Turner Auctions + Appraisals is pleased to present Vintage Toys, Advertising Signs & Automobilia from SFO Museum on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at 10:30 am PDT. Part of SFO Museum’s Deaccession Project, the sale offers 80 lots, mostly from the early 1900s to the 1960s.
Vintage toys focus on motor vehicles from the U.S., England, Japan and Germany; lots include cars, motorcycles, trucks, buses, limousines, fire trucks, delivery vans and carts, and a petrol tanker. There is also an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile coin bank and a tin Lincoln Tunnel model. Highlights include a German Lehmann Echo Motorcycle #725 and a Japanese Masudaya Atom tin motorcycle and rider. Two child’s pedal cars are also featured in the sale: a British Austin J40 and a Russian model, circa 1950.
Vintage advertising signs come from the U.S. and U.K., mostly circa 1930s. They include AC Plugs, Motor BP Spirit, and BSA Bicycle. Also in the auction are two petrol pump globes, including Shell Economy, and an original Avery Hardoll petrol pump. Completing the sale are automobilia lots featuring several hood ornaments – Rolls-Royce and Lalique among them.
SFO Museum Deaccessioning Project
SFO Museum is conducting a review and downsizing of our holdings that fall outside our collection focus. In the museum profession, this process is called deaccessioning and is a regular part of responsible collections management. It ensures that the museum’s limited staff resources and storage space are allocated to objects that support and promote the core focus and purpose of the collection.
Since the early 2000s, SFO Museum’s permanent collection has been defined and guided by the following statement:
The collection focus of the San Francisco Airport Commission Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum (AML) is to collect objects and media that document the development, legacy, and cultural context of commercial aviation and the airline industry with an emphasis on the West Coast and Pacific Region, as well as the history and development of San Francisco International Airport (SFO).
Since that time, the museum has collected objects, books and archival materials that are tightly focused on the history of commercial aviation and SFO. However, before this collection focus statement was crafted, the SFO Museum accessioned a wide variety of objects, both aviation-related and non-aviation-related alike, that do not fall within the bounds of our current collection focus.
To meet our program objectives, SFO Museum has implemented a comprehensive review of its collection holdings acquired through purchase between the 1990s and early 2000s, identifying aviation and non-aviation-related objects that no longer support our collection focus. Objects acquired through donation are not part of this deaccessioning project. The deaccession candidates currently occupy 20% of available museum storage capacity while representing less than 1% of usage in our public programs.
The deaccession process adheres to the highest professional standards in accordance with the American Alliance of Museums, San Francisco Airport Commission, and the City and County of San Francisco. Any revenues generated from the public sale of deaccessioned objects will be held in trust, designated for the future acquisition of objects for the San Francisco Airport Commission Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum. Through responsible collections stewardship, SFO Museum believes that this initiative will help to support our mission for many years to come.
About SFO Museum
Established in 1980 by the San Francisco Airport Commission, SFO Museum’s mission is to delight, engage, and inspire a global audience with programming on a broad range of subjects; to collect, preserve, interpret, and share the history of commercial aviation; and to enrich the public experience at San Francisco International Airport. The Museum has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 1999 and retains the distinction of being the only accredited museum in an airport.
SFO Museum operates more than twenty-five sites throughout the Airport terminals, including fourteen galleries that exhibit a rotating schedule of art, history, photography, science, and cultural exhibitions. Among the sites is the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, which houses a permanent collection of more than 160,000 objects related to the history of commercial aviation. To browse current and past exhibitions, research our collection, or for more information, please visit www.sfomuseum.org.
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