ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A Buckeye Stages System bus depot sign sold for $52,200 at Showtime Auction Services’ Oct. 7-9 auction at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds, Ann Arbor, Michigan. A 30-inch by 20-inch deep shelved porcelain sign for Buckeye Stages was the top lot. Total sale crossed $1.2 million. Online bidding was facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and iCollector.com.

More than 2,000 lots came up for bid. Subjects included advertising, country store, grocery, dye and spool cabinets, Coca-Cola collectibles, soda, and firearms and gun powder posters, among others.

Vintage Advertising Signs Lead the Way

A scarce Ghirardelli Cocoa die-cut, chain-hanging, three part tin sign with colorful graphics by Beach Art Company (Coshocton, Oh.) soared to $27,000; while an equally rare Lowney’s Crest Chocolates three-piece, die-cut, chain-hanging tin sign with graphics by Kaufman & Strauss Company (N.Y.) fetched $25,200.

Tops in the Coke collectibles category included a 1920s-era Coca-Cola glass bottle lamp standing 18 1/2 inches tall with no base but in otherwise mint condition that lit up the room for $4,560; and a circa 1930s Coca-Cola festoon piece in near mint condition, professionally matted and framed under glass and measuring 26 inches by 26 1/2 inches overall, brought $2,633.

A National Cash Register Company candy store model 5 cash register, professionally restored, with a rare narrow split indication on the keyboard for “Cigar/Pool”and with a metal till and bronze metal base and a reproduction top sign with a glass insert advertising Coleman’s Ginger Ale, breezed to $4,200.

Unique Parlor Stove Draws $11,400

A large Elberon parlor stove made by Cleveland Stove Company (Cleveland, Oh.), produced in the early 1880s in the shape of a home, went for $11,400. The stove, measuring 33 inches by 41 inches by 29 inches, had marvelous ornamentation, plus an intense base heater and a double heater for wood. The lot included a broadsheet ad from 1883.

A hard-to-find Ferris Waists “Good Sense Corset” die-cut tin sign, possibly the only one in existence, measuring 23 inches by 14 inches (framed, under glass), with just a couple of minor scratches but in otherwise excellent condition, changed hands for $17,550. A Stag Tobacco porcelain door push, with some slight edgewear but otherwise near-mint, hit $1,560.

A Remington UMC bullet board, in very good original condition, measuring 41 1/2 inches by 54 inches, garnered $21,600; a Jackpot gambling dice machine, professionally restored and in fine working condition, with key, rose to $10,200; and a J. E. Stevens Company Professor Pug Frog’s great bicycle feat cast-iron mechanical bank, known as “The Columbus Bank” and made in 1893, 18 1/4 inches long, with most of the original paint intact, went to a determined bidder for $7,020.

For more information, visit www.showtimeauctions.com.