The latest offering by Smith House Auctions will go live on October 21, 2007 and offers a wide array of pre-war celluloid toys amassed by a Connecticut collector over more than 15 years. This collections will light up the fall auction of Smith House Toys. The October/November sale will also offer a collection of more than 100 aircraft toys and 30 rare motorcycle toys in pristine condition with their original boxes.

Disney collectibles in tin, celluloid, porcelain, bisque, composition and rubber will be offered, along with 50 lots of tin automotive and plenty of character toys, including the final group of Howdy Doody items from the toy chest of renowned collector Alan Rosen.

The main event in the pre-holiday celebration features the toys of the late Bill Silverman, a New Haven collector who owned some of the most desirable and unusual celluloid toys. The early form of plastic is loved for its finely detailed texture, color and delicacy, which also made it difficult to survive intact. Silverman’s toys, however, are in superb condition. Most are pre-war Japanese windups, and many come with their extremely rare original boxes, decorated in colorful, stylized graphics.

One India-themed toy is named For Mahim on its box. It is an elephant bearing two riders, one on the animal’s trunk. An image of the Taj Mahal revolves as the toy advances. The beautiful windup is estimated to sell in the $2,500 to $3,500 range.

The 40-plus celluloid pieces from the Silverman collection include a 14-inch tall go-round circled by six monoplanes. Among the celluloid figurals in the autumn auction are a waltzing sailor and woman in a long, cloth gown, a soldier with celluloid head and tin body, a traffic cop, clowns, drummers, and a blue elephant skipping rope. A celluloid man plays a tin piano while reading tin sheet music under a twirling plastic umbrella in another whimsical, hard-to-find toy.

Silverman also collected unique German and Japanese squeeze toys, character sparklers, and noisemakers, in addition to a group of cars and trucks. Silverman’s 150 pre-war Japanese tin whistles include rare figurals, animals, cars, dirigibles, airplanes, circus, space, and other fanciful themes. The auction will also offer a choice selection of Silverman’s TPS tin windups, many with boxes.

All manner of modern aircraft will also be represented in the sale, many of them in their scarce original boxes. The 1950s and 1960s friction and battery-operated toys include a rare Lockheed Hercules made in Japan, with a 22-inch wingspan, which is expected to sell for $1,500. Larger still are a Cessna, with Japanese lettering on the box and a 25-inch wingspan, and a U.S. Air Force Convair B-36, with a striking 26-inch wingspan and backwards-mounted propellers. Also in the squadron are a 1950s Ford Trimotor, an Air France Constellation, and assorted civilian and military aircraft, including jets, bombers and amphibious planes.

For two-wheel travelers, there are top-shelf motorcycle toys, all in remarkable condition with the majority in their original boxes. The bikes include the Hadson G. Men cycle with siren and fire, as the Japanese packaging proclaims, and a Marusan Sunbeam with sidecar and two-speed system. Both are expected to sell in the $2,500 range. An Arnold Mac 700, a Japanese Arrow, a Daredevil Motor Cop by Unique Art, an English Big Chief mechanical motorcycle, and a gang of Schuco and Matchbox bikes will also rev up the bidding.

Disney collectors can dip into a variety of categories. Disney highlights of the auction will include a pre-war celluloid Rambling Mickey Mouse; two versions of the Crawling Donald Duck, one from the 1930s and one from the 1940s, plus early Donald dolls; a 12-inch composition Mickey Mouse; and boxed tin toys from the 1950s and ’60s. The sale will also include a Three Little Pigs pocket watch in original box and a Three Little Pigs wristwatch and clock, all by Ingersoll. Other character collectors will find an assortment of favorite Popeye toys, illuminated by a 1935 table lamp with its very rare shade; boxed Linemar Tumbling Popeye, Roller-Skating Popeye, battery-operated Smoking Popeye, and a Chein Popeye Drummer.

Smith House Toy & Auction Company has been dealing in fine toys and nostalgia since 1986. Craig Thompson expanded the bidding to the Internet in 2004, but has retained the personal service for which Smith House has always been known.

The phone and online auction of more than 700 lots will begin October 21 and close November 9. For more information and a catalog for Auction 70, contact Smith House at P.O. Box 129, Telford, Pennsylvania 18969 or call 215-721-1389.

To view the auction online visit Smith House Auctions.