By Pete Prunkl BOONE, N.C. — What do you do when Hurricane Florence is aimed at your auction? If you are Travis Wilson of Broken Arch Auction Gallery, you wait. That meant Al Blakeman’s 318 clocks, signs, toys, vending machines, trays and petroliana stayed in Boone two weeks longer than planned. Wilson knew that even the threat of a storm keeps Southerners at home and hunkered down. The delay paid off. There were sunny skies and enthusiastic bidders from the Carolinas, Alabama, Virginia and Florida in the Blue Ridge Mountains Sept. 29. At age 85, Blakeman was ready to move to Florida, but did not want to take a collection that inhabited a 30 by 60 foot storage building on his property. For as long as he can remember, Blakeman loved soft drink and automobile advertising. He even had his name added to the face of a Chevrolet dealership clock. That personalized clock, one of Blakeman’s favorites, sold for $1,567. All prices include a 10 percent buyer’s premium. There was never any doubt as to the sale’s top lot. Visitors to the Broken Arch website were bidding a month prior to the sale and a 30-inch Champion Spark Plus neon clock took an early and unbeatable lead. Adding to its appeal was a 4-inch red and white “Dependable” endorsement on top. Almost everything in the sale opened at $50, including this clock which sold to an onsite bidder for $3,080. Among the 63 Coca-Cola lots, the leader at $2,805 was a 1954 Vendo Model 39 five-cent vending machine in working order. That is the model with the internal vertically-mounted roulette wheel bottle dispenser. Included with the machine was its original service manual. A Coke Vendo Model 44 10-cent machine from the 1950s brought $2,585. The top Coke lot that was not a vending machine was a 3-foot diameter new old stock embossed button sign that went for $852. Perhaps the oldest Coke lot in the sale was a 15¾-inch thermometer dated 1939. With a circular silhouette of a woman drinking from a coke bottle, it sold for $341. A circa 1940 brown and red Drink Coca-Cola clock with gold numbers and transparent hands went to $110. The sign that brought top dollar was a sentimental favorite: The Lone Ranger and Silver galloping over the top of a loaf of Merita bread. The 24 by 30-inch thin metal sign with prominent nail holes top and bottom sold for $2,255. The top oil-related sign was a massive 42 by 72 inch porcelain single-sided Gulf Marine with an arrow pointing the way to the dealer. With block letters in an orange oval, it sold for $1,650. Blakeman had 13 Buddy L trucks in his collection. They ranged in price from $110 for a Mack dump truck with various nicks and scrapes to $1,677 for a near-mint black-painted coal truck with silver and red wheels. Perhaps the winner of the People Choice Award was a “steam powered” Buddy L concrete mixer with long side chute from the 1920s. It sold for $396. Broken Arch Auction Gallery, in business since 2012, is located at 1098 Newstock Road, Weaverville, North Carolina 28787. For information on sales, contact Travis Wilson at (828) 713-8869 or visit www.brokenarchgallery.com. |