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Friday, April 11, 2008

Question of the week - Most reliable antiques subset?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I’m asking readers to take few moments and think before they respond to the question this week, just a few deeps breaths and then respond.

It’s too easy to say, if you’re a collector of glassware, that glassware is then the most reliable. Or whatever segment you happen to participate in.

I also want to shy away from making generalizations about the business. “If you buy what you love, then it never loses value.”

This may be true, and I readily acknowledge that you shouldn’t start buying solely as an investment, but we all know it’s happening.

For my part, I’ve always seen good jewelry and good folk art sell, no matter what, a make good on a return. Whether I like these forms or not is irrelevant.

So when you stop and think about it, looking at all the things you come across at shows, shops and auctions – or rummage sales and flea markets, I don’t care – what do you see that, in your experience, reliably sells and holds or increases its value?

Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post a comment here.

Friday, April 11, 2008 5:35:53 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [1]

A synchroncity of antiques - Islamic antiquities dominate
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

It seems now that Islamic art is absolutely everywhere, and the amount of money that it's fetching - congruent with the amount of ire it's raising in some instances - is pretty amazing.

I've already written about it a few times this week and last week.

It started the attempted sale of some armor once, possibly, belonging to a revered Sikh Guru. Then a 12th century key to the holiest pilgrimage site in Mecca, and now, just yesterday, a dagger once belonging to Shah Jahan - arguably the greatest of India's Golden Age Mugal emporers - the man who built the Taj Mahal, and raised Islamic art and architecture to amazing levels in his reign, sold at Bonham's in London for nearly $3,000,000.

You have to admit, looking at it, that it's a thing of extraordinary beauty, made even more important by its provenance of having belonged to Shah Jahan, a man from whom very few personal relics survive. $3M seems like alot to spend, but as I wrote about the Hajj key yesterday, reclaiming cultural history is an expensive game, and them that have the bucks don't necessarily think of it as a numbers game. Face it, if you have all the bills in the Monopoly game, there's nothing on the board that's out of range.

Again, it went to an anonymous bidder who didn't wish to be identified. Who knows who it is, but most likely it was someone who was unhappy almsot 20 years ago when the Shah of Iran sold it to Jacques Desenfans, along with a lot of other things in the sale, on a visit in 1969, when the Shah's empire was just starting to wobble. That bit of its history has been more downplayed in the hubbub over its sale, but it's all part of the history of such a remarkable piece.

I'm not sure if the dagger is considered a holy relic, so I have no feeling on it being sold. If it is considered such, along with much of the other Islamic "art" that's been coming on the block, then I do have to take issue. Pieces of spiritual significance, whatever the faith, shouldn't be made available for a price. I have to think, though, the Shah Jahan dagger isn't considered spiritually important for Muslims, because there was no outcry, such as the one over the Sikh armor.

Shah Jahan's buildings and his name dot India, most notably the Taj, which he built as a masoleum for his wife, Mumtaz, when she died. I've seen the Taj Mahal, and it's an amazing site, especially if you can get there very early in the morning before the touts, the cars, the tourists and the choking, nasty smog from the copious cars the swarm Agra all day. There are few buildings in the world that can match it, or its creativity.

Friday, April 11, 2008 3:07:33 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Auction of recently uncovered Arbus photos abruptly canceled
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Wrote about this a few weeks ago. A dealer in NYC sold a box of pics he found in a box lot for $3500. Turns out there was a trove of unknown Diane Arbus photos in there - very interesting ones, to be sure - and they're worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The dealer who sold them is suing the dealer he says duped him out of the find of his life. The sale was supposed to have happened yesterday, I think. Turns out it was abruptly canceled. Both the New York Times and our friend Kristi Roberts at Here Be Old Things have been covering this pretty well, so I'll leave it to them. Kristi was going to the sale, and even went by the showroom to get a sneak peak.

I know that a lot of times it's buy and sell at your own risk in this business, and that they seller should have known that he was giving away a fortune at such a small price - the first clue should have been when the buyer who bought the box said, "there's nothing in there worth much at all, but I'll give you $3500 right now for the whole thing, no questions asked. 'kay?"

Money is money, I suppose, and there are no rules that say you have to play fair. Or are there? The speculation is that the original seller may just hve succeeded in his lawsuit. We'll see later.

Thursday, April 10, 2008 3:34:52 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [1]

As changes near, eBay debate encore
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Rob Pegoraro, a blogger at The Washington Post, gives the eBay issue a look from both sides of the issue and concludes that eBay is a ~~Monolith~~ Marketplace, and that it's 80M+ users think of it as a community. It's a nice little examination of the debate that the eBay antiques... uh... sector has been having for a few months now.

This conclusion has resulted in the weird disconnect from reality that has emanated from eBay HQ high on its magic mountaintop in the mist, where it's suspected that a few remaining regular human beings actually may say hello now and then as they pass in the hall on the way to bathroom in the basement.

It's also now thought that the great ancient demon Cthulhu

might be the real replacement for Meg Whitman. That's just what I hear, though...

Thursday, April 10, 2008 2:56:04 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Antique Trader 4-23 preview - Comin' at ya
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

We just got this out the door and off to the press. Here's a sneak peak at 4-23, and a look at our changed cover. Enjoy!

Wednesday, April 09, 2008 9:56:30 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

While we're in the Middle East: Go Tiberias! Go!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

How could I possibly resist a headline like this:

Ancient Tiberias making a comeback

Tiberias deserves a comeback, right? If Fleetwood Mac can do it, and The Who can do it - and The Stones, who have never even quit - then why not Tiberias?

Man, those guys rocked.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008 8:13:43 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

Search still on for looted Iraqi antiquities
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This is from the L.A. Times. It's all about the amount of antiquities still missing after being looted when Baghdad fell. That was five years ago today, btw.

At first it was thought the damage done by theft was much much greater, and anyone who loves art and history looked on in horror as numbers like 150,000 were bandied about when those reports mentioned numbers of missing artifacts.

They were talking about the beginings of human civilization - ancient, ancient stuff - that carried with it priceless provenance and importance. Many of those pieces, it turns out, had long ago been hidden by smart curators, well out of harm's way, and that initial massive number dwindled to 15,000.

Of those 15,000 known artifacts, 7500 have been recovered. That still leaves half, and an amazing amount of history still floating around black markets or destroyed and trashed.

The good thing is that these pieces are rare enough that, when one surfaces at auction or on the market, it is usually quickly recognized and taken back to its proper home. This is further heightened in an age when national museums around the world are demanding back priceless antiquities that were looted in past ages of imperialism. Greece is doing it, so are Italy, India and China, among many. This seems to have hit western museums hard. The culture flowing out of Iraq, home to the fertile crescent where it's thought so much life firt streamed out of, is older by millenium than most other countries. It bears direct links to stories in the Old Testament. Of anywhere that deserves its history back, then surely it's there.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008 7:54:12 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Rich Russians gobbling up Russian fine art
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I don't know why, but this story off of ReutersUK has struck me oddly.

Basically it just says that the new Russian elite, fueled by massive fortunes made in the odd semi-totalitarian state of Vladimir Putin, are buying up every available piece of fine art - both old and contemporary - that they can get their hands on. Sotheby's and Christies both are setting up Moscow bureaus to take advantage of this tiny percentage with the majority of the Russian dosh.

Collecting like this, to go along side such wealth, have not been seen in Russia since the days of the Czars. At that time it was also anything goes.

I can't blame Russian people for wanting to get back their cultural heritage, especially when it was so abruptly taken from them, scattered to the winds and stomped with a jack boot whenever it tried to reveal itself in the ealry days of Comrade Lenin. I've always been a kind of a student of Russia - give nthat it's in my blood - and the peculiar and difficult path it seems to have always charted for itself. Despite all that, the country has consistently contributed some of the very best literature, paintings, poetry, sculpture, photography, drama and dance the world has, even during the communist era. I also have to mention Russia's contribution to chess, because I love the game and no country has added more to the game.

This competition that seems to have spring up, however, between Russians and themselves over who can acquire the most stunning array of art that can bridge the 100-year gap between the assasination of the Czar and Perestroika and "bring it back home to Russia" is a little discomfitting. No doubt some of it will end up in a museum on display, and some of it may even some day make it on tour to the rest of the world, but it's more likely most of it will end up at country estates, houses in Moscow, and in homes that dot the hills and the country side of Europe and America. It's what the Russian aristocracy did before the revolution. How else do you think so much of it became available to the world at large?

