Dodgers Blue Heaven: A Couple of 1950's Brooklyn Dodgers Banks

Monday, February 18, 2013

A Couple of 1950's Brooklyn Dodgers Banks

'In The Park Collectibles' is currently running their Winter auction and it's filled with some great Dodger goodies. As you may know, they had acquired a large estate collection of porcelain figurines from a now defunct business called the Gibbs-Connor Company several years ago, and have been slowly selling off those pieces. From an old post written here over 4 years ago:

Gibbs-Conner was a small manufacturer of porcelain products located in Cleveland Ohio. Although it was not their main source of income, in the late 40's/early 50's Gibbs-Conner produced several porcelain banks with the likeness of the Cleveland Indians mascot- Chief Wahoo. Their work rivaled that of their main competitor, Stanford Pottery (also based in the Cleveland area), although their workmanship has always been considered a touch below in quality. As far as we can tell, Gibbs-Conner closed their doors for business in the late 50's. The original banks were not produced in large quantities and are still very popular among figural collectors.

Also included in the estate sale were porcelain statues of other teams. It was thought that they had plans to market figurines of other teams, but never quite got it off the ground. Instead, various samples were made, and they were eventually stored away when the business went under.

Featured here are two different Brooklyn Dodger 'Bum' coin bank statues from that collection. The first style celebrates the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers National League Pennant. This bank stands at about 7" tall, and it is expected to sell in excess of $500.00.

Below is the second style variation of the Brooklyn Dodger coin bank. This time, the bank says goodbye to Brooklyn. It has 1957 (the last year they played in the borough) emblazoned on the porcelain Baseball, and the phrase 'So Long Brooklyn' on the base. This coin bank is extremely rare, and is thought to be one of only two known to exist. Considering the topic, it's would be hard to believe that there would be much of a market for this item back in the 50's. After all, Brooklyn was heartbroken, and I doubt anybody from there would have put this on their mantle. As of this posting, it is already up to $2,100.00 for this coin bank.