By DON JOHNSON
AntiqueWeek Correspondent

MONTPELIER, Ind. — Scheerer McCulloch Auctioneers has only been in business about a year, but Tim Scheerer and Tim McCulloch got an opportunity not afforded many long-established auction houses when they sold the remaining contents of a small-town family hardware store.

Founded in 1888, Chaney Hardware Store left behind a variety of displays, showcases and miscellaneous contents, including a tin shop, when the company closed its doors in 2006. According to Scheerer, the family-run business couldn’t compete with larger box stores.

Bidders were eager to compete for what was left behind. “It went very well,” Scheerer said of the auction. “In this economy, we felt things have been off a little bit. But Saturday was very good, and the owner was extremely satisfied.”

Buyers were pleased as well. Among the top lots was a large National Cash Register on an oak base, with its original shipping crate, that sold for $2,000. A two-part wood and iron merchant’s cage — one straight, the other U-shaped — sold for $400 per section.

Store cabinets and displays were also well received, with an octagonal bolt cabinet selling for $1,100 to a local resident. A five-tier wood and metal seed rack with 51 apothecary-type jars brought $475, while a four-tier Leonard’s Seeds floor display, lithographed tin, considerable wear, was $500.

An implement or tool rack, the base for holding brooms, the top designed for hanging implements such as rakes and shovels, about 10-foot high, brought $500. A Merkle’s Blu-J broom rack having a metal frame and embossed tin signs on two sides was $400.

Floor-model oak and glass showcases sold for $125 to $175. Among the countertop cases and displays, a Lufkin Spring Joint Ruler oak display case having a slanting glass front sold for $400; Valet Auto Strop Safety Razor glass case, slant-front, wooden base, one glass shelf, $260; Eveready flashlight batteries display, lithographed tin, 24 faux batteries across the top, $110; Boye Needles round lithographed-tin case, The Boye Needle Co., double case, one stacks on the other, $250; Wagner Ware skillets metal rack, $140; and a Trump Garden Tools paper-mache wheelbarrow topped at $75. The best of the signs were two identical examples lettered Farm Machine Headquarters, McCormick-Deering, Chaney Hardware, Montpelier, Ind., cardboard with a tin frame, that brought $475 each.

One sold with the original shipping crate. A Speed Queen sign showing a vintage washing machine, die-cut lithographed metal, about 6ft high, made $325; Orangeburg Pipe, Root-Proof embossed tin sign, $110; double-sided neon Nu-Da paint, plastic tubing replacing the neon at the bottom, $250; Nu-Da Paints embossed-tin sign, $75; and a round Revere Ware sign was $50.
Paper ephemera included a calendar top showing two children and a dog, promoting International Harvester and with Chaney Hardware advertising, that brought $60; John Deere Special Repairs Catalog and Parts List, No. 1937, Deere & Co., $50; and an 1893 ledger from Chaney Hardware hit $35.

A variety of new-old stock tools included coal shovels with wooden handles and grips at $35 and $20; wooden rakes, $35 and $30; nail rake with a wooden handle, $30; nail rakes, all metal, $25 and $20; and a hay knife, original red paint and paper label, was $25. Galvanized-steel Wheeling twin pails (conjoined buckets) sold for up to $20 each.

A selection of knives saw a Shrade IXL commemorative sell for $65; Case stag Bicentennial, $80; Case Haley’s Comet, $60; and a Case Trapper was $50.

Miscellaneous items were as varied as a set of three ivory cue balls in the original wooden box at $300; Colt Woodsman Match Target pistol, $575; oil-on-board landscape by Ernest Fredericks, $550, and a Baker tin windmill head made by the Heller-Aller Co., Napoleon, Ohio,  the tail fin with its original shipping tag, at $500.
A vertical oak file cabinet with 20 drawers realized $350; shot dispenser, wooden with four glass panels across the front, $250; green Aladdin mantel lamp with its original but damaged cardboard box, $175; early floor microphone, $75; milk glass globe, Keys While You Wait decals, $65; Duo-Therm Home Heating Appliances tin thermometer, $40; Victorian screen door, about 8ft high, turned spindles, $45; Mandeville & King Co. seed box, paper label, mounted on a stand, the lid with damage, $140; Remington wooden ammunition crate, $40; Frigid Embalming Fluid crate, $30; and a Churngold Oleomargarine crate was $30.