HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) – It was now or never for lovers of Graceland Too, north Mississippi’s eccentric shrine to Elvis Presley.
More than 100 people gathered on a cold Saturday morning at the ramshackle antebellum home in Holly Springs, anticipating an auction of thousands of items stuffed into the house by late Elvis superfan Paul MacLeod.
But the sale ended in less than an hour, well before the crowd could get all shook up. After auctioneer Greg Kinard sold two of MacLeod’s cars, all of the home’s contents were sold for $54,500 to an unidentified Georgia man who bid over the Internet.
“It was advertised that it would be offered all at one time,” Kinard said.
Kinard said the buyer has 15 days to remove all the items, including albums, guitars, ceramic figurines, commemorative plates, lamps, polyester ruffle-front dress shirts, leather jackets and beaded jumpsuits. The buyer even gets the homemade electric chair MacLeod built in the back yard.
The auctioneer said the home remains for sale separately.
MacLeod’s museum – unaffiliated with Presley’s Graceland estate in nearby Memphis, Tennessee – was a late-night favorite of intoxicated college students and tourists.
The short auction left some of Graceland Too’s repeat visitors – dubbed lifetime members – wanting more.
“It’s kind of a letdown,” lifetime member Lisa McGee told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. She sipped from a mug emblazoned with TCB.
“Tacky Elvis is good Elvis,” she said. “I would have loved to have a keepsake.”
One man did leave with an icon, though – MacLeod’s Cadillac with Graceland Too emblazoned on the side. Holly Springs resident John Stuber outbid another man, winning the car for $4,000.
“I always wanted a pink Cadillac,” Stuber said. “I just never knew it until today.”
One of MacLeod’s two daughters, Brenda Young, accepted the bid to make it final. Separated from her father by divorce, she didn’t meet MacLeod in person until 2010.
“I’m pleased with the outcome,” said Young, who now lives in Detroit. “It’s neat that he meant a lot to so many people. Some of the lifetime members used to come here just to have a Coke or a beer with (MacLeod) on the porch.”
While MacLeod often boasted that the collection was worth millions, attorney Phillip Knecht told The Associated Press Friday that the estate would settle for as little as $50,000, enough to pay off the roughly $20,000 to $25,000 of debt MacLeod left.
Copyright 2015 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
DENVER, Pa. – A blockbuster lineup of more than 800 lots of antique advertising opened the doors to a three-day marathon of consistently strong auction prices at Morphy’s, Dec. 5-7. Online bidders participated through LiveAuctioneers.
The combined total for the sessions, which also included fine and decorative art, was $2,184,000. All prices quoted in this report include the 20% buyer’s premium.
The Friday advertising session’s prices realized were led by a historically important 1891 Coca-Cola calendar that came from the renowned Gordon P. Breslow collection. Years prior to Breslow’s acquisition of the near-mint rarity, it had surfaced in Louisiana within a pre-1900 pharmaceutical collection.
The calendar was especially significant to collectors because it also promoted Asa C. Candler & Co., a retail and wholesale drug business on Peachtree Street in Atlanta that served Coca-Cola at its soda fountain. In 1891, Candler paid $2,300 to become sole owner of Coca-Cola, and a year later, he dissolved his pharmaceutical business and formed the Coca-Cola Bottling Company along with four other partners. The early and iconic calendar – one of only two known examples of 1891 Coke calendars, each a unique version – reached its high estimate at auction, selling for $150,000.
Produced in 1902, a brilliantly hued Coke poster emblazoned “Drink Carbonated Coca-Cola in Bottles” featured a young woman in a fancy plumed hat and pearl-covered red dress holding a fountain glass of the fizzy beverage. It reached the top of its estimate range at $40,800.
An exquisite 1904 Coca-Cola boudoir clock, celluloid over cardboard with an embedded clock face showing the soft drink’s name in flowing script, was described in the catalog as being in excellent-plus condition. It featured an elegantly gowned model in a Gibson Girl hairdo, standing beside a 5-cent Coca-Cola display. The clock finished within estimate at $22,000. Not far behind at $21,600 was a rare version of a 1908 Coke calendar featuring a finely attired lady sipping daintily from a glass, a bottle of the popular beverage placed prominently on the sofa-fountain table before her.
Other highlights recorded on the Friday included a three-dimensional painted coffee pot trade sign touting T&K Coffee, $15,600 against an estimate of $3,000-$6,000; a 25- by 17-inch paper sign for Remington Auto Loading Rifles, $6,600 (est. $600-$900); and a richly graphic Canadian porcelain sign advertising King Cole Tea and Coffee, $7,200 (est. $2,500-$5,000).
The Saturday session, which introduced the first 634 of 1,400 lots of fine and decorative art to be auctioned over the weekend, included early photographica, fine jewelry, coins and bronzes, among other subcategories.