Tuesday, April 08, 2008 9:24:35 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

When a penny ain't worth a penny, it's an antique!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I believe this originated with the Chicago Tribune, and seems to be an editorial, but it came to me via The Valdosta State Spectator in GA, certainly one of the more obscure sources I've dug around on. I worked on my college paper and, let's face it, a lot of them are pretty bad.

It is, actually, an argument you can dig up most anywhere. I just couldn't resist a link with something from Valdosta State.

This, however, I happen to agree with. When it costs more than a penny is worth to make one, then it ain't worth it, plus the good, collectible ones that are out there will become that much more valuable, which is good for the business of coins.

Numismatics and antiques unite! Down with the penny!

Tuesday, April 08, 2008 6:07:53 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

Monday, April 07, 2008

The Guru and the Auction House
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This has been very interesting to watch - somewhat obscure, perhaps, bubt a lot of fun.

Sotheby's claimed some armor being sold belonged to a very important Sikh guru. Sikhs got angry, and Sotheby's claims that the armor is not actually the Guru's, but one of several sets he had made, as he was involved in many wars and military campaigns.

The post linked to above is from a post to WorthPoint.com out of India.

The whole thing is interesting, as I have always associated Sikhism with dervishes and mysticism, a la the sublime poetry of Rumi ("Dissolver of sugar, dissolve me."), not necessarily with warring kings. I'd love to see the armor, but no pics have been released. Check it out if this sort of thing interests you, which it does me, which I bet you've already figured out.

Monday, April 07, 2008 10:28:24 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

Historic preservation is green
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This shouldn't even be up for debate, but it is, and I agree with this article. Historic preservation is good for the environment, as are antiques in general.

The gentleman I used to work with, one John Fiske of Vermont, is a strong advocate for the cause of antiques as a green movement. He's 100% right, and I promise more from the Green Antiques movement very soon.

This is out of London, yet again today, from Richard Moe, president of National Trust for Historic Preservation. Very cool.

Monday, April 07, 2008 5:57:35 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

omg, can u believe it? spoilt singer demand $140K antique table for signing
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Okay, so I couldn't resist this gossip. Some spoiled singer, who's been told for some time now that the sun rises and sets out of her... eyes... demanded that a $140,000 table be flown from NY to London, and covered with silk, so she could do her signings...

I remember Maria Carey from the early 1990s, when she would hit her signature high-C note in every song. I'm a music snob, so I have to admit I literally cannot stand to be in a room where her music playing. She's worth a ton, and has had fools bow to her whims forever and a day, so of course she's going to continue to think that her money gets her anything she wants. I guess it pretty much does. Considering she makes more than the GNP of many small countries, however, I think she should be mortally ashamed of her behavior. That's all any pop star really needs, isn't it? A good talking to...

I would, however, like to see the table.

Monday, April 07, 2008 5:06:00 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

Friday, April 04, 2008

Question of the week - affected by Wall Street woes?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Do Wall Street ups and downs affect your buying or your business?

These are iffy days in the American economy. No government official has come right out and said it, but the hints of the "R" word are everywhere and, last week at the Atlantique City Antiques Show in Atlantic City, NJ, the economy was very much on the mind of dealers and customers alike.

There's billion dollar losses, and billion dollar bailouts, and a whole shadow economy between the largest banks in the world that's so far bigger than our actual economy that it's frightening to contemplate, especially when you think about what would happen is all these uber-banks went belly up. I've heard it twice now on NPR, so no telling me I'm a conspiracy theorist...

That, however, is enough nay-saying, no nabob of negativism I, but I am curious about whether or not the woes on Wall Street have an actual effect on the nuts and bolts of our businesses and hobbies.

Personally, it seems like a good time to get some money into antiques, as we all know that good items hold their value, and that as the economy worsens, people will most likely sell. Ergo, deals are out there... Go and get 'em.

Here's the question put formally, then: Do Wall Street ups and downs affect your buying or business?

Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or go write something in the comments section below.

Friday, April 04, 2008 7:40:27 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [1]

What the Dickens?! Antique desk on the block
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Christies will be auctioning of the desk at which Charles Dickens sat to write "Great Expectations."

It's a beautiful antique and its provenance is untouchabe.

It should fetch a pretty penny, and goes to a good cause. I can't imagine any writer wanting to buy it, let alone be in the same house as it. The great author was found dead at the desk and wrote possibly his greatest work in the very same seat, as well - Pip chasing Estella, while she acts coy and plays him off her other suitors... Go Pip! Go! - those are some serious ghosts to contend with.

Still, it is a beauty, and I had the cash, and an extra room, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Friday, April 04, 2008 7:24:06 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

A conversation over caviar about architecture
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This is a link to an interview with the winner of The Pritzker Prize for Architecture, Jean Nouvel.

The prize is the top award given to modern architects, and is normally the crowning achievement of a glorious career, rather than something that plucks an obscure designer from the mist of anonymity.

Nouvel is an interesting guy, and who am I to say who should and should notbe given what they're given. I have to say that, as interesting as his ideas are, and sound, man-oh-man is this a pretentious interview. I was waiting for the interviewer to ask if he could give him a kiss, or put a polish on that done... (As you can see by my pick above, I need a polist too, now and then...)

Anyway... Check it out. The pic here, though you can't see it too well, is Nouvel's proposed design for the Abu Dhabi Louvre Museum.

Friday, April 04, 2008 5:38:37 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Thursday, April 03, 2008

Lincoln letter goes for more than $3M
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

And to think that I was willing to take a triceratops over this, if given the choice...

I love Honest Abe, but I stand by my decision. Besides, I just spent that last $3.4M on a new yacht. I'm a bit tapped at the moment.

This is the Yahoo story, just breaking. Pretty cool, I have to say.

Thursday, April 03, 2008 10:16:45 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

Antique Trader 4-16 preview - Comin' at ya
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Just gone to the press - yesterday, that is... Here's what you can expect for the 4-16 issue...

Thursday, April 03, 2008 6:19:49 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

Papa's Brand New Bag on the auction block
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

When James Brown died on Christmas Day 2006, he left behind a lot more than one modern music's greatest catalogs of work, he left behind a life filled with turmoil and an estate that has been the subject of constant wrangling between his family, his adult children, his ex-girlfriends and his ex-wives.

Finally, Christie's has stepped in and said, "That's enough!"

I actually don't know if that's what Christie's did, but either way, the venerable auction house will be auctioning of the possesions of the Godfather of Soul sometime this summer. This sale will include Brown's awards, instruments and all kinds of various posessions.

No matter what you think of the man personally, his influence on music was, and is, undeniable. He blended together many sounds and came up with something that was totally original, and musically, in his prime, there was absolutely no one more important. The interlocking parts of his songs were pure genius and made countless millions of people understand not only how music worked, but that they too could follow a few simple rules and enjoy playing music. For that, I do have to say, I miss Brown greatly.

To see him covered with a jacket and walked, exhausted, off stage accompanied by one of his crew, only to ruh desperately back to the mic for one last chorus, or word - then to hear the crowd shriek with delight - makes you understand that he truly was... the hardest working man in show business.

And I'd love to get me one them guitars...

Thursday, April 03, 2008 4:57:43 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Modernist Architecture Icon Ralph Rapson dies
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

A giant of Modern Architecture has died. Ralph Rapson designed a lot of important structures, including the Greenbelt House and the Guthrie Theater in Minnesota. A true icon of the form.

Tom Wallace / Star Tribune

Rest in peace. And thanks for the buildings.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008 5:59:40 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

Word to the wise: Do not hang clothes on your rare, early Picassos
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Seems a rare early Picasso - a saucy one of the artist and his then lover in a clinch on the bed - was found in Scotland, propped against a wall, alongside two other valuable works of art. They are all going to be on the block on April 10 at a house called Duke's.

I don't know about you, but I only hand fresh, hand-cut roses over the Picasso paintings I have propped against the wall in my two year-old daughter's room, right next to her crayons and scissors.

"Go ahead, honey, it's only a Picasso."

This is possibly from a royal family of some country, and the seller is part of that family. Don't you have to pass a decency test of some kind to be called royalty? I mean, they all know how to drink with their pinkies up, and spend money like drunken sailors... But this is a Picasso, and one from his early 20s, before he became Picasso with a capital "P."

Royal families of the world: teach your children to pick up their art when they are done playing.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008 5:27:25 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

This wood's no good! Dealer in fake antique wood busted in MO
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Interesting, but probably not as rare as we'd like to think.

This St. Louis dealer in supposedly antique wood is going to be paying a hefty fine and maybe seeing the inside of Club Fed for a while. It just goes to show that you have to be wary of who you buy from, and alays do you research, even if your next antique is going to be your floor.

This story comes via the St. Louis Business Journal.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008 5:11:22 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Who can resist a rampaging ape? King Kong poster rages to $345K
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Really, aren't we all suckers for monkeys?

