58L-Y8 Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gearheadengineer Posted August 23, 2021 Share Posted August 23, 2021 What the ??? Who picked those colors? 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rg171352 Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macsmopars Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 Maybe the guy is promoting his local Home Depot.....The colors work for my wheel barrow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossil Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 I like some shades of Orange but what the heck are those colors doing on that car? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BucketofBolts Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 Looks like a car that Laurel & Hardy would drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
58L-Y8 Posted August 24, 2021 Author Share Posted August 24, 2021 (edited) 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 August 24, 2021 by 58L-Y8 Added 'hip flask of bathtub hooch!' (see edit history) 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsancle Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 Does it come with the trailer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAKerry Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 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? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercub Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 Rustoleum to the rescue! I think a dark color would fit this car better, and sell alot faster, but it is in AZ, where it would match the red rock canyons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bloom Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 List it in the Knoxville Craigslist and add 2,000 to the price. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suchan Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 I've seen some nasty '70's paint jobs, but this takes the cake. A pity, as it's a sharp little car, and looks to be in good condition. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryB Posted August 24, 2021 Share Posted August 24, 2021 Add some blue paint and write GULF on the side. Problem solved! 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne sheldon Posted August 25, 2021 Share Posted August 25, 2021 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. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Packardfrank Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 Is there any way to determine if this color combo was offered?? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsancle Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 21 minutes ago, Packardfrank said: Is there any way to determine if this color combo was offered?? Thanks Yes. if it hurts your eyes like this car it was not offered. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_S_in_Penna Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 (edited) 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 September 9, 2021 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimy Posted September 9, 2021 Share Posted September 9, 2021 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. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_S_in_Penna Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 (edited) 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: Edited September 10, 2021 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history) 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Packardfrank Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 Great picture! Thank You Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimy Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 @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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike6024 Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 I would like one of those cherry pies. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne sheldon Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 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!!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_S_in_Penna Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimy Posted September 10, 2021 Share Posted September 10, 2021 (edited) 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 September 10, 2021 by Grimy added phrase, fixed typo (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRA Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_S_in_Penna Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 (edited) 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: Edited September 13, 2021 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAKerry Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 I want one of those garage heaters! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
58L-Y8 Posted September 13, 2021 Author Share Posted September 13, 2021 "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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supercub Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 I wonder how many car fires were started with that garage heater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JRHaelig Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 Here's a high end Hudson from the AACA meet in NJ that sports a very bold and correct scheme: 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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