A century-old Ford sign small enough to hang on a wall and a nearly eight-foot-tall gasoline pump offered two very different windows into the early motoring age as a major Ontario collectibles sale reached its September 6 finish.
Miller & Miller Auctions of New Hamburg assembled 393 lots across two sessions, ranging from service-station advertising and soda signs to agricultural posters and rare tobacco tins. Among the most closely watched pieces were a Canadian Ford Genuine Parts porcelain sign estimated at CA$3,500 to CA$5,000 and a restored Erie Cash Recorder pump carrying a CA$9,000 to CA$12,000 estimate. Their appeal was about more than recognizable logos: originality, Canadian scarcity, condition and the survival of objects once considered ordinary commercial equipment have increasingly become central to the petroliana market.
A Rare Canadian Ford Sign Brings the Early Dealership Era Back Into View
The Ford Genuine Parts sign, offered as Lot 102, dates from roughly 1920 to 1930 and was made in Canada. The double-sided porcelain piece measures 18 by 27.75 inches, making it relatively compact compared with the enormous dealership signs that sometimes dominate high-end automotive collections. Miller & Miller described Canadian Ford porcelain advertising from this period as considerably scarcer than comparable American material. The sign was authenticated by The Authentication Company under certificate number 501820 and carried a pre-sale estimate of CA$3,500 to CA$5,000.
Its condition also shows why antique advertising is rarely judged simply as “good” or “bad.” The auction catalogue graded the two sides 8.5 and 8.25, noting strong colour and gloss alongside scratches, edge chips, mounting-hole wear and several small areas of porcelain loss. Those imperfections are evidence of a commercial object that survived roughly a century rather than spending its life protected as a collectible.
The CA$12,000 Pump Is Nearly Eight Feet of Gas-Station History
Lot 170 provided the sale’s most physically imposing headline. The Erie Cash Recorder Model 53 gasoline pump stands 94.75 inches tall, or just under eight feet, and dates to approximately 1934–1935. Made in the United States, it was professionally restored in Polly Gas colours and converted into a double-sided configuration. Miller & Miller placed its estimate at CA$9,000 to CA$12,000, making its upper estimate the largest among the prominently promoted September lots.
The details matter because the pump is not an untouched original. It retains original castings but does not include its pump or clock mechanisms, while its globe and lenses are reproductions. The distinctive globe was designed specifically for the cash-recorder style of pump, and the auctioneer noted that even reproduction examples are uncommon. For collectors, that creates a familiar balancing act: restoration improves display presence, while missing mechanical components and replacement elements become important considerations when assessing authenticity, completeness and value.
Petroliana Has Turned Everyday Roadside Hardware Into Collectible History
What now appears behind velvet ropes or in carefully arranged private garages once stood outside filling stations in rain, snow and summer sun. Petroliana encompasses gasoline pumps, pump globes, oil-company signs and related service-station advertising, and the September sale demonstrates just how broad that category has become. Alongside the Erie pump were Texaco, Pennzoil and other petroleum-related pieces, while the full event extended into automobiles, soda advertising, general-store material and small-format commercial packaging.
The transformation of everyday equipment into valuable collectibles helps explain the emphasis placed on colour, gloss, factory markings and surviving original components. A chip around a mounting hole can indicate how a sign was actually installed, while a manufacturer’s mark can help establish age and origin. That physical evidence becomes particularly important with pieces created for outdoor commercial use, where attrition was naturally high. Objects that survived changing brands, station renovations and decades of disposal can therefore become much harder to replace than their once-common appearance would suggest.
A Six-Foot Canadian Texaco Sign Shows That Size Still Commands Attention
Another significant piece was Lot 60, a Canadian Texaco service-station sign dating from approximately 1946 to 1959. At 72 inches across, the double-sided porcelain sign offered the scale associated with the roadside advertising era, when motorists needed to recognize a fuel brand from a moving vehicle. The piece was marked “P&M Orillia,” graded 9.0 on one side and 8.75 on the other, and authenticated by The Authentication Company. Miller & Miller assigned an estimate of CA$3,000 to CA$3,500.
The contrast with the smaller Ford Genuine Parts sign illustrates how differently advertising objects could function. Ford’s sign communicated dealership and parts identity at relatively close range; a six-foot Texaco emblem was built to dominate a service-station property. Yet size alone does not determine value. Age, Canadian origin, rarity, graphics, condition and collector demand all enter the equation. For modern collectors, the Texaco piece also represents an architectural fragment of the postwar roadside landscape, an era when branded filling stations became familiar landmarks across Canadian towns.
An Agricultural Poster Carried an Estimate Approaching the Gas Pump’s
One of the strongest estimates belonged not to an automotive sign but to a pre-1902 McCormick Harvesting Machinery advertising poster. Lot 80 was estimated at CA$6,500 to CA$9,000. Its central image, “The Ship of Progress,” places a steamship amid surrounding scenes of horse-drawn agricultural machinery, presenting mechanization and transportation as parts of a broader story of economic progress. The chromolithograph measures approximately 40 by 30 inches within the sight area and bears a Ketterlinus printing mark.