This massive and very cool King King poster recently brought $345,000 at a Profiles in History auction, and it's a real beauty. At 81-inches x 81-inches, it's also about the size of the big simian himself.

I love the detail on this poster, and Kong just looks like he's about ready to rip everyone a new smile. What I don't like is that they have Fay Wray running in terror with Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot. We all know that Kong and Fay shared an unforbidden love that the world wasn't ready for back then. the studio could have, at least, put a hint of empathy in her eyes as she watched Kong destroy Manhattan. I still say the humans deserved it...

The new owner of the poster isn't mentioned, but I'd be willing to bet it's a heavy hitter, if not Steve Geppi himself, who has the greatest collection of rare movie posters in the world at his museum in Camden Yards in downtown Baltimore, MD.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008 5:01:38 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [0]

Look out in FL for stolen Masonic items
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Seems a Masonic Lodge in Lee County Florida was broken into and lots and lots of antique stuff taken, to the tune of $50,000.

This story, from the NBC affiliate down there, doesn't list what was taken, or show pictures, which is strange, even mysterious... Just like the Masons themselves. I think I smell another Masonic conspiracy. We all know, after all, that they are really running the country, and the world... I saw those National Treasure movies with Nicholas Cage and his bad wig...

Anyway. If you're in the area buying antiques, and one of your things is collecting Masonic-themed items, then know you might be a few bucks away from becoming part of the conspiracy, unwittingly drawn into the throws of global intrigue.

All kidding aside, be on the lookout in the South...

Wednesday, April 02, 2008 2:56:22 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Back to it! Antiques blogging forever!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

After two long weeks away from my beloved AT blog, I am finally back in the office and ready to get back down to regular posting. I'm tired from a 5-hour layover in the hotbox of Chicago's O'Hare airport, and beat from 5 days of straight running at the show, bu otherwise fine, thanks...

First, however, I have to decompress for about 5 minutes from the Atlantique City show, and then put together an entire paper before the end of the day. This should be fun, but I will definitely put some stuff up today hopefully, but for sure tomorrow. My co-blogger and web editor Karen (who has done a fabulous job in my absence, I might add) will hopefully continue to post as well, keeping us the most prolific and fast-moving blog in the biz.

It's good to be back.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008 5:03:09 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Atlantique City Day 2
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Howdy folks. We made it through Day One of the March 2008 Atlantique City Antiques Show and, if I may speak for the staff and crew of Atlantique City - and I reckon that I can - Day one was pretty fantastic.

By the 9 a.m. early opening we had at least 2000 people lined up outside the door, many of them grabbing copies of Antique Trader and our various publications at the show, and the trafic flow was steady all day. While official numbers aren't available yet, I'd say we had at least 5,000 people come through the convention center and they seemed interesting. Quality is high, and uniform, and we heard some good comments from dealers.

The appraisal event went very well, too, highlighted by a superb Judy Garland dress, straight off the MGM lot, that ended up in - of all places - Milwaukee, WI. We have to wait and see if the pics cvame out, but I'll post them if I will.

At the end of the day we also hosted a gathering to fete Ellen Schroy and thank her for all her hard work - 28 years worth - on the Warman's Price Guide. Nice stuff, and Ellen is a great lady. She'll be missed on Warman's, but it's a good opportunity for Trader to get her byline in the paper, as we did with the 4/9 issue.

Sunday is usually a bit slower at shows, but there can be some serious buying going on, so we're keeping our fingers crossed for our dealers and ourselves, for a good day today, a smooth load-out tonight, and a nice easy flight home tomorrow morning. Last October we got delayed in Philly for 12 hours. Yuck.

Looking forward to getting home, getting back to work and regular blogging, and seeing my family. I love the East Coast, and have a lot of good memories from these shows and my childhood summers spent here, but I want to get back to Stevens Point, WI - wide open spaces, nice people and great beer - and get back in the swing of day-to-day life and work.

See you there.

Sunday, March 30, 2008 2:04:22 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Saturday, March 29, 2008

Atlantique City - At last!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Howdy!

After a long week of vacation last week - agonizing, as you can imagine, spending so much time with my lovely wife and daughter in Phoenix and Las Vegas - I got into Atlantic City last Wednesday night. Travel was 13 hours from Vegas, with a few nighmarish waits in TSA lines at all airports.

It's time for good antiques and the Atlantique City Antiques Show.

We have spent two exhausting days getting the show ready, but as I write this morning, the show floor at the Atlantic City Convention Center looks beautfiul, there is a crowd of 2000 people waiting outside the door and we are hoping for a good show. We know it looks good, and quality is ubiquitous. Now we are waiting for the buyers.

The weather here is a bit chilly and overcast, which means good weather for antique buying, and the attitude seems to be optimistic, which is half the battle when there are such problems with the economy. I don't, however, have to tell any Trader readers that.

What I can tell you is that I'm excited for the opening of this show, proud of the hard work we've done and ready to see this thing come off a success.

If any of you out there are coming today or tomorrow, or go this weekend and read this later, give me a holler and let me know what you think.

I'll post more later today, hopeufully with some pics, but no promises...

Saturday, March 29, 2008 12:52:14 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Saturday, March 22, 2008

A staggering fine art find in England - painting worth 700 times what a 20-something slacker paid for it
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Wow. Just wow.

Suitcase of money falling from the sky...

Find a painting in a shop, pay about $700 bucks for it, find out it's worth about $500,000... NOt a bad days work for an umemployed 23 year old in England.

Not a bad life's work, actually. No pic, so I don't know what it looks like. Thing is, too, the guy is going to keep it probably... How un-American...

Saturday, March 22, 2008 4:46:10 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Even with so much uncertainty, Iraqi antiquities continue to amaze
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Here's one more reason to love the Internet. This came from a news feed out of Thailand and India.

It's about an ancient Babylonian town found by Iraqi archeologists.

With such a steady stream of bad news coming out of the region, it is good to know that scholarship and the unearthing of the past continue to go on. This is indeed an interesting read, especially if you're like me and you love anything that relates back to the ancient world circa B.C., where so much human societal culture dawned.

Pretty cool.

Saturday, March 22, 2008 4:35:02 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Thursday, March 20, 2008

Awesome Japanese Buddha sells for $14M
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Wow.

This an awesome sculpture, but - perhaps, jus' a l'il bit - overpriced. $14M? That's Monopoly money, right? right? Of course, it was a t Christie's, so I'm betting the bid wasn't all about the piece itself.

I couldn't imagine spending that kind of cash on something, plus, I can't help but think that spending that kind of money on a piece of sculpture - a relic of the material world, which - according to The Buddha - doesn't even really exist, except in the constructs of our minds as determined by karma - that is completely contrary to the teachings it represents...

Hmmm... Have to mediate on that one.

Oh, and I really love the blog that I pulled this story from - Bad at sports - which is an often humorous look at the world of contemporary art...

Thursday, March 20, 2008 4:45:43 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Seven charged with selling fake fine art prints internationally
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Good for the authorities that busted this ring, and good for fine art lovers!

Just goes to show that you should always know your source, and know their reputation! Nowhere is a dealer's rep more important than in antiques and art.

Thursday, March 20, 2008 4:35:32 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Beware fake antique whiskey in Scotland... and online!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This doesn't say anything about whether the whiskey's any good, but the bottles most certainly aren't.

This comes via a Chicago Web site called The Chicago Syndicate. It's a fun Web site, but the story is real, and serious.

There are a lot of folks out there that take their antique whiskey bottles - and their whiskey - seriously. If you are buying bottles online, and it's coming from Europe, especially Scotland, caveat emptor!

Thursday, March 20, 2008 4:14:09 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Just what I've always wanted! A corn flake that looks like Illinois...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Um... I'm... I'm just not sure what to say about this, or why I'm even posting it...

I feel a little confused, and fragile... Somebody hold me...

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 3:19:13 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Decent source for antiques news
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

FYI, if you wanna look.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 3:00:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

No go for Guernsey's for Jack Ruby's pistol in Vegas
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I wrote about this a few weeks ago, as a native of Dallas, about my mixed feelings about Ruby's gun going on the block as part of a truly superb Pop Culture antiques auction last weekend.

At the sale, as reported here at the Dallas Morning News - only appropriate, don't you think? - the sale featured a mess of great stuff that sold for big bucks, any of which I would have loved to have myself, especially the suit that John Lennon wore on the cover of Abbey Road (the greatest album from the greatest rock band ever, n'est pas?) or Sally Field's habit from the Flying Nun (not really...).

