1,260-lot sale includes brewery, automotive, tobacco, Mr. Peanut, many other categories

DENVER, Pa. – A wealth of rare antique signs, figures and other promotional items from the golden era of advertising is currently on display at Morphy’s central Pennsylvania gallery, all to be auctioned on Friday and Saturday, April 20-21. The 1,260-lot sale incorporates a fantastic array of signage, with the centerpiece being the revered Coca-Cola advertising collection of the late Michael Narvaez. Also featured are Moxie items from the Dick Shay collection, as well as other soda pop lots.

 

The Friday session begins with a collection of 120 occupational shaving mugs. Top lots include mugs with depictions of a steam pump, horse-drawn delivery wagon and an open-air truck. Additionally, a rare mug with a photographic image of a steam accessory will be offered.

 

More than 80 figural cast-iron doorstops, doorknockers, bookends and other novelties will follow. Among the most coveted doorstops are a standing frog, standing honey bear and rabbit. Other standouts in the group include a cast-iron Nichols doorknocker, est. 0-,000; and two carnival targets – a paratrooper, ,000-,000; and a mechanical owl, ,000-,000.

 

Highlights among the 170 lots of general store and mixed advertising include a near-pristine Skinner’s Satin (Holyoke, Mass.) oval sign with the image of an Indian in a full headdress. It is the only example Morphy’s experts have ever seen and is estimated at ,000-,000.

 

An embossed tin Sweet Orr Overalls sign is in near-mint condition and expected to make ,000-,000; while an extremely rare 1905 Beeman’s Pepsin Gum wood-framed tin sign that came directly from the Beeman’s factory could make ,000-,000. The ever-popular Mr. Peanut weighs in at the auction with a ,000-,000 estimate for a beautiful 3½-ft. figural Hamilton scale in original, untouched condition. It is one of 30 Planters Mr. Peanut items to be offered by Morphy’s. Many other popular characters are depicted within the lineup of 50+ advertising figures to be auctioned.

 

Collectors of tobacco-related advertising will find plenty of tempting items in this sale, like the circa-1880s Pride of Durham Smoking Tobacco tin [Wells & Hope Co.] with a lion motif, ,000-,000. Another beauty in the tobacciana grouping is the circa-1910 Stein Club Havana Cigars sign in excellent condition with strong colors.

 

“We’ve estimated the Stein Club sign at ,000-,000, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it went higher,” said Morphy’s CEO Dan Morphy. “A few years ago a different example of this very scarce sign sold for over ,000.”

 

The effervescent Saturday session will focus predominantly on the 400 lots of Coca-Cola advertisements, ephemera and other rare and desirable Coke items from the collection of the late Michael Narvaez.

 

Well liked by his fellow collectors, Michael Narvaez had a passion for collecting that blossomed after his retirement from the Coca-Cola Co. in 1979. Michael and his wife, Joyce, became restaurateurs and decorated their Salinas, Calif., establishment The Recipe Box exclusively with beautiful antique and vintage signage and promotional items for the world’s favorite soft drink. Their collection encompassed festoons, lighted signs, clocks, posters and calendars.

 

Morphy’s specialist in Coca-Cola advertising, Gary Metz, said Narvaez loved sharing his collection and was “a responsible custodian of anything he acquired…handcrafting beautiful walnut frames and using either museum glass or UV-filtering Plexiglas to protect and preserve the calendars and advertising he framed.”

 

One of the top pieces in the Narvaez collection is a matted and framed 1898 calendar, one of very few known, featuring a beauty of the day and estimated at ,000-,000. An 1899 Coke calendar, est. ,000-,000, is another of the more than 60 Coke calendars in the sale. The calendars span a pop culture timeline that begins in 1898 and runs through the 1940s. Another rarity, a 1910 Coke poster is estimated at ,000-,000.

 

An incredible 2-piece window display from 1937 stands 4 ft. tall and depicts a revolving door with a trompe-l’oeil view inside a restaurant and soda fountain. Advertising “The Pleasantest Place in Town,” this colorful slice of Main Street American nostalgia carries a presale estimate of ,000-,000.

 

A Coca-Cola leaded-glass hanging globe made by Metropolitan Glass Company is one of only about a half dozen known examples. “All that are known came out of New York,” said Morphy. “This one was in a soda shop in Queens. When it closed, the owners gave the globe to their Coca-Cola deliveryman as a gift. It has remained in the man’s family ever since, passing down through three generations.” Estimate: ,000-,000.

 

The remainder of the session is devoted to Moxie items from the collection of Dick Shay, a now-retired Ohio native who spent many years scouring the United States for the rarest and best pieces available. An elusive Moxie tip tray from the early 1900s is estimated at ,400-,800. Leading the selection of general soda pop advertising in Saturday’s session is an embossed tin Modox sign in excellent-plus condition. It features the image of an Indian in full headdress and is expected to reach ,000-,000.

 

Both the April 20 and 21 auction sessions will commence at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. All forms of bidding will be available, including live via the Internet through Morphy Live or LiveAuctioneers.com. View the fully illustrated catalog online at www.morphyauctions.com or www.liveauctioneers.com. For additional information, call 717-335-3435 or e-mail serena@morphyauctions.com. Visit Morphy Auctions online at www.morphyauctions.com.

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CHADDS FORD, Pa. – The walls at William H. Bunch’s auction gallery are alive with color, in preparation for a Tuesday, May 3 auction of nearly 400 paintings and other fine-quality works by American and European artists. Three primary consignors were the source for the vibrant and varied selection of American Impressionist art – including Bucks County/New Hope School; Old Masters and other Continental pictures; and illustration art.

