Old-fashiond country auction is slated for Oct. 15-16 in Fountain, Fla., near Panama City Beach

FOUNTAIN, FL, October 02, 2010 (Press-News.org) A good old-fashioned on-site country sale, featuring over 800 lots in just about every category imaginable, will be held Oct. 15-16 at the home of Maryland Cress, a lifelong collector, at 11421 Ivydell Road in Fountain. The auction will be held by Specialists of the South, Inc., of Panama City, Fla. Online bidding will be facilitated by LiveAuctioneers.com.

Fountain is located in the Florida panhandle, south of Interstate 10 and about halfway between Tallahassee and Pensacola. It's 28 miles northeast of Panama City. It will be well worth the drive for fans of country items that have been lovingly collected for 45 years. Plus, nearly all the lots will be offered without reserve (selling to the highest bidder, regardless of final price).

The inventory of merchandise is dizzying - far too much to be contained in a one-day sale. "I've been collecting ever since I was 19 and I'm nearly 65 now," remarked Ms. Cress. "Just about everything I own was bought at a yard sale, either here in Florida, or in Ohio where my husband's brother lives. The Ohio items I purchased at Amish auctions, which are great."

In fact, Maryland was so impressed by the Amish she had a notion to pack everything up and ship it to Ohio to let them handle the auction. Then the reality of just how much she owned set in, and she got in touch with Logan Adams of Specialists of the South. The two hit it off right away. "Good thing," Ms. Cress said. "It would've taken a 40-foot container to ship all that stuff."

The Cress collections include over 20 antique butter churns, vintage clocks (wall, desk and mantel), primitives and American furniture, Hoosier cabinets, barrister bookcases, about 16 hand-made quilts, small farm tools and hand tools, old sewing machines, art pottery (Roseville, Hull and Weller), Fenton glass, pocket knives and Bowie knives, BB guns, bayonets and more.

The 'more' would include old children's games and puzzles, jelly cupboards, piano stools, old water pumps, a large collection of rooster figures, wagon wheels in a variety of sizes, cream separators, coffee grinders, older tins, cast-iron pieces (to include some banks), kitchen collectibles (canisters, salt and pepper shakers, spice racks), crocks and some silver pieces.

That's not all. There will also be about 18 biscuit jars, 9 Tom's and Lance's peanut butter and cracker jars, Ironstone, Jadeite, Shawnee, Beswick, scales, inkwells, an oak icebox, desks, mirrors, cedar chests, rugs, dolls, music boxes, canes, brass, Blue Danube china (to include a service for 12, with extras and serving pieces), Fiestaware, taxidermy examples, oil lamps, marbles, horse memorabilia, comics, fire screens and sewing baskets/boxes/cabinets (to include a very nice Hepplewhite-style sewing cabinet).

"It's just staggering to sift through all that Maryland has and have to inventory it all," said Ms. Adams in mock exasperation. "If I wasn't having so much fun poring through all this merchandise, it might feel a bit like work." The auction will kick off both days at 9 a.m., with a preview both days from 7-9 a.m. The auction goes online Oct. 1, at SpecialistsoftheSouth.com.

The two Hoosier cabinets are bound to get a lot of attention. One, made around 1900, features a pull-out enamel shelf, flower mill, bread drawer, tambour lift and wire racks. The other boasts three stained glass doors and was crafted in Australia. Also sold will be an Empire china cabinet with large scrolling feet, bowed glass door and sides and shaped glass shelves.

Additional furniture pieces will include a Globe stacking wooden bookcase in three sections with double glass doors in each section (51 ¼ inches tall by 33 inches wide) and a Bennington Colchester pine roll-top desk with brass and wooden pulls (43 ¼ inches tall by 54 inches wide). Also sold will be an Eastlake wall-hung beveled mantel mirror in six sections.

Butter churns will include a staved wood rocking barrel churn on a stand shaped like a keg; and an Acme Ball churn (No. 0) made by H.H. Palmer Co., Rockford, Ill. (circa 1900); an all-metal Dazey tabletop 430B churn, dated Dec. 18, 1917 (26 ½ inches tall). The sale will also feature not only Tom's and Lance's jars, but a Tom's Toasted Peanuts advertising display case.

The clocks will feature a fashion wall clock with two faces, reading day and date, made by the Southern Calendar Clock Company (1875, St. Louis). Vintage banks will include a Buster Brown and Tige cast-iron bank (5 ½ inches tall); an A.C. Williams still bank showing a lion on a tub with rope; and a Minute Man bank with liberty bell and cannon by Banthrico, Inc., Chicago.
Biscuit jars will include a covered jar from Japan with wide blue border and repousse flowers in white, white flower finial and wrapped handle (8 inches tall); and a porcelain jar painted in shades of navy blue on a cream colored background with gold accents and bead border (8 ½ inches tall). Also sold will be a taxidermy turkey perched on a branch (34 ½ inches tall).

Titles from a collection of Little Leather Library Miniature Books of Classics include The Ancient Mariner, Man Without a Country, Rip Van Winkle, Alice in Wonderland, Confessions of an Opium Dealer, Othello, Sonnets of the Portuguese and A Midsummer Night's Dream (3 inches by 4 inches). Also sold will be a painted cement yard jockey (26 inches tall) and a large cannon ball.

A few nice silver pieces will cross the block, to include a sterling tea strainer on a stand marked "Industria Peruana, Plata Esterlina" (made by Camusso, 6 ¼ inches wide). Bowls will feature a blue opalescent hobnail glass bowl with a ruffled edge (10 inches in diameter), and a hand-hewn rectangular dough bowl with a tin patch repair on the side (33 ½ inches in length).

Rounding out the sale's expected top lots are a good number of advertising signs, many of them tin and paper (to include Mother's brand foods, Sunbeam bread, Galvanic soap and a Kleenex sign from the 1940s); a cane/umbrella stand made from haines and horseshoes, with walking sticks (one with a brass falcon head and one a deer hoof); a Roseville Snowberry variegated green and tan vase, 12 ½ inches tall; some nice tablecloths; and a Beswick Ware mug marked "Sairey Gamp" with an umbrella handle and polka dotted bonnet.

Specialists of the South, Inc. is always accepting quality consignments for future sales. To consign an item, estate or collection, you may call them at (850) 785-2577, or you may e-mail them at specialists@knology.net. To learn more, or to register for the upcoming country auction, you may log on to either http://www.SpecialistsoftheSouth.com or http://www.PanamaCityAuctions.com.