Ruby's gun, however... I just don't know. The Kennedy assasination is still raw in this country, especially in Dallas, and I can't say I'm sorry it didn't sell for big bucks. The guy who owned it, who paid more than $200,000 for it, would accept no less than $1M for it. He came close, with the highest bid reaching $900,000, but he wouldn't part with it for less than the big $1M. Oh well.

It will be sold, I reckon, to a private bidder, outside of the sale, and we'll see it again someday soon. I wonder what the folks in Big D think about - I mean really think about it.

Any Texans out there want to sound off? Anyone? Anyone?

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 2:57:14 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Be on the lookout for stolen antiques in Mid-state Pennsylvania
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Heads up here for a theft in central PA. Here's the link, as well as the text, below.

Antiques stolen in Monroe Twp. barn burglary

by MATT MILLER, Of Our Cumberland County Bureau
Monday March 17, 2008, 11:14 AM

An array of antiques were stolen during a burglary at a barn in the 200 block of Martin Road in Monroe Twp., Cumberland County, between March 11 and Friday, state police said.

The stolen items included an antique wooden sofa and chair made in 1875, two 1930s floor model radios and 25 pieces of grain processing equipment made between 1905 and 1950, police said. A lawn mower, a drill press and two extension ladders also were taken.

Anyone with information can call police at 717-249-2121.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 2:46:20 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Monday, March 17, 2008

Retiring eBay CEO Whitman joins McCain campaign...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This is posted, from the AP Wire, with absolutely no bias either way on behalf of Antiques Trader. It's just simply an interesting bit of news about that dear friend of all online antiques... Meg Whitman.

Retiring eBay CEO Whitman joining McCain campaign
Source: AP - AP Wire Service

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Outgoing eBay chief executive Meg Whitman is joining Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign as national co-chairperson.

The McCain campaign said Friday that she will help raise money and policy development and travel the country on his behalf.

Whitman also helped former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney during his bid for the Republican nomination.

She announced in January that she would retire from the online auction company after a decade at the helm.

She is leaving as eBay Inc. faces slowing growth.

Like I said, Trader has no opinion. It's just interesting...

Monday, March 17, 2008 7:52:35 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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When your own life becomes an antique...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Tom Schroder, one of the editor's of the Washington Post, posted this editor's note yesterday and I found my self moved by it's insight, and impressed with its ability to convey such depth with such brevity.

I'm not quite at the point where my life has become an antique, but the things I loved as a child sure as heck have become collectible, especially the beloved stand-up first gen arcade games I wasted so many hours as a pre-pubescent boy playing on Satruday afternoons at Prestonwood Mall in Dallas.

Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong, Jr., Tron, Red Baron, Pole Position, Jack the Giant Killer, Red Baron, Jungle Hunt, these were just a few of the games I ruled... Now they're being collected at big bucks. Much like Mr. Schroder, when I see these things now at shops or shows, priced too high, or undervalued, I simply have to walk away...

Monday, March 17, 2008 2:57:08 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Contemporary, Modern and Classic architecture mix?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Not so sure I agree with the blog author on the post here aboue modern houses in old neighborhoods, and how new architecture should mix.

I do, however, respect the opinion and love the debate.

Personally, I like a bold statement in an old neighborhood, especially if it's meant to be so and if - if - it's well done. If it's hideous, then torch the sucker!

Check it out.

Monday, March 17, 2008 2:38:27 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Quick hit on Victorian antiques - a steal at Cowan's and meager pickings at Stella Pier
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Here's a nice little post from a Victorian antiques lover about a couple of events over the weekend - an auction in Cinci at Cowan's and the Stella Pier show.

There was a great deal on the chair below at Cowan's, but not a whole lot a thte Pier show. I've been to Stella's Pier show many times and love it. I love any chance to go to Manhattan, though I have no need to live there ever again, but that's a different story.

Monday, March 17, 2008 2:30:01 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1]

Friday, March 14, 2008

Trader Question of the Week: What's the single most valuable antique you've ever bought at a show?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I guess it's only fair to open this question up to a broader range of sources, so let's say then: What's the single most valuable antique you've ever bought at a sale of any kind? How's that?

When I go to a shop or a show, I tend to forget value and buy with nostalgia. This doesn't take me back too far, to the 1970s and early 1980s, so I always end up with a beaten-up Star Wars action figure, or dog-eared football card of some Dallas Cowboy I loved as a kid.

Once, though, on a lonely Sunday while waiting for a movie to start in Downtown Waupaca, WI, I wandered into an antiques store to try and find something for my daughter. After an hour of looking, and believing I would leave empty-handed, I came to the last booth and saw it: A Lawson Wood print of two monkeys and a bear with the caption, "A good story, well told."

I loved it immediately. The giggling bear, one wise ape scratching his chin with amusement, and one more monkey telling the story with an arm draped over the bear and a casual hand about to make the final point. The ground is littered with apple cores, nuts and banana peels. Simply awesome.

Monetary value? Who knows? Sentimental, seeing my daughter's face light up whenever she looks at it and points, then says, "Papa!"?

There's no value that can be placed on that.

So, what's the single most valuable antique you've ever bought at a sale of any kind?

Send your answer to me at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post your answer in the comments below.

Friday, March 14, 2008 9:23:20 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

A divergent tale of Modern architecture: the classic and the... um...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Okay, so indulge me my love of architecture. A great building that has survived the test of time - structually and philosophically - carries the value of a great antique, in my book. And then some.

Two stories came across my path at the exact same time and they tell a very interesting story.

One is a story from the NYT on the sale of a houe designed by Louis Kahn - truly an amazing masterpiece of "Modern" architecture - being auctioned later this spring by Wright auctions in Chicago. Richard Wright is one of a handful of guys that knows Modernism,

Image by Ezra Stoller

The other is a story circulating across the AP wire and beyond - all around the blogosphere - about a famous Chatanooga, TN house shaped like a flying saucer.

Image by Greg Brown

There's something here, in the connection between these two structures, that speaks to the deep love Americans have of their personal space and their once-upon-a-time penchant for personal architecture.

On one hand, we have the Esherick house, which Kahn designed, and which is - simply put - a masterpiece. It's a one bedroom in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, that represents only one of three - THREE - homes that one of the 20th century's most famed architects ever designed and built. Look at the NYT story, see the pics; you can feel the excitement of Mid-Century America and the need for redesignation of personal space. It's small-ish, but wide open, with big windows and that undeniably classic Modernism look and feel. It's expected to go for a few million buck. A steal, I'd say, given what the house means philosophically.

Kahn made no efforts to hide the structure, weight or design of his buildings. They are wide-open, honest and inspiring in the way that the best of American modern architecture is/was. Kahn wanted inhabitants of his buildings, and the appreciating looks of passersby, to be totally immersed in the fullness and "heaviness" of a structure. You cannot help but be sucked in by such simultaneous ideas, such disinterested interest, if I can go a little Zen on it...

The Flying Saucer house in Tennessee? Well, while maybe not a "classic" in the sense that classic means "judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind," but it's a real eye-catcher, huh? I mean, you're not likely to see a house that says so clearly, "HEY! I WAS BUILT IN THE LATE 1960s/EARLY 1970s!" anywhere.

This thing came about, evidently built by two quite normal folks, about the time that Star Trek was cancelled and just as the U.S. was dominating the space race and putting its flag on the moon - which, if you didn't know, means that we own it. Somebody put enough thought and time into this place to make a decent enough house to stand almost 40 years now, which means it will soon be eligible for historic preservation. Let me tell you, if the thing could actually take off, I'd buy it in a heart beat. I'm still waiting to hear back from the realtor if it has booster jets somewhere underneath there...

You can bid on both, you could own both, you could be the ultimate post-modern homeowner.

If I had to choose though - and I know this will surprise those of you who know my penchant for kitschy 1970s stuff that makes me feel like a kid eating cheerios to the 6 a.m. glow of Saturday morning cartoons as our Standard Poodles, Chauvinist and Nischi, wait for the few that would inevitably drop (was that really worth the time it took to write?) - I would go for the Kahn house in a second. Just look at it. What a beauty.

I would, though, love to get a look inside the Saucer house, and to see if the warp drive is fully functioning. That could change things quite a bit...

Friday, March 14, 2008 6:09:53 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1]

Dealing with the possesions of a passed loved one...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Here's some sage advice on cleaning out the house/estate of a loved one when they've passed. It comes from the Times of London and contains excellent suggestions.

I printed this one out and pinned it to my bulletin board...

Friday, March 14, 2008 2:32:24 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Another battle at Antietam? Can't we all get along?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

The Baltimore Sun is reporting about the attempts to put up a cell phone tower - disguised as a barn silo - on the edges of the Antietam battlefield.

