Cigar Store Advertiser Clocks
Alcazar $2500
W.E. Haines & Sons cigar store advertiser “Alcazar”, ca. 1925. This advertiser 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 but the strike is missing the gong. The dial glass is an old replacement, the lower glass a recent replacement. 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. This clock sold at Showtime Auction Services in 2019 for $2500.
Red Swan $2500
W.E. Haines & Sons cigar store advertiser “Red Swan”, ca. 1925. This advertiser stands 65 inches high with a 28-inch topper with wings that extend to just under 36 inches. The clock is the 27-inch Wm Gilbert “Malaga”, in fumed oak with a three-glass lower panel and a 7-inch signed metal dial. All glasses are old. The 8-day signed Gilbert movement, dated 1913, counts the hours and strikes the half-hour on two chime rods (“ding-dong”). It is running and striking. The handsome gentleman inside and on the pendulum is King Carlos I of Portugal, who ruled from 1889 to 1908, when he was assassinated. It is unclear to me why a cigar was named after him, but there you go. Other prominently featured cigars are The Red Swan and Blue Bird. All paper ads are cleaned and well preserved but faded, now overcoated with a slightly glossy finish. Wooden cigars with cigar rings bracket the wings. There is a good Haines label on the back indicating that this clock was sold to a store in Missouri. This clock sold at Showtime Auction Services in 2019 for $2500.
Fragancia $2000
W.E. Haines & Sons Cigar Store Advertiser “Fragancia”, ca. 1925. This advertiser is 45 inches tall and 30.5 inches wide with a 16-inch cigar on top, painted convincingly. This advertiser is built on a Gilbert “Washington” calendar clock and includes a partial label on the back. The unsigned 8-day time and calendar movement is running. The labels retain good color and definition, while the Napoleon label on the inside, promoting a smokeless tobacco (snuff), is a bit worn. There are additional labels on both sides of the clock (this guy stuck a label everywhere that was available). Both glasses are old but may not be original; there is a good dial and three old hands, and a Haines label on the back, but the destination of the clock cannot be discerned. I like the proportions of this clock. This clock sold at Showtime Auction Services in 2019 for $3000.
Gallatin $1500
W.E. Haines & Sons Cigar Store Advertiser “Gallatin”, ca. 1925. This is the smallest of the Haines advertisers listed here, at just 35 inches tall. The wingspread is 29 inches. It is built on a New Haven drop octagon with a calendar and a 10-inch dial; there is a New Haven label on the back. The modern dial glass is convex, and the brass bezel has been repaired, probably more than once. The hands are replacements. Note that the topper has been made from the backboard of an early wooden works clock (see photo); this guy was all about scrounging and reutilizing clocks and parts. The clock was delivered to a cigar store in Hutchinson, Kansas, and there are several labels on the back: an insurance agency, several coffee shops, and the Kansas State Fair from 1942. There is also a date of 6-2-41. As with all these clocks, it has been cleaned and refurbished and the surface sealed. This clock advertises Gallatin brand cigars, “The cigar that breathes”. The signed movement is running, time only. This clock sold at Showtime Auction Services in 2019 for $2000.
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Delivery to the eastern half of the US for $250.
Sale ends December 1
HAINES CIGAR STORE ADVERTISERS – ARE THEY REAL?
I am aware of the controversy regarding these clocks, whether they are genuine advertisers
put together from old clocks in the 1930’s and 40’s, or something made up more recently to fool rubes like me. I have read the
discussions on the NAWCC Forums, and I have spoken at length on the phone with Greg Arey, the collector who found these clocks in
Wichita, KS in the early 2000’s. I purchased five of these clocks at the Showtime Auction Services auction in 2019, where I
met and spoke with Greg about these clocks. Other than Greg, no one has looked at more of these clocks than I have. Indeed,
everyone who has weighed in on their authenticity has not actually seen or inspected even one of these clocks. In my opinion
these are authentic, made by an unknown but highly imaginative person in the 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s, and then distributed by W E Haines,
a cigar and tobacco distributor.
Some of the shipping destinations shown on the W E Haines labels on the back have been confirmed
by Greg as locations that were cigar warehouses, hotels, and dealers in the 1940’s and 50’s; this is not something that a fraudster
would be able to know without considerable historical research, such as Greg has done. As an example, I show below a shipping
label for a hotel in Wichita, the Lassen Hotel (now defunct); here is a link to the history of that hotel, including a photo of a
cigar shop inside: https://theclio.com/entry/19882.
When Greg found these clocks they were stored in several barns in Kansas. Most were in terrible shape, having been stored there since the early 1960’s. The owners stated that the original collector
was a store remodeler who was paid by Phillip Morris to renovate tobacco shops in the 1950’s and 60’s. In the process he accumulated
these clocks, along with cash registers, display cabinets, and other tobacco paraphernalia. All the material was stored in these
barns when Greg obtained the clocks. A picture of peeling labels is shown below, as when they were found, and a picture of an
unrestored clock still in good condition is also shown. Greg employed a restoration specialist to restore these clocks, and
that included regluing labels and varnishing the finishes to preserve the labels. There were over 80 clocks, and Greg estimates
that there may have been around 100 before the owner began selling them off. You can occasionally find one or two for sale;
there is one currently listed on eBay that did not come from Greg’s collection.
I spoke with Greg on the phone yesterday for over an hour and we discussed how he found these clocks, the owners of the unrestored, barn-stored collection, and many of the details Greg has pursued as he has researched these clocks. I pressed him on details that might support an alternative explanation for how these clocks came to be. While he does not have a “smoking gun” (a picture showing one of these clocks in a cigar store in the 1920’s to 1940’s), the considerable information he has accumulated does not support the postulate, promulgated on the NAWCC forums, that these are “fake” clocks.
