The top lot of the third session was this occupational shaving mug depicting San Francisco opera singer, impresario and restauranteur, Mimi Imperator. It hit the high note of $3,556 and was acquired by a private collector ($500/700).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring
CINCINNATI, OHIO — On August 1, the Cincinnati office of Freeman’s | Hindman sold the third and final installment of the estate collection of James Carpenter. Over his lifetime, Carpenter assembled one of the greatest collections of occupational shaving mugs and – as a barber himself – he decorated his Montague, N.J., shop with turn-of-the-century barber bottles, magazine racks, advertisements, shaving mugs and their storage racks and an 1870s barber chair.
Katie Benedict, the Cincinnati-based associate specialist in American furniture, folk and decorative arts, and who oversaw the third and final session, explained the appeal of barbershop collectibles. “Barbershops were a crucial part of America’s social fabric in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries – they were like clubhouses for their working-class clients. Amid growing sanitary concerns with using a barber’s communal shaving equipment, patrons began ordering personalized shaving mugs which were kept on a rack at the barbershop. I think buyers now really respond to those wholesome, community-driven connections, probably even more so post-COVID-19! The collectors of these occupational shaving mugs also seem to have forged a very tightly knit group, so the social aspect associated with the history of the category seems to continue through collecting clubs, social media groups, meetups and more.”
Part one of Carpenter’s collection was sold in a stand-alone sale on January 30, a 237-lot event that tallied $281,654 with each lot finding buyers. In addition to barbershop collectibles, the sale offered advertising and engine models. On March 15, the second part of Carpenter’s collection – an additional 64 lots – was included in the firm’s annual American furniture, folk and decorative arts sale. In the session on August 1, more than 95 percent of the 226 lots gaveled down successfully. The final tally for Carpenter’s collection was $471,615.
This circa 1930s embossed tin store-advertising sign for Moxie – as well as candy, soda and cigars – measured 29-7/8 by 54-1/8 inches and was the overall highlight from Carpenter’s collection, earning $20,320 from a private collector, bidding in the January 30 session ($8/10,000).
A Moxie tin advertising sign realized the highest price of all three sessions: $20,320, and more than doubled its high estimate.
An occupational shaving mug commemorating the US Air Service during World War I soared to $8,255 from an estimate of $2/3,000. Catalog notes surmise the mug had been made for Brigadier General Morris Berman, who began his military career in 1912 and rose consistently through the ranks until his death in 1945. The same price was realized in the March 15 sale by a mug for a race car driver that had the name “Geo. Winzinger” in gilt lettering.
A shaving mug for Amos Alonzo Stagg (1862-1965) realized $5,080 when it was offered on January 30. The auction catalog described Stagg as “perhaps the most influential figure in the history of collegiate athletics. Having coached and contributed to the development of multiple sports, his legacy remains primarily with football and basketball. He is enshrined in two Halls of Fame, and the NCAA Division III football championship is known as the Stagg Bowl.” The mug had previously been auctioned in January 2007 at Cowan’s Auctions’ Shaving Mugs and Barber Shop Collectibles auction. Selling in the first session for $5,080 as well, was a ship builder’s occupational shaving mug with the name “W.C. Lawson.”
Taking second place in the August 1 session was this group of two fraternal shaving mugs and a shaving brush. Estimated at $300/500, a private collector paid $3,175 for the lot.
Mugs accounted for nearly 80 percent of the August 1 sale, which saw them in all but one of the top ten results. Bringing $3,556 and the sale’s highest price was a mug identified to Mimi Imperator — a San Francisco, Calif., opera singer, impresario and – for a brief period – restaurateur in the city’s North Beach district. A group of two fraternal shaving mugs, accompanied by a shaving brush, followed at $3,175.
Rounding out the third-place finish of the day, a tow truck operator’s occupational mug rose to $2,794.
Outside of shaving mugs, barbershop antiques and collectibles included a pair of leaded glass barber pole globes, made by Koken Barber’s Supply in Saint Louis, Mo., in the early Twentieth Century ($5,398); two carved cabinets used for storing and displaying shaving mugs ($4,763); a painted tin and wood whirligig barber pole ($3,810); a seven-volume lot of barber supply catalogs ($1,524); a barbershop advertising sign ($1,016); a group of five wooden display straight razors ($476); and a velvet upholstered gooseneck walnut barber chair and footstool, made by Archer of Rochester, N.Y., circa 1870s ($413).
The engine model category reached its apex at $7,620 with a copper and wood horse-drawn, steam-powered fire engine example. It replicated a circa 1870s engine produced by the Amoskeag Locomotive Works in Manchester, N.H.
“We do not have more barbershop collections on the horizon,” noted Ben Fisher, the managing director of furniture and decorative arts at Freeman’s | Hindman, “But there may be a few more things from the Carpenter’s collection that will be in our October 9 sale in Cincinnati.”
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 513-871-1670, www.freemansauction.com or www.hindmanauctions.com.
