205.    $1200

W E Haines & Sons Cigar Store Advertiser “Gallatin”, ca. 1925.  This is the smallest of the Haines advertisers listed here, at just 35 inches high.  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.  There is a convex glass in the bezel over the old paper dial, which is part of the topper.  Both glasses are replacements, as are the hands.  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 a number of labels on the back for reasons that are not clear to us; 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”.  Who knew?  The signed movement is running, time only.  $1200-$2000.

W E Haines Cigar Advertiser clocks

W.E. Haines was a tobacco distributor working out of Abbottstown PA in the early 1900’s.  To promote his cigar sales, he created and distributed clocks that he had modified with cigar advertising.  It is not clear if he sold these clocks or gave them to his best customers as promotional items; perhaps both.  All have a label on the back with his business name and the destination of the clock.  He used a variety of contemporary clocks, apparently whatever he could obtain and modify.  Virtually all were hanging clocks, some quite tall.  Most were distributed to the Midwest, especially Kansas, but they were also sent to stores in Chicago and New York.  These clocks were accumulated, presumably in the early 1960’s as the stores closed or were remodeled, by a contractor for a tobacco company and stored on his farm.  His family with Greg Arey had the clocks restored after his death in 2005; some of you may know Greg from his association with the Kansas City chapter of NAWCC, where he has shown some of these clocks in the past.  Greg recently released 43 of these rare, one-of-a-kind clocks for sale through Showtime Auctions.  You can see all the clocks that were sold at Showtime here.  All clocks have been cleaned and restored as necessary; all are running.  They can be disassembled for ease of shipping or transport.  We hope you like them!