It's hard for me to have a professional opinion on this, because I'm supposed to be an objective observer. We all know how much of one I am...

There are alot of preservationists up in arms about this, because Antietam is such an important and well-preserved battlefield, a stirring moument to the bloodiest day in American History.

I've been to Antietam, and the place is still full of ghosts, and is a very moving place to be. You can see the proximity that the Rebels and Federals fought each other, and you can imagine how frightening and bloody it was. It's been largely spared any sort of commercial encroachment, and I can't help but think that once the flood gates are opened, a strip mall and a Kwik-E-Mart can't be too far behind.

Check out the story and decide for yourself. In my personal opinion - not professional, mind you - no value can be placed on a site like Antietam... Isn't that what putting up a cell tower would be doing?

Friday, March 14, 2008 2:27:39 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Despite it's corporate blindness, good ephemera deals on eBay still exist
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

For some reason it was very hard to write the headline to this post and not sound like I was trying to speak like Yoda...

"Hmmm... On eBay good ephemera buys still there are... Blind is eBay corporate... they must unlearn what they have learned..."

But I digress.

Marty at Ephemera Blog has posted this about another post he read and enjoyed about eBay still being the place to get good buys on ephemera, and he's right. Put aside your feelings about eBay corporate acting like a bunch of dolts in hurting it's dealer base and you can see, just by reading Marty's post, and the post he links to, that they're right.

As Master Yoda might say, "By your anger blinded be not... Good buys on ephemera there still are..."

Friday, March 14, 2008 1:48:09 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

An overlooked antiques area?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I like what Daryle is getting at here in his blog post from yesterday. The sporting and hunting art market is overlooked by a large segment of antique and art collectors - there are, of course, those whose bread and butter it is...

As a side note, AT is not suggesting to people who read Daryle's blog that they join the 31 club, or that we endorse it. The plain fact of the matter is that I like the blog, and Daryle is a smart guy who has good advice and strong opinions on the market, and that AT - meaning me, today - thinks that is a very good thing in a market and a business that can be publicly very vague and privately very passionate...

It's worth a read.

Friday, March 14, 2008 1:38:28 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Oh man, if I could get this mastadon and that triceratops... No one would mess with me!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

The untold 10s of you - 10s, I say - that read this blog regualrly, might remember earlier this week when I posted about competing antiques auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's between a letter from Abe Lincoln and Triceratops.

Like the child of the 1970s that I am, raised on countless episodes of Land of the Lost - remember the slestaks, anyone?

- I shamefully chose the triceratops over Honest Abe's historical letter. I'm still carrying the shame with me, oh yes, but check this out:

A family in the san Francisco area is selling the fossil of a complete Mastadon, found on their property, on eBay(!) for a starting bid of $115,000. This is a rather humorous article from the SF Chronicle on it; an entertaining read for a few minute distraction.

I have to agree with the writer's point: You can get mastadon bones on eBay for anywhere from .99 cents to $10, which is probably enough to satisfy the type of person looking for mastadon bones on eBay.

Still, if I could afford it, I'd do it in a second, and along with my triceratops, I'd rule the playground!

Thursday, March 13, 2008 7:00:42 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1]

An unfortunate career choice - Mummy smuggler
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

How, exactly, does one decide that this is the course they are going to take in life?

Me, I became an editor and journalist because I had spend years laboring - unhappily - to be a playwright in NYC. I had some small success, but was miserable. I then became an advertising creative, which made being an unsuccessful NYC playwright look like a day at the beach. Woof.

But the guys mentioned in this story from the AP, a couple of Mummy Smugglers, must've had to dig really deep to decide on this career path, but... I know smuggling antiquities is an old profession, but I'm just assuming that selling ancient bodies, wrapped in linen, dessicated, and decorated with heiroglyphics has got to be a rough way to make a buck... Not to mention the bad karma that must come with it...

Thursday, March 13, 2008 1:44:06 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1]

Antique Trader 3-26 preview, comin' at ya'
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Yesterday was so busy I forgot to post the preview of the upcoming issue of Trader.

Another good one, we think... Enjoy!

Thursday, March 13, 2008 1:36:12 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

This would make me sick, too: Man says he was cheated on Arbus photos
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Interesting little twist out of NYC, courtesy of Here Be Old Things.

A guy bought a box of photos, with a bunch of Diana Arbus photos in there. A dealer paid him $3500 for them. They're expected to auction for multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Name of the game? Dishonest dealer? You decide.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 9:33:46 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1]

Fine Art still, like omg, SO HOT in Europe...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Here's a report from one of my favorite modern art blogs, Modern Art Obsession, on the recent Dutch TEFAF Antqiues Show, probably the most high-end show in Europe, if not the world.

The post focuses mostly - and glibly, so don't be offended - on the sale of a Jackson Pollock for something like $8M, then references a Bloomberg post on the show.

Here's a link to that.

This is also the show where at least $2M in diamonds were stolen, along with a handful of other very valuable things.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 2:30:57 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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And with your antique glassware, a little foul play anyone?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Unfortunately, it's not too uncommon for an antiques shop to catch fire. Gather so much old stuff together in a small place, old itself, with old wiring and not a lot of maintenance, and, well, it can go up like a mob-owned restaurant in Jersey (sorry, I've been watching alot of Sopranos reruns on cable late at night as I troll for blog content...).

It all gets a little more interesting, and sinister - Sopranos again? - when, after a fire, a body is found in the debris.

This is a story out of a TV station in South Carolina about just such a thing. It happened at The Old Mill Antiques Mall, and, as far as this report goes, there is a suggestion it could either be murder or a thief who broke in and started the fire. The report says nothing about cluthcing a piece of Red Wing to their charred body, so a pottery dispute is probably not the motive...

Seriously, though, I hate to see a place destroyed, and I hate to think about the cultural value of the material that burned with the building.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 1:56:17 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

The fashion of the "Queen of Mean" at Leslie Hindman Auctions
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

In about two months, Leslie Hindman Auctions will auction off the clothing collection of one Leona Helmsley, may she rest in peace... Hopefully somebody in her new location will sport her a glass of ice water now and then.

Helmsely's clothes are sure to be very fashionable, all very well made and all simply reeking of the bad vibes the woman made her bread and butter.

I lived in NYC when she went to prison, and can tell you that she was, easily - and still may be - one of the most reviled characters in the history of the city.

I'm a big fan of Leslie Hindman and her auction house, and would want to auction off this collection if the chance came my way - it interesting to note that it's not a NYC firm doing the sale - but I just can't say I would want anything that touched Helmsley's skin, or her closet or one of her houses, to be anywhere near me. The woman simply emanated meanness. I wrote about her after her death at the end of January after Christie's announced it would auction her furniture:

A ‘Queen’s’ legacy on the block

It was a bittersweet moment.

This morning, without ceremony, the e-mail from Christie’s Auction House entered my inbox. I get several a day from the venerable shop, so it was a good hour or so before I actually clicked on it and opened it up.

There it was. Throughout 2008 Christie’s, over the course of several sales at its Rockefeller Center location – conspicuously not saying it was proud to announce – will auction off the estate of Mrs. Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean. The legacy of one of the most reviled figures in the history of New York City will finally be dispersed to the four corners.

Helmsley once was famously quoted as saying, “We don’t pay taxes. Little people pay taxes.”

She denied ever saying it.

She never, however, denied smashing a teacup at a lunch with lawyer Alan Dershowitz. It seems a bit of hot water had spilled from cup onto saucer. This so enraged Helmsley, Dershowitz related, that she threw it to the floor and demanded the waiter fall to his knees and beg for his job.

She also famously fired one employee, with a casual flip of a hand, while being fitted for a dress. She fired hundreds of employees for the slightest indiscretion.

The stories about her in the city were myriad. She was endlessly lampooned on television, harangued by the paparazzi and the tabloids and mocked by comedians in nightclubs and comedy shows. It was a bonanza to any “little person” when, in 1989, under the prosecution of then-U.S. Attorney Rudy Guiliani, Helmsley was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 16 months in prison, plus another two under house arrest.

Legal observers speculated that Helmsley’s personality and wealth alienated the jurors.

Hmmm… You think?

A woman worth well in excess of $2 billion – at the time – who routinely stiffed contractors, never tipped at restaurants and sued her dead son’s wife until she was broke… Sounds like a peach to me. Why would the jury be alienated by such sweetness?

The year that she was convicted, 1989, I can remember that the most popular NYC costume that Halloween was Leona in black and white stripes. In the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade there were probably more than 200 Leona’s re-enacting her famous collapse in front of the Manhattan courthouse. It drew hearty cheers each time.

