Over 2,000 quality lots will be offered at Showtime Auction Services, Oct. 5-7 The lifetime collection of Robert and Harriett Potter – a vast accumulation of fire fighting memorabilia and other items, spanning 50-plus years – will be sold Oct. 5-7 by Showtime Auction Services.
News-Antique.com - Jul 24,2012 - (ANN ARBOR, Mich.) – The lifetime collection of Robert and Harriett Potter – a vast accumulation of fire fighting memorabilia and other items, spanning 50-plus years – will be sold Oct. 5-7 by Showtime Auction Services, at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds located at 5055 Ann Arbor/Saline Road in Ann Arbor, Mich. 48180. Around 2,000 lots of investment-grade antiques and collectibles will change hands that weekend.
Also offered will be Part 2 of the outstanding lifetime pedal car and toy collection of Ed and Christie Ramsey (Part 1 was sold by Showtime March 30-April 1). Another headliner will be Session 5 of one of the best tobacco and cigar tin collections ever offered at auction. Other items culled from select collections and estates across the country will also sell. The first day of the auction, Oct. 5, will be a live audience-only session, featuring 600 lots.
“I am extremely excited about this sale,” said Mike Eckles of Showtime Auction Services. “If all we had was the Potter collection, it would be a fine auction, but when you add to that Part 2 of Ed and Christie Ramsey, plus the tobacco and cigar tin collection, plus items from over one hundred other consignors, then what you have is our best auction ever.”
Days two and three (Saturday, Oct. 6, and Sunday, Oct. 7) will feature live and Internet bidding (facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com and iCollector.com). Absentee and phone bids will also be accepted. The host hotel is Weber’s Inn in Ann Arbor. Early reservations are suggested because of other activities at the University of Michigan. To reserve a room, call (734) 769-2500. Mention Showtime Auction Services and the Oct. 5-7 auction event to get a reduced room rate.
The auction will showcase a galaxy of items, certain to appeal to just about any collector, from the novice to the seasoned veteran. In addition to toys, pedal cars, fire fighting memorabilia and tobacco and cigar tin items, there will be country store, barber shop, a very rare salesman’s sample collection, saloon, gambling, coin-op, advertising signs, cash registers and more.
Also offered will be music items (to include a Fairground band organ), many lamps (to include Tiffany, Handel and Pairpoint), farm-related items, elaborate early American furniture, showcases, a doctor’s and dentist’s cabinet (both pre-1900), rare weather vanes and more. The toys will feature pressed steel and Chein tin examples, as well as rare Fisher-Price toys and more.
“Showtime Auction Services continues to bring to the auction arena the most diverse selection of antiques ever offered for sale,” Mr. Eckles remarked. “This auction is no exception.”
One of the nearly dozen fire apparatus pieces in the sale will be a 1922 Bull Nose Mack fire chemical ladder truck (est. $25,000-$50,000). Vehicles of the toy variety will include a circa 1920s Gendron Willys Knight Pioneer line pedal car in all original condition (est. $5,000-$10,000); and a Toledo Buick pressed steel toy car in excellent shape (est. $10,000-$15,000).
Music-related lots will feature an 1899 Symphonium Eroica triple
