(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – Two outstanding 35-year collections to be sold without reserve, featuring items in many categories, will be included in a specialty auction slated for Saturday, Sept. 21, at 11 a.m. (EST), by Fontaine’s Auction Gallery, in the firm’s gallery located at 1485 West Housatonic Street in Pittsfield. Approximately 450 fresh to the market lots will be offered.

The 35-year collections – one from Jerry and Doris Soldner of Kingston, N.Y., the other from a collector in the Elk Mountain region of northern Pennsylvania – will headline the event, the first of three major auctions planned by Fontaine’s. The firm will also conduct a cataloged antique auction on Saturday, Oct. 19, and an antique clock sale on Saturday, Nov. 23.

The Sept. 21 auction will feature musical items (rare Victrolas, gramophones, music boxes, phonographs, jukeboxes and speakers), automatons, coin-op, country store, advertising, slot machines, toys, arcade games, vending and soda machines, cash registers, wall phones, trade stimulators, tin litho, signs and posters, display cases, scales, figural canes, bicycles and more.

“The two major collections are certain to attract bidders, for two reasons,” said John Fontaine of Fontaine’s Auction Gallery. “One, they have been tucked away in homes for over 35 years and are just now seeing the light of day, so they’re truly fresh to the market. And two, both will be sold without reserve. These are wonderful items, many of them rare and very desirable.”

Previews will be held on Friday, Sept. 20, from 10-5, and Saturday, Sept. 21, the date of sale, from 9 a.m. until the first gavel comes down at 11 a.m. For bidders unable to attend the sale live, Internet bidding will be provided by both LiveAuctioneers.com and Artfact.com. Phone and absentee bids will also be accepted. A full catalog will be posted Aug. 21 at fontainesauction.net.

At least 30 floor model jukeboxes will be offered, to include a 1941 Wurlitzer model 850 jukebox, also called “The Peacock” because it features a brilliant peacock reverse painted on glass. It also boasts an arched top with chromed filigree mounts. Also sold will be a Wurlitzer table model 71 jukebox on stand (1940), 58 inches tall and taking nickels, dimes and quarters.

One item sure to wow the crowd is a circa 1900 Yale Wonder Clock, made in Burlington, Vt. The coin-operated mechanical marvel sports a roulette-type dial, spinning pointer, flashing lights, 15 ½ inch Regina music box and token system designed to reward a lucky patron with merchandise from the store where the machine was displayed. It is one of only a handful known.

Phonographs will feature a rare Burns & Pollack Lampophone phonograph, with electric-driven disc turntable with Burns Capitol reproducer, brass tone arm, three needle bins and single interior light socket; and a Victor mahogany Type VI phonograph and stand in original finish, signed on a brass tag “Victor Talking Machine Co.” and with a 12-inch spring-driven turntable.

Also sold will be a custom paint-decorated butler’s secretary cabinet with electric model Victrola, having a painted green cabinet with gilt carved moldings and trim and a fancy gilt carved base in scrolling legs; and an oak Victor Type V phonograph with a 12-inch turntable, rear-mounted oak horn, black painted support arm with gilt stenciling and a nickel tone arm.

Coin-op machines will feature a 1-cent floor model Mills Perfect Muscle Developer, with a portrait of a man flexing his muscles and reading, “Show Your Strength,” over an index chart comparing average strength-to-weight ratios; and a circa 1939 C.R. Kirk & Co. free weight coin-op scale, with a red hand pointing to the “guessed” weight and black hand for “actual weight.”

Cash registers will include an inlaid National Cash Register (Dayton, Oh.) having a beautiful mahogany case with carved trim, 25 lever buttons and a domed lid with shell and swirling inlays. Also sold will be an early 20th century Royal Typewriter advertising display, a functional model mounted with a pressed tin store advertising display sign.

Graphophones (phonographs for recording and reproducing sounds on wax records) will be plentiful throughout the sale. Examples will include a Columbia Type BC graphophone with large-size oak case and large mechanically amplified reproducer; and a Columbia Type AD Home Grand gramophone on a stand, having an oak case with fancy domed, patented Dec. 1898.

Also offered will be a Graphonola DeLuxe with serpentine form floor-standing mahogany case holding a Regina music box playing 15 ½ inch discs on a double combed spring-driven mechanism signed with a metal tag on the soundboard; and a Chicago Coin’s Band Box jukebox orchestra speaker deluxe model 1951, with an animated band that plays when the curtain is open.

Rounding out just some of the day’s expected top lots are a Seeburg “Shoot the Bear” arcade game with a bear figure that runs around a cluster of trees with a hound chasing it, and a rifle that fires a laser at the display; and a double singing bird cage automaton with a pair of mechanical birds inside a brass cage that flick their tails, move their heads and whistle a tune.

The Oct. 19 antique auction will feature furniture made by J.H. Belter, Herter Brothers, R.J. Horner, J. & J.W. Meeks, Alexander Roux, John Jeliff, Thomas Brooks the Wooten Desk Co., and others. Lighting will be from Tiffany Studios, Duffner & Kimberly, Handel, Pairpoint and others. Also sold will be gasoliers, argand lamps, astral lamps and cut glass banquet lamps.

The Oct. 19 auction will also boast bronzes, marble statuary, parian figures, paintings, cameo glass, art glass, porcelains, sterling silver, garden urns, leaded windows and hundreds of related and decorative accessories. Headlining the sale will be the unreserved contents of the home, shop and personal collection of David Marshall of Brooklyn, N.Y. Quality consignments are being accepted for this auction.

The Nov. 23 antique clock auction will contain many rare and important clocks from several prominent collections. A featured item in this auction will be an E. Howard & Co. #68 astronomical regulator clock from the original family. Quality consignments are actively being sought for this important sale as well.

With over 40 years in the auction business, Fontaine’s Auction Gallery is a name that has earned the trust of collectors, investors and gallery owners around the world. Cataloged lots get nationwide exposure to the firm’s expansive database of over 15,000 qualified buyers. Seven times Fontaine’s Auction Gallery has been voted “Best Antique Auction Gallery” by the public.

Fontaine’s Auction Gallery is actively seeking quality consignments for all future sales. The firm also buys antiques and entire estates outright. To consign an item, estate or collection, call (413) 448-8922 and ask for John Fontaine. Or, e-mail him at info@fontaineauction.com. For more information about the three big upcoming auctions, log on to www.FontainesAuction.net.

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