1940’s stanford pottery chief wahoo
 

Looking for information on my 1940’s stanford pottery chirf wahoo. Recieved it from a relative and have no information on backround or value of the item. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Value.. not sure, but checking eBay should tell you that. Stanford used the same figure for The Milwaukee Braves as well, just changing the paint on the jersey to say "Braves". There is a second figure ( which I own) that has the Indian with a real feather kneeling next to a large baseball. This figure is a coin bank. I don't think they are super rare.. I believe they were made over a period of several years (like 8 maybe) so there are a few out there. Cool piece for Tribe fans

Yes... the Indians version is by far the most common. Worth about $150 - $200, assuming no chips/cracks/restoration.

Stanford also made the following (in terms of rarity, last to first...)

Pirates
Braves
Bums
Tigers
Athletics
Indians with Full Headdress

The A's White Elephant and Indian Chief with full Headdress are highly sought after, and are far rarer than all others. There is also a questionable Cubs Piece that surfaced once. It looks like a Bear if you use your imagination and has a "C" on its cap. There is nothing on the Jersey to indicate Cubs or Chicago. But it was sold as a Cubs piece on eBay a few years back, and fetched over $3K. I have not seen one since...

The above response references another piece which I believe to be made by Gibbs Conner. G-C was a competitor to Stanford Pottery (of sorts) and made various similar Indians pieces. The quality was considered just a tad below Stanford Pottery, but a number of G-C Prototypes were discovered a few years back. It was originally thought that G-C manufactured only the Indians pieces, but prototypes for all teams were then unveiled. These prototypes never made it to market, as the company went bankrupt prior to their release.

Hope this is helpful.