Model Autocar and Toy Chariot Pace Julia Auction

Mark Sisco | November 30th, 2012

Very rare Ives hippodrome horse racing chariot toy from the 1880’s, one of only a few known extant, $69,000.

This scale model of an Autocar military transport vehicle from the World War I era sold for $57,500.

From the late 1800’s, this Ives horse-head three-wheeled velocipede had a young boy for a driver, with his hands attached to the push/pull propelling rods. Despite some condition problems, including a vertical head crack and only a partial box, bidding opened easily at $15,000, well above the $7000/9000 estimate, and it cruised up to $25,300.

This salesman’s sample hay loader represented a piece of farm equipment that was pulled behind a horse team. The tines raked up the hay, which was then transported up a chain-driven elevator to be deposited into a wagon. An applied metal plaque indicated that a patent had been applied for, but it didn’t specify when or by whom. It almost doubled the estimate, closing at $11,800. Julia photo.

James D. Julia, Fairfield, Maine

James D. Julia’s toy, doll, and advertising auction in Fairfield, Maine, on November 30, 2012, which totaled nearly $900,000, came the day after a two-day lamp and glass auction that tallied up to $1.6 million. Two and a half million dollars isn’t shabby for three days of auctioneering. For the toys, dolls, and advertising, only about 87 of the more than 670 lots didn’t move, for a decent sell-through rate of about 87%.

An 1888 albumen photograph of Coca-Cola Company founder Asa Griggs Candler (1851-1929) and formula inventor Dr. John Pemberton (1831-1888) is perhaps the seminal Coca-Cola collectible as it is believed to be the only photographic likeness in existence of the two men together. They stand with several other gentlemen in the doorway of the Asa G. Candler drugstore in Atlanta, Georgia. Pemberton was a Confederate veteran and pharmacist who became addicted to morphine as a result of a war wound. His experimentation with coca and coca wines to make a cure for his addiction led to his formulation. He blended it with carbonated water and decided to market it as a fountain drink rather than a medicine. He used the alliterative name Coca-Cola, coined by his secretary Frank Mason Robinson. In 1887 Candler bought the formula from Pemberton and several other shareholders for $500, an investment that subsequently made him a millionaire.

In 1910 Candler ordered all previous corporate records to be destroyed, but the photograph survived. It was accompanied by a copy of Candler’s biography, published in 1950. It was authored by his son Charles Howard Candler (1878-1957) and inscribed by the author to his son Charles Howard Candler, Jr. The image was reproduced in the book in the form of a mid-20th-century Kodak “Velox” black-and-white silver bromide photo taken from the original. Charles Candler states in the book that he believed the photo was taken on the same day that his father completed his purchase. Pemberton’s name appears on the corner window advertising another drink called “Lemon Orange E.” He died about four months after the photograph was taken.

“Many people are saying ‘Is it Pemberton or isn’t it?’” department head Andrew Truman admitted before the sale, “but there’s no doubt that it’s Candler.” The unique photographic image sold for $17,825 (with buyer’s premium), far less than the $50,000/75,000 estimate.

A scale model of an Autocar military transport vehicle built by the Autocar Company of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, in 1915 was one of two salesman’s samples built for a commercial vehicle show in New York City. At 51" long, it was a quarter-size model handmade by Autocar mechanics to the specifications of a full-size two-ton truck, which became known as “The Mule” in World War I Europe. It was in its original olive-drab paint surface and factory lettering. Only one other is known to exist, housed in an unspecified auto museum. Fully detailed right down to the klaxon horn, leather seat cushions, and miniature grease fittings, the Mule was one of the leading sellers of the auction, finishing within the $45,000/65,000 estimate for $57,500.

There was an interesting acquisition story behind an Ives clockwork hippodrome toy. A local auctioneer not far from Julia’s brought it in after acquiring it from an estate. He suspected it might be of some value, but he didn’t know exactly what it was, and neither did Julia’s department head Andrew Truman. Both agreed that it was probably an early Ives. Truman e-mailed photos to Julia’s toy consultant Jay Lowe of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a veteran collector and dealer for over 45 years, who immediately recognized it as the Ives “Hippodrome” from the 1880’s. It had been illustrated in the Ives Blakeslee jobber catalog of 1893. The auction catalog suggested that only two other examples have surfaced in the past 20 years and noted that this one was probably the best. A woman drives the chariot pulled by two tin horses. The horses had painted tack, and the chariot had two applied ormolu Roman-style figures on horseback. The driver is composed of a stamped brass face mounted on a wooden dowel and wears a red cotton gown and felt hat. The working mechanism drives the horses with an eccentric cam giving them a prancing motion. The “Hippodrome” name came from the Greek word for a horse and chariot racing stadium. When the hammer came down, the toy became the day’s best seller, easily crushing the $20,000/30,000 estimate to close at $69,000.

Albumen photograph of Coca-Cola inventor Dr. John Pemberton and company founder Asa Griggs Candler, posing in front of Candler’s pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, 1888, $17,825.

Portrait-type Jumeau doll, marked only with a numeral “12,” with blue paperweight eyes, double chin, and applied pierced ears on an unmarked but fully jointed wood and composition French body, sold within estimate for $16,100.

An 11-piece Buddy “L” outdoor train set, circa 1930, in virtually untouched condition. The intact black paint on top of the rails suggested that nobody had even played with it. Supposedly it was first purchased with all the cars, but two duplicates were removed and sold separately. With a cattle car, two flat cars, an ore-carrying car, caboose, engine and tender, and several others, it left the station on schedule within the $15,000/25,000 estimate for $23,000. “Not only is it the finest we’ve ever had,” auctioneer Julia offered, “It’s the finest I’ve ever seen!”

Just Keep Your (Better) Trap Shut!

Ralph Waldo Emerson is believed to have said in a lecture, “If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.” But what would happen if that man built about 20 better traps, plus a score or two of fly traps? That’s about how many patent model animal and fly traps Julia offered. It’s hard to tell if any of them were commercially viable, or even if they ever trapped any creatures at all. But they definitely displayed some wild imagination.

Here’s a trap of the Havahart variety. It was patented by Harmon F. Lushbaugh and O.L. Hurd on November 24, 1868. On one end is a one-way rotating barred turnstile leading to a caged holding area with a barred window. Probably a good idea, if you could figure out a way to give each rodent a nickel so he could deposit it and get in. It brought $517.50. Julia photo.

This trap patented by G.W. Gibson on May 1, 1877, was a wooden box filled with a series of internal compartments and spring-loaded gates that a confused rodent could get lost in. Maybe that was the idea. It brought $690. Julia photo.

For more information, call (207) 453-7125 or go on line (www.jamesdjulia.com).

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