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For Sale: 1923 Maxwell Roadster - $12,900 - Prescott, AZ - Not Mine


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For Sale: 1923 Maxwell Roadster - $12,900 - Prescott, AZ

1923 Maxwell - cars & trucks - by owner - vehicle automotive sale (craigslist.org)

1923 Maxwell  Runs and drives! Has been in dry storage for several years. Older restoration. 4 cyl engine. Manual transmission. Rocky Mountain brake. Rare and unique car!  Asking $12,900

Contact:   Call or text (480) two-zero-zero-0-9-2-8
Copy and paste in your email:  f9d971cc7f25343d92a607e051bb5118@sale.craigslist.org


I have no personal interest or stake in the eventual sale of this 1923 Maxwell Roadster.

'23 Maxwell AZ a.jpg

'23 Maxwell AZ b.jpg

'23 Maxwell AZ c.jpg

'23 Maxwell AZ d.jpg

'23 Maxwell AZ e.jpg

'23 Maxwell AZ f.jpg

'23 Maxwell AZ g.jpg

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If you buy it, paint all the period slang like "23 skiddo" and "oh, you kid" etc on the panels.  Add college pennants, a megaphone, raccoon coat, pork-pie hat, spats, argyle sweater...and speed off to the Big Game with Betty Co-Ed!  

Oh yes, don't forget the hip flask of bathtub hooch!

Edited by 58L-Y8
Added 'hip flask of bathtub hooch!' (see edit history)
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Looks like a neat little car. I think Jack Benny drove one in Mad, Mad World.  Someone would have to prove without a doubt that orange colour came new or else!  I would have the buy in price to change the paint alone!! Same ole scenario of flipper with car on the trailer. Why dont they take pics before they load the car?

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I hate to put down other people's car very much. But this one just cries out for putdowns! I love the colors! For a few days of the year. Black paint jack-o-lantern faces on both sides and the back. Then cruise around wearing a headless horseman costume.

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  • 3 weeks later...
6 hours ago, Packardfrank said:

Is there any way to determine if this color combo was offered?? Thanks

 

Here's an insight which even today's experienced 

car collectors may not know, since they weren't adults

in the 1920's.  There is often more to history than we realize.

 

People think of cars of this era having sedate and limited colors.

But evidently, that wasn't always the case.  An article in the

November 1925 issue of "Motor Mention" described the

increasing influence of women in what carmakers offered the buyer:

 

"Little as we sometimes realize it, the car gives an insight

into the character of the owner.  The woman of refined taste

will not take kindly to the riotous color schemes effected

by college boys, vaudeville actors, bootleggers or

professional sports.  Tawdry, loud colors do not appeal to

the refined woman.  Even when she motors she insists on

quiet, beautiful surroundings to which she will become

more attached every day..."

 

So in the years before 1925 there were indeed "riotous

color schemes" and "tawdry, loud colors."  So cars like

this Maxwell may be forgotten glimpses into history.

Edited by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)
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40 minutes ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

 

Here's an insight which even today's experienced 

car collectors may not know, since they weren't adults

in the 1920's.  There is often more to history than we realize.

 

People think of cars of this era having sedate and limited colors.

But evidently, that wasn't always the case.  An article in the

November 1925 issue of "Motor Mention" described the

increasing influence of women in what carmakers offered the buyer:

 

"Little as we sometimes realize it, the car gives an insight

into the character of the owner.  The woman of refined taste

will not take kindly to the riotous color schemes effected

by college boys, vaudeville actors, bootleggers or

professional sports.  Tawdry, loud colors do not appeal to

the refined woman.  Even when she motors she insists on

quiet, beautiful surroundings to which she will become

more attached every day..."

 

So in the years before 1925 there were indeed "riotous

color schemes" and "tawdry, loud colors."  So cars like

this Maxwell may be forgotten glimpses into history.

Yes, but bright colors were used on "sport" models, not on closed cars except for rare special orders (not many rap artists in those days).  Seeing red-red on a 1920s sedan sets my teeth on edge; maroon, on the other hand, was widely used on closed cars.

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1 hour ago, Grimy said:

Yes, but bright colors were used on "sport" models, not on closed cars except for rare special orders (not many rap artists in those days).  

 

This little open Maxwell was likely a sporty car

in its day.  But I don't know, since I wasn't around then.

 

Picture yourself going to a Cadillac dealer today.

You tell him you want a sedan in 2-tone purple, with

bright green accents--just like an orchid.  His hope

of a quick commission fades, and he thinks you're a

crackpot.

 

But in the late 1920's, Cadillac and LaSalle promoted

just such colors, and compared them to an orchid, even

for closed cars!  History is fun.  Here are a few pictures

from a 1928 Cadillac and LaSalle catalogue:

 

1927 LaSalle--Curite car.jpg

1927 LaSalle--Orchid car.jpg

1927 LaSalle--Rose Coral car.jpg

Edited by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)
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@John_S_in_Pennaabout 20 years ago, often seen at our local Hillsborough Concours (has existed a year longer than Pebble Beach) was a 1930 Packard SWB phaeton painted in three shades of purple to match a color magazine ad, framed and displayed with the car.  I'm quite sure no such paint job ever left the Packard factory!  @Walt Grecently posted an erudite explanation of the vivid colors used in magazine adverts ca. 1927-30.  The story I always heard (I wasn't there, either, although I'm often accused of it) was that technological developments in the printing industry in the 1920s led to saturated-color ads becoming far less expensive than they had been a few years before.  Look at the Lincoln ads featuring exotic colorful birds--but the car colors seemed, to me at least, less intense.

