Terry Bond

I'm trying to put a date on this Lambert pin from my collection. Believe it's about 1907? Any thoughts? Terry

What is "IIRC"? Not familiar with that. In order to get an AACA Senior Award, it must first receive an AACA First Junior. Any of those awards are available only by entering AACA Nationals. All the info you need is in the "Judging Guidelines" on the AACA Home Page under the "Publications" heading Go to https://aaca.org/ and look it over. Enjoy the new website too! Terry

I'll bet the pot metal has swollen seizing the shaft. Perhaps one o\f our carb experts can chime in on a possible solution. Terry

7/8" plugs require a gasket. The 1/2" tapered thread (model T style) don't need a gasket to help seal them. Terry

I've got three references in my spark plug literature collection- First is a small brochure printed in 1937 for Chrysler vehicles. See photo 1. Second is a 1942 Champion publication "Champion Spark Plug Service." the Chrysler section s photo 2. third item is a publication that Champion printed in 1950 listing spark plug applications for "antique cars." Photo 3 shows the Chrysler info. The 1942 publication includes information on substitutes and that lists the C-4 as a substitute for the 2 identified as a recommendation in the 1937 publication. It looks like the C-4 would work in your car. It certainly would be the easiest to find. NOS examples are easily found. Hope this helps. Terry

The seats look like toilets. in fact the whole thing looks kinda s++tty! Terry

Hat's off to you guys who are making the effort to vend real parts and good stuff. One of the reasons I bailed out years ago was the gigantic influx of cheap tools, trinkets, T-shirts, jewelry, cosmetics, and even beanie-babies stuffed toys. Seems It's never really died, just changed. i appreciate the current reporting. Maybe it's turned the corner now. Might give it a look in the future. Terry

Here is a rare one - recent acquisition. The center piece is actually a celluloid pinback button. I've seen one other example of this pin. Also shown is the backside with Moyer advertising and in fine lettering at the bottom is the maker's name - Bastian Bros, Rochester, NY. A rare fob I'm sure. Terry

Thanks, that's it I'm sure. Thought it was Cadillac but wasn't sure of exact year/model. Terry

Photo sent to me from a friend in Europe who needs an ID - year, make, model, etc. Thanks, Terry

Yup, saw him twice - didn't speak w/him. He was pretty busy and I was occupied judging. Terry

Thanks Walt, got your photos separately, easy to figure it out - it's marked "L.F. Grammes & Sons, Allentown PA." They were one of the most well-known producers of fobs, medals, tokens, etc. They also made those wonderful min-radiator script lapel pins. Your fob is a great one for a great car. Thanks for posting. Terry

Walt, if you can get a photo of the back I might be able to figure it out. Powell and Hammer was a British manufacturer of lamps, unless there is an American company with a similar name that produced watch fobs. If so it wold be a company I'm not familiar with and not on any lists I've seen. Thanks, Terry

It's very difficult to date the boxes as production of these continued for long time periods. Better to understand the general timing on the various twists and turns of the Champion and AC companies, then try to figure out where these might fall in place. Albert Champion formed the Albert Champion company in 1905 in Boston Mass. There was substantial backing from an auto accessory supplier there and the plugs were branded as Champion. Albert Champion was President of that company, Frank Stranahan was Treasurer, and his brother, Robert, was clerk. In 1908, Albert Champion left to work with William Durant, forming the Champion Ignition Company in Flint Michigan. Plugs were or course supplied to Buick automobiles. While the Stranahans continued to produce their own "Champion" spark plugs, Albert Champion produced plugs for Durant. The initials AC were used on them but advertising, packaging, etc. indicated the plugs were manufactured by the "Champion Ignitiion Company". In 1910, the Strahahan Champion Spark Plug Company signed a supply contract to provide plugs to Willys-Overland and relocated the company to Toledo, Ohio, closer to where cars were produced. Albert Champion continued to produce his "AC" Plugs but lawsuits were filed by the Stranahans regarding use of the "Champion" name. Eventually those suits were settled (1920) and at that time, reference to the "Champion Ignition Company" were dropped on Albert Champion's "AC" products. So, your boxes - the "Champion Ignition Company" box dates prior to the company name change but since it states 'Flint, Michigan" on the box, it would be from after the company relocated to that location. The "AC" plug boxes with no reference to "Champion Ignition Company" are post 1920. The "AC" box on the top left of your photo is an earlier style but dates no earlier than the dates shown on it. Hope this helps somewhat, even though it's not possible for me to assign more specific dates to the boxes. Terry

