531.     $2925

W E Haines & Sons Cigar Store Advertiser “Alcazar”, ca. 1925.  It is 61 inches high and 29.5 inches wide, made from a weight-driven wooden works column and splat clock, as evidenced by the side columns and the remnants of the original label behind the over-pasted “Jockey” label on the backboard.  You can even see some of the bronze stenciling on the columns.  The original movement was replaced by a Sessions 8-day time-and-strike front-mount movement that is running and striking.  The dial glass is an old replacement, but the lower glass is original.  The hands are recent replacements. There is a Haines label on the back showing that this clock was delivered Charles F Pusch Sons in Marysville Kansas – there are also numerous labels on the side of the clock for this cigar store.  The advertising here is very nice, but a bit worn.  Alcazar was a famous racehorse early in the last century (a trotter, I think) and this is a famous brand of cigars.  Haines paired “Orphan Boy” tobacco with it for an all-Equus advertiser.  Note the horse bust on the pedestal at the top of the topper.  I think it should be all black but has been polished to copper.  Busts were a special addition to these advertisers and were more often of famous people.  This being Kentucky, a horse seemed appropriate for us.  You can have it in your house if you bid right. I think this is one of the more interesting advertisers.  $3000-$4000.

W E Haines Cigar Advertiser clocks

W.E. Haines was a tobacco distributor working out of Abbottstown PA in the early 1900’s.  To promote his cigar sales, he created and distributed clocks that he had modified with cigar advertising.  It is not clear if he sold these clocks or gave them to his best customers as promotional items; perhaps both.  All have a label on the back with his business name and the destination of the clock.  He used a variety of contemporary clocks, apparently whatever he could obtain and modify.  Virtually all were hanging clocks, some quite tall.  Most were distributed to the Midwest, especially Kansas, but they were also sent to stores in Chicago and New York.  These clocks were accumulated, presumably in the early 1960’s as the stores closed or were remodeled, by a contractor for a tobacco company and stored on his farm.  His family with Greg Arey had the clocks restored after his death in 2005; some of you may know Greg from his association with the Kansas City chapter of NAWCC, where he has shown some of these clocks in the past.  Greg recently released 43 of these rare, one-of-a-kind clocks for sale through Showtime Auctions and we were able to purchase five; they are listed at the price we paid for them (hammer + commission). You can see all the clocks that were sold at Showtime here.  All clocks have been cleaned and restored as necessary; all are running.  They can be disassembled for ease of shipping or transport.  We hope you like them!