Are these "Kingfisher" Reels PENN or Ocean City Trade Reels?

[RonG]

Photos of 2 reels below.

[wrong99]

My guess is Ocean City.

[RonG]

Here's another one. This one is stamped "Kingfisher" on the back plate. I'm trying to positively ID them. They are ORCA donations I'm going to list on eBay for ORCA.

[Shellbelly]

The lower two pictures look OC to me. Brigantine and Bay City reels have the same style of free spool lever that operates left/right iso back/forward.

Both of your reels share similar handles which isn't always a reliable indicator.

The upper reel looks to be direct drive with very similar plates and hardware patterns as the lower 2 pics. There's a mold plug where the lever would go. Looks like OC.

Walks like a duck...

[Shellbelly]

You snuck in another one.

Free spool lever looks similar to a OC 991 in my stash. Handle is very similar to a A.H.Fox trade reel along with the side plate hardware. Again, handles are wild cards.

I have to vote OC again.

[m3040c]

The first reels you posted are Ocean City Trade Reels. Edward Tryon put their name on many OC reels.The last reel is a Fox, probably from Ocean City. Ocean City had a couple of Fox Reels in their catalogs in the mid 1930's. Here is a Fox reel in the OC 1934 catalog, it is a dead ringer for the reel you posted except for the free spool lever (which could have switched, even by OC). I might add that they are fairly difficult to find:

[RonG]

Thanks for the info guys. I'll list them as "Ocean City" in the list of reels coming up for auction starting tonight. These reels were donated to ORCA and will be listed under the ORCA eBay username "oldreelcollector". There will be a total of 22 reel lots in this listing.

[Shellbelly]

Ansley H. Fox 250 yd.Free Spool. No other markings and I'm not positive that all of the fittings are correct.

[m3040c]

Ansley H. Fox 250 yd.Free Spool. No other markings and I'm not positive that all of the fittings are correct.

The fittings looks correct on your reel. More correct than the OC version, where the free spool lever is changed. I believe your reel is a Fox Model H while Fox was still independent, pre Ocean City ownership. The donated reel looks to be a Trade Reel or the Ocean City version because of the lack of Fox stamping on the bottom of the stand.

[Shellbelly]

Very different quality in their reels compared to their much more beautiful products. We can only imagine "what could have been".