Gordon Brindley, known to many as Harry, is auctioning his private antique tractor collection this week to give back to his community.
The owner of Brindley Auction Services’ private antique collection includes more than 500 gas, diesel, propane and steam tractors. Brindley plans to donate 100 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of two of the tractors, an International Harvester A1 Tractor and a Farmall 300 to support the Wingham and District Hospital and the Huron Hospice Residence.
Brindley said between the auction and the donations from an open house held Friday Aug. 19, he hopes to generate upwards of $10,000 to split between the two health facilities.
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The auction is being hosted online, with the first group of lots closing after 9 a.m. on Aug. 24 and the second group of lots on Aug. 25.
Brindley Auction Services and will run over two days, Aug. 24 and 25, 2022 online.
Interested parties can find auction items at: https://www.proxibid.com/Brindley-Auction-Services/auction-house/10831
Brindley’s collection of vintage iron is one of the largest in Ontario, possibly in Canada, and holds some rare and likely one-of-a-kind finds.
The collection includes a limited production white 1950 demonstrator McCormick Farmall and plow, a Field Marshall, a complete Lantz Bulldog, and a White American with only 30 hours on the engine and plastic still on the seat, which should fetch a pretty good price.
“The (Farmall) are real hard to find, it’s the only one I ever seen in this area, and when I bought it, I bought it no matter what,” Brindley told Farmtario, adding it was likely $4,000 to $5,000, and he has the matching white plow to sell. He said it’d be quite the coup if a collector could win both.
Another rarity in the collection is the AllWork steel wheel, cross engine tractor he bought more than 25 years ago in eastern Ontario. Brindley said it doesn’t look like much, and it needs some restoration work – much of which he’s already sourced – but it’s over 100 years old and easily fixed, unlike today’s tractors.
“They can’t see that in a museum or the plowing match,” said Brindley, grinning. “There’s not very many around, and you have to have a favourite somewhere along the line.”
Out of the approximately 500 tractors on display, Brindley’s next two favourites are a 20 Cockshut and a 98 Massey with a rare ‘Jimmy diesel’ (GM diesel) engine instead of the standard Minneapolis engine predominantly produced through the 1950s.
“I’ve had them for a long time, and I took them to the shows, the Blyth steam show even,” he said. “I had the whole series of Masseys, 95, 97, and 98s gas, diesel and propane which came out of western Canada.”
Scattered across several properties, when he finally amassed the collection at the Base Equipment location in Lucknow for the auction, even Brindley was startled at the sheer volume.
“Where in Ontario are you going to see (a tractor auction) bigger than this?” said Bob Skerritt, a long-time International collector, whose gone up against Brindley a time or two at auctions.
He and Brindley have gone to Indiana together for auctions around the same size, but few featured personal collections this large.
“I’m at the age I should be selling, not buying, but you never know, I might see something that says, ‘take me home,” he said.
