WHAT: Most who grew up in the decades before the 1960s remember construction and science kits made by A.C. Gilbert. The company’s most successful product, the Erector Set, developed in the early 1900s, was a classic. Gilbert began making chemistry sets in the early 1920s. Sets involving radioactivity and Geiger counters date from the 1950s.
MORE: A circa 1951 Atomic Energy Lab by Gilbert recently soared to $12,650 in a Hake’s auction. Estimated at $2,000 to $5,000, it sold for more than six times low estimate. The Pennsylvania auction house is known for selling collectible Americana, including toys and comics.
SMART COLLECTORS KNOW: Complete with box, the lab came from a known collector. That kind of pedigree gets juices flowing for serious collectors. Erector sets in the same sale reached more than $6,000 and $7,000.
Linked to a discrete era with a national obsession as reflected in toys, the space lab is a collector’s dream that may now fill a special niche for an advanced collector.
HOT TIP: It is a well-known axiom in collecting that toy collectors buy what they remember from their childhood. As a result, many adults buy toys that their parents could not afford or would not let them have.
BOTTOM LINE: The A.C. Gilbert Heritage Society (www.acghs.org) features company info plus collector info on Erector and chemistry sets, American Flyer trains (once owned by Gilbert) and more.
