By BARB VAN LOO
Auction Exchange Correspondent ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Firefighter collectors by nature are a passionate lot; and it was with no little excitement that the more than 200 museum pieces from an early firefighting museum crossed the Showtime Auction Service.
The three-day auction by Mike Eckles, featured not only these highly valued items from the Granite Handtub Museum in Newmarket, N.H, but also a collection of arcade machines, rare toys and banks, trade signs and salesmen’s samples.
A handtub is a piece of firefighting equipment that preceded the steam pumpers of the mid-to-late 1800s. These items date to the mid-1700s and were an improvement on the firefighting brigade.
A Hunneman hand-drawn handtub pumper built in 1860, meticulously restored after a barn fire, brought spirited bidding, the gavel finally falling at $99,000. The historical piece is headed to a new museum. All quoted prices include a buyer’s premium.
Keeping with the firefighting spirit, a circa 1800s black leather fireman’s helmet marked “Empire 1 FDE” with the last three letters being the fireman’s initials, sporting a leather dog finial and “N.Y.” stamped on the brim, sold for $3,300.
As an accessory for the handtub pumper was a red leather fire bucket complete with a leather handle and a hanging ring on the bottom, selling for $5,775.
Dating from around 1890 was an ornate fireman’s hand pumper 24-inch brass lantern. The lantern, expressly made for the New England League Champion Button Handtub, featured the god Neptune sitting on a clamshell as a finial. It also had four beveled-glass panels, with an embossed shield of leaves and acorns and the inscription “Red Jacket Cambridge.” It sold for a princely $30,800.
From the Metropolitan Fire Department, NYC, was a hand-painted self-framed wood sign stating that it was: “Proclaimed By Order of the President Board of Fire Commissioners The Stephenson Medal is to be Awarded to Firemen in Recognition of the Attainment of the Highest Standard of Efficiency & Discipline Including Command.”
Underneath the lofty proclamation was a list of fire companies which had attained these high standards, in addition to decorative depictions of various pieces of fire fighting equipment. This handsome piece attained a final bid of $1,650.
In addition to the firefighting equipment was an eclectic mix of antiques. Included were an unique mahogany cash register-style spool cabinet made by M Heminway & Sons with ruby glass inserts. In excellent condition, earned a final bid of $3,300.
Jic Jac, Inc., a small soda manufacturing company in St. Louis, Mo., began producing soda in cone-top cans in 1953. A lot of three of these – root beer, orange and grape flavors – found favor with the buyers, earning a final bid of $4,888.
From 1910 was a convex porcelain beer sign for Crystal Springs Brewing & Ice Co. in Boulder, Colo. This sign was a beer barrel topper design, for parade wagons. With minor professional restoration, the sign crossed the block for $6,050.
A Buddy L pressed steel touring coach, with spare wheels on the sides, in all-original condition, and original decals sold for $4,675. Another Buddy L pressed steel Red Baby toy truck with original pull string, decals and tag sold for $8.250; while a Buddy L pressed steel firefighting ladder toy truck with brass crank, original pull string and decals earned $2,750.
A Mickey Finn Tog-O-War coin-operated strength tester made by Caille Bros – a unique carnival piece – sold for $27,500.
A reverse glass sign in a period oak frame advertising wines and liquors for the Schuckmann & Seligmann Co. of Milwaukee, Wis., depicting a large commercial building, found favor with the bidders and sold for $5,500.
Adding more selection to this eclectic sale was a cast iron mechanical circus bank, in good working condition with 20 percent of its original paint, sold for $3,450.
A soda brand from the past – Whistle – featured an advertising Glasscock cooler with the soda company’s name, sold for $920. A more familiar brand, a Pepsi-Cola spool-shaped can, earned a final bid of $770.
A flanged porcelain sign advertising Helmar Turkish Cigarettes declaring “Quality Superb” was one of the highly desirable advertising items and sold for $4,125.
As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Studebaker, the Rockne Motors Corp. produced automobiles and trucks in 1932 and 1933. Named in honor of legendary Notre Dame football coach, Knute Rockne, a two-sided porcelain sign for “Studebaker Rockne Authorized Service and Genuine Parts” sold for $3,025.
Other items of interest that crossed the block included: a mahogany dental cabinet with black smoked glass, an inlaid crown, tin doors and porcelain shelves from the 1930s, $990; a 100-inch-tall cigar store Indian attributed to Thomas Brooks, $21,850; a Regina disc console player in a walnut base $16,100; and a coin-operated Ramado cigarette dispenser that was in original working condition, $6,875.
For more details, call 734-676-9703l or visit www.showtimeauctions.com |
