales, with at least one getting in the holiday spirit of nostalgia: The liquidation of a collection of A.C. Gilbert Erector sets. It is one of two sales during the next two weeks that will revive almost-forgotten mechanical diversions.

The Erector sets and related toy-construction kits will be offered by Ron Gilligan Auctioneering beginning at 9:30 a.m. Sunday at 4209 Scotch Valley Rd. in Hollidaysburg, near Altoona. They were collected by Hollidaysburg resident Alton Sternagle, a Gilbert specialist who cowrote Greenberg's Guide to Gilbert Erector Sets 1913-1932.

The A.C. Gilbert Co. was founded in 1909 as a provider of magicians' supplies by Alfred Carlton Gilbert, who, in 1911, began Erector, a construction-toy set similar to the European Meccano. Sternagle's collection also includes Meccano and related construction sets, such as Maerklin, that also will be auctioned.

Gilbert added several sophisticated elements to its Erector sets, notably fluted miniature steel girders that increased the stability of the structures they could be used to build. The sets themselves varied in complexity, designated oddly enough with a number ending in ½. The largest was the 12½, which included an electric motor along with its array of half-inch-wide girders of varying lengths, nuts and bolts, wheels, gears, and instructions on how to make Ferris wheels and parachute jumps.

Gilbert continued to make Erector sets - and, later, chemistry sets and American Flyer model trains - until the mid-1960s, when it went out of business.

Online, a few Erector sets are offered. The popular 8½ model (with enough parts for a Ferris wheel) has been recently offered on eBay with a starting bid of $175, and a 6½, capable of building an electric crane, had a bid of $9.99. According to auctioneers Ron J. and R.S. Gilligan, some of the better sets to be offered could sell in the $400 to $500 range, while lesser sets should bring around $50.

Preview is from 8 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Sunday. For further information, call 814-237-0189.

Music boxes, phonographs. Another sale of nostalgic mechanical diversions will take place June 7 in Chadds Ford, where William H. Bunch Auctions and Appraisals will include nearly 100 music boxes, early Victrolas, cylinder phonographs, and accessories as part of its multi-estate catalog auction beginning at noon. The auction catalog with presale price estimates is accessible online at www.williambunchauctions.com.