Murray Museum auction produced two days of sales excitement

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Published on Thursday, July 9, 2015

By Ken Waddell

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Most of the contents of the Murray Museum in the Gordon District south-west of Neepawa went up for auction on July 4 and 5, under the direction of Meyers Auctions and Appraisals of Arden, Manitoba. Accumulated over many decades by two generations of the Murray family, the collection included Indian artifacts, tools, farm implements, cars and tractors. It also included a large quantity of books, bottles, glassware, lamps and some furniture.

The auction featured more modern farm tools and equipment on Saturday and that portion of the auction lasted from 10 a.m until about 5 p.m. The larger portion of the auction was the antique section, which went from 9 a.m. Sunday until 7:30 at night. One would think that with that large an auction, the auctioneers would run out of customers but even the last table full of cast iron baking and cooking pans sold briskly. 

The high point of the auction was centred around a Buffalo Oil metal display stand in quite good condition. You could hear a pin drop as the crowd grew very quiet as the bidding moved through the lower  thousands of dollars and gradually climbed past $9,000, then $10,000 to settle in finally at $10,700 on a bid from an Alberta buyer.

The second highest item in the auction was an 830 John Deere diesel tractor that brought $10,000. There were many other treasures in the auction including a board of arrowheads for $2,000 and a stationery engine cart for $250. 

Hundreds of antique tools and rare old pieces of farm equipment sold as well.