Auction Details

Morphy Auctions, the finest auction destination for fresh to the market collections, is pleased to announce this highly anticipated antique advertising sale event to be held on March 6, 2016.  Over 650 truly eye-catching and carefully curated lots will be on offer.  All selections from this sale are on display in Morphy’s auction gallery and available for preview now.

The auction opens with a razor-sharp selection of over 60 lots of fine barbershop merchandise, including shaving mugs, blades, and even an early wooden barber pole!  Collectors will unquestionably get into a lather over lot 42, a German porcelain shaving mug featuring the image of early touring car (estimated at $2,000-3,000) and lot 48, a captain’s shaving mug illustrated with a rendering of the 1883 ferry “Atlantic City,” estimated at $4,000-6,000.  The captain’s mug comes with historical documentation; both lots are detailed with their original owner’s name emblazoned in gold gilt letters.

Let’s raise a toast to this sale’s fine selection of alcohol related advertising materials.  It’s better than happy hour when it comes to the 60 lots of signs, trays, and posters on tap.  Highlights include lot 92, an all original, investment grade Buffalo Distilling Company tin litho sign featuring a wild buffalo (estimated at $15,000-30,000) and lot 97, a fabulous Cook Brewing Company tin litho advertising sign with a graphic of a older man enjoying a glass of beer, estimated at $1,200-2,400.

There’s no need to soft pedal this event’s 150 selections of non-alcoholic beverage advertising.  Collectors will find the array of soda themed trays, posters, signs, calendars, and dispensers on offer extremely refreshing.  Lot 163, a beautiful 1901 Coca Cola calendar with strong colors and richly detailed embossing is estimated at $8,000-15,000.
How about a standing ovation for lot 172, an early 1900’s Coca-Cola celluloid sign featuring opera star Lillian Nordica? This absolute rarity is estimated at $30,000-40,000.  And it’s a grand slam with lot 229,  a Drink Fan-Taz Syrup Dispenser painted to look like a baseball with a picture of bat across its front.  In a league of its own, this remarkable example includes an original pump and is estimated at $40,000-60,000.

Salesman samples are of great interest to collectors, and this auction offers two dozen rare and unusual examples. Many of these items harken back to simpler times when essentials like wagons, hay rakes, bale carriers, and water wells were part of everyday life.  Lot 315, a very early salesman sample wood and metal horse drawn plow, is a hardworking highlight of this category.  It is very well made, has a great patina, and is estimated at $350-650.

Antique advertising sign and poster enthusiasts need look no further than this sale for the finest selections in these categories.  Examples promoting food, clothing, shoes, hardware, domestic items, social organizations, professional services, pharmaceuticals, tobacco items, and many other specialties have especially high visibility.  It’s easy to see why lot 488, an Aultman Taylor Thresher advertising poster featuring a vibrantly colored booming farm (estimated at $3,000-6,000) and lot 502, an Osborne Farm Implements advertising poster with an incredible image of a ferris wheel, estimated at $2,500-5,000, are highlights.  And collectors will be saying “M’mm M’mm Good” about lot 563, a curved porcelain Campbell’s Tomato Soup sign.  This hard to find, all original sign in excellent-plus condition is estimated at $4,000-7,000.

According to Dan Morphy, President of Morphy Auctions, “This upcoming auction features some of the finest antique advertising examples to hit the market in recent memory.  Enthusiasts will find extraordinary examples – and temptations – across every major category and specialty.  Our offering of soda-related merchandise is particularly strong here.  And I encourage bidders to check out this event’s amazing group of shaving mugs. They are visually stunning and don’t take up too much space.  I know that’s a growing concern for all collectors – myself included!