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WHAT’S SELLING ON eBay
WHAT’S SELLING ON eBay

by Wayne Tuiskula

$1,150 (29 bids, 19 bidders) Antique 1935 Bernarda Bryson $20,288 (64 bids, 26 bidders) 1951 Mattel #1 Barbie
Depression Resettlement Loan Farm Dust Bowl Poster. This auction is Absolutely Stunning Complete in TM Box, the Holy
for a large 24 1/2 by 37 1/2” lithograph poster titled A Mule and a Plow. Grail! In over 35 years in the toy and doll business, we
It was originally painted by Bernarda Bryson (1903-2004), who was an have only come across a #1 Barbie just a few times,
American painter and lithographer. This poster depicts all the farmer has but never complete in the box. This doll is absolutely
left, his mule and a plow, with his farmhouse and barn in the distance. stunning. Purchased from the original owner, it is by far
Along the bottom it reads, “The Resettlement Administration Small and away the nicest #1 we have ever seen. The skin tone
Loans give Farmers a New Start.” This administration was a government is fantastic with no discolorations anywhere. It still has a
agency that was founded during the Great Depression, which relocated beautiful fleshy face with no touch-ups. The shoes are
struggling farm families into better communities. As you can see, this correct and Japan-marked and the glasses are original. She
poster has some issues; at some point it was laid down and there are some comes from a smoke-free home. Her hair is beautiful.
wrinkles. There also is a piece missing in the lower left into the letter “R,” The rubber band has been replaced with a new one
and the top margin has some water staining and toning. and the hard curl is original. She is in her original first tie
This Very Rare Authentic 1935 poster comes under glass in a 26” by and the hair is tight to the head. The box has had two
39 1/2” wood frame and we are listing it without any reserve. (photos: corners nicely repaired and is nice and square; the box is
WWolst12Store). also the original TM box. The stand has a chip out of the
front but is in otherwise nice shape. (photos toyscout1)

WT: Barbie creator Ruth Handler co-founded Mattel
Toys with her husband, Eliot, launching it from their
garage in 1945. In 1948, the company incorporated and
it opened an office in Los Angeles.
Ruth Handler saw her daughter spending hours play-
ing with paper dolls and had the idea to create a three-
dimensional doll for girls to play with. Handler found her
inspiration for Barbie in a German doll called “Bild-
Lilli.” Bild-Lilli was a character in a risqué German comic
strip and the Bild-Lilli doll was geared toward men.
Mothers in a 1958 marketing study found Barbie to
have too much of a figure, but Mattel still moved forward
with the doll. It was introduced on March 9, 1959 at the
American Toy Fair in New York City. The dolls
were promoted directly to children through television
commercials and 300,000 were sold in 1959. The 1951
date in the eBay listing appears to be a typo.
With only 300,000 produced in 1959, finding one
without a lot of wear 64 years later is difficult. Finding
one in great shape with the box is incredibly rare. A
brunette number 1 Barbie sold for $6,900 in January
2019 at Apple Tree Auction Center. A blonde number 1
Barbie in the original box with pink skin tone that hadn’t
whitened over the years sold for $9,000 in November
2011 at Morphy’s Auctions. The outstanding condition
of this doll helped bring such a strong price, but this doll
WT: Farmers in the Dust Bowl states, located in the South-Central region exceeded all expectations.
of the country, saw declining prices and demand for their crops during the
Great Depression. Farmers cultivated more land in an effort to become
profitable or break even. Drought fell upon the farms where the topsoil
was already depleted, resulting in dust storms that caused crop failures and
livestock to die of thirst and starvation.
As part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Resettlement
Administration was created in 1935. Roosevelt’s Resettlement Act
created the Resettlement Administration and provided financial aid, which
included loans to the farmers. It also funded conservation work like
planting trees, helping to eliminate the erosion that caused dust storms.
There’s a copy of Bernarda Bryson’s poster in the Library of Congress Wayne Tuiskula is the auctioneer/appraiser at Central Mass Auctions of Boston and
and another at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. I Worcester, MA. https://centralmassauctions.com/ He has GPPA credentials from the
National Auctioneers Association and has been a collectibles appraiser for PBS Antiques
found no auction records for this poster. Simply finding a copy of this rare Roadshow. He can be reached at info@centralmassauctions.com or 508- 612-6111.
poster was a success for the bidder.

8 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles