We can help you sell your
Scientific Related Antiques & Collectibles!!
We deal in and sell early and unusual slide rules, early patented calculation
devices, as well as many other other
antique
tools and technology related antiques from the home, shop, farm, or office.
We are full time antique dealers of early
scientific and technology related antiques and actively
deal in a broad range of related antiques and advertising.
This site,
www.Antiqbuyer.com is our informational and past sales results website.
There are links on the left to informational pages, and on the right,
links to past sales results for pieces we have sold.
Our antique sales site for these
and other types of antiques and collectibles is
www.Patented-Antiques.com
Please vist it that site if you are looking to buy these types of
antiques and collectibles .
Please
contact us by email at LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
if you have any interesting technological or scientific related antiques
you want to sell.
Below are some pictures of the
types of scientific antiques and vintage calculation devices and slide
rules that we deal in and are seeking, along with some basic information
to help you determine what you have.
Curta Calculators
The
picture below is of the ever-popular Curta calculator. The example
pictured is known as a Type 1. This is a step drum calculator that was also produced as a
Type 2
during the
same time frame. The
main differences in the two are that the type 2
Curta has a
slightly larger capacity. These calculating devices were first designed
during WWII and were introduced shortly after the Second World War to
the commercial market. They were still being made right
up to the time the hand-held electronic calculator caused their popularity to wane
and production to end in the 70's They originally retailed for about
$150.00. Examples sat on
shelves and in back storerooms of drafting supply shops as dead stock for
years in the 70's and early 80's. Before the internet it was
oftentimes hard to even get original retail for them. After word got out that they were being
collected prices skyrocketed.
Not too many years ago these devices could be had for a couple hundred dollars and there were
more than enough to go around. The supply seemed
endless, and the demand scant. The Internet auctions came and the
market changed with a new group of collectors entering the market.
Prices initially went up to new unheard of levels and then back down after that initial demand was
fulfilled and the tech bubble blew up. They are still a popular collectible and demand is pretty
constant with prices for them ranging anywhere from $500-1500.00 or so
depending on a few variables including the serial # and condition.
Calculator Values
The prices of most later or more modern
calculators also took off for a while and reached new and unheard
of values when demand rose right after the internet came into vogue.
Many of those values dropped considerably after the tech bubble burst. The value of these calculators seems to be tied to the
amount of money folks of the proper age group have to spend as disposable
income at any given time. High when the stock market was doing well, and not so well
after the bubble burst. That scenario has repeated itself during
this latest recession as well and I am willing to bet the same is true in
relation to what happens in the Real Estate market. Prices and
interest rise in good markets and fall in bad.
I expect that things are going to be soft for a while. Maybe a long
while and that the ups in the collectible markets lags behind or is
slower than the ups in those other markets.
A market was also created
by the internet for electronic hand-held calculators from
our school
days and evolved during this period also. Another new collectible was born. It seems that this category bubble went the same way as the
last NASDAQ bubble as well. I would bet a chart comparing the two price levels would look strangely
familiar. The difference being that this may have been more fad than
real. Think Beannie Babies here. I think it
will be years, if ever, before some of the lofty
heights that some of these later electronic calculation devices and other collectibles
once brought is met again. The one caveat being the rare of
the rare with the example being where an Apple 1 brought half a million
or so a while back. Results like that are explained by some folks
simply having too much money.
I
like, and still look for these handheld electronic calculators, and
similar types, but rarely do I want the
larger later and more typically seen modern 10-key models, like those from the 30's or 40's or later.
Including
large Victors, Burroughs,
and a host of the other later 10-key heavyweight adding machines that seem to be in every garage and in
every antique booth and even at the end of some ropes in the bottom of
people's boats acting as ballast or anchors. There are people who do collect and are looking for
these later machines, but I do not know them and have no market to sell
them.
Check eBay to see what these later 40' - 60's era calculators / adders actually sell
for and you will see what I mean.
Early Calculation Devices
Antique and vintage calculating devices have had an interesting and varied period of
development through the years.
Every one is familiar with the abacus,
one of the earliest of all calculating devices.
Another early form of a
calculator first developed
for Western civilizations was known as Napier's Bones. These were cubes
or dice-like in shape, and were made from bones or ivory
and real examples are extremely rare and collectible. They are being
reproduced today and sold at various internet sites and auctions, at times with no
indication of their true vintage. Be aware.
