A pair of Canadian White Rose Gasoline service station signs from the 1940s sold for a combined $63,130, and a red 1951 Ford Custom convertible car sped off for $17,700 in an online-only Petroliana and Advertising Auction held on March 11 by Miller & Miller Auctions Ltd., based in New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada. Prices quoted are in Canadian dollars. All prices include an 18-percent buyers premium. It was a well-rounded sale full of quality, fresh-to-the-market, investment-grade material, said Ethan Miller of Miller & Miller Auctions Ltd. Buyers jumped on many high-grade and seldom seen signs. With many rare pieces hitting the market after years tucked away in private collections, this was an exciting opportunity for collectors. We continue to see strong results in the petroliana and advertising categories. Its all on fire. Nearly half of the top 50 lots exceeded their high-end estimates. The upward trend continues. Condition has always been the great divider. Many of the top lots sold to buyers that were investing in condition. Some of the numbers were staggering, added Miller. The top lot of the auction was a round White Rose Gasoline double-sided porcelain sign, six feet in diameter and marked P&M Orillia lower edge. It blasted through its $10,000-$13,000 estimate to finish at $44,250. The other White Rose sign, a three-piece single-sided porcelain banner sign, the more difficult-to-find scaled up version of the set, with the round center sign 48 inches in diameter (typically 36 inches) and each of the banners 119.5 inches long, hit $18,880. Just over 300 lots came up for bid in an auction that grossed $419,225 and featured categories that included automobiles, petroliana (gas station collectibles), breweriana (beer collectibles), soda advertising, bicycles and advertising signs. A total of 433 registered bidders combined for 6,726 bids. Online bidding was via LiveAuctioneers.com and MillerandMillerAuctions.com. The two runners-up to the top three finishers posted identical selling prices of $12,980. One was a Canadian 1950s North Star Gasoline double-sided porcelain service station sign that bested its $7,000-$9,000 estimate. The other was a Canadian 1930s Red Indian Gasoline single-sided porcelain service station sign, marked The W. F. Vilas Co. Ltd., Cowansville, P.Q., lower center edge. It was also estimated at $7,000-$9,000. The Ford brand was well represented in the auction and managed to muscle its way to the list of top lots. A few of the better performers are as follows. A Canadian 1940s single-sided porcelain Ford Monarch dealer sign with bullnose ends, which would have originally been displayed with a second sign identical to this one, attached back-to-back, creating a double-sided sign, realized $10,030. A Canadian Ford winged pyramid double-sided porcelain sign from the 1920s, retaining the original hanging loops and short lengths of chain, sold for $8,850, and an American 1940s Ford Dealer single-sided porcelain sign made for neon by the Frohling Sign Co. (Nanuet, N.Y.) went for $5,605. One of the sleepers of the sale was an Indian 1940s-era Eveready Flashlights, Batteries & Bulbs single-sided porcelain sign in excellent condition, showing a detailed image of a small man in a pillbox hat carrying a flashlight across a line of batteries, boasting exceptional color and gloss, expected to bring $1,200-$1,500, that rose to $5,605. An NOS (new old stock) 1971 Schwinn Sting-Ray three-speed muscle bike, made in America in 1971 with applied decals and rubber components, painted campus green, including factory sales literature, left the room for $7,670. The bicycle came from a closed down Schwinn dealership in the U.S. and was originally found in the factory-sealed box with the original order slip attached. An American Winchester Repeating Arms Co. 1897 calendar on lithographed paper, with artwork signed by the famed illustration artist A.B. Frost, titled A Chance Shot and An Interrupted Dinner, hit the mark for $5,310. Winchester began issuing an advertising calendar each year beginning in 1887 and still does so to this day. To learn more about Miller & Miller Auctions Ltd., visit www.millerandmillerauctions.com.