I don’t need to pile on. In fact, I’ll even point out that she was actually quite generous in her contributions to hospitals and that she established a fund of well more than $5 million to aid the families of firefighters killed in the 9/11 attacks.

Now the epic possessions of Queen Leona’s empire – mostly high-end fine art and furniture – will go to the highest bidder. All those things that she so highly coveted, that surrounded her to the bitter end, will go back onto the market.

Will they be worth more, or less, for having belonged to her? We’ll see. Let’s just say that I wouldn’t want to sit my daughter’s picture on a desk she once used, or my keister on a couch where she once snoozed.

Good thing I can’t afford any of it anyway. “Little people” rarely can.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:50:36 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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A Getty official comments on museum's antiquities "giveback"
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Culture Grrrll, aka Lee Rosenbaum, is simply one of the best out there, and has posted an interview with Michael Brand of the Getty Museum on life after some very well publicized givebacks.

It's one that will take a few minutes and will require some thought, because the discussion gets a little esoteric at points. Still though, after two years of following this story in the news and watching as priceless antiquities have gone back to their countries of origination after being scattered by Colonialism, it's quite cool to hear from some one at the Getty itself.

I do have to say, however, Brand comes off a lot like a politican in this interview.

Rosenbaum doesn't hesitate to ask a few questions, and to try and pin down Brand on the minutae of the agreement(s) that sent some prized Getty posessions back to Italy.

Good stuff.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 2:46:03 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

New Hope for IBM's Building 25?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I linked to the San Jose Mercury News yesterday about the suspicious fire that burned IBM's famous Building 25 in Silicon Valley. Here's an update.

Despite the looming infringement of a Lowe's Big Box being built next door, or on the site itself - depending on which side you listen to - preservationists and IBM are saying they are going to save the building, even it means rebuilding from scratch.

I say good for them, though the fire took more than glass and cement. It was, itself, and important link in modern architecture in America, something that showed the willingness to innovate our work and living spaces long before we started getting our butts kicked by Abu Dabhi.

Update: Here's another interesting piece off the West Coast about the meaning an relevance of Modern architecture in today's society, now that alot of it is entering the vaible for historic preservation phase. Nice and thoughtful.

It's from the News Tribune out of Washington State and is worth a read.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 2:09:39 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Monday, March 10, 2008

Renowned antique silver and coin expert dies
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Michael Weller was one of the biggest names in the fileds of antique silver numismatics. Here's a link to the SF Chronicle on his death and what he meant to both businesses as an expert and a person.

It was late last week when he died.

Monday, March 10, 2008 6:45:39 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

They've even heard of Hammerin' Hank in Canada!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Hunt Auctions sold a rare signed letter by a young Hank Aaron for more than $22K over the weekend.

I only use the glib headline because it came across the google alerts on the Canadian Press.

All I'll say, Mr. Bonds and Mr. Clemens, is that - above all with fans - class still counts.

Monday, March 10, 2008 4:15:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Letter from Lincoln on the block
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Honest Abe wrote to a group of schoolchildren asking him to "free the poor slavechildren," and told them of how moved he was to get their letter.

That letter will be on the block in early April at Sotheby's, and could well bring $5M.

It's hard to say which I would rather have; this, or the Triceratops that Christie's will auction off in three weeks.

On one hand, you have a letter from Abraham Lincoln addressing the seminal issue of emancipation - a decision on his part that has effect even today, and on the other you have a Triceratops...

I'd have to go with the dinosaur. Does that make me a bad person?

Monday, March 10, 2008 2:28:16 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

The burning of IBM Building 25...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This is a story from the San Jose Mercury news.

A great piece of early modern architecture, IBM's Building 25, in Silicone Valley, was destroyed in a blaze that burned for eight hours yesterday.

Whether you love or hate IBM, as an entity, this is a shame. The building - meant to look like a computer punchcard - was an fine piece of work that burned amidst controversy and questionable conditions. Read above or below if your're interested. Sorry I couldn't find a better pic...

Monday, March 10, 2008 2:08:35 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Friday, March 07, 2008

Question of the week: Should the antiques business be federally regulated?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

There's always been debate in the pursuit of antiques as to whether or not the business should be federally regulated, i.e., official government oversight provided by a dedicated federal agency.

This is obviously too big a discussion to have in this small space. Suffice it to say, there are plenty of people who have plenty top say on both sides of the issue. Antiques is a huge business, all told, at all levels, and there are a lot of bucks changing hands.

In my experience, it has come down to what, exactly, someone deals or collects in. If your business or hobby is dependent upon small items, sold at relatively low prices, at large volumes, then regulation could be a problem.

If you deal, however, in rare and one-of-a-kind pieces of art, furniture and accessories, etc., then some oversight might be good thing for safety back-up and to make sure no false merchandise would get peddled.

Either way, it would probably, hopefully, stop scammers from passing off fake goods - at least that's my take. I know there is a movement to get some help - see the good work of show promoter Dordy Fontinel, et al. - but I wonder what Trader readers think.

Should the business and/or hobby of antiques be federally regulated? Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post a comment here.

Friday, March 07, 2008 4:23:57 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Greenest-HQ-ever!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Cool post from glivingtv.com about a Chicago architecture firm chosen to design the greenest building ever, The Masdar Development in Abu Dhabi.

One of the things that Middle Eastern countries with gobs of cash, and gobs of oil, are doing is pushing the design envelope on Modern Architecture - sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worst - but this is a pretty good looking building and a great idea. The philosophical underpinings of it, minus the exorbitant cost and the big "if" of will it ever get finished, will have repercussions throughout the world of green building.

Give it a look. Cool.

Friday, March 07, 2008 2:47:24 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Amazing Helen Keller pic found
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I heard this on NPR this morning as I drove into work, then saw it again on the front page of my Web browser when I logged on. This is a link to the Yahoo story, but you can find it almost anywhere.

It is a newly discovered picture of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, taken at the beach when Keller was eight. In it, as you can see, Sullivan stares intently at her puil, who seems totally at home and content, holding her tecaher's hand and - most importantly - a doll, the first word she was taught.

I have always been especially moved by the story of Keller and Sullivan, and not just because Keller became one of the great humanitarians of the 20th century.

This photo makes a good argument for the inherent intelligence a person is born with, and the human need to communicate, even when - to the outside world at large - it seems as if there is no way to do so. Keller was born blind and deaf, and was seeimingly a lost cause because of a terrible temper and being prone to violence as a child.

Now, I would have been, too, if my perfectly functioning brain had no way to process or express information, yet there was an inherent understanding there. If ever there was an argument for Noam Chomsky's theory of language as a priori, then Keller is it. All it took was a little patience from Sullivan to bring it out in the girl, and one of the great humans in history was allowed to flower. What a moving and interesting story it is, and made all the more remarkable for such a great photo.

As for the photo itself, taken casually in 1888, and stored in a family collection for almost a century, it is - almost - a masterul composition. The print is a bit faded, but the black and white are nicely contrasted, and the viewer is immediately drawn to the tenderness of Sullivan's gaze and, subsequently, to the placidness of Keller's. There is a great love and respect between the two, and it is only later - almost an afterthought - that we see the two holding hands just above the doll in Keller's lap. It is not hands in the midst of communicating, just simply touching and communing. Any of us who have ever had our own children or grandchildren hold our hand in the same way know of the intimacy and familiarity of this lovely touch. Truly, it's a beauty of pic, made more astonishing for its subjects. I do not even want to degrade it by speculating what it could bring at auction, as it probably will never come on the block and is priceless for what it conveys about two of history's most remarkable women.

As an important peice of material culture and history, it is indeed a masterpiece and indeed without peer.

The photo is in the hands of the the New England Historical Geneological Society. Here is a link to the press release and the photo, as pictured above.

This is one of those unexpected, and moving stories that comes around out of the blue, and for which I am very grateful. Check it out.

Thursday, March 06, 2008 4:27:26 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Antiques Philadelphia, April 11-13, cancelled
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This is not good news by any stretch, either for dealers or buyers.

This was one of three shows that anchored Philadelphia Antiques Week, with The Philadelphia Antiques Show as the centerpiece.

The piece pasted in below is something I wrote this morning, and which you've probably read about either on the Bee or on our digital front page here.

Nonetheless, here it is again. There will be more to come once I get the official press release from Promoter Barry Cohen and, hopefully, hear from a few others in the business as to what this does or does not mean.

I do know that Antiques Week in Philly has hard a hard time adjusting to the movement of the big show, which cause quite a stir in itself, and much speculation. I, however, am a terrible mind reader and choose not to comment on motives, or lack thereof.

Philly takes another black eye

Antiques Philadelphia, April 12-15, cancelled

Noah Fleisher, editor

Philadelphia Antiques Week, anchored by The Philadelphia Antiques Show, April 12-15, has taken another hit in the wake of an announcement by promoters Barry Cohen and Jim Burk that Antiques Philadelphia: Spring Show at East Falls, scheduled for April 11-13, has been canceled.

The show was formerly called Antiques at Philadelphia’s Navy Pier, showcasing itself for two successful years in a cruise terminal at the Naval Business Center.

The show moved its venue when The Philadelphia Antiques Show announced that it was changing its longtime venue at the 33rd Street Armory downtown – due to construction – to the cruise terminal at the Navy Yard.

Cohen and Burk secured the new location for the show, attracted the Philadelphia Ballet as a charity beneficiary, and made plans to continue. Dealer support, however, was difficult to secure in an untested venue and, the pair said in a press release, the move by the Philadelphia Show – which has been the subject of great scrutiny by local Philadelphia media and in the antiques press – had, “financially (undercut) Cohen's relationship with the management of his venue.”

“Not enough (dealers) were willing to risk the move to an untried facility," Cohen said.

For information, 703-914-1268 or www.b4rtime.com .

Thursday, March 06, 2008 3:17:08 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Antique Trader 3-19 preview, comin' at ya'
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Here's a first look at our March 19 issue, a special for the Atlantique City Antiques Show, which is owned by Trader's parent company, F+W Publications.

It'll be a glossy front with an extra 5,000 copies distributed at AC on March 29-30, 2008 at the Altantic City Convention Center.

I'll be there. If you are around and want to say hi, please do...

Wednesday, March 05, 2008 7:45:09 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Ruby's gun, Guernsey's and mixed feelings
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I should probably preface this with saying that I spent the first 18 years of my life in Dallas.

The days of my youth were spent in downtown Dallas, in Deep Ellum and all around the Texas State Fairgrounds. I went to high school right down there, and it was a great landscape for young minds.

I drove that city for all those years, at all hours of the day and night, and worked at The West End Marketplace, a stone's throw from the book depository building where Oswald made his shot.

It was not, however, until the week before I left for college that, driving through Dealey Plaza with some friends that I realized that this was the road where Kennedy was killed, and there was the grassy knoll. Hundreds of times, I drove that road, used it as a landmark. Never, though, did I make the JFK connection.

It it thus that I've been reluctant to report on Jack Ruby's gun being on the auction as part of Guernsey's superb Pop Culture Auction, March 15 and 16, in Vegas - only appropriate somehow.

Here's a link to a story from the Dallas Morning News , via Denton - which used to take 45 minutes to get to and was nothing but open fields on either site of the expressway - about the gun and the sale.

I grew up in Dallas in the 70s, when the city was still smarting from the assasination and, really, nobody talked much about the JFK assasination, and your certainly never ever joked about it. I still wouldn't.

All the same, it is an important piece of history, and it's probably going to bring a fair amount of cash. And that's what's important, isn't it?

Wednesday, March 05, 2008 2:46:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Tuesday, March 04, 2008

China joins the Big 3 - in Antiques and Art
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

At least in art officialy, but you gotta figure antiquities and antiques - which China has been placing ever-tightening restrictions on - make up a big part of this number, and represent a huge figure in and of itself.

This is interesting news released by China's official state news agency, Xinhua, about the mainland now being number three in art sales, displacing France.

The U.S. and U.K. are sitting pretty in first with huge market shares, but - as with almost every market - look out for the Chinese boom. I'm sure India isn't too far behind.

China has been ripe for a while for an explosion in art and antiques. When The Cultural Revolution destroyed thousands of years of Dynasty, a lot of the classic art and antiques went into hiding in the vast countryside. Now all of that has been coming out and the prices are exoribitant in many cases - that's if you can get it out of the country.

The government there knows now what it's cultural heritage is worth, even if they forgot for a couple of generations. Now it's cashing in.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008 3:38:06 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Um, Albright-Knox Museum?... Timing is everything.
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I have to say that this is a little strange, given the very well publicized problems that The Albright-Knox in Buffalo, NY has had in the last few years.

You'll remember the Albright - one of my favorite museums, in the spirit of full disclosure - with its emphasis on modern and contemporary art, decided to auction off some of its antiquities to raise money to buy new art. The antiquities, the museum's board said, were a luxury the museum couldn't afford. They auctioned off a sculpture, "Artemis and the Stag," for some obscene amount that made national news.

What it can afford, however, is the launch of a capital campaign to expand its building and exhibition space and invite an internation ally renowned architect to design it - please, not Frank Gehry - so that it will be a place visitors from across the globe will flock to, as reported by The Buffalo News.

I have no qualm with a pretty new building, but the timing is a little bit weird. There's a stipulation that the money from the art cannot be spent on the building, but in the words of one not-so-thrilled Buffalo area blogger, CultureGrrrl, better keep an eye on that $90M art endowment.

Tuesday, March 04, 2008 3:21:01 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Monday, March 03, 2008

Gas $4 a gallon? Will you drive to an antiques show?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I know it's important to stay postive, and I do my best, but isn't $104 per barrel oil going to translate into $4 gas by the summer?

Here's the AP's Report.

Dealers, not to meantion buyers, haven't been willing to drive too far with $3 gas, let alone .50 cents to $1 more per gallon. How many dealers will drive 1100 miles to do a show, in a van or hauling a trailer? How many customers can foot the same?

It seems the debate, in the end, comes back once more to the Internet and its role. The ol' Web takes a fair amount of abuse from all angles, but with oil so high, it looks like the way of business.

What eats more of your pocket book? Postage or petrol?

Monday, March 03, 2008 7:57:44 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Travel lodging the Wright way
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This is a link to an article in the Sunday New York Times. A lot of you will remember when the Duncan House - one of Frank Lloyd Wright's 11 surviving Usonian houses - was dismantled and moved from Illinois to Western Pennsylvania.

The writer stayed at the re-assembled house, part of a trinity of FLW houses known colelctively as Polymath Park, where you can rent a FLW house for the weekend, enjoying the master's work, and taking in nearby Falling Water and Nob Hill during your stay.

For anyone enamored of Wright's timeless genius - and count me among them - it would be a lifelong dream come true to spend a few nights in one of his houses. Just as the writer describes it.

Monday, March 03, 2008 3:28:03 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Something beautiful to start Monday with
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Because I can't resist.

This is one of my most favorite art forms - the Tibetan Sand Mandala.

Monks spend hours and hours on very intricate sand art, then sweep it away. It's all about impermanence. Isn't everything?

Click on the link above or below to see, and Happy Monday!

Monday, March 03, 2008 2:47:31 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Friday, February 29, 2008

ART POTTERY THEFT IN OHIO - Be on the lookout
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

APPROXIMATELY 175 PIECES OF AMERICAN ART POTTERY STOLEN

HILLARD, OH - Between 3:15 P.M. on Monday, February 25, 2008, and 8:30 A.M. on Tuesday, February 26, 2008, approximately 175 pieces of American Art Pottery were stolen from Belhorn Auction Services, LLC in the Columbus suburb of Hilliard, Ohio. Also stolen was a cargo trailer in which the pottery was loaded, which was secured and locked at Belhorn Auctions’ office.

Pottery stolen includes various examples of Weller, Roseville, Rookwood, Owens, Van Briggle, Hampshire, Pillin, Fulper as well as others. Also stolen was an exhibit of fake and reproduction pottery assembled by the American Art Pottery Association for educational and presentation purposes. The trailer is an unmarked, white American Hauler cargo trailer with fold-down rear ramp and a system of shelving on the inside.

“We are working closely with law enforcement and our property management company to review security tapes covering the area during the time of the theft,” said Belhorn Auction Services, LLC President Greg Belhorn. “All consignors affected by this incident are fully covered and will be reimbursed for any financial loss. However, I do remain hopeful that the items will be recovered.”

Nearly all of the stolen pieces were slated for the American Art Pottery Association’s 2008 Auction to be held in conjunction with the organization’s Annual Convention on April 23-27, 2008, in the Greater Philadelphia area. Belhorn Auction Services, LLC donates its time and resources to conduct this auction, which benefits the Association and its endeavors. The full commission and buyer’s premium generated from the auction serve as an important revenue source from the American Art Pottery Association.

A general list and photos of the stolen pottery will be made available at Belhorn Auction Services, LLC’s website at www.belhorn.com. Anyone with information regarding this incident or who is approached by an individual with pottery for sale matching the description of stolen items should contact the Hilliard (Ohio) Police Department at (614) 876-7321 or Belhorn Auction Services, LLC at (614) 921-9441. A reward is being offered for any information leading to the recovery of the stolen property.

