This is a Heddon 140 Flipper topwater bait with L-rig hardware. The beautiful paint finish is called Natural Scale. Flippers had long, slender props that sometimes were stamped "Heddon's Dowagiac." Flippers are hard to find and existed only briefly in the 1920s.

 This Near Surface Wiggler in Strawberry Spot finish is one of the nicest I've seen.  Note the inch-worm line tie on the nose. These baits are from the early to late teens and are considered Heddon classics. 

 This is another absolutely mint  150 minnow in Sienna Crackleback. This bait is absolutely flawless and has never seen water. Mint lures of this age are impossible to find, especially with 5 treble hooks that can sometimes do more damage to an early bait than the fish it was made to catch.   

 This pair if underwater minnows includes a 100 and 150 series, both in a beautiful rare color called goldfish scale. It looks just like it sounds: like a goldfish. I've never thought of fishing with goldfish, but for some reason early lure makers seemed to want to manufacture baits to mimic them.

This is a  near mint Heddon 150 in a beautiful color called  FROG SCALE. This lure also has  2-PIECE HARDWARE, an unusual configuration for the heddon 5-hook minnows. The hardware, and the name stenciled on the belly, places this lure in the early 1930s.  

Here are two more early underwater minnows. The top lure is finished in a color we call Brown Sienna, which wasn't around in the later years. The lower minnow is in beautiful Bar Perch, one of heddon's all-time classic colors.  

These 100 Underwater minnows are in two more classic Heddon colors: salt flitter and slate with red around the eyes. It is difficult indeed to amass an entire color set of early underwater minnows in pristine condition. Rarer colors certainly drive up the price of lures as well as condition.

 This unusual 5-hook minnow is believed to be a Heddon painted bait perhaps marketed by South Bend or one of their jobbers. I've also heard them called "Killer" minnows. Note the sweeping, curved "smiley" hand painted gills, the extra wide back and round body, and the green back.

This 150 Dowagiac minnow is in green scale, a common but nonetheless captivatingly beautiful early color. Take a close look at this lure. It gleams like a piece of jewelery. 

 This unusual long-bodied early 100 underwater minnow is in green crackleback and could perhaps  be a Sear's "Winner" wood minnow, but certainly made by Heddon.  The next lure is a later version 100 series in frog scale.

 These two 150 Underwater Minnows are in all-red with cup rigs, and in red/white/red in L-rig.  Both have wonderful appeal, and were likely kept stored away, as they show virtually no signs of battle.