The Pielin Brothers' Emporium Auction-- Auction 57 -- September 25, 26 & 27, 2020

        

The Pielin brothers [Dick 80 and Don 77] have been in the hobby of toy soldier collecting for over 50 years. They grew up on the northwest side of Chicago & began their collecting at an early age, mostly Britains zoo and farm animals. After pausing for college, they picked up where they left off. Don's path went toward the traditional toy soldiers, with a specific interest in the little-collected & studied 3 inch Dimestore soldiers. Don was one of the very first collectors to refer to these American-made toy soldiers easily bought in any five-and-dime as dimestore. He began to collect these figures in earnest, and realized that very little was known or written about them. He began to write a column on dimestore soldiers & had it published in The Scabbard [it helps when your brother is the editor]. Dick choose an alternate path and began painting & collecting military miniatures becoming an active member of the Military Miniature Society of Illinois [MMSI]. He was eventually appointed the editor of the MMSI journal, The Scabbard, & served for over 45 years in that capacity. He tried collecting a variety of makers & types, from Marx Square-Base to plastic Britains and Starlux. He finally settled on the old French & English masters; Metayer, Ballada, Berdou, Stadden, Des Fontiane & Vanot. His portion of The Emporium always included some of these, along with some of the hand-painted military miniatures. After a short period, Don with a few fellow collectors began a publication, Old Toy Soldier Newsletter, which is still in publication today known as Old Toy Soldier. It was a smashing success & led to the idea of having a national show for toy soldier collectors. The show became a reality in 1980 when Don & a few partners began the OTSN Soldier Show [still going after 40 years]. OTSN is now one of the largest in the country, if not the world. The Pielin brothers decided to sell their collections so that today's collectors might enjoy them as much as they did. Sign up to bid