CREME DE LA CREME TWENTY-TWO
By RSL Auction Company
Contact auction house
Mar 5, 2022
295 US Hwy 22 East, Suite 204 West, Whitehouse Station, NJ 08889, United States
Terms of sale
View demo
Mechanical Banks, Still Banks, American Tin Toys, American Folk Art, German Antique Toys, and American Cast Iron Toys
The auction has ended
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LOT 217:
Cleopatra's Obelisk Bank
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Sold for: $2,500
Start price:
$
750
Estimated price :
$1,500 - $2,000
Buyer's Premium: 27.5%
sales tax: 6.625% On commission only
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Cleopatra's Obelisk Bank
Probably by Charles Bailey. Connecticut - 1881 - 5 3/8" Tall. This miniature toy bank representation of the 220 ton monolith known spuriously as Cleopatra's Needle appears to be a new discovery in the lead still bank field. The actual obelisk was gifted to the United States by Khedive Ismail Pasha to honor America's instrumental participation in the building of the Suez Canal. In January 1881, after titanic feats of engineering to transport it from Egypt, the obelisk was installed in Central Park in a grassy knoll adjacent to the newly opened Metropolitan Museum. Charles Bailey's intense fascination with the use of lead to create toy banks runs exactly contemporaneously with the installation of the obelisk in New York. We feel very passionately that our attribution to Bailey as the maker of this bank is accurate.
