December 5, 2013: Sports & Americana Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/5/2013
In 1963 Hartland Plastics was purchased by the Revlon Cosmetics Company, which resulted in an immediate cease of production of the company's highly collectible line of sports and Western figurines. While collectors forever after lamented the end of the series, their spirits were brightened in 1990 when a Dallas attorney by the name of William Alley purchased the rights to use the company's original molds to produce commemorative issues of all eighteen baseball Hartland statues produced between the years 1958 and 1963. While the original plan was to issue only commemorative editions, Alley became ambitious and subsequently produced six brand-new baseball-player designs. The new figures were authorized for a production run of 10,000 for each new design, but only two of the figures ever reached that mark: Whitey Ford and Roberto Clemente. Lou Gehrig and Dizzy Dean each reached a production of approximately 600. Ty Cobb had a finished run of only forty-five, leaving Bob Feller, with twenty-five units produced, as the scarcest of the modern Hartlands. (An "Umpire" figure was also produced in limited numbers.) The main reason for the limited production of the new Hartlands was the mysterious (and still unsolved) disappearance of company owner William Alley while on a business trip. Another firm later bought the rights to finish the existing agreement's production allowances. However, they stopped after completing the runs for Ford and Clemente, never attempting to produce additional statues of Gehrig, Cobb, or the others. Offered here is one of the forty-five Ty Cobb Hartland statues produced in 1990. Cobb is featured in a classic sliding pose, and is complete with the separate base. In Near Mint to Mint condition. The piece is housed in its original box (6.5 x 5 x 9.5 inches), which is also a desirable collectible today as well. The box, made of heavy cardboard, displays light handling wear and is in Excellent to Mint condition. This is an outstanding example of this modern rarity and one seldom seen offered at public sale.
Rare Ty Cobb Limited-Edition 1990 Hartland Statue (1 of only 45 ever produced)
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