ANN ARBOR, Mich. – An outstanding pair of single-owner lifetime collections – one from Hal and Terri Boggess, the other from Mart and Kitty James – will be auctioned without reserve the weekend of April 10-12 by Showtime Auction Services at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds, 5055 Ann Arbor/Saline Road. Other collections will also be sold in an auction that will total over 2,100 lots.
Internet bidding – available all three auction days – will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com.
Hal and Terri Boggess put together a wonderful collection of items relating to firearms and gunpowder, mainly posters and calendars. Mart and Kitty James put together an equally impressive collection of drugstore and apothecary items. Mart James was a pharmacist, so the collection was born out of his profession.
Items from the more than 50 other advanced collections in the auction will include toys, banks, Coca-Cola, soda fountain, candy, gum, peanuts, perfume, millinery, breweriana, distillery, petroliana, automobilia, rare advertising signs, country store, farm, veterinary, hardware, insurance and cowboy.
Additional categories will include Native American, salesman’s samples, match safes, cigar lighters, crockery, scales, fans, safes, cash registers, gambling, coin-op, military, political, Art Deco, Black Forest, music, telephone, stoves, leaded glass windows and doors, watches, clocks, lamps, fire, store fixtures and furniture and an entire collection of over 200 tobacco tins.
The hundreds of rare and collectible signs in the auction will feature a Scott’s Emulsion reverse glass sign, in excellent condition and the only example known (est. $20,000-$30,000); an Ithaca tin sign advertising the Church Street Garage in Liberty, N.Y., impressive at 48 inches by 73 inches (est. $5,000-$10,000); and a Mercury Outboard Motors neon sign with reverse glass front ($1,000-$3,000).
A strong candidate for top lot of the auction is a 1959 Porsche convertible “D” car, model #356A/1600, in excellent running condition (est. $90,000-$125,000). Also sold will be a salesman’s sampler road grader (est. $10,000-$15,000), one of 15 salesman’s samples in the auction; and a rare cast-iron Happy Grandpa toy in all-original condition (est. 1,000-$3,000).
A hard-to-find Coca-Cola cardboard poster depicting a cowboy, one of over 40 Coke signs in the auction, is expected to realize $2,000-$5,000. Also in the lineup will be an Exhibit Supply Co. five-cent coin-op claw machine filled with vintage toy prizes, in excellent condition (est. $2,500-$5,000); and a circa 1880s Black Forest bench in superb condition (est. $2,000-$5,000).
A Cameron & Cameron dome-top smoking tobacco tin, the rare tri-color version, one of more than 200 cigar and tobacco tins being sold, should hit $1,000-$2,000. An Arrowroot Apothecary reverse glass painted display jar, 21 ½ inches tall and in excellent condition, is expected to sell for $3,000-$6,000. A 1909 Winchester firearms poster should hammer for $2,000-$5,000.
One of several early gambling items in the auction is an 1880s Poker Buck “You Deal” with silver crescent moons on the front and “Jack” on the back (est. $3,000-$5,000). Also offered will be an S. Cushman leather fire bucket with original paint and stenciling (est. $1,000-$3,000) and an Art Nouveau white metal lamp with a fine beaded glass shade, 25 inches tall (est. $1,000-$2,000).
Showtime Auction Services is based in Woodhaven, Mich. The firm is always accepting quality items for future sales. To consign an item or an entire collection, you may call Michael Eckles at 951-453-2415 or email him at mike@showtimeauctions.com.
View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
[button color=”black” size=”big” alignment=”center” rel=”follow” openin=”samewindow” url=”https://www.liveauctioneers.com/auctioneer/924/showtime-auction-services/”]Click to view the catalogs at LiveAuctioneer[/button]
