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Keith O'Leary Got several emails about the page and felt compelled to write something. I live in an large, old brick farmhouse and have plenty of room for my "junque".
The chicken sitting on the glass eggs is a small pillow. The glass eggs were hand blown and used by farmers to stimulate egg laying by inserting them under nesting chickens.
I've collected baseball cards for as long as I can remember. Even early on, I remember trading the neighbor kids new Topps cards for any "older" cards they or their Dad may have had laying around. Usually 60s Topps for 50s Topps. When I started hunting Pennsylvania whitetail deer in 1967, an elderly hunting buddy of my Dad's who knew how crazy I was about baseball cards, mentioned that he had some old tobacco baseball cards that were his father's in a drawer at home and the next time I was close to his house, to stop in and he would give them to me. Well, I didn't know what a tobacco baseball card was, but I knew I couldn't wait to get my hands on them. I started pestering my Dad to take me to his buddy's house as soon as we got home from deer hunting. To make a long story a little shorter, they were 50 or so T206s. I was so excited and thankfull to get them. I always loved flea markets and kept a keen eye out from then on for any "tobacco" baseball cards.
I tried to make myself known to the dealers and let them know what I was looking for. Collecting the T206s taught me about some other tobacco issues as well. There were many times when a dealer would see me and say "Hey, I got some tobacco baseball cards for you to look at". After seeing they were an N172 Old Judge, T201, T202, or a T205 (these were the most common ones then), I had to politely refuse as I was only looking for T206s, 
. I hated telling them I wasn't interested as I didn't want to discourage them from looking for me. I'm sure we all have those kind of regrets. I did get all 4 of my Cobbs from a flea market dealer for less the $10 each. There weren't any tobacco card collectors that I even knew of back then, so I had no competition for any that became available. Anyway after 20 or so years of only collecting T206s and coming to the conclusion that I would never complete the set (got up to 480 or so, none of the big 5). I decided to liquidate and start collecting some of the smaller sets I collect now (N28, N29, N43, N162, N184).
At about the same time, I was introduced by my Dad to a shuffleboard buddy of his. My Dad had told me he collected tobacco indian silks and I pested Dad to let me meet him for months. Again, not knowing what they were, but knowing they were a tobacco issue, I became intrigued. Well, his name was Charles Reuter, and Charlie introduced me to the non baseball issues in the American Card catalog. A definate change of my collecting direction. I started reading the ACC from cover to cover trying to familiarize myself with all the 19th and early 20th century tobacco issues. That way I would have another thing to keep my eye open for at sales and flea markets. Charlie was somewhat of a type collector in as much as he would buy any tobacco issue he could get his hands on (although his indian silk collection was as extensive and as mint as you'd want to see), so I got to see some of the rarer non sports issues in his collection (he had a large 30 X 36" premium indian leather for example). If you never saw one, you'd probably never realize it was a tobacco issue. Through my friendship with him, I was able to really extend my knowledge base and added tobacco albums, counter cards, advertising banners, premium leathers among some other sets to my want list. Anyway, I could go on forever with this stuff.
My Dad started collecting hit and miss farm engines when he retired 20 years ago (thats where I got my interest for them). He told me one night, that there was a real piece of Americana coming up for auction here in town. He liked anything that had a flyball governor on it and always liked the challenge of a restoration project and thought it would be a good father son thing to do. I could hear the wheels turning in his head as he was telling me his thinking on the subject at hand. For the sake of brevity, It turned out to be the Bartholomew "Boss on Wheels" peanut roaster. It had come from an old main street Mom and Pop store here in Mount Joy. After inquiries, talking to one of the original store owners and her daughter, I was able to get alot of information about it. It had been put away since the 40s, and was bought new in 1891 by the original owner of the store (I was talking to the owners 2nd wife, who he married in the 20s). It was a mess when we got it. Very little original paint on it, couple of worn gears, grime an inch thick, bent wheels with no rubber, etc. I thought we were in over our heads. It took 2 years of detective work, talking to other vintage peanut roaster owners, buying or copying original company literature to get paint schemes, etc., before we even attempted at the restoration. I have to admit, it was quite a learning experience and a very rewarding father and son thing to do together. I'm also lucky enough to have a buddy that has a machine shop. There were many parts that needed fabrication. I've since learned much more about peanut roasters and popcorn wagons and enjoy looking for this stuff too.
As for the saleman samples, here in later years I've found it extremely difficult finding items for sale in the above areas. Just so i could buy something once in awhile, I started collecting these, no other reason, except I do like them, and like learning about them. Ebay has made this collecting field available to me. That is a Rudd water heater pictured with it's case. The photos show mine standing beside a real one. I think I've rambled long enough. Thanks for all the complements about the page, hope I answered a couple of more questions. Keith
01-26-2002, 02:37 PM
Might be of interest
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