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News Article
Parzow’s Auction featured human skull and more
By Jim Rutledge

FREDERICK, Md. — Howard Parzow’s mid-summer auction was a boon to bargain hunters with bidders nailing down top sellers, a 1960s Mohammed Ali Bally pinball machine for $650, and the only phone bidder scalping gallery bidders to win a 1950s human skull used in medical experiments, also for $650.

Four large private collections including thousands of the Mars Candy Co. M&M toys and collectibles, an extensive array of cast-iron doorstops and cast-ion match safes, hundreds of lots of Star Wars action figures and a 1950s assortment of jukeboxes, pinball machines, slot machines and other entertainment games and train sets were offered July 12.

The auction selections were laid out in Parzow’s traditional table lots featuring each 6-foot-long table displayed in the normal cardboard box trays with any number of items in each. For instance, a box tray of 8 to 10 popular Star Wars action figures sold for various amounts up to $50.

One of the featured collections was a thousand plus assortment of M&M candy company toys, including M&M toy character figures that were selling on eBay for $9 to $10 but were selling in auction for $10 to $15 for a box tray of up to 10 items or more. The collection also included advertising items consigned by James Gilbert of Coral Springs, Fla.

Drawing lots of attention was a life-size authentic human skull consigned by the wife of a Pennsylvania physician who used the 1950s adult size skull for medical experiments. The skull showed where the top half of the cranium had been sliced to examine the brain. The only telephone bidder for the auction was a Pittsburgh physician who won the lot for $715 including the 10 percent buyer’s premium.

An Ellicott City, Md., couple, both engineers and avid collectors of hundreds of various cast-iron collectibles, would not be outbid as they sought selected vintage cast-iron doorstops, picking their pieces in top conditions and, in two instances, signed by the craftsmen.

“I told my wife I wanted the Poinsettia (designed flowered doorstop) to be placed in my coffin,” he said as he explained to AntiqueWeek that he found one at the auction in nearly perfect colored red condition. His top selections were a colorful Peacock model for $195 in very good condition and a 1922 colorful grape design, signed by a craftsman from Wilmette, Ill., for $120.

Among the doorstops was a collection of cast-iron match safes, all consigned by collectors Ron and Sylvia Carmel of Glyndon, Md.

The antique cast-iron primitive Victorian black wall mount match safes were typically used in the kitchens mounted near the gas stove for quick and easy reach. Several of the selections featured advertising and in some cases, were “giveaways” to shoppers purchasing a new gas stove. The average auction price was under $100. One match safe illustrating a ship’s captain sold for $85.

Nearly two dozen jukeboxes, vintage radios, pinball and slot machines, and other amusement park type entertainment machines, were consigned to Parzow’s by Dr. Chirag Sanghvi, a pain management physician from Frederick. One of the top sellers was a 1980s Muhammad Ali / Stern Electronic Co. pinball machine that fell to the hammer for $650 only after a few quick bids. The pinball machine featured one of Stern’s new “translight” colorful glass images, an industry first at the time. A similar Ali pinball machine is currently on eBay for $500.

A Bally’s Manufacturing Co.-designed pinball machine with the 1974 Bow and Arrow Western theme, in working condition and rated very good, sold for $350. A similar Bow and Arrow pinball machine, restored and sold by PinRescue.com, sold for $2,995, a few years ago.

A Wurlitzer 1050 45-RPM jukebox, from Dr. Sanghvi’s collection, sold for $675, in very good working condition. Wurlitzer jukeboxes can often fetch upwards of $10,000 or more, many selling on eBay and at auctions and antique shows around the country. A vintage Mills Company nickel slot machine in good working condition and loaded with nickels with its keys, sold for $900. They normally sell for upwards of thousands of dollars.

Another successful bargain hunter is a longtime doll and teddy bear Internet dealer who spent a few hundred dollars for various doll lots and scored big when she paid just $70 for a gray Margaret Steiff mohair teddy bear. Steiff bears are among the rarest in the world, made famous by turn-of-the-century German doll maker Richard Steiff.

And like most auctions across the country, there is normally an unusual item that captures a collector’s interest and becomes a must-have. In this case, one dealer dropped $35 for a bottle of Pepgen, a flavored “delightful appetizer, general invigorant, mild laxative” liquid. The mint-in-the-box bottle from 1920, with 12 percent alcohol, was produced by the American Drug Co. of Dayton, Ohio, and sold 94 years ago for $1. An identical bottle was selling on eBay for $49.99. The lot was one of more than 100 that featured small everyday household remedies or other useful items.

9/5/2014
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