Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. Sometimes I get inquiries from readers who want to buy items I have written about. Most times, I don’t have the items because I don’t buy everything I write about. If I did I’d be a hoarder, especially since I’ve written more than 1,000 blog posts since starting my blog in 2009.
I tend to keep artwork and some African American and a few other artifacts that speak to me.
Today’s questions are from business owners seeking to buy a hat stretcher and a Prohibition medical prescription.
Question:
I am a custom hat maker in Texas. Recently our trailer was stolen from a horse show. I am trying to replace all that was in the trailer and my stretcher was unfortunately one of the items. I saw this on your site and wanted to ask if it is for sale. If you are interested in selling it, please let me know.
Answer:
The reader was referring to an antique metal hat stretcher that I wrote about in a blog post last year. When I first saw it on the auction table, I thought it was a hat block, but I was wrong. It was a 1926 Garve DeLuxe hat stretcher used for enlarging a hat that was too small. A hat block, normally wooden, was used to shape material into a hat. The stretcher sold for $110 at auction, a little less than one that was sold at that time on eBay, and considerably less than the $495 and $529 on retail sites.
Unfortunately, though, for the reader, but I did not buy the hat stretcher. I wrote about it because it was an interesting piece of history. I suggested that he try a few auctions in his area via auctionzip.com and watch to see if one comes up for sale.
If he needs a stretcher quickly, he should check eBay, where I’m sure he’ll find one. In fact, I did a cursory check and found several of them, most made of wood and much simpler. I found metal stretchers in the same shape as the auction one selling for $102 up to $200. Wooden ones were selling for more than $200.
Question:
We are building a distillery in Phoenixville, Penna., and would love to have a huge copy of your prescription on canvas to be exhibited in our new center. Is this item for sale?
Answer:
This reader had come across a blog post I wrote two years ago about a medical prescription for whiskey that was written during Prohibition. During that time, whiskey was only legally dispensed with a doctor’s prescription for medical reasons and sacramental wine by ministers in church. We all know, though, that spirits of this type could be easily obtained in illegal ways.
The prescription at auction was dated Oct. 26, 1920, and written by a doctor in Virginia City, NV., in the first year of Prohibition, which arrived in the form of the 18th Amendment. For 13 years, it forbade the manufacture, sale and transport of alcoholic beverages. Doctors would prescribe whiskey, brandy, wine and later beer that could be picked up at a local drugstore.
Again, I could not help this reader because I did not buy the prescription. I only wrote about it because this was the first time I had actually seen a Prohibition document. I suggested that he search eBay, where I was sure he’d find some. In fact, my research turned up more than 700 listings, from $5 to $138, and many of them went unsold.
Reader’s Reply:
Yes, I did find some there. Thanks. We are Bluebird Distilling. Should be open in March. Check us out on Facebook. (The company has a wraparound 3-D mural of an old distillery on the wall in its barrel room. Neat.)
