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News Article
Slots, cigar vending sell well, but 1900 Coke calendar tops all
By Jim Rutledge

DENVER, Pa. — A very rare 1900 calendar produced four years after Coca-Cola first hit neighborhood soda fountains more than 100 years ago, and said to be one of only two known to exist, topped Morphy’s Aug. 22-24 auction, falling to the hammer for $210,000. A second top selling lot was a 1906 Mills Double Dewey slot machine, topping out at $114,000. Total sales for the three-day auction were $3,120,000. All prices include a 20 percent buyer’s premium.

The calendar was from the 105-calendar collection of George Breslow, whose calendars were considered one of the most prized private collections to be sold collectively in auction, according to Morphy consultant Gary Metz. Metz is a longtime collector and expert for Morphy on Coca-Cola and soda pop advertising items.

Former Coca-Cola archivist Phil Mooney once wrote that Coke’s early calendars “provides an enlightening vignette” and a “popular artistic style of the time.” The Coke calendars, he said, represented some of the highest quality and most rare examples of the Coca-Cola Company’s early advertising artwork for the 1900s’ quintessential American lifestyle.

Morphy’s auction featured 2,165 lots of “Coin-Operated and Advertising” items that included a rare collection of soda syrup dispensers, 124 very rare vintage tobacco tins, more than 300 early vintage straight edge razors, 100 pinball machines and a wide assortment of advertising signs and other memorabilia in very good to excellent condition.

Breslow’s 1900 top selling calendar illustrates a model in her early 20s drinking a glass of Coke with one hand while holding an ink-written note in the other while wearing a vintage style dress with fluffy sleeves of the late 1800s. The calendar reads “Delicious and Refreshing. Relieves mental and physical exhaustion. At all soda fountains 5-cents.” The calendar is “a stellar museum piece in near mint plus” condition, auctioneer and owner Dan Morphy said in his company’s 326-page catalogue.

Among the other Coke calendars, an 1896 calendar sold for $105,000, and a bright red 1900 calendar proclaiming “Cures Headaches” sold for $45,000. The 106 calendars, dated from 1887 to 1981, generated $670,000 in auction sales.

The Mills Double (Admiral George) Dewey slot machine was manufactured in Chicago with two slot games and bears three likenesses of Dewey, honoring the naval officer for his Battle of Manila Bay victory during the Spanish American War. The 71-inch-tall slot plays original music with nickels or quarters. A Caille 5-cent New Century Detroit upright slot sold for $18,000, and a 25-cent Caille Eclipse upright also sold for $18,000. Both had been restored.

Also among the big selling coin-operated devices was a 1941 Wurlitzer Jukebox Model 81, with a Mae West stand, that fetched $15,000. Just last fall, Morphy sold a similar Model 81 jukebox for $11,000.

A very ornate early Pepsi-Cola syrup dispenser led the sales of 141 various brand syrup dispensers, going for $69,000, and a colorful Grapefruitola ceramic dispenser sold for $66,000. Selling for more than 10 times its high estimate of $6,000 was a Hires munimaker syrup dispenser going out the gallery door for $84,000. A high bid of $39,500 snatched a Montelaise Cheriola ceramic dispenser, selling for $46,000. A scarce Hires Root Beer syrup urn in near mint condition sold for $32,400.

Morphy’s kicked off its Aug. 22 auction with more than 200 various types of tobacco tins and candy related collectibles. Surprising everyone was the hammer price of $24,000 for an Empire State vertical pocket tobacco tin that catalogued a high estimate of $600.

Also earning top bids was a Mexican Tiger stogies tobacco tin at $6,000; a Cardinal Cut Plug tin at $5,700; and an Ace High two-sided tin for $5,400. Morphy has a history of selling tobacco tin collections. In 2011, Dan Morphy sold the 40-year collection of Chicago design executives David and Marcia Hirsch for $560,000.

In the category of tin signs and posters, a 1956 Merita bread tin sign sold for $24,000, illustrating the Lone Ranger cowboy atop his charging horse Silver. A 1905 Coca-Cola poster featuring opera singer Lillian Nordica, 52 inches by 33 inches, went for $20,400. A colorful likeness of an Indian Chief for Old Sleepy Eye flour fell to the winning bid of $10,800 for the 1905-1910 tin poster. It measured 24 inches by 20 inches.

An 1895 Bishop and Kline “Little Clerk” 5-cent cigar vending machine, holding two dozen cigars, sold for $10,800. It was in excellent condition with original paper and parts.

In the third installment of David F. Silverman’s pinball machine auction, a Bally’s game featuring Creatures of the Black Lagoon topped at $3,300. The second top seller for the 95 lots was the 1951 Gottlieb Niagara Falls machine for $2,700. On Sept. 13, Silverman’s remaining 300 pinball machines from his vast childhood collection will be sold in auction by Morphy’s. Additional auction details and descriptions of the lots will be released soon.

More than 300 vintage straight edge razors were feature in more than 100 lots. A high bid of $3,300 picked up a pair of ornate, English-made Joseph Rogers and Sons razors with gold-washed sterling silver handles in an enclosed carrying case. J. Rogers and Sons were called “Cutlers to their Majesties” for serving five royal families. A large 22 3/4-inch French displayed razor, likely from a French cutlery shop, sold for $4,500. And for the comfort of those close shaves was a German designed, hydraulic-operated, barber chair with a joystick side lever. The Koken chair was a salesman’s sample that displayed all its mechanical functions. It fell to the hammer for $31,200.

Some 132 vintage Budweiser beer bottles comprised a 53-lot collection of Anheuser-Busch collectibles by an Ohio collector with an early black and tan 9 1/2-inch bottle selling for $420. A three-bottle lot of 12-inch bottles sold for $1,080. The entire Budweiser collection sold for $90,000. According to Metz, the collector had not added a single item to the collection during the past 20-years.

And from 30 lots of vintage beer cans, the top brew was an English Lad beer top can in extremely rare condition with beautiful graphics. It had been opened and sold for $4,200. Seven lots of James Bond 007 special blend malt liquor beer cans sold from $450 to $650 each. They were brewed and packed during the 1960s spy boom by the National Brewing Co. in Baltimore, Md. The cans featured attractive women posing in front of famous London backdrops.

Morphy’s will be holding a series of fall auctions including items from the Dan Hardesty’s Wild West Museum collection from the Wild West days. That auction will be Nov. 1-2 and will include hundreds of Indian artifacts, original ranch items, Civil War memorabilia, Western cowboy outfits including Wild Bill Hickok’s show jacket, and an entire artillery unit of rifles, pistols and shotguns.

On Sept. 19-21, Morphy’s will be holding its first Las Vegas auction at the firm’s recently acquired Victorian Casino Antique auction house. The 1,700-lot sale will feature the personal collection of 100 vintage gaming machines from Bill Harrah, the founder of the Harrah Hotel and Casino.

9/5/2014
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