Michael Lehr Antiques
Live Auction

Fall Photographic History Auction, 2025

Sat, Sep 6, 2025 01:00PM EDT
  2025-09-06 13:00:00 2025-09-06 13:00:00 America/New_York Michael Lehr Michael Lehr : Fall Photographic History Auction, 2025 https://auction.michaellehrantiques.com/auctions/michael-lehr-antiques/fall-photographic-history-auction-2025-20189
We are pleased to announce our next auction, featuring approximately 200 individual lots drawn from a diverse and compelling range of 19th- and early 20th-century photography. This sale focuses on vernacular images, photographs created not as formal studio portraits or elite commissions, but as direct, unscripted records of lived experience. These are objects made by and for everyday people, preserving moments of intimacy, labor, travel, performance, identity, and loss.
Michael Lehr Antiques info@michaellehrantiques.com
Lot 337

Two Cabinet Cards of Shanks's “Caledonia” Lawn Mowers, with Trade Ephemera

Estimate: $200 - $300
Starting Bid
$100

Bid Increments

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A pair of exceptional cabinet cards featuring detailed photographic views of the iconic "Caledonia" lawn mower, manufactured by Alexander Shanks & Son Ltd. of Arbroath, Scotland. Depicted in each studio image is a well-lit, showroom-style composition of the gear-driven and chain-driven models, showcasing their mechanical design and grass-catching attachments. The machines are crisply presented against a neutral backdrop, allowing for close inspection of details such as the roller mechanism, steel gear assembly, and distinctive branding on the handlebars. These images likely served both advertising and reference purposes during a pivotal era of industrial and domestic mechanization.

Included are original pieces of printed trade ephemera, offering valuable context and rarity. Among the items are a richly illustrated 1910 Shanks's catalog with colorful lithographed covers, a two-page spread describing both gear and chain variants of the Caledonia mower, and an 1895 dealer discount sheet identifying this model among their most heavily promoted lines. Notably, handwritten annotations on one mount note that the Caledonia mowers were used at Wimbledon Centre Court in the 1920s and 1930s, further enhancing their historical importance. Together, the photographs and documentation form a rich archive of early 20th-century lawn technology and marketing, perfect for collectors of industrial design, early advertising, or British engineering.

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