Buckeye Stages bus depot sign travels to $52,200
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
Buckeye Stages System deep shelved porcelain bus depot sign, 30 inches by 20 inches, boasting excellent color and graphics, $52,200. (All photos courtesy of Showtime Auction Service)
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.
