She Hey- I just noticed the Hunt Auction figural has a wooden baseball bat affixed to the ash tray but your piece does not. Clint's example appears to have some missing paint in the area where a bat would have been affixed suggesting it may have had a bat at some point. Your example looks as if a bat was never present showing no missing paint or chips. I am thinking maybe these were offered either with and without the bat or some vendor at the time decided to modify the piece and add this feature. Either way with or without the bat a rare piece. I wouldn't think the figural without the bat would impact value too much if at all, especially if added later on.

Was wondering the same about the Wood Bat...

The Bat looks like an "add-on" to the Hunt example, but the location of Clint's paint chips would indicate that a Bat once rested on his example as well.

More important question for Clint...

What the hell is that scary looking Head inbetween Chief Wahoo and the Cardinal? A decapitated Dizzy Dean? It looks like Sid from Toy Story got to that one :eek:

A friend of mine had this baseball head. It took me awhile to pry it from him. I believe it's a carnival figure, possibly a bank. I've never seen a complete example or even an incomplete one except for this head. Would love to find a whole one some day. The detail is amazing.

Here's a side view.

That's cool, Clint.... thanks for the close-up image. Very detailed and unique!

Is it, by chance hollow at the base of the neck? If so, it could be a Cane-topper... similar to the Jackie Robinson Heads that were made as Carnival Prizes. Really nifty!

I don't think it would be a cane topper as my mother had several of those and this is much bigger and heavier. Plus most of those are porcelain and this is chalk. I'm pretty sure it was part of a larger statue.

After purchasing the Figural ashtray I was contacted by another seller on Ebay. He indicated that he actually had a photograph of the ashtray (not the exact same one) in a child's Christmas photo. The photo is dated 1943, so it would have to made prior to that.

I agreed to purchase the photo from him.

http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/sayheykid1954/DSC01426.JPG
http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/sayheykid1954/DSC01427.JPG

That is too cool! Interesting to see that one has the Bat.

I've sometimes bought early photos of Pennants displayed at people's houses and in the stands at stadiums. Few things as sweet as finding a vintage photo of a piece you own. :cool:

I was recently contacted by the grandson of the original sculpture on the Detroit Tigers figural piece. My buyer information was given to him by the seller.

He said that his grandfather was the sculptor of the piece and hand painted them himself. When completed he presented the Detroit Tigers front office with one. They told him to immediately stop making them, he wasn't sure exactly why. Because of that the grandfather said he believed he only made 4 of them.

He was surprised to see it on Ebay in the completed listings.

Surprising, and that number seems low. I think we've just about accounted for all 4 of them in this thread alone. :rolleyes:

Did he say if the Grandfather also sculpted the Pirates version? There is a virtually identical Pirates piece out there, but with a Pirate figural instead of a Tiger.