The Live Free or Die antique tool auction on April 18‱9 was a successful two-day sale of tools and other working antiques from earlier times. Martin Donnelly has been conducting these auctions of antique tools and related materials since 2001, and his format has been a multiday sale with a tool show for visiting sellers and bidders running concurrently. This most recent sale was at the Holiday Inn, where there were also about 50 dealers set up for selling in a carnival-like atmosphere in the back lot of the inn.
Kay Baker, an antiques dealer from Amherst, Mass., seen at many general antiques shows throughout New England, was selling a collection of tools. She acquired them in her travels and also from a couple of recent estates she liquidated.
Jeff Pearson collects antiques to sell at auctions he manages a few times a year near his Stonington, Conn., home. At this weekend auction and show he was offering a collection of tools and some other metal antiques, including an anvil and a weathervane. Another exhibiting dealer, Ed Richards, Sebago Lake, Maine, offered a very well built tool chest with secret compartments and excellent joinery for $2,250.
These vendors typically come for the two days to both sell and buy, and for the chance to meet with old friends they have not seen all winter.
Friday’s part of the nearly 2,000-lot sale consisted of many items with lower prices, generally not more than several hundred dollars.
An early ivory sector rule by Bach, N.Y., dated from the 1840s, was $104. A classic Nineteenth Century tool chest fitted with mahogany tills, painted a bright green, was $396. Two surveyor’s accessories by W. & L.E. Gurley, Troy, N.Y., a steel reel type tape measure and a compass in its original wooden case, achieved $99. “The Companion” was a cast iron jigsaw made by the Millers Falls Company. This clean and sound example, mounted on a lathe base and operated by the foot pedal similar to a sewing machine, sold for $242.
The second part of the auction, conducted on Saturday, had many items for collectors in all price ranges †but the most desirable items also crossed the block on the second day. Just to warm up the bidders, there were several very good items offered first thing, such as an early sash molding plane with wedge lock arms in excellent collector quality condition that was $33.
Two clean woodworking planes, both by Stanley Tool Works of Connecticut, were a No. 65 low angle block plane in its original pasteboard box and a No. 83 scraper. Both in unused condition, they reached $154.
A folding rule fashioned of ivory and brass, crisp, clean and bright white, sold for $176. An unusual tailor’s layout rule by Kerby & Davidson, New York City, with five scales graduated in divisions of half-inch, in excellent condition, sold for $165. Three complex molding planes, including examples by A. Moses, reportedly of Salisbury and Middlebury, Vt., Desforges and a third that was not marked with a maker’s name, all went for $275.
Described as a slide adjust shoe rule, or sizing measure, by Kerby & Bro Makers, New York City, this device had graduated strips of ivory inlaid in the body, creating an interesting variation. It found a new owner at $302.
A massive tapered Wantage rule by H.D. Pearson, Portland, Maine, was fashioned from native yellow birch and in excellent condition. Pearson, who was born in 1789, also made surveying instruments and no doubt would have been surprised that his rule now sold for $440.
A sewing machine marking gauge by Calvin D. Wheeler, New York City, patented February 14, 1860, was in excellent condition. From the Ralph Brendler collection, it hammered down at $242. Selling for $357 was a showy lignum vitae plumb bob having a graphic grain pattern and a boxwood screw cap.
Another significant piece, which sold for $1,012, was an early brass back tenon saw by I. Atkins & Company, Bristol, Conn. I. Atkins was the uncle of Elias C. Atkins, founder of the E.C. Atkins Saw Company of Indianapolis, Ind. The elder Atkins is reported to have tutored young E.C. in the saw making trade, and the rest is history. Atkins is documented as having worked in Bristol from 1846 to 1858, making this a rare and historically significant Connecticut handsaw.
Selling well above the estimate at $632 was a rare 2½-inch tap and die stock for woodworking by Moon of Lincoln Inn Fields, England. Both the tap and the die of this working pair were in excellent condition and came from the David Pierson collection. Another tool selling high was a rare combination oil can and brace by William Moore, Eden, N.Y., patented September 13, 1898. “This ‘high gizmocity’ tool is, as a consequence of its competing primary responsibilities, one of the most visually dramatic tools offered,” according to Donnelly. The wire spring to release the oil appeared to be missing, but the brace was otherwise in superb condition. The final bid was $3,630.
An extremely rare 7-inch-long early corrugated sole Bedrock smoothing plane, No. 602, by Stanley had 80 percent of the original black japanned finish and sold for $1,320. An early cast iron spill plane with a cam lock iron went out at $1,760, nearly triple the presale estimate. An early lever lock block plane by the Bailey Tool Company, Woonsocket, R.I., went for $1,072.
A low angle adjustable cabinetmakers’ block plane, No. 164, was offered by Stanley from 1926 to 1943 and all known examples may have been produced in a single production run. “One of the finest examples of this rare, collectible plane that we have ever seen or offered for sale,” Donnelly said; it reached $2,530.
There was a rare cast iron scraper plane, No. 87, by the Stanley Rule & Level Company. Cast with the “Pat. Appl’d for” and approximately 98 percent of the original black japanned finish remaining, it sold for $1,540.
Donnelly said after the sale, “With over 5,000 items offered, all but a very few sold.”
All prices given include a ten percent buyer’s premium.
Donnelly conducts several auctions each year and all are of antique tools. His next sale is in Albany, N.Y., on May 30. Later auctions will be in Erie, Penn., June 14; Nashua, N.H., September 26′7; and Indianapolis, Ind., October 17‱8.
For information, 800-869-0695 or www.mjdtools.com .
