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Vintage guitars can strum up high prices

By RALPH and TERRY KOVEL
Published February 3, 2007

If you're not interested in vintage guitars, fishing lures or iron doorstops, you must be surprised at the high prices serious collectors are paying for these items. Each is a special collecting niche and attracts its own group of collectors. They sometimes make great buys at house sales, because the average person can't even imagine a doorstop worth more than $70,000, a fishing lure more costly than $100,000 or a guitar that sells for more than $900,000.

Vintage guitars that belonged to popular musicians sell very well, but even one used by an unknown musician will bring a high price if it's unusual or of exceptional quality. Recently a Gibson Explorer electric guitar made around the period of 1958 to 1963 sold at a Skinner auction in Boston for $611,000. Its unusual shape, special features and, of course, Gibson's reputation as a guitar manufacturer led to the high price.

Don't assume your old musical instrument has little value. Check with a local music store or online.

Hardware cabinet

Q: I own an old screw cabinet that once sat in the George V. Ayres hardware store in Deadwood, S.D. Ayres, who was my uncle, was one of the original Deadwood pioneers from Gold Rush days. The octagonal cabinet has nine triangular drawers in each of its eight sides. All the drawers have original hardware, and screw sizes are etched or burned on the front of each drawer. A local appraiser couldn't come up with a value for me because he had never seen one before. Can you give me some idea of the cabinet's value?

A: Antique hardware cabinets are eagerly sought by collectors. Many are octagonal, like yours, and sit on a revolving base. We have seen this kind of cabinet, in excellent condition and with original hardware, sell for prices ranging from $500 to $2,000. Your cabinet would attract extra interest because of its history, too. But it would help if you had paperwork or photographs to prove the cabinet was used in your uncle's hardware store.

We're big fans of the HBO series Deadwood, so we did a little extra research on George V. Ayres (1852-1939). He arrived in the Black Hills in 1876 at the beginning of the Gold Rush there, and within a year was working at the R.C. Lake Hardware Store in Deadwood. By the mid 1880s, he owned the store, eventually moving it to the main floor of the Bullock Hotel (built in the mid 1890s by none other than Seth Bullock and Sol Star, hardware and hotel entrepreneurs in both the real and TV Deadwoods). The hotel still stands.

Questions of general interest will be answered in the column. Send questions to Antiques, Ralph and Terry Kovel, c/o the St. Petersburg Times, King Features Syndicate, 888 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10019.

Fast Facts:

Current prices

Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.

- Mary Poppins paper doll and activity book, four dolls, Golden Press, 1964, 16 pages, $40.

- Madame Alexander Beth doll, hard plastic, Lissy face, clear eyes and lashes, brown wig, blue print dress, 14 inches, $175.

- Fenton glass rose bowl, cranberry opalescent polka dots, 1955, 5 inches, $180.

- Rookwood bookends, blue rooks on matte-blue glaze, marked, dated 1939, 5 inches, $230.

- Yellowware window props, molded lions, c. 1820, 5 by 4 inches, pair, $395.

- Coca-Cola radio, cooler shape, red, Point of Purchase Display Co., Chicago, Model 5A410A, 12 by 9 1/2 by 8 inches, $1,155.

[Last modified February 2, 2007, 19:42:35]