An Amusing Assortment for All

By Robert Reed

As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, February 2008

All the world loves a clown they say. And clown collectibles are pretty amusing and adorable too.

Clown collectibles range from antique toys and classic cookie jars, to colorful head vases, novelty baking pans, and even postcards. Of course many of them also have a long-standing association with the circus world.

In recent years a book on Today’s Hottest Collectibles by a group of leading magazine editors noted, “clowns are probably the most plentiful and affordable--line of circus memorabilia collectibles” in the country.

Historians point out that clown-like characters entertained in England during the middle of the 18th century and were eventually given starring roles in the Royal Circus of the 1780s.

Later in the United States one of the first clowns to earn widespread popularity was a person identified as Dan Rice. According to editions of Clown Alley, Rice first appeared in the 1840s wearing a top hat, goatee, and a red, white, and blue outfit. He stage name accordingly was Yankee Dan. The International Clown Hall of Fame notes that as early as the 1860s clowns were sometimes seen about the country performing physical routines and wearing what would become traditional baggy pants and bulging noses.

A few clown toys appeared in limited numbers during the 1870s. Clowns made of wood and horses or other animals also made of wood were marketed in the United States and Europe. Crandall’s Lively Horseman featured both a costumed clown and a costumed horse in a circus format. Meanwhile early automata dolls crafted in France during the same decade sometimes featured clowns. The automata, or self-propelled clown figures, bore papier-machine heads and wore costumes of real fabric. In their movements the clowns might dance about or seem to play an instrument.

Clowns appeared as still banks as early as the 1880s in America, including the Humpty Dumpty Toy Savings Bank which was a clown in full costume and make-up “finished in fancy color.”

Late in the 19th century a prolific number of clowns were featured among what would eventually be called penny toys. Initially made in France and Germany, these clowns were made of metal with moving parts, and usually only about four or five inches tall. Penny toy clowns often had moving parts and might appear with a female character, mule, dog, or another clown. Sometimes two clowns appeared on a wheeled platform.

The earliest of the penny toys were hand-painted however the advancement of lithography by the early 1900s did away with the need for painting and allowed for finer detailing of the figures. At that point the American circus and its much ballyhooed clown acts were at the height of its popularity. In 1907, Ringling Brothers purchased the then competing Barnum and Bailey to become one of the largest circus operations in the world. At the same time there were hundreds of smaller circus enterprises also entertaining the countryside.

Capturing this early 20th century popularity best was the  A. Schoenhut Company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From the 1900s in the 1920s, the firm marketed their remarkable Humpty Dumpty Circus which offered wooden versions of various clowns plus other figures and animals. Typically the clowns were paired with performing animals or with props such as a ladder or chair. Generally the individual clowns were constructed of painted wood with added touches of cotton and leather. The six to eight inch clowns originally had glass eyes, and later simply painted eyes.

German makers produced spring-driven tinplate clowns during the same period and they were marketed in Europe and the Untied States. Some were two-clown sets which featured one clown being rolled forward on barbells, or a second clown on a four-wheeled platform. Like the penny toys, the early tinplate clowns were painted and later used lithograph designs.

Other clowns performed on wooden rockers or merely had wheels beneath their feet. There were clowns among Roly Poly toys with weighted metal bases which would roll from side to side but remain upright. Such clowns initially had papier-mache heads and later heads made of celluloid. Roly Poly sizes varied as did the clown costumes.

Gaily costumed clowns were very much part of the parade of dolls by the 1920s, and some were crafted from cloth sold for children’s clothing. One popular print featured children and Kewpie kids illustrated by the famed Rose O’Neill. Clown dolls sold in connection with various circus presentations in the 1920s and 1930s were often made of cloth as well, frequently with heads and hands of celluloid. For a time in the 1930s Marx had a best-selling mechanical dancing clown in their Marx Mechanical Toy line. The 8-inch enameled clown offered what was advertised as “glide along swaying motion.”

In the late 1940s a record album of children’s songs by Capitol Records introduced the soon to be legendary Bozo the Clown. Eventually, the Bozo character was adopted for a series of syndicated cartoon television shows.

“Any child who grew up between 1950 and the rest of the century knew who Bozo was,” note authors Stuart Schneider and Bruce Zalkin in the comprehensive volume, Halloween: Costumes and Other Treats. “He had two shots of bright orange hair,” and of course attracted a host of costumes for kiddies. One Ben Cooper company costume version featured tuffs of orange hair attached to the mask with the Bozo name on the outfit’s sleeve cuffs.

Still another famous fictional clown, and a costume product for children as well as Clarabell. The Clarabell clown was a part of the cast of the Howdy Doody TV show for youngsters which first aired in the late 1940s. Like Bozo at nearly the same time, Clarabell attained status as a doll and the image on various other toys and products.

American Bisque started a trend in the late 1940s with their Happy Clown cookie jar. During the 1950s American Bisque produced other clown cookie jars as did McCoy, Regal China, Cardinal, Lane and Company, and a host of others. During the 1960s several colorful ceramic head vases featured clowns in striking shades as well.

Branch Candy used a cloth doll named Bracho the Clown for a advertising promotion in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Bracho, in a lithographed clown suit, was offered as a premium for customers who mailed in candy wrappers or labels from cans of Circus Peanuts. Later in the 1970s, Kellogg’s offered another cloth advertising dolls, Fun Fair Clown, as a premium for customers.

One of the 20th century’s most famous vary real clowns was the melancholy and meandering tramp-like Emmett Kelly. Kelly’s “Weary Willie” became a memorable image for many decades.

“Clowns are possibly the most popular circus collectible, “ wrote Diane Oswald in the charming book, 100 Great Collectibles For Kids. “Music boxes, toys, cups, figures, candles, and a variety of items often feature clowns. You can find many these at stores, garage sales, flea markets, and at other secondhand sales.”

“Specializing in clowns for a collection is rewarding and a fun way to narrow your collecting scope,” concludes Oswald. “Whether fun or sad, all the world loves a clown.”

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