NEW HAMBURG, Ontario – A Wurlitzer Model 147 military band organ from 1916, rare and beautiful 18th century Dutch clocks and gorgeous painted pine furniture pieces made in Ontario in the mid-19th century are a few expected top lots in Miller & Miller Auctions Ltd.’s online-only Music Machines, Clocks & Canadiana auction slated for Saturday, March 20. Bid absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers.

The auction, starting at 9 a.m Eastern time, features four outstanding collections: the Cathy and Gerry Koolen collection of music machines and clocks; the Robert Russell clock collection, the John Wine collection of Canadian furniture and the Ben Lennox collection of fresh-to-market and seldom-seen items ranging from early historic trade signs to rare seltzers.

The auction is loaded with 645 lots. In addition to clocks, Canadiana and music machines, the catalog also boasts pottery and stoneware, folk art, advertising signs, toys and breweriana.

The rare Wurlitzer Model 147 military band organ (above) is housed in a beautiful oak case measuring 87 inches high by 84 inches wide. It was originally powered by a steam engine that powered the carousel for which it was purchased. The functioning band organ, with 46 notes, two stops and an assortment of Style 150 music rolls, should change hands for $6,000-$9,000.

All prices quoted are in Canadian dollars (CA$1=US$0.79).

Two Dutch clocks carry estimates of $6,000-$9,000 each. One is a wall clock, very rare, made in the Zaanse region of Holland (near Amsterdam) between 1690-1725 and previously sold at Sotheby’s. The other one is an animated tall-case clock, made in Amsterdam in 1770, having animated movement with windmills and a man fishing, the clock and dial both nicely restored.

Painted pine Ontario furniture from the John Wine collection will be led by a Wellesely schrank wardrobe from the 1850s, featuring a subtle fern motif in the door panels and having two-piece construction (base and body), 89 inches tall by 63½ inches wide (est. $6,000-$9,000); and an open-dish dresser from the 1840s, 82 inches tall by 54 inches wide (est. $3,000-$5,000).

Canadian signs will be plentiful and will include these wonderful, highly collectible examples:

– A Niagara Falls Railway Suspension Bridge wood sign, 1880s (“travel over and back for 10 cents”), historically significant and 16 inches by 50½ inches (est. $2,500-$4,000);

– A Regent two-sided porcelain service station sign from the 1950s, impressive at 60 inches in diameter, in fine shape except for a few pea-sized chips (est. $2,500-$3,500);

– A scarce and early Selkirk, Ontario, Carriage & Sign Painting single-board wood trade sign, circa 1870s, with vivid raised lettering repainted in the 1930s (est. $2,000-$3,000).

Two lots with tremendous visual pizzazz have identical estimates of $2,500-$3,500. The first is an American-made Arts and Crafts six-shade hanging light fixture from the 1920s, solid brass with leaded slag glass Handel-style pond lily shades, rewired. The other is a 1930s Pepsi-Cola neon clock made in the 1930s for the French-Canadian market, with Pepsi’s early “double-dot” logo.

Pequegnat Canadian clocks are a big hit with collectors. Up for bid will be a “barley twist” variant hall clock from the 1920s, 84 inches tall; and a “Beaver 1st Issue” wall clock from the 1910s, 36 inches tall. Both feature an eight-day weight-driven time-and-strike movement and are contained in quartersawn oak cases. Both clocks have an estimate of $2,000-$3,000.

Returning to music machines, a coin-operated pipe organ and roll tune calliope made in Vermont in the 1980s by Ragtime Automated Music, in a quartersawn case, featuring 31 brass pipes, a snare drum and cymbal, should fetch $2,000-$3,000; and a large Swiss Stella music box made in 1897 by Mermod Freres, in a carved mahogany case and with 24 discs, is estimated at $2,000-$2,500.

Rounding out just a brief list of auction highlights, a 9½-foot-tall corner cupboard, made in Canada in the 1860s and previously housed at a Whitby, Ontario, convent, carries an estimate of $2,000-$3,000; while an amber Beaver quart-size fruit jar, glass with a zinc band and featuring a correct, matched tone amber button lid, 7½ inches tall, should garner $1,500-$2,000.

For detrails contact Miller & Miller Auctions 519-573-3710 or info@millerandmillerauctions.com.

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