ON THE ROAD
WITH FARM COLLECTOR
Looking for a Labor Day Jaunt? Try jerseyville
There's never any shortage of great shows to attend on Labor Day Weekend. From the Old Threshers Reunion in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa to the Rock River Thresheree in Wisconsin to Rudin's Olde Tyme Farm Days in Owego, N.Y., almost every part of the country has a classic on tap that weekend. Another to consider? The Jersey County Victorian Festival in Jerseyville, III.
Held on a 60-acre farm that's listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the festival boasts an ambitious line-up: everything from Civil War reenactments to stage coach hold-ups to farm equipment displays and exhibits.
During the three-day event, there's tours of the 1866 Fulkerson Mansion, antique arts and crafts, Victorian/Civil War style show, live delivery of the Gettysburg Address, Bluegrass music, blacksmithing, plowing with steam, tractors and draft horses, threshing and sawing. Tours are also offered of the decades-old Hamilton Primary School and the Historical Museum, and "Christmas in September" is celebrated in the Fulkerson Mansion.
Wrench Prices Continue to Move Up
Collectors' observations that wrench prices have trended sharply higher were verified recently in York, Neb. Nearly 1,500 tool lots, mostly wrenches, were sold from the collection of Jim Henry, Osage City, Kan. The auction's gross was in the low six figures.
Last year, Farm Collector reported that the five-year trend for collectible, identifiable wrenches was about 12 percent annually. Helped by good public ty and attendance by members of the Missouri Valley Wrench Club, many prices at the Henry auction appeared to exceed that rate. Mailed bids also were accepted by Bailey 6 Associates, auctioneers.
The trend was less accurate for con mon wrenches and wrenches made in large numbers. For example, some IH adjustable sold for $5 or less. But that wasn't the rule.
"Some of the Olivers were out of sight," says collector Pembroke T. Rathbone, Marsing, Idaho.
"I was only able to buy about half of the wrenches I attended the auction for. There was some variation within some implement lines where there were differences in the numbers made."
Rathbone, who is compiling a reference book on wrenches, said novices should not be put off by such prices. "I hope this doesn't scare the beginning collectors out," he adds. "There remain a lot of collectible wrenches at reasonable prices across the country." Sale highlights: Paris malleable Implement wrench, multi-ended, $55; Osborne 6.5-inch combination cutout wrench (spaces around the name letters) with screwdriver, $410; IHC cutout hub wrench with original hub cap, $325; Chamberlain's wrench (pat. 1912), nine-inch combination monkey wrench, piier and die (thread chaser), $395; Challenge seven-inch malleable implement, one-multi-end, $42.50; Fordson S-adJustables, $12-20 each.