RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1617

Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2018

Questions and Answers

QUESTION: I have what I think is a unique item. It is a newspaper, acid etched printing plate for a Buffalo Bill daily comic strip. I paid $40.00 for it at auction. What is it worth? – TB, Okauchee, WI, Email Question

ANSWER: What is meant by unique? If you mean the plate was one-of-a-kind, it was not. The syndicator did not provide the printing plate. Each newspaper that ran the strip produced its own printing printing plate from artwork supplied by the syndicator. These printing plates differ depending on the type of printing press used. If you mean unique from a survival point of view, you are on firmer ground. It is possible you have the lone survivor from this daily. Having stated this, the plate falls into the “who gives a darn” category from a collecting prospective.

I am a fan of the Funnies, that is to say, daily and Sunday comic strips. They are one of the sources I used to learn to read. My knowledge is not encyclopedic. I do not remember a Buffalo Bill comic strip. Perhaps the “Allentown Morning Call,” the “Allentown Evening Chronicle,” or the “Bethlehem Globe Times,” all of which I read regularly in the 1950s, did not carry the strip.

Frederick Lawrence Meagher (April 11, 1912 – January 26, 1976) drew the Buffalo Bill strip. Meagher learned how to illustrate by taking art courses for seven years from the International Correspondence School. In 1932, he illustrated a cover for the “Saturday Evening Post” and soon was a staff cartoonist and illustrator for the “Philadelphia Inquirer.”

Meagher is best known for his work on the “Straight Arrow” comic books, as an illustrator for the pulps “Dan Dunn Detective Magazine” and “Tailspin Tommy Air Adventures, his work on Ralston-Purina’s “Tom Mix Comics” (1940-1932), and the “Broncho Bill” comic strip, the latter for United Feature Syndicate. “Broncho Bill” evolved into “Buffalo Bill” in February 1955. When the strip ended in 1956, Meagher’s comic strip career came to an end. He also worked briefly for Disney as an illustrator for “Donald Duck,” “Fantasia,” and “Snow White.”

When Meagher left cartooning, he worked for the American Can Company where he served as a special project designer. He retired in 1969.

A few period drawings for Meagher’s Buffalo Bill dailies and Sunday features survive. Heritage Auctions sold the artwork for the October 28, 1955 daily for $65.00. This number indicates the strip had more a curiosity than collector’s value. If a period strip sells for this small amount, it is safe to assume collector interest in a printing plate for a Buffalo Bill daily is minimal. You may have established a record price for such an object.

QUESTION: I have a decorative lithograph tin tray, measuring 7 7/16 inches by 6 1/16 inches. It has an ornate, multiple row, geometric Oriental rug-type border in the center of which are individual flowers on a white ground. The edges are raised. The height is 7/16 of an inch. My mother found it in an abandoned house my parents bought in 1977. The back is marked with an elaborate cartouche design in the center of which is a “D” in a shield. A scroll banner beneath the cartouche reads “Daher Decorated Ware.” Under the cartouche is “DESIGNED BY DAHER / LONG ISLAND – N.Y. / 11101 / MADE IN ENGLAND / ©.” Instructions on the back indicate the tin should be cleaned by wiping with a damp cloth. Do I own anything of value? H, West Chester, PA, Email Question

ANSWER: I was confused by the “11101” for a few minutes until I realized it was a United Postal Service Zip Code. The Zip Code is assigned to Long Island City, which must have been the headquarters location for Daher.

“You do not see something until you look for it” is an antique and collectibles trade adage. When my research produced dozens of images of Daher tins, I immediately thought – my mother had one of those. Indeed, she did. It was a covered round canister with a colorful raised floral motif on a black ground. When I close my eyes, I see it sitting on her kitchen counter.

Daher produced candy tins, gift tins, kitchenware tins, and make-up tins for dozens of different wholesalers. The line also included boxes, plaques, platters, trays, and other utilitarian forms. Daher products were made with metallic inks that produced color rich floral and geometric designs on raised/embossed relief surfaces. Daher also produced trays with holiday themes and reproductions of classic dinnerware patterns.

Although the design work was done in Daher’s Long Island headquarters, the pieces were produced in England and Holland. The Zip Code dates the pieces after July 1, 1963. I was unable to find any history of the company. My best guess is that it operated in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Daher kitchen ware is included in Linda McPherson’s “Modern Collectibles Tins, Revised Edition,” published by Collector Books in 2006. I do not have a copy in my reference library.

Daher trays are bought for their reuse and decorative value. The vast majority sell between $8.00 and $12.00. eBay “Buy it Now” sellers ask double these amounts. Individuals with a little patience can find examples offered at the lower numbers.

QUESTION: When a friend brought an older Coca-Cola portable cooler (ice chest) to his fiftieth anniversary party, I knew I had to have it. It has an aluminum body. The plastic portion of the handles are present. In the lower right quadrant is a rectangle inside of which in red letters is “things go / better / with / Coke.” A round “DRINK / COCA-COLA” logo divides the line border of the triangle at 9:00 o’clock. I bought the cooler. Can you date it for me and tell me its value? – KT, Madisonville, KY, Email Question

ANSWER: Coca-Colas website www.coca-colacompany.com has “A History of Coca-Cola Advertising Slogans” URL -- www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-slogans. Coca-Cola introduced “Things Go Better with Coke” in 1963, replacing it with “It’s the Real Thing” in 1969.

Your cooler is a bit of an anomaly. The majority of Coca-Cola portable coolers have a red ground. There is a red ground cooler with “Thing Go Better with Coke” in white. There are two variations, one with the slogan logo in the center and the other with it in the lower right quadrant.

Your aluminum cooler measures 22 inches x 13 inches x 13 1/2 inches. The cooler was manufactured by The Progress Refrigeration Company of Louisville, Kentucky. As of December 16, 2017, an eBay seller is offering one at a “Buy It Now” price of $50.00. An example sold through on October 17, 2017 on eBay for $49.99.

The red ground examples of this period cooler sell for double this amount.

QUESTION: I own several bottles of Three Stooges Beer. Do they have any value? – A, Pottsville, PA

ANSWER: The Panther Brewing Company of Utica, New York manufactured Three Stooges beer. The beer was an America lager, produced in the early 2000s.

The beer was inspired by the Three Stooges movie “Beer Barrel Polecats.” The story evolves around the Three Stooges’ attempt to brew their own beer. They were unsuccessful, a harbinger to which Panther Brewing should have paid attention.

The website www.beeradvocate.com rated the beer at “poor,” a 2.31 out of 5. The beer is no longer being brewed. It appears on “The Dogs of Beer” list. Panther Brewing also has disappeared.

Three Stooges beer is a dog on eBay as well. One lot consisting of an empty case, an empty six pack holder, and three bottles of beer is unsold at $19.99. One eBay seller claims to have sold 20 cans at $8.25 each. Opening bids of $0.99 for an individual bottle usually fail to attract a buyer.

My advice is simple. Give the bottles away as presents. Make them someone else’s problem. Whatever you do, do not drink it.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Selected letters will be answered in this column.  Harry cannot provide personal answers.  Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned.  Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI 49512.  You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time.  If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.