There exists a double nostalgia when it comes to lunch boxes. The first comes from the subject matter: The Beatles, Star Trek, Lost In Space, Hogan’s Heroes, Evil Knievel, Popeye, Gunsmoke, Peanuts. These were undeniable hits, and more importantly for their makers, these subjects defined cool. Do you remember carrying your (insert pop culture icon here) lunch box to school? And do you remember watching them on the television? Of course you do, and so does everyone else. Which brings us to the second source of nostalgia: youth. Lunch boxes bring us back to our youth. That is why lunch boxes and their matching thermoses, in excellent condition, go for thousands of dollars now, like the examples coming up at Bruneau & Co. Though in the interest of telling a bit of folk lunch history, there is an entire generation of people who never had lunch boxes. In a good “When I was your age…” story from my grandfather who grew up in the 30s and 40s, he said his mother would send him off with a hot potato as he walked to school through the bitter New England winters. He would hold it to keep warm, stash it away in his coat pocket and eat it for lunch later on. “But what about your matching thermos?!” I said. “That’s what boots are for,” he replied.
BRUNEAU & CO
Sale Date: January 12, 2019
Lot 262
1965 Aladdin The Beatles
Lunch Box & Thermos
An Aladdin The Beatles metal lunch box with matching metal and plastic thermos. Includes original thermos instruction sheet. Metal, plastic, 1965. Lunch box 8 by 6-7/8 by 3¾ inches.
Estimate: $1/2,000
KAMELOT
Sale Date: January 5, 2019
Lot 216
Italian Mid-Century Modern
Brass Glass Chandelier
Three light brass and glass chandelier with saucer-form shades, circa 1960, 34 inches high.
Estimate: $1,2/1,800
FORSYTHES’ AUCTIONS LLC
Sale Date: January 6, 2019
Lot 62
Ernest A Batchelder Attributed
Item Name: Blanket Chest
Chestnut, circa 1900, with carved and painted front panel with three dancing mice, side panels with matching single mouse, hinged lid with breadboard ends, original dark finish, original bale iron handles on sides, 15¼ inches high.
Estimate: $800-1,500
FLANNERY’S ESTATE SERVICES
Sale Date: January 7, 2019
Lot 95
French Napoleon III Ormolu
Bronze-Mounted Commode
A Napoleon III rosewood commode with bronze ormolu mounts and inset bronze plaques signed by A. Carrier for Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824–1887) and dated 1865. Exterior rosewood veneered with interior birdseye maple veneer, 51¼ inches high.
Estimate: $40/60,000
CHRISTIANA AUCTION GALLERY
Sale Date: January 10, 2019
Lot 41
Howard Finster (American, 1916–2001)
“Cadalac (Cadillac) Message,” 1992, paint on cutout board, signed and dated, 20 by 6 inches.
Estimate: $800-1,200
KEYSTONE AUCTION LLC
Sale Date: January 5, 2019
Lot 381
John Sala Stenciled Soap Hollow
Blanket Chest
Poplar construction with stencils of horses, tulips and sunbursts. Stenciled “Manufactured by John Sala 1856” with the initials “JT” above. It has a dovetailed body and a tall dovetailed bracket foot. Item was purchased directly from the descendants of a Soap Hollow family. The chest is said to be a display piece from the John Sala Cabinet Shop, 22 by 36 by 17 inches.
Estimate: $15/20,000
BRUCE GAMAGE JR
Sale Date: January 5-6, 2019
Lot 30
William and Mary Chest
Seventeenth Century, restored by Houston Dodge.
Description: Estimate: $3/4,000
W.A. SMITH
Sale Date: January 5, 2019
Lot 107
New Hampshire Mirror Clock
Gilt with dial signed “A. Chandler, Concord NH,”
30 inches high.
Estimate: $1,5/2,500
CLARK’S AUCTION COMPANY
Sale Date: January 6, 2019
Lot 124
Large Afghan War Rug
Soviet conflict, circa 1980, octagon design trim,
63 by 41½ inches.
Estimate: $1/2,000
