Unique Art ca. 1940’s “Li’l Abner and his Dogpatch Band” Tin Lithographed Windup Toy for Sale

Unique Art ca. 1940’s “Li’l Abner and his Dogpatch Band” Tin Lithographed Windup Toy

We have for you a ca. 1940’s tin, windup, lithographed “Li’l Abner and his Dogpatch Band” manufactured by Unique Art Manufacturing Company Inc. of Newark, New Jersey.

This piece is in working condition and when wound by its dedicated key, Abner dances, Pappy plays the drums, Mammy leads the band with her baton, and Daisy Mae plays the piano. There is a working stop and start slider on the side and all pieces and connections are in secure working order. This rendition is a higher grade that our earlier video review and colors are crisp.

Our example of this piece is in excellent all original condition with no breaks, restorations, repairs, or touch ups. The lithographs are in excellent overall condition with the usual dust, patina, scratches, scuffs, surface rust and chips that are seen with age and play. We encourage you to examine the photographs to further determine condition and quality.

A brief history of Unique Art Manufacturing Company Inc. of Newark, New Jersey: 

Unique Art Manufacturing Company Inc. was an American toy company, founded in 1916, and based in Newark, New Jersey.  They made inexpensive toys, including wind-up mechanical toys, out of lithographed tin. The “Rap & Tap in a Friendly Scrap” was one of its earliest products. Other toys they manufactured were, comic/character tin mechanicals including “Li`l Abner Dogpatch Band” and “Gertie, The Galloping Goose”.

The company scored a hit in the 1940’s when it acquired the rights to a popular comic strip and released the Li’l Abner Dogpatch Band for Christmas 1945. The windup toy featured Abner dancing, Pappy on drums, Mammy with a drum stick, and Daisy Mae playing piano. Unique followed with a Howdy Doody band several years later.

Unique’s president, Sammy Bergman, was a good friend of toy magnate Louis Marx, and the two men’s companies at times cooperated, with Marx providing tooling to Unique and sometimes acting as a distributor for Unique’s products. Unique Art’s eventual fate is unclear but the company appears to have disappeared by 1952, with some evidence of Marx picking up the line later on.