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I was telling someone about this the other day and he suggested that I post pictures to share with the group. I’ve had this for around 27 years, it was purchased at Brimfield flea market the summer before I got married, scary how time flies!
As you might be able to see, I made a new tip for his arrow, and epoxied two holes through his base which were added when he came free of his anchor screw. The screw is a round headed slotted screw that was originally cast into his base – it’s epoxied now too but when I bought him he was screwed to the cap with two small screw drilled right through his base and the cap.
So, before anyone asks, he is definitely not for sale, but I’m wondering just how scarce of a mascot he is???
Sorry about the sideways picture, but until we can preview a post there’s nothing to do…
Not related to the topic, but several people have made comments about posting photos.
The photo in question here might be sideways because Mark took the picture with his iPhone, then transferred it to his laptop for easier posting to the PAS website.
If he did, there’s something stupid with iPhones (one of many stupid things. . .) which rotates your photos. They appear OK on your phone, but on your laptop or after you’ve posted them are rotated 90 degrees. It’s an Apple versus Microsoft thing. Here’s how to fix that:
When I take an iPhone photo, I send it to myself in an e-mail. It then appears in my in-box as if one of you sent me a picture. I download it and once it’s on my laptop, you want to open it with Adobe Photoshop. Just opening it, doing nothing, and saving it will rotate it back to the normal orientation. I’ve no idea why. I hate this stuff. Then you can post or forward like any normal photo.
The other thing to do, especially when posting here and sending photos to friends via e-mail is to reduce the size. My iPhone takes Megabyte photos. If you try posting a Megabyte photo here or sending it t a friend (are you reading this, Greg??) it will mess up what the recipient sees.
What you need to do is resize your photographs. Open a photo in Microsoft Office and under EDIT photos, you will see a tab to “Compress Pictures”. When you do that, the size is compressed into Kilobyte size, which is indistinguishable in all but the most exacting resolution, but it can be posted here, other places, and sent as an e-mail attachment very easily without screwing up the text on your recipient’s computer.
Again, hardly an expert here and I passionately hate computers and software but sometimes it is true — can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
— Luke
And yes, I do wish we could preview a post, text, photos and all, before we submit them like you can on the AACA forums.
— Luke
Mark,
You have THE MOST DIFFICULT TO FIND Pierce-Arrow Mascot.
That said, I had TWO of them and sold each, re-plated for $1,00.00 to $1,200.00 EACH.
The only photo of them shows it on a Series 80, even though the Williams Mascot book states that they were made for the Series 33 / 36.
That is an AMAZING mascot to have.
My Plating-Guy had his repair guy fashion a tip for one of mine, and it ws PERFECT.
I would get it plated in Nickel and then you will have an EXCEPTIONAL piece to keep for posterity.
There are not many around, but a few PAS guys have them, maybe a half-dozen at most, and you are one of the half-dozen.
I will post a number of photos of the stages of refurbishment / restoration.
Congratulations,
Peter
Another photo
Last one.
Please excuse the glare, but it was newly plated at that time, so no patina.
Mark,
It’s interesting to notice on my first photo, where all of the plating is GONE, its shows that the base is bronze, then there is a transition metal mid-thigh (seemed to have the consistency of LEAD) and then the top section is pot-metal.
I believe that the bronze absorbed the heat, the transition metal dissipated the heat a bit and then came the pot-metal which would probably not tolerate to the heating-cooling cycles without crumbling.
BTW, of these mascots that I know exist, one lives in Florida, one in Pennsylvania, one in Tennessee, one in Ontario and then yours.
Repeat, congratulations!
Peter
PS, posting the photos was a SNAP!
Last photo with me, Chauncey, my Series 80 and the Running Archer (aka, Mercury / Hermes).
Thank you for the pictures and comments, it explains the reaction I got when I mentioned having one. At some point I will take your advice and have him restored to his original state. Seeing the pictures shows that I didn’t quite get the arrow tip right, I continued the groove all the way forward not adding a rib to define it.
Bill Williams was a good friend who got me hooked on mascots as a kid, he would set up at many small fleas in the New England area and he would take payments over time. By this I mean I would give him $25 at one show, and more at the next one until I had paid for a mascot he had. I showed this to Bill after buying it, he was impressed and offered to get it restored for me, but I was months away from getting married and didn’t have the spare money to do it. His price to restore it was in the $300 range then, which was 1992. A lot of money compared to the NOS 31 mascot I have on my car now that was bought a year or two after that for not much more. Bill claimed the 31 Archer Mascot was so common, due to thefts at the factory of them, that I should have shopped around more! It’s a story I have heard several times now but it doesn’t seem to affect their prices now…
Peter, how long have you had your car? It looks like the one I remember as a kid in the early to mid 70’s at the Endicott Estate, and being from Massachusetts could be the same one… You must remember Bill setting up at those fleas as well?
Great looking car by the way, I was responding to the thread while you were posting it.
Mark,
I have owned my Series 80, 7-passenger DeLuxe Sedan for about 14-years, but it has been in my family since 1928.
I am the third family owner of the car.
It was originally owned by Myron Edson Forbes, then President of the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company and was bought from Mr. Forbes by a Great Uncle who was the managing supervisor for the Grisholdt Rear-End Plant at PAMCC.
From there, my Uncle Joe owned it and I bought it from his estate in 2005.
I then refurbished the heck out of it.
I have not yet shown it at the Endicott Estate, but will do so this July at the Misselwood Concours.
Also, I do not recall ever knowing your friend Bill Williams, but I will think about that one.
Cheers,
Peter
Here is another one of what it was like before I purchased it!
Peter, I remember your ‘technicolor’ engine bay when you brought ‘Chauncy’ to the Williamstown Mass Annual Meet..
You have done a hell of a job restoring the car’s and engine bay’s appearance to ‘correct’..
Miss Helen had a ‘Mercury’ archer with her when I purchase the car, so there is ‘one’ in Michigan as well.
Greg
Of these pictures, I see two different bases, one smaller and more rounded up than the other. Are there two different ones?
Hi Mark, I suspect the smaller base started life the same as the other mascots. But in order to fit a particular radiator cap, the base was made smaller and then the top surface shaped to narrow the thick edge of the smaller diameter base.
Or it’s possible the base got damaged and was repaired by removing the damaged spot which reduced the diameter of the base.
These mascots are so rare that it almost nicer happens to have two together to compare them. I had not noticed the different base sizes.
Greg
Mark & Greg,
When I owned the two Running Archer mascots, I had one with a large base and one with a small base and I don’t believe that either was altered.
I think that they came that way.
They were just probably different production runs from the manufacturer..
Perhaps the larger one was the later production model and had the large base to assist in the dissipation of heat from the radiator.
Who knows?
Peter
I agree that the small base is not an alteration. Maybe there were two different ones to fit different styles of radiator cap? If I’m able to get to the meet next year maybe we can get them together for a comparison, that would be something…
Is there one at the museum?
Unfortunately no.
Dave Stevens