A Furphy water tank that has sat dormant on a Beechworth farm for about 40 years now holds the record for the highest sale price.
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Chris Bartsh and wife, Karen, held an online clearing sale for the settlement of the family estate, where the 1942 model tank drew a record bid of $61,300, which more than doubled the previous mark.
Mr Bartsh recalled his father buying it from a farmer at nearby Murmungee in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
"I know he used it to pump out some septics, but I think it got a hole in it and he just parked it here and never got around to fixing it," the fourth-generation farmer said.
Mrs Bartsh said they had no idea what the tank, which was missing its lid, would be valued at and would have taken $3000 for the end pieces, before selling agent Kevin Hicks Real Estate, based at Shepparton, suggested a $10,000 reserve as it might hold value for collectors.
"We heard about the previous record (believed to be $26,000), but not in our wildest dreams did we think we would double it," she said.
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Mrs Bartsh said it had been a "very interesting adventure" as she delved into more of the tank's history. A message on the tank in Pitman shorthand loosely translated to "beer and whiskey are the tools of the devil, so have a glass of water", which was ironic given Little Creatures Brewing used tanks from Shepparton's Furphy Engineering at Geelong where Furphy Refreshing Ale was launched in 2014.
"The person who has bought it is choosing to remain anonymous and he is a collector," Mrs Bartsh said.
"We were also selling some tap keys and we're pretty sure one of them was for the pump. The person who collected the tank bought the key with a view to pass it on."
Furphy collector Josh Powles, who oversees the make's models on display at Shepparton's Museum of Vehicle Evolution, was gobsmacked by the price paid for the Beechworth tank.
"It's more than double what any other Furphy item has sold for, but again it's a very rare item and they don't come up that often," he said.
The attached pump and a special bracket allowing that device to sit on the tank were the keys to the auctioned tank's big price.
Mr Powles said the bracket only featured on 1939 and 1942 tank models.
"Adding a pump to a water cart pretty well doubled the price so it was a really big outlay for the farmer at the time," he said. A tank with a pump would sell for 29 pounds and for 12 pounds without a pump."
Reflecting how much Furphy goods have increased, Mr Powles said 20 years ago the top price paid for a tank would be $1000 and $200 for an inscribed end.
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