Matthews Auctions will conduct a major auction prior to the Peotone show, Feb. 28-Mar. 1 Around 600 outstanding, high-value gas station and automobile signs will be featured in a Spring Petroliana & Advertising Auction scheduled for Feb. 28-Mar. 1 by Matthews Auctions, in Peotone, Ill.
News-Antique.com - Jan 09,2013 - (PEOTONE, Ill.) - Around 600 outstanding, high-value gas station and automobile signs will be featured in a Spring Petroliana & Advertising Auction scheduled for Feb. 28-Mar. 1 by Matthews Auctions, LLC, based in Nokomis, Ill. The auction will be held prior to the start of the enormously popular Chicagoland Petroliana & Advertising Show, held twice a year in Peotone.
“This auction promises to be one of the most exciting events we will stage in 2013,” said Dan Matthews of Matthews Auctions, LLC. “The sale will have fine petroliana and automobilia signs, the likes of which have not been seen at auction in recent memory. Gas station collectibles are my bread and butter, but these offerings are exceptional. It should be a memorable auction.”
The start times will be 6 p.m. (CST) on Thursday, Feb. 28, and 10 a.m. on Friday, Mar. 1. Internet bidding will be facilitated by Proxibid.com. The expected top lot of the auction is a Harbor Petroleum single-sided porcelain sign with sea plane graphics, from the Long Beach, Calif., area (est. $35,000-$40,000). The last time this sign was offered at auction it hit $55,000.
Also expected to generate intense bidder interest is a Beacon Security Lighthouse single-sided porcelain die-cut sign, in the shape of a lighthouse (est. $25,000-$35,000), a sign that has not been offered at auction in years; and a Texaco (white-T) Marine Lubricants single-sided porcelain sign with ocean scene of ships, speed boats, boyet and seagulls (est. $5,000-$7,000).
A Power-Lube Motor Oil “Smooth as a Tread of a Tiger” double-sided porcelain sign with great-looking tiger graphic isn’t an extremely rare piece, but it's hard to find one in such good condition; it's expected to realize $4,000-$5,000. Also sold will be a United Motors Service double-sided porcelain “arrow” sign, rated near-mint 9.5 on both sides (est. $5,000-$6,000).
A pair of Cadillac signs should both do extremely well. One is a Cadillac V-8/V-12/V-16 double-sided porcelain sign with both the Cadillac and La Salle logos, 24 inches by 36 inches, quite rare because it was only produced for one year (est. $20,000-$25,000); and a Cadillac Authorized Services double-sided round porcelain sign, 42 inches in diameter, rated 9 both sides.
A Mack Truck Services double-sided
porcelain sign, made in the 1920s and featuring the shovel-nose graphic typical of the truck’s front end design, rated 8 both sides, should command $15,000-$20,000; and a Packard Service double-sided porcelain sign for radiators, rare because the radiator cap at the neck is in great shape, is expected to garner between $9,000 and $12,000.
Also sold will be a Ferrari single-sided tin sign in a chrome frame, documented to have come out of the Ferrari factory in the late 1960s, rated 9+ (est. $8,000-$10,000); a Porsche Stuttgart single-sided porcelain dealer sign, circa 1960, rated 9 (est. $3,000-$4,000; and an Indian Motor Oils single-sided self-framed porcelain sign (one sign of an oil bottle rack), 9.5.
A Berliet Automobiles double-sided porcelain sign for their “locomotive” car, with train graphics, rated 8, is nearly as rare as
