Page 10 - May-JOA-22

WHAT’S SELLING ON eBay
WHAT’S SELLING ON eBay

by Philip Hawkins and Mike McLeod

$500 (47 bids, 8 bidders): Antique 1929 Popeye Pipes Milton Candy PH: Red Wing is a pottery company founded in 1861 in Red Wing, MN, by
Co., Cleveland OH, Box Animation Cartoon. Popeye Pipes candy John Paul, a German immigrant. There have been variations of the company
box by Milton Candy Co. copyright 1929 by name, along with acquisitions and mergers, and it also produced items under
King Syndicate. Love the graphics! This box various other trade names until settling on Red Wing Potteries, Inc. in 1936.
does show its age. The front edge of the lid is A pottery company continues today using the names Red Wing Pottery and
missing. There is some edge and corner separa- Red Wing Stoneware.
tion and a little water staining on the bottom Red Wing manufactured utilitarian stoneware, art pottery, and dinner-
of the lid. There is some edge wear and ware from 1861 until 1967. The company made pig figurines and other
surface wear and paper litho wear. It still looks novelties as early as 1885 but this work was insignificant compared to the
wonderful … just shows its age. (Photos huge quantity of stoneware produced. Turn-of-the-century production at
courtesy of eBay seller hat-trick.) Red Wing was diversified; Red Wing was making spittoons, umbrella
holders, jardinieres, and garden ware, and the art pottery craze of the late
19th century led Red Wing to make its first true art ware.
The pigs turn up with some regularity at auction—the Albany Slip
Brown glaze being the most common—and usually realize $100-$400
depending on condition. More unusual color glazes drive prices upward.
Seeck Auctions reported selling nine examples in their November 2021
auction with two non-brown, glazed examples leading the prices at $1,450
and $1,600.
Maple City Pottery recreated a Monmouth Pottery pig for the Red
PH: This item falls into the category of ephemera: paper items (and some Wing Collectors Society for its convention/commemorative figure in 2010
other materials) that were only intended for short lifespans. In this case, once in three glazes, but it is stamped as such on the underside and has become
the candy was gone, the box would have been disposed of. a collectible in itself.
I could find no specific or historic references for Milton Candy Co. of
Cleveland online, which was a bit of a surprise. Popeye Pipes was a candy
cigarette, and Milton was not the only producer using the sailor man’s image $968 (52 bids, 12 bidders): Antique Bicycle/ Motorcycle Push Plunger
and name. Primrose in Chicago was making them into the 1990s. Currently, Klaxon Ahooga Horn Black. Very old. This vintage antique horn is very
Popeye candy sticks are available on Amazon and are imported from Canada. heavy-duty steel and weighs just over 1 lb. The horn works very well when
Most candy cigarettes have been renamed as “sticks” or just candy and, pushing down on the lever button on top; it is very loud and will certainly
many countries have outlawed realistic candy cigarettes and cigars to curtail get people to move out of the way with the awooga sound projected!
children thinking smoking is cool. Has a clamp on the bottom for mounting on handlebars. (Photos
I could not find any of the Popeye Pipes boxes having sold in the last five courtesy of eBay seller jedireturn.)
years, but Hakes Auction of York, PA, sold an identical box in much better
condition in January 2010 for $196 on a presale estimate of $200-$400.

$5,350 (36 bids, 9 bidders): Antique Red Wing Stoneware Pig
Figurine. Rare and Early from Estate. An awesome antique Red Wing
stoneware pig figurine, from a Wisconsin estate. This adorable porker is an
early piece of Red Wing, circa 1890-1920 Era, I believe. She features the dark
brown “Albany Slip” glaze over the bisque stoneware. She measures about
7 1/2 inches long by 3 3/8 inches high and weighs close to 1 pound 3 ounces.
From an estate sale here in Wisconsin. This piggy is showing her age, but
the flaws aren’t easily seen, due to her spotted coat. (Photos courtesy of eBay
seller noclue202)
PH: A Klaxon is a type of horn, and it was also a brand of horn. In the first
klaxons, the mechanism was driven by hand (plunger or crank) or by an
electric/battery motor. Miller Reese Hutchison patented the mechanism in
1908. The Lovell-McConnell Manufacturing Company of Newark, NJ,
bought the rights to the device, and Franklyn Hallett Lovell, Jr., the
company founder, coined the name klaxon from the ancient Greek
verb klazō, meaning “I shriek.” Klaxons were first fitted to automobiles
at General Motors and to bicycles in 1908. These horns produce a
distinctive, identifiable sound, often transcribed in English as “awooga.”
Electronic versions have long since replaced the plunger type, and that
distinctive sound is still used.
Kraft Auction Service sold a working plunger example for $160 in
January 2021. While this example fetched $968 on eBay, many other eBay
sales have been reported in the last 90 days with realized prices in the range
of $100 to $350 depending on condition.
8 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles