Lot 236
  • 236

[DAYTON SCHIEBLE] PRESSED STEEL CABLE CAR, CIRCA 1900

Estimate
150 - 250 USD
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Description

  • Pressed Steel Cable Car
  • 7  1/2  x 20 x 4 inches
Dayton cable car (length: 21 in.; 53 cm, width: 4 in,; 10.5 cm, height: 7 3/4 in.; 12.5). Contemporary red, orange, green, and black enamel paint, turning wheels, hinged doors with tab that controls movement, rubber cable pole; some overall wear, minor scuffs with chipping to paint, a few minor indentations.

Provenance

Jonathan Winters Gifted by the above to the present owner 

Literature

Dave Itzkoff, Robin, New York 2018, p. 17

Catalogue Note

Gift From Jonathan Winters, with a card from his daughter Lucinda, reading: "Dearest Robin, I am finally sending off the cable-car toy that Dad had wanted you to have. I am also enclosing the man on the trapeze because you should have it..." Jonathan Winters was one of Williams' first comedic influences.  When Williams was a child, his father, Rob, would turn on Jack Parr's Tonight Show as a way of unwinding. "[W]hen the droll, sophisticated host was joined by Jonathan winters, the chubby-cheeked, rubber faced deadpan comedian, Robin was allowed to stay up past his bedtime, join his father in the consoling glow of their black-and-white TV set, and watch Winters's latest unpredictable routine." Winters later appeared on Mork & Mindy (1978-1982) in its fourth season, bringing Williams together with one of his earliest idols.  

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