Date: Fri 26-Mar-1999

Publication: Ant

Author: CAROLL

Quick Words:

Nichols

Full Text:

Primitive Gun At Nichols

with 1 cut

By Rita Easton

PORT JERVIS, N.J. -- Roger La Carrubba of R.J. Nichols Auction Company

reported attendance of over 200 at the firm's January 15 estates auction. More

than 450 lots crossed the block, the core consignments being from two New

Jersey estates, one located in Tranquility and one in Lafayette.

Fetching the highest bid of $2,300, a late Eighteenth Century blanket chest in

walnut, with refinishing done at the turn-of-the-century, went to a private

bidder.

A dealer/collector won a market hunter's gun, also known as a punt gun, at

$1,300.

"Hunters would load this blunderbuss-like gun with whatever was available,"

said Carrubba, "and blast a whole flock, getting as many as they could at one

time. It was fairly primitive, as most of them are."

A penny-a-game peep show, in the form of a bare shouldered girl standing in a

barrel, sold at $1,100. The electricity-driven lot, which stood 48- feet high,

promised in a sign on the barrel "a collection of shapely pin-ups." When the

onlooker dropped a penny in the slot, a clothesline appeared with a row of

clothes pins attached.

A Mills 10 cents slot machine reached $750; a moosehead mount brought $800; a

Wurlitzer jukebox went to a dealer/collector at $1,050 for the Model 600; a

Sheraton card table in mahogany achieved $675; and a Victorian lamp, with

beaded fringe decorating the floral motif glass shade, the lot standing 20-

inches high, reached $350.

A Gone-with-the-Wind lamp with milk glass base, having a globe of frosted

etched to clear over a chimney, made $400, and a 1950s reproduction lamp, with

leaded glass shade over a Miller & Co base, garnered $400.

Standing seven-feet high, a carved, mahogany, larger-than-life figure poised

with a harpoon, brought back by a merchant marine at the turn of the century

from the Philippines, brought $1,000; and a collection of memorabilia having

belonged to Confederate officer John Mosby, also known at "the Grey Ghost,"

included an autographed photo, which sold at $300, and three Nineteenth

Century books describing Mosby's career, which sold as one lot for $350.

An early Stieff windup polychrome bird, of carved wood and felt, which

traveled on wheels and squeaked when wound, brought $425; and a Marx windup

"Mysterious Pluto" went out at $225.

Prices quoted do not reflect a ten percent buyers premium.