Its survival is notable because paper advertising is inherently more vulnerable than porcelain or metal. The catalogue recorded toning, staining, creases, edge damage, foxing and a closed six-inch tear, yet also described the colour as excellent. The poster was designed for sales locations and even provided space for a dealer or store name at the bottom. That commercial purpose gives the piece a human dimension: it was created not for a gallery but to persuade farmers considering machinery purchases more than 120 years ago.
Tiny Tobacco Tins Showed That Rarity Does Not Need a Six-Foot Sign
Some of the highest-interest Canadian advertising could fit comfortably in one hand. Lot 218, a 1920 Torpedo Short Cut Tobacco pocket tin produced by Rock City Tobacco Co. Limited of Quebec, was estimated at CA$3,500 to CA$5,000. Measuring only about 4.25 by 3.25 inches, the flip-lid tin depicts the destroyer-ship version of the Torpedo design. Miller & Miller described Torpedo pocket tins as among the rarest Canadian examples in the category.
Beside it was a Taxi Crimp Cut Tobacco tin, dating from approximately 1910–1920 and produced by Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada. Estimated at CA$3,000 to CA$4,000, its lithographed design depicts two well-dressed men contemplating a taxicab while a chauffeur waits at the wheel. These pieces demonstrate how packaging became disposable advertising: designed to sell a product, carried in a pocket and eventually thrown away. A century later, survival itself becomes part of the attraction, particularly when original graphics and pieces of old tax stamps remain visible.
Wartime Coca-Cola Advertising Added a Social-History Dimension
A five-piece Coca-Cola “Women in Uniform” display brought a different type of history into the sale. Dating from 1942 to 1945, the cardboard point-of-sale set depicts women serving in the Army Nurse Corps, Women’s Army Corps, U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, Navy Nurse Corps and WAVES. Each figure appears in an official-style service uniform while holding a Coca-Cola bottle. The professionally framed group measures 23.25 by 48.5 inches overall and carried an estimate of CA$3,000 to CA$3,500.
The display sits at the intersection of commercial advertising and wartime social change. Rather than simply promoting a soft drink, the imagery tied a consumer brand to women’s expanding military roles during the Second World War. Condition again tells part of the story: the catalogue noted minor staining and edge wear, along with repairs to two figures. Those details remind collectors that fragile cardboard promotional material had little reason to survive once its original retail campaign ended, making complete multi-piece displays especially vulnerable to loss.
Canadian Soda Advertising Continued Into the Evening Session
The sale did not end when the marquee morning petroliana lots crossed the block. Its second session brought another 137 lots to the online market, including soda and general-store advertising. Among them was a Canadian Canada Dry “Take Home a Carton” door sign dating from 1940 to 1948. The narrow die-cut tin measures only 13.5 by 3.5 inches but incorporates a colourful map of Canada into its bottle imagery. Authenticated by The Authentication Company, it was estimated at CA$900 to CA$1,200.
A Coca-Cola “Silhouette Girl” two-piece door pull from approximately 1943–1946 carried a higher CA$1,400 to CA$1,600 estimate. The 12-by-35-inch piece was also authenticated, with separate certification numbers for its bar and handle. Together, the pieces show how advertising once occupied nearly every usable retail surface. Doors, walls, counters, pumps and storefronts became promotional space, leaving collectors today with objects whose shapes and dimensions were dictated as much by where businesses displayed them as by the brands themselves.
The Sale Put 393 Lots in Front of an Online Collector Base
Miller & Miller divided the September 6 event into two sessions. The morning sale began at 9 a.m. Eastern with 256 lots and a live webcast, while another 137 lots were scheduled to close sequentially in an online-only evening session beginning at 6 p.m. Internet bidding was offered through the auction house and LiveAuctioneers, with telephone bidding available during the morning portion. That structure meant collectors did not need to travel to New Hamburg to compete for Canadian advertising material.
Costs also extend beyond the winning bid. LiveAuctioneers listed a 26% buyer’s premium for the sale, meaning bidders had to account for the premium when establishing a maximum purchase price, along with any applicable taxes or other costs. The catalogue also offered free delivery of purchases to the Fall 2026 Dixie Gas Show on September 11. For large pieces such as a nearly eight-foot gasoline pump or six-foot Texaco sign, logistics can become a meaningful part of the collecting decision.
A CA$145,200 Ford Result Earlier This Year Loomed Over the September Sale
The September Ford sign arrived against the backdrop of an unusually strong recent result for Canadian automotive advertising. During Miller & Miller’s June 13–14 petroliana auctions, a Duncan Garage Ford “The Universal Car” porcelain dealer sign from 1912–1927 realized CA$145,200, including buyer’s premium, against an estimate of CA$80,000 to CA$120,000. The two June sessions generated more than CA$1.67 million overall, with sell-through rates of 99% and 100%.
That does not make the September Genuine Parts sign directly comparable. The Duncan Garage piece measured almost 10 feet wide, had documented Vancouver Island provenance and was described as one of the rarest surviving Canadian Ford dealership signs. September’s sign was smaller and estimated at CA$3,500 to CA$5,000. Still, the earlier result explains why rare Canadian Ford material attracts attention. As the September sale closed, the broader story was not simply nostalgia: collectors were again testing how much scarcity, authenticity and recognizable Canadian motoring history are worth in today’s marketplace.
