Interesting, as I know that the items of Ward Kimball's that were sold at auction have tags indicating such.
I have found items over the years that were marked with the names of people who owned them at one time, such as Bill Clapper (early editor of TCA Quarterly and founder of and first editor of the American Flyer Collector's Club and Collector magazine) or for Arno Ulhorn, an early Flyer collector. I have left some of those tags in place for historical reasons, but they don't mean much to me.
However, any stories that come with sets or how I acquired them are important and of interest to me.
For instance a boxed Discoverer set, which indicated the engine was replaced in 1950 (as the engine was a 3109, which has the diecast hoods that often decay). Note the engine in the set pictured is something I added after purchasing it, as the set came to me with a nasty looking repainted 1218 engine, which was not correct for the set. You can see the handwritten note about the engine replacement on the box top, under the gondola.
The remains of a setbox from 1917 or 1918, that came with the handwritten note on the label saying "Dear Iris, Did you tell someone you wanted a train? Santa". The set was complete, with exception of a missing tunnel.
There is also the boxed 1927 American Flyer Bluebird set that I purchased from the original owner's nephew, shortly after he passed away c. 2007.
The boxed 1908 American Flyer set that I bought from the original owner's grandchild, just last year. I did not record the name, but to find a set from that era coming from the original owner's family is something to note at this point.
The above set was incredibly interesting due to the early cross over and the engine, which has an un-reported gold stripe below the window.
To me, those types of stories are of more interest, because they give some insight into original/former ownership as well as some provenance to their originality.
NWL