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High dollar cars offering custom colors are one thing. A common cookie cutter roadster (usually the cheapest model offered!) is another. I often comment about the 1927 Cadillac a longtime good friend had fifty years ago. It was a very original car, and was tan body over medium brown fenders! As much as I dislike almost all the classic and other 1930s cars 'restored' in those colors, I do know that it was done! Truth is, his car was beautiful in those original colors. However, most people in recent decades chose 'browns' with too much yellow or orange in them, and they then become hideous!

 

There were also paint shops that would paint a car any color one was willing to pay for. However again, people buying a Maxwell in those days probably didn't have money to throw away on a custom paint job! 

The old philosopher's joke is that there are absolutely NO absolutes! There is ALWAYS an exception, unless there isn't. And that is the absolute exception to the exceptions rule. Maybe one in ten thousand model Ts was painted college colors? Probably not even that many. Maybe some early 1920s Maxwell was painted some odd garish colors? Still, the odds are that car was not these colors!

 

I have never understood why so many people want to prove something that is very unlikely to have been? Might have been?

I have spent many hours looking at era photos. Hundreds of street scene photos with anywhere from a half dozen to maybe thirty cars in one photo. Some photos I found interesting enough to spend a full hour looking at it! MOST people simply did not do such things!!!! 

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7 hours ago, Grimy said:

...Walt G. recently posted an erudite explanation of the vivid colors used in magazine adverts ca. 1927-30.  The story I always heard... saturated-color ads becoming far less expensive than they had been a few years before.  Look at the Lincoln ads featuring exotic colorful birds--but the car colors seemed, to me at least, less intense.

 

Grimy, if you can find Walt's explanation and post a

link, that would be interesting to read.

 

In the case of Cadillac, the catalogue's descriptions

indicate that the colors really are bright.  The text by

the yellow-and-orange roadster (visible with the car)

refers to the "bright orange" dashboard, and says,

"Bold, vivid, brilliant are the colors preferred today."

The car's colors are described as "striking" and "intense."

 

And the purple car was painted to match an orchid--

not at all subtly colored!  

 

Wouldn't it be great to find someone who was actually THERE

at that time?  I don't like the colors on the bright orange 

Maxwell, and I surely wouldn't want to own that car, but they

are interesting to see if they truly are historical.

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3 hours ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

Grimy, if you can find Walt's explanation and post a

link, that would be interesting to read.

John, unfortunately I am in a major time crunch preparing for two weeks of travel for tours beginning Sunday, which is why I tagged Walt in the hope that he will be able to post a link or re-post his insights.

 

As the depression deepened a year or more after the stock market crash of October 1929 (my mother was a young margin clerk at the SF Stock Exchange that day and had some incredible stories), the national mood grew much more somber--as did the colors of new automobiles.  For 1930 ONLY, Pierce-Arrow used actual photographs of cars in their prestige catalog dated 1/1/30, and the colors are all muted, even on the sportier models.  I also have a 1929 Pierce color combination book showing available 3-color combinations (including moldings and stripes) and all these combinations are quite conservative as would befit their clientele.

 

I also point out the longstanding tendency of auto dealerships to feature, in the most visible location in their displays, their sportiest model in bright colors, for the purpose of the Shiny Object bringing potential customers in a for a look before buying a more staid body style.

 

The catalogs' artwork in saturated colors was by no means representative of the colors actually purchased by the vast majority of the dwindling customer base, or even available except by special order.  As you certainly have surmised by now, I have disdain for ca. 1930 cars repainted in "Flight-of-Fancy" or "Artist's Wet Dr**m" colors to replicate the colors in period advertising.

Edited by Grimy
added phrase, fixed typo (see edit history)
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On 9/9/2021 at 6:57 PM, John_S_in_Penna said:

 

Here's an insight which even today's experienced 

car collectors may not know, since they weren't adults

in the 1920's.  There is often more to history than we realize.

 

People think of cars of this era having sedate and limited colors.

But evidently, that wasn't always the case.  An article in the

November 1925 issue of "Motor Mention" described the

increasing influence of women in what carmakers offered the buyer:

 

"Little as we sometimes realize it, the car gives an insight

into the character of the owner.  The woman of refined taste

will not take kindly to the riotous color schemes effected

by college boys, vaudeville actors, bootleggers or

professional sports.  Tawdry, loud colors do not appeal to

the refined woman.  Even when she motors she insists on

quiet, beautiful surroundings to which she will become

more attached every day..."

 

So in the years before 1925 there were indeed "riotous

color schemes" and "tawdry, loud colors."  So cars like

this Maxwell may be forgotten glimpses into history.

Hi John, if possible, could please share a copy of the 1925 article? This is a very interesting perspective of car colors during roaring 1920s! Thanks, Julio

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59 minutes ago, JRA said:

Hi John, if possible, could please share a copy of the 1925 article? This is a very interesting perspective of car colors during roaring 1920s! Thanks, Julio

 

Sure, Julio!  It's always interesting to read accounts

from people who actually witnessed history.  The 

magazine is Motor Mention, a magazine of the

Pennsylvania Motor Federation (a club of the American

Automobile Ass'n, or AAA).  I hope these 3 pages

show up clearly enough for anyone to print them.

The article is written with a bit of humor, but truthfully,

describing women's tastes in cars:

 

AAA Nov-1925--Women Dictate Car Design.jpeg

AAA Nov-1925--Women Dictate Car Design (2).jpeg

AAA Nov-1925--Women Dictate Car Design (4).jpeg

Edited by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)
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"The woman of refined taste will not take kindly to the riotous color schemes affected by college boys, vaudeville actors, bootleggers or professional sports.  Tawdry, loud colors do not appeal to the refined woman"

 

Well, we can rule out any 'refined woman' from purchasing this 'loud, tawdry colored Maxwell'! Hehehehe...

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