Leading the numismatic lots was an 1803 $10 gold coin with Lady Liberty on the obverse and an American Eagle, US Shield and stars on the reverse. It cashed out at $13,600. A beautiful 1876 20-cent proof MS65 coin with “mint luster” exceeded its estimate range in settling at $9,000.
The perennial appeal of Georg Jensen silver was evident with the above-estimate $6,000 price paid for a simple oval tea tray, 60 ozt, with reeded rim and beaded accents. An impressive 14K yellow gold and platinum ring with 1.2-carat solitaire diamond (VS1 clarity, G color) also exceeded expectations, reaching $5,800. The fine selection of bronzes included a Meroni Radice casting of Maurice Guiraud-Riviere’s anatomical figure of an athletic man, $4,800; and an 11-inch-wide classical bronze of a nude lady warrior in a dramatic pose with spear and shield, $4,000. A tinted stereoscopic daguerreotype of a nude woman with a sheer veil neared its high estimate at $3,600.
Sunday’s session opened with 275 rare antique telephones from the Peter D’Acosta collection. The former Texas broadcast executive spent 25 years amassing his premier collection, which included 30 telephones believed to be sole survivors.
Among the telephone lots ringing up the day’s highest prices were several rare “candlestick” types: an 1898 Manhattan Electrical Supply phone with “rope” shaft, $18,000 against an estimate of $6,000-$7,000; a historically important 1895 Western Electric No. 3-A “Potbelly,” $16,800 (est. $12,000-$15,000), and an unusual 1904 Western Electric No. 30-A 100-station peg dialer, which functioned as a primitive switching system exchange. Estimated at $4,000-$5,000, it connected with phone enthusiasts and was bid to $12,000.
Dozens of stunning American art-glass lamps followed the telephone selection, with all of the most desired brands represented, including Tiffany, Pairpoint and Handel. Results included $15,000 for a Pairpoint Apple Blossom on Tree Trunk base; and $8,400 for a Handel cameo lamp reverse-painted with the image of colorful parrots, which had been estimated at $1,500-$3,000.
The star of the Sunday session, to no one’s surprise, was an 1890 Martin & Bros., stoneware Wally Bird humidor. Its cheeky expression, rare-color blue eyes and perfect condition combined to take it to a lofty $37,200. Other standouts in the decorative art category included a Roseville “Tourist” 33-inch jardinière and pedestal, $7,800; and a signed George Ohr teapot with lid, $5,400.
Morphy Auctions’ next major Advertising auction will take place on March 28 and will feature scarce soda fountain syrup dispensers. On April 4, Morphy’s will hold its next Fine & Decorative Arts sale, for which consignments are currently being accepted. Contact Morphy’s by calling 717-335-3435 or emailing info@morphyauctions.com.
Pairpoint art glass lamp, Apple Blossom pattern, Tree Trunk base, signed and stamped, $15,000. Morphy Auctions image
1803 $10 gold coin with Lady Liberty on obverse, American Eagle on reverse, $13,600. Morphy Auctions image
Only known 1891 Coca-Cola calendar of its type, ex Gordon P. Breslow collection, near mint, $150,000. Morphy Auctions image
Meroni Radice casting of Maurice Guiraud-Riviere’s figure of an athletic man, $4,800. Morphy Auctions image
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Springfield officials say the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral could be a windfall for the city, which is preparing a series of tributes that include a re-enactment of the funeral in May.
An exhibition called “Remembering Lincoln” opens Sunday at the Illinois State Museum, beginning a celebration that leads up to a three-day tribute and re-enactment of Lincoln’s funeral that begins May 1. Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield on May 4, 1865.
Hotel rooms are already being booked for that weekend, said Gina Gemberling, acting executive director of the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau. But many are still available, she told The State Journal-Register.
Old Capitol Goods, the official vendor for the Lincoln Funeral Coalition, has memorabilia such as “Honest Abe” posters and T-shirts that read, “Abraham Lincoln Farewell Tour.” There are also commemorative U.S. flags with 36 stars, replicas of the flag that draped Lincoln’s coffin.
“We have people coming from outside the United States and all over the country,” store co-owner Dana Homann said. “There’s going to be a lot going on, and it’s not just the funeral procession.”
Springfield hosted a 200th anniversary celebration for Lincoln’s birthday in 2009, and hotels saw rooms booked weeks in advance. Visitors included President Barack Obama, and shop owners said business boomed.
“We were up about 30 percent that year,” Homann said. “The recession hit in 2008, and we were spared.”
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Two lighting sconces that were once in the Oklahoma state Senate gallery have been restored and installed in the entrance of the Senate chamber.
The sconces were found in June 2013 by state Senate workers who were moving computer tables and saw an opening into a space in the attic of the Senate’s fifth floor ceiling. A total of 11 of the fixtures that were originally in the Capitol were found and another was later discovered in a storage space in the state House.
Another sconce was found by a Norman couple who had purchased it at a swap meet about 40 years ago and realized what it is after seeing news coverage of the discovery of the other sconces.
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