DIAMOND PLANET ROBOT

 JAPAN circa 1962

On December 9 ,2000 at Sotheby's in New York, 399 lots of important robots and antique toys from the Estate of legendary collector F.H. Griffith brought a whopping $1.4 million. Competitive bidding for toys and robots from the fabled collection drove some prices up to two and three times their high estimates and established nine records for various robots and toys at auction. Highlighting the sale was a fine example of a very rare Carpenter Tally-Ho Coach, circa 1885, which sold for $66,300, establishing a new record for a cast iron, horsedrawn toy at auction.

During the afternoon session, robots prevailed, with a boxed circa 1955 Jupiter robot selling for $45,600 against a pre-sale estimate of $20/25,000. The auctioneer opened the bidding at $12,000, and two bidders in the salesroom went at it until one finally prevailed, with audience applause following.

"Consider the sale earlier this year of the F.H. Griffith collection of robots," she said. "Griffith was a longtime collector of robot rarities, so when his estate was consigned by Sotheby's and sold in December (2000), it was no surprise that the collection topped $1.4 million."