The single-owner collection of Bucks County/Pennsylvania art features paintings by some of the most collected artists of the genre. Highlights include Bucks County Bridge, an oil-on-canvas winter landscape by Walter Emerson Baum (1884-1956); a dramatic circa-1925 oil-on-board seascape depicting Pigeon Cove, Mass., by George William Sotter (1879-1953); and an atmospheric snow scene of a horse-drawn sleigh entering a covered bridge by Edward Willis Redfield (1869-1965). Redfield’s oil-on-panel painting is titled From Lumberville to Raven Rock and dates to around 1915. It was authenticated by Dr. Thomas Folk, who also documented its trail of provenance.

A highly important New Hope school artwork by Charles Rosen (1878-1950) is titled Delaware Thawing (Delaware Quarries). The 32- by 40-inch oil on canvas is artist-signed and dated “Charles Rosen ’06” and has a long and distinguished history of exhibition, including at the Phillip’s Mill Community Association’s 75th Anniversary Retrospective Art Exhibition of 1983. An exceptional painting that showcases Rosen’s mastery of pastel tones, it is expected to make 0,000-0,000.

Other Pennsylvania art includes Robert Spencer’s (1879-1931) oil on canvas painted around 1917-18 titled Waterloo Row and S. George Phillips’ (1890-1965) oil-on-board picture from the 1930s titled New England Coast. Auctioneer William Bunch observed that the Pennsylvania art collection “presents beautifully – each painting has been well conserved and tastefully framed.”

An exciting addition to the sale is the collection of illustration art from the living estate of Richard C. Baldwin (b. 1911-). Now 90 years old, Baldwin studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia under Walker Hancock and George Harding. Upon the advice of fellow student N.C. Wyeth, Baldwin headed west in his youth to fulfill a dream he harbored. “He boarded a train and traveled to places where he could paint scenes of cowboys, Indians and Mexican culture as witnessed firsthand,” said Bunch. That period of Baldwin’s career is reflected in several paintings to be auctioned on May 3, including the 30- by 46-inch Stage Holdup and the animated market scene measuring 32- by 56-inches and titled Guadalupe, Mexico.

After his sojourn to the West, Baldwin returned to Philadelphia where he worked as a commercial artist for the advertising agency N.W. Ayer. He would subsequently serve as master sculptor and design director for Franklin Mint, working collaboratively with Norman Rockwell on the company’s respected Boy Scout series and Bicentennial medals.

“Richard Baldwin has had a very successful and diverse career,” said Bunch. “When his son called and asked if we would auction his father’s collection, we knew we would see an interesting cross section of art. Mr. Baldwin worked in nearly every medium and was adept in every style he embraced, from Western and commercial art to 1950s street gangster art and even cheesecake.”

Bunch said the most difficult aspect of cataloging the Baldwin collection was placing values on the various works. “There are people out there who definitely known Richard Baldwin’s name, but his art hasn’t appeared at auction; it’s untested in the marketplace. This sale will be a nice opportunity for collectors to buy excellent-quality illustration art at a fair price. Most of the lots are estimated in the 0 to 0 range.”

Another strong component of the sale is the collection of approximately one dozen Old Masters from a long-held Texas collection. An unidentified 17th/18th-century oil on canvas of the Madonna with Child surrounded by cherubs measures 47 by 38 inches and is presented in a heavy, horsehair-reinforced gilt frame. “This is a painting that could easily be on the wall of The Louvre or some other great museum,” said Bunch, who has estimated it at ,000-,000.

Other Old Masters to be offered run the gamut from simple portraits of men in period dress to large, exotic garden scenes painted by a follower of Melchior D’Hondecoeter (Dutch, 1636-1695). Two luxuriant oils created by the latter artist are entered in the sale, each measuring 64½ by 98½ inches. One of the paintings features cockatoos and other tropical birds in its foreground, while the other depicts peacocks and flamingos amid lush foliage, flowers and fruit trees.

“This collection is going to be a real treasure hunt for people who pay attention to Old Masters. Something here is going to catch fire,” Bunch predicted.

A religious-themed highlight from the array of Continental art is Ecce Homo, an oil on canvas of Christ in the Crown of Thorns, painted in the manner of Guido Reni (Italian, 1575-1642). The 20½- by 18½-inch oil on canvas is presented in a heavy molded-plaster gilt rococo frame with an Uruguayan gallery label that reads: “Arts Dorados Artistico.”

British art is led by a Charles Spencelayh (1865-1958) artist-signed oil on canvas, 18 by 14 inches, titled Matchstick Boy. As its name suggests, the circa-1900 painting depicts a young boy – rosy cheeked and dressed in rain gear – peddling a box of matches.

The sale selection is rounded out by several fine bronzes, including an Ignatius Taschner (German, 1871-1913) sculpture titled Young Woman on Bull, and a bronze bust titled Cuauhtemoc, Aztec Ruler of Tenochtitlan, circa 1520-21.

All forms of bidding will be available for the auction, which commences at 12 noon Eastern time on Tuesday, May 3, including live in the gallery, absentee, by phone or live via the Internet through LiveAuctioneers.com and The-Saleroom.com.

To contact the gallery, call 610-558-1800 or e-mail info@williambunchauctions.com. Visit the William H. Bunch website at www.williambunchauctions.com.

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