Friday May 10th, 2024 – Automotive, Aviation, and Nautical
Our Friday session highlights other areas of Transportation including Automotive, Aviation, and Nautical.
Automotive Highlights:
The automotive items are highlighted by items from the Richard Kughn collection along with automotive literature, research and photographs from the collection of the late Tom Shaw who had a hand in numerous muscle car publications over the years including Muscle Car Magazine.
The items from the Kughn collection are led by a wonderfully restored 1948 Dodge Special customized for the University of Michigan. The Dodge is the ultimate tailgating vehicle for the U of M fan and includes its own custom pull behind trailer for all of your supplies. Other custom touches include maize and blue interior along with a horn that plays the familiar notes of “Hail to the Victors”
Also included in this sale are the Gordon Buehrig archives from the Richard Kughn collection.
Gordon Buehrig was a well known automotive designer who worked with well known companies such as Auburn, Duesenberg, Packard, Ford, General Motors, and Stutz. His most famous designs include the 1935 851 boattail speedster, Cord 810/812, 1947 Studebaker line, and work with Ford in the 1950’s. He also was recognized as the inventor of the removable T-Top and other unique automotive concepts.
Kughn and Buehrig became business partners in the late 1970s to develop the Buehrig automobile. The car only had a limited number of prototypes produced and never reached its full potential. Even though the automotive company was short lived, Kughn saved a number of items from the company and his friendship with Buehrig. This includes the original display sign from the Buehrig Automotive Company, an original Tom Hale painting of the prototype car, numerous business photos and articles, a Buehrig designed clay model for a 1979 concept business limousine along with matching artwork, and much more. Nearly all of these items made up the Buehrig display at Kughn’s museum in Detroit which he called Carail.
The final highlight in the Kughn collection for this sale is one of the original Carail lighted exterior signs which has been stored indoors for a number of years.
There is a large amount of automotive literature also included in this auction. A number of these items come from the files of Tom Shaw who was a well known writer in the muscle car space before his passing in 2016. Highlights include a number of scare dealership items including Ford, General Motors, and more. Highlights include Ford Fact Books, Shelby Mustang prototype slides, original Chrysler Richard Petty promotional photos, 1969 Shelby Mustang dealer program book, 1977 Lincoln Mercury press photos featuring Farrah Fawcett, Nickey Chevrolet high performance manuals and papers, 1965 Mustang key selling features brochure, 1970 Berger Chevrolet Super Nova brochure, and much more.
There are also a number of research files and 35mm slides which Shaw compiled as he wrote numerous articles over the years. These research files are treasure troves of information and include copies of build sheets, dealer invoices, hand written notes decoding key details of builds, historical articles, etc.
The remaining automotive lots include pressed steel toys, large amounts of promotional literature, Hot Wheels and Matchbox vehicles mintoon card, original automotive art from Tom Hale, Gray Counts, and others
Aviation Highlights:
This sale includes a number of Aviation related lots including airline lighters, playing cards, Junior pilot wings, timetables, signage, silver, china, and more.
Highlights include Pan American inflight silverware, Eastern Airlines new old stock serving dishes, TWA employee patches, Canadian advertising lighters, aviation official guides, Hello Kitty airline playing cards, etc.
Nautical and Steamship Highlights:
Our nautical and steam ship items in this auction are highlighted by a number of advertising prints and lithographs, china and silver, playing cards, timetables, ship hardware, and more.
Unique lots include a William Aylward New York ocean liner advertising print, SS Leviathan cutaway advertising print, Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Company “Seeandbee” print, Cunard Lines Mauretania steamship print, brass 18 “ ship porthole, 1894 Pacific Coast Steamship timetable, United States Lines silver, etc.
If you have any questions, we welcome you to contact via email at info@RARauctions.com or call 765-412-7926
