What makes an antique gas engine sell for $200,000? The answer is invariably linked to the piece’s rarity. But for John Merry of Walla Walla, Washington, rarity was only one of the factors involved in his decision to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a very early Golden Gate gas engine at an estate auction in 2013.
“The fact is, this is a historical treasure for Walla Walla,” he says. “Really, it’s a hidden treasure, because most people don’t understand the history of the internal combustion engine; they think the car came first. This could be Walla Walla’s first internal combustion engine.”
That aside, the Golden Gate — built before 1895 by Adam Schilling & Sons, San Francisco — is an admittedly rare engine. Production numbers are lost to time but fewer than 10 Golden Gates are known to exist today. Factor in unusually advanced design and original paint, and it’s no surprise that
