Heard it through the
Grapevine Thirsty for Royal Crown Advertising? Hey, Pop, You Won’t get a Weigh Cheap Here By Ralph Finch A massive two-day coin-op and advertising auction, held in late November by Morphy Auctions of Denver, Pennsylvania, offered some 1,315 lots. Included were dolls, bears and toys, dice, jukeboxes, miniature dollhouse furniture, pinball machines, poker items, roulette wheels, slot machines (462 of them!), toy boats plus general advertising. And there were items related to cars, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, plus postcards, sewing machines, etc. Oh, and the list went on and on.
$9,000 for a scale? Pound for pound, was it a deal?
And, for heavy hitters, one item that caught my eye was lot 2458, “a great soda fountain scale from the Advertising Scales Co. Royal Crown Cola in excellent condition with signs of normal wear around the bottle cap, no cracks, original paint and plating. A wonderful example of this great collectable scale,” in excellent condition, measuring 12 by 22 by 45 inches. The one cent Advertising Scales Co. item was valued $5,000-$10,000, and required an opening bid of $2,500. It sold for $9,000, plus a 20 percent buyer’s premium. And shipping? It might be cheaper to drive to Pennsylvania and pick it up yourself. FYI 1: For more on this type of material, go to the International Arcade Museum website, “the museum of the game.” The website notes, “Advertising Scale was produced by Toledo Scale Co.” circa 1919. “Toledo Scale Co. released ten different machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1915.” However, the website also states: “Royal Crown Cola was produced by Hamilton Scale Co. in 1950. Hamilton Scale Co. released eight different machines under this trade name, starting in 1931. Other machines made by Hamilton Scale Co. during the time period Royal Crown Cola was produced include Grapette, Upper 10,
Mr. Peanut, Hamilton Model P-W, and Hamilton Person Weighing Scale.” RC Cola, short for Royal Crown Cola, is an American brand of cola-flavored soft drink developed in 1905. FYI 2: I can understand collecting small stuff. We probably all know people who collect miniature items, but big things? Really big things? Or heavy things? I’ve known several collectors of bricks (I have a few, and they are manageable until you have hundreds, even thousands of them), but anvils? I know a couple of people who have collected them. In fact, you can find anvils today on eBay, or from anvil websites. There is a lot of interest in them, even Carl Sandburg and Longfellow wrote odes to anvils. They have found their way into popular culture including episodes of Looney Tunes, and the name of a heavy metal band. Anvils have been used as percussion instruments in several famous musical compositions (Ringo Starr played one in a Beatles song). Same thing for people who collect scales. They are BIG, heavy, awkward, often ugly (the scales, not those who collect them) and, OK, I have a couple of scales, too. The author, who works for scale, can be contacted at rfinch@twmi.rr.com
This old ad would appeal to anvil fans.
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Antique Bottle & Glass Collector