Your collection keeps growing. Good work. Terry

Thanks for the photo Todd. I replied to your other post on FB as well. Terry

Nicely framed sheet music is true artwork and makes a great wall hanger for any car enthusiast. I've got a couple dozen in the stair wall going upstairs in the house and a few more out in the barn. The piece you have is actually quite common. It's one of the most often seen on evil bay. In its time it was a really popular song. Keep on collecting. Remember, three = a collection! Terry

Whitehead and Hoag is the mark on the back side. See photo. You've got a great collection Todd! I see couple that I haven't been able to find yet. The last photo with the round Olds fob is great, never seen that one. What's on the back of that? I'm still hunting for a nice Maxwell fob also. Thanks for sharing. Terry

Just today I learned that dedicated Model T enthusiast Peter Ratledge has passed away after a long illness. Peter was a regular on Model T tours with his beautiful 1911 touring. Between tours, he would show it at every possible AACA meet and had I believe 98 AACA Preservations. There was no finer example of a true old car lover than he was. He was the best possible proof you can enjoy them on tours and still show them. I delighted in using his car during my Model T CJE classes. People could hardly believe what they were looking at was a regular tour car! It just takes a little more work to keep them clean! As we prepare to head to Charlotte NC, I can't help but think there will be an empty spot on the showfield there, and a hole in our hearts. Rest in peace dear friend. Terry

I started the other thread, which touched on multiple issues. Buyers premium though seems to have struck a nerve. Somehow, they seem punitive. Auction houses should be doing everything possible to encourage bidding rather than stiffle it. Sure, there is a cost of doing business, and sliding scale commissions to encourage sellers is often needed to attract business from the competition - but realize auctions are not what they used to be. At one time, for sellers it was about getting rid of stuff. For buyers it was getting a bargain. Now, it's about sellers flipping for profit, making lots of money, auction houses setting records and buyers paying for it all. Whatever you do, just don't forget where the money comes from, and allocate the cost of doing business appropriately. Terry

Amazing how there seems to be an auction every weekend! No, three or four of them every weekend! We're bombarded with multiple auctions on multiple bidding platforms so frequently it's a wonder we don't bid against ourselves sometimes. Gas pumps, signs galore, oil cans, memorabilia, automobilia, vintage (whatever that means), museums, collections, estates, ad nauseam. Perhaps it deserves its own separate thread but I was looking at some of the items in the Bonhams "Two Gentleman's collection" sale upcoming on April 29th. Odd how there is no mention anywhere this is the Singe collection (or a least a small part of it.) The cars of course are the stars. Some fabulous items that should do well knowing their provenance. Others are nice but probably will bring average prices considering some have been driven hard and put away wet. Still, the automobilia is of course my main area of interest and there is some great stuff being sold. I'm wondering though - it's quite obvious the automobilia has been selected as "fluff" for this sale. Many good items are lumped into groups of three or four when they should be sold individually. Thought Bonhams would have done a better job sorting that stuff out. Of course the Singe automobila collection on its own could easily be stretched out for a year or more in individual sales. Brass alone would take several sales I'm sure. I note also a "Buyers Premium" of over 27%!!! I'm sure they can find a way to justify that, but from this end, it's hard to justify spending that much in addition to the bids I had in mind. I may watch this one go by and start collecting auction catalogs. Terry

I've been alerted to another fake/fantasy fob out there on evi-bay. Item #285208155254. This Graham fob is not only poorly done, the back has no makers mark on it, a likely sign of a non-authentic piece. Unfortunately it looks like a couple of bidder are having a back-and-forth bidding war. One of them continues to bid multiple times just to stay ahead of the other one. It's now over $200. Somebody is gonna get burned! Please folks - take the time to learn not only how to tell the difference, but maybe even also how to work the auctions. Terry

Here is another photo - this one is the Bertram Auto Supply Company, I believe it was in Iowa. This is their 'brass goods department." Wouldn't you like to step back in time to see this! Or better yet, get into their stock room and help clean things out after electric lighting became popular. Terry

They are in the wrong place. They need to be put them on the nose so the smell of all the bs is less noticeable.

Thought you might enjoy seeing a couple of pages from some of my early accessory catalogs and periodicals. The lamps available back then were simply amazing. There was a big market for them. Gas and oil lamps went out of fashion pretty quickly and I'm sure old stocks of them remained unsold for a long time. Occasionally, we still encounter NOS items. Terry