All manner of classic American antiques and collectibles are be up for grabs at the Showtime Auctions Fall 2013 live auction – also taking place online at iCollector.com – Oct. 5 and 6.
Featuring items from the Don and Diane Sayrizi Lifetime Collection, as well as lots from consignors covering areas as diverse as slot machines and farm implement signs, the more than 1300 pieces to be auctioned offer collectors and appreciators an immense array of classic Americana from which to choose.
Advertising artwork
If your tastes run to antique advertising, there is more than enough to meet your desires, including pieces that go back as far as the 19th century. Several beautiful reverse glass signs, many of them for now-defunct whiskey companies, depicting scenes of early and mid-century America will add color and life to any room in your house.
Each one of them tells a story, whether it be the I.W. Harper Whiskey example showing a gentleman toasting a portrait of an ancestor (lot #1041) or a scenic view of the Commonwealth Distillery in Lexington, Ky. (lot #1038).
Another rare glass sign, this one from the Dorfinger Glass Company, which was based in White Mills, Pa., and experienced its heyday in the mid-1800s, portrays a lady with an umbrella carrying a package of E.R. Durkee salad dressing (lot #732). The stunning juxtaposition of red and white throughout the frame makes this lot one that plays a role as history, advertising and art.
Furniture and displays
Anyone looking for bigger showpieces to decorate their home will be amply supplied with choices, from the Coca-Cola salesman's sample cooler (lot #791) to a classic Coinola Nickelodeon from the Operator's Piano Company in Chicago (lot #1146). Either one of those items can transport you back to a time that can only be seen nowadays in old black and white movies.
While it's become extremely hip lately to listen to music on hi-fi record players from the 1970s, imagine how far out into the forefront of cool you will be when you take home a late-19th or early-20th century device like the coin-operated Reginaphone disc changer (lot #1147) or musicbox (lot #1148), or the Stella Grandfather Clock with music disc player (lot #1149), all of them with gorgeous light wooden finishes appropriate for their era.
You can keep the theme going by adding the circa 1897 Chicago Ridge gambling machine (lot #1180A) that literally comes with all the bells and whistles. And that's just one of many slot machines from the early days of modern gambling that you can use to turn your parlor into an old school den of iniquity.
Classic weapons
No American antiques auction would be complete without its share of firearms from the early days of gunsmithing, and this one is no different. Colt pistols from the mid-late 19th century (lots #988 and 989) are probably the most prominent pieces, but a Harper's Ferry U.S. Military muzzle loader (lot #993) is also an exquisite piece of craftsmanship.
Offering consumers a tour through U.S. history via its most breathtaking products, iCollector.com is your online shopping place for all of the finest Americana.