Logarithmic scales found on slide rules were first introduced by Routledge in the early 1800's and were incorporated into the various forms of rules
and other devices that were the forerunner to the slide rule as we know
it today. These scales were typically found on rules during
the early to mid 1800's for use primarily by merchants and trades people
who needed a viable way to run larger calculations for their lines of work
or business.
One of the
first types of mass produced calculating devices that still survive in numbers today
are paper
tables with wheels and dials similar to the adder that is pictured
above on the right. The Palmer's Computing Scale
(not shown) is the
best known and most commonly seen of these types of early paper calculators.
Other variations do exist and are good pieces.
Early Dial type calculators / adders were around pretty
much during the same period. The best known of this style machine is
the well known Webb Adder which was patented in
the
late 1800's.. These
were produced in a few different configurations
throughout the years, with the earliest versions having a wooden back On the right is the later version, this one being marked with the
maker's name and patent date. There
are early knockoffs of this calculator / adder that are not marked that
can found as well. They were produced to
compete with the real things, much as the pirated tapes and CDs that abound in today's
markets.
On
the left is a pretty rare and earlier model
adder / calculator with this same basic
configuration as those above. It is known
as the Hart
Patent Adder.
I am interested in any of these kinds of
early dial calculators, sliding style calculators, or circular calculators like the one in the
top left corner.
Please note that there is little market for newer sliding adders
like those by the German firm Castell and the Japanese ones from the
1950's that were marketed after World War II and sold from novelty
catalogs and the back of magazines for a $1.00 or so.
I am an active antique
dealer in early or antique calculation devices and looking to add nice
examples to
the sale pages on our sales website located at
www.Patented-Antiques.com I have a good selection of slide rules, calculators, adders and other early
office and scientific antiques listed for sale there. Please take a look if interested
in buying or selling.
Key Type Calculation Devices
Near the turn of the century dials began to give way to
key type adders and calculators, or those with stepped drum and pinwheel style
mechanisms, and when these stepped
drum and pin-wheel models became more economically feasible to manufacture, even though they
were invented years earlier they soon dominated the market.
This
style calculating machine, which quickly and easily performed four functions,
became the
standard. Shortly thereafter calculators became electrified and all of these old style calculators
were pretty much relegated to the status of
obsolete but not necessarily collectible. Millions had been produced
and they are still readily available.
The story of the electronic calculator, and the design changes that they
went through in a very short period of time until arriving at today's
wonders of technological advances is a dramatic and interesting story.
There is a very informative and well done site that is primarily focused
on the history of the Hewlett Packard line of calculators, but they also
have a very nice and well done history of earlier calculation devices
leading up to the HP line. A more detailed history of this period can be
found at The Museum of HP Calculators.
It is interesting reading and should be looked into if
you are trying to identify your calculator, or if this is the sort of
thing that interests you.
The most famous, and most
commonly found early key style calculating machines is the
Comptometer. It was a very popular machine in its day, as attested to by the
sheer number that have survived and are still available. The most
common versions are found in a tan metal case and sell for under 100 in most cases, but the earliest version came housed in a wooden
case like the one pictured on the right and is much harder to find. These have been known to sell for several
thousand depending on condition, serial number, and other factors.
Most
10 key machines by other
makers that look similar to this with metal cases
(like the Burroughs) are considered very
common and of little interest to me or to most other collectors of early
calculating technology with limited storage space.
Other non electric calculators considered collectible operated with the
stepped drum or
pin-wheel mechanism. Some of the names of these style machines
are
the Marchant, Odhner, Time is Money (TIM), The Millionaire Calculator, The
Peerless Reckoning Machine which was sold by K & E, as well as a host
of others that were being produced early on. In general the earlier
the better, with some selling for 1000.00 or more and others 100 or
less.
The above adders / calculators are an example of
the caliber, condition and quality of these types of devices that we are
primarily interested in. To see examples of calculation devices we
have sold in the past please look at the sales archive pages listed on the
right.
Click the appropriate links on the right side if you would like to see past sales results
for
antique calculators & Slide Rules we have sold.
If you have or know of one of these
earlier and interesting adders / calculators that you want to sell please
contact me at LCM@AntiqBuyer.com
To see examples of similar antiques that
we currently have for sale please go to our sister site at
www.Patented-Antiques.com and
visit the numerous sale pages you will find there.
Thank you!!
Larry & Carole
Larry & Carole 
