Incredible Elmer's Toy Collection Heads to Auction

WILLOUGHBY, Ohio—The legendary collection of toys from Elmer’s Auto & Toy Museum, Fountain City, Wis., heads to auction Saturday, Oct. 28, at Milestone Auctions. The event is the first in a multi-year series of quarterly sales of thousands of toys that enchanted museum visitors for nearly 30 years.

Elmer and Bernadette Duellman were married 56 years and amassed one of the greatest auto and toy collections in the world. Elmer died in 2019.

Image courtesy of the Duellman family

Elmer and Bernadette Duellman started Elmer’s Auto & Toy Museum in 1994. It quickly grew into one of the most impressive and sprawling collections of cars, motorcycles, pedal cars, bicycles, signs and toys in the world. In the fall of 2022, Mecum Auctions handled the sale of the museum’s vast collection of prized cars, a sale that realized $8.5 million.

“We feel honored to be chosen by the Duellman family to represent Elmer’s incomparable collection,” Miles King, co-founder of Milestone Auctions, said. “We know the toy community is going to love what’s coming in each successive sale.”

**Alps Japan tin friction Lincoln Futura, with original box. Estimate: $2,500-$3,500.**

“It’s impossible to describe how comprehensive Elmer’s collection is. He had a head start on all of us,” King said. “As far back as the 1980s, Elmer was buying and selling at a rapid pace and had a small army of pickers from coast to coast who were always on the lookout for items of interest.”

Duellman was also known for his encyclopedic knowledge of toys. He authored two volumes of the now-classic Elmer’s Price Guide to Toys and contributed significantly to Volumes 1 through 5 of the Evolution of the Pedal Car and Other Riding Toys.

“Dad collected a lot of pressed steel toys and a lot of tin—Japanese, German and American—and car-racing memorabilia and board games.”plus tether racers, Dinky Toys, TootsieToys and ride-on toys,” said Les Duellman, the oldest of Elmer and Bernadette Duellman’s six children. “He always sought out original condition and original boxes because he knew that’s what really made the piece. He also liked boxed sets that were complete with all of their parts present, as well as ships, airplanes, and car and car-racing memorabilia and board games.”

The initial 818-lot auction begins at 10 a.m. EST, Saturday, Oct. 28. You can preview the sale at the auction gallery, 38198 Willoughby Parkway, Willoughby, Ohio, during the week prior to the auction, and from 8-10 a.m. the day of the event. Bidding is live at the gallery, absentee, or live online through HiBid (via Milestone’s website), LiveAuctioneers, Invaluable, or AuctionZip.