Will Seippel | May 9, 2025

Tom Lang Sr. was a legend in the toy-collecting community. He traveled the world for over fifty years, collecting 18th and early 19th-century tin toys. He was one of the first in the vintage collector space to develop a business of buying and reselling some of what he found. Any serious toy collector knew Tom Sage; his collection is as legendary as he was.

Sadly, Sage passed away last year, and now Morphy Auctions, the auction house where his son Tom Jr. is head of their Toys and Trains division, is handling the sale of his personal collection. Morphy has split the collection into two sections, one of which they are offering this month and the remainder in October of 2025. There is so much in the catalog, but the truly remarkable part of this collection is that it contains several extremely rare pieces, and the condition of some of the items is near mint. A collection where so many items are rare and in fantastic condition is almost unheard of in auctions of toys from this era.

The star of the show and the cover image from the catalog is a Ferris wheel toy, circa 1904, made by German toy manufacturer Marklin. Only about three or four of these toys currently exist, and this one is in near-mint condition. Sage acquired it in 1994, along with copies of two photos showing the original owners, a family from Brooklyn, NY with the toy they received from a family member when the department store where he worked closed right before World War I. 

I will be watching the Ferris wheel and a few others in this collection to see what happens with these rare and beautiful creations.