Antiques & Collecting: Shake hands with Uncle Sam

How national symbols are chosen is often a mystery. Uncle Sam is not our oldest symbol. There were two other figures that represented our budding country during the American Revolution.

They were Yankee Doodle, the British slang name for the disheveled Colonial soldiers inspired by the song, and Brother Jonathan, a smart, rural man who was the hero in cartoons and stories from 1771 to 1783. They were pictured as tall, thin men with beards.

Legend says Uncle Sam was a nickname inspired by the initials U.S. stamped on barrels of beef for the Army during the War of 1812 to show they were government property. That led to the joke that they belonged to “Uncle Sam.”

In the 1870s, Thomas Nast began depicting Uncle Sam in cartoons and posters, but the bearded figure dressed in red, white and blue didn’t became an official symbol until 1961. He is now seen on labels, machines, posters, statues and political signs.

This 6-foot-4-inch-tall iron figure is a funhouse grip tester made by Caille in the 1970s. For one cent, you can shake hands with Uncle Sam and see if you are strong. It sold at a Nye and Co. auction for $6,150.

Large vintage mechanical machines like fortune tellers, postcards sellers or slot machines sell for high prices today. The better the original paint, the better the price.

I love old games, and I recently saw a picture of an old board game called “Bulls and Bears — The Great Wall St. Game.” I have never heard of this game and was curious about its history and value. Can you help?

“Bulls and Bears — The Great Wall St. Game” was patented in 1883 by the McLoughlin Bros. The box cover had a lithographed picture of a dapper-looking, cane-holding bull talking with an equally well-dressed bear. Bulls and bears are Wall Street symbols. A bull market refers to a market on the rise; a bear market is one declining.

Inside the game was a folding board with Gilded Age stock market characters Jay Gould, Cornelius Vanderbilt and Horace Greeley. There also was a spinning board, play money, contracts and an instruction booklet.

A “Bull and Bears” vintage game recently sold at auction for $20,000. It was the top seller in the toy sale that included 450 lots.

Current Prices

Necklace, Bakelite, patriotic, 5 blue stars, red and white stripes hanging from gold tone chain, 6 x 2 inches, $640.

American flag, seven stars, Confederate reunion, first national flag, 26 3/4 x 57 inches, $1,560.

Bank, Uncle Sam, standing and holding out his hand, square platform base with spreadwing eagle, painted iron, 1800s, 5 x 11 inches, $1,800. Flag, American, 13 stars, arranged into six-pointed star, glazed cotton, 11 1/2 x 8 inches, $2,600.

Tip: Set heavy garden urns or statues on a foundation, usually a cement block set in the ground.