Friday, February 29, 2008 6:00:41 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Antiques Humor? So un-PC...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This is truly one of the funniest things I've seen online in a long time and is a good - if somewhat amateurish - spoof of Roadshow, but dead-on in many respects and, if I didn't say it before, funny funny funny.

Check it out and enjoy. It's about five minutes long and is The Roadshow we've all wished we could see from time to time.

The best part is the end: "Don't give money to PBS! We're all going to die!"

Friday, February 29, 2008 4:04:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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These things were old when the pyramids were just being mapped out on papyrus
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This is just cool, plain and simple.

An Asheboro, NC man is displaying his massive, and ancient, arrowhead collection this weekend at the Asheboro public library. Some of these things are more than 6000 years old - making them ancient when the pyramids were being built... This event is annual in ASheboro and routinely brings out hundreds of folks.

I'd love to see this collection tour. It's a testament to human ingenuity and the incredible craftsmanship of Native Americans. Check it out. the pic below is of the gentelman with a particularly old example. If you're going to be in Asheboro this weekend, let me know how the exhibition is.

Very cool.

Credit: Joseph Rodriguez/ News & Record

Friday, February 29, 2008 3:41:38 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Art Pottery Blog for the Art Pottery Lover in you!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This is another blog I have been enjoying quite a bit over the last few weeks, and given how popular and collectible good art pottery is, this is a great resource.

Greg Myroth, who runs the site - and an art pottery business, I might add - knows his stuff and has packed the page full of great detail and links to pertinent information about makers and styles. It's put together well and has a variety of info to help you on your quest, if your on a quest for this type of thing.

Check it out, let us know what you think... Happy hunting.

Friday, February 29, 2008 2:59:05 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Question of the week - Would your antiques business/hobby survive without technology?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I’d be lost without my work Blackberry, or my personal cell phone, or any of the three email accounts I maintain on a daily basis, or without my ability to type my antiques-related feelings about various antiques-related happenings in the world on the Antique Trader Blog – www.antiquetrader.com/atblog, by the way…

I lie awake at night and wonder if I’ve sent this email or that, or if a certain press release was sent or of that PR contact responded to my query. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I’m 100% hooked on tech.

In fact, I’d say that, if all the technology upon which my work is predicated were to suddenly disappear into the ether, I’d probably wander around, bereft for some time, in the words of Beatrix Potter in Peter Rabbit, going lippity, lippity, lipitty…

Then, I reckon, I’d hitch up my jeans and get on with it, doing business the way it was done for thousands of years – in person, face-to-face. It might, in fact, be quite refreshing.

Here’s what Antique Trader want to know this week: How would your antiques business or hobby fare without technology? How exactly would you cope in the short term, and what would you do long term?

Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post your answer in the comments section here.

Friday, February 29, 2008 2:43:40 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Antique Trader 3-12 preview, comin' at ya'
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Preview of our 3-12 Trader, which just went to press yesterday.

Thursday, February 28, 2008 4:41:24 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Things aren't going to get any easier for Russ Pritchard
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Disgraced former Antiques Roadshow appraiser Russ Pritchard entered a guilty plea in a Bucks County, PA court yesterday, and is now on the hook for $6,800 to a woman he bilked when he sold her heirlooms and never paid up.

The sad thing - besides Pritchard's agonizing fall from grace - is that the amount he owes Sandra Udinson of Plumstead, is just a drop in the bucket of the hundreds of thousands of dollars he owes in civil damages already and which will probably be leveled at him when he faces similar charges to those in Bucks County in Montgomery County next month.

The article linked to above tells the story of his sentencing, the juiciest bit being the judge telling pritchard, "The most important thing is that the victim be made whole,” Heckler told Pritchard. “You will pay her, or you will end up in jail.”

I don't know Russ Pritchard, and he brought this on himself - for sure - but I can't help but find this whole thing a bit sad as it drags on and on...

Pictured below is Pritchard from his Roadshow days. The pic is from WGBH, so I'm not sure if it's one of his fake Civil War appraisals.

Thursday, February 28, 2008 4:05:41 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

In Case of Apocalypse, break stylish glass
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This was widely covered, and hailed in the MSM the last few days. I don't know... Philosophically speaking, I find it a little daunting and frightening. A tangible reminder of the damage that humans are wreaking on the planet at alarming places.

It's the Svalbard Seed Vault in Longyearbyen, Norway (nice name). You can see the below pics here.

Architecturally, though, I think - in fine Scandanavian Moderne fashion, I might add - the building is pretty awesome, a real tribute to the modern aesthetic, not that visitors to the planet eons from now will appreciate the differences in Lloyd Wright and, say, Gropius...

It's as if, in a million years or so - hopefully longer - if the planet is rid of humans and retakes everything, then we're visited by our future progeny returned to the homeworld to see exactly where they sprang from - stick with me - thart they would find not only the seed as proof that we wanted to preserve our existences, but a really cool building refelctive of the best of modern design of the time. Man... Won't those bionetic cyborgs be impressed.

Most importantly, the American eggplant will survive.

From the Web site:

    Svalbard Global Seed Vault: Arctic Seed Vault Opens Doors for 100 Million Seeds

    Ceremony Marking Unprecedented Effort to Protect Global Agriculture Draws World Leaders and     Seeds from Over 100 Countries

    LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (26 FEBRUARY 2008) - The Svalbard Global Seed Vault opened today     on a remote island in the Arctic Circle, receiving inaugural shipments of 100 million seeds that         originated in over 100 countries. With the deposits ranging from unique varieties of major African     and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South     American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato, the first deposits into the seed vault     represent the most comprehensive and diverse collection of food crop seeds being held anywhere     in the world.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 8:26:16 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Just what you've been waiting for - more blog posts coming!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Hello everyone-

After a day off, spent in glorious chase of my two-year old daughter, and a week with e-mail problems here at AT World HQ, there will be posts coming today and so on and hopefully the end of email crisis as well.

A lot of what becomes blog posts comes from reader tips and rss feeds - dozens and dozens and dozens of rss feeds - from various places. Those, and any correspondence I've had from any of you over the last week are, sotensibly, lost in the ether in perpetuity throughout the universe.

Things will be coming! Put down those torches!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:22:26 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Monday, February 25, 2008

$3M record collection buyer a fraud - eBay bumming again
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

That record collection - easily the best record collection in one single place - was being sold by Paul Mahwinney out of Record Rama in Pittsburgh, PA (is there ay other?), which sold for $3M to an a buyer in Ireland on eBay last week?

Fraud.

I can't imagine that eBay, who has suffered so much bad press lately, can be terribly happy about this.

The "buyer" said that he was the victim of identity theft and that he got the invoice and couldn't believe it. I reckon that's possible, and a terrible email to get from PayPal, which is already such an unpleasant system.

Furthermore, it's reported that a rare Stones album, that Mahwinney has valued at $10,000, can be bought elsewhere on eBay for $599. Ouch.

Monday, February 25, 2008 3:03:58 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Friday, February 22, 2008

Question of the week - Joined any eBay Boycotts lately?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Every major media outlet has, by this point, covered the recent changes to eBay’s system as announced by CEO-elect James Donahoe, and the resultant reactions of outrage that sellers expressed when they were made public.

Those reactions have also been covered here in the online and print versions of Antique Trader.

A lot of sellers have participated in alternate auctions in direct protest of the changes, while some have boycotted eBay altogether, while many – just being practical – have simply moved to diversify their business by moving a good portion of it to other sites while still keeping a percentage of it with eBay.

I’m not much of an online seller or buyer, but I have been curious to know if there is any extended movement away from eBay – at least a month’s worth – or if, as eBay, its board and its stockholders have bargained on, sellers have simply shrugged it off and accepted the changes as fact.

Here’s what Trader wants to know this week: How have you reacted, speaking from a business perspective as a buyer or a seller, to the eBay changes? Have you switched to a different auction outlet? Participated in any boycotts? Left the online giant altogether?

Let me know at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com, or post it in the comments here.

Friday, February 22, 2008 2:40:52 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Server problems today
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Hi folks...

Server problems company-wide today. Makes trawling for info very tough... Sorry... Tomorrow will be a better day... Happy antiquing...

ntf

antique | Antique Blog | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques publications

Thursday, February 21, 2008 9:56:53 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Antique Trader 3-05 preview - Comin' at ya
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Here's your weekly sneak peak at the upcoming Trader, that literally just went to press.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 9:56:27 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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A good point about the stupidity of fine art theft
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Kristy at Here Be Old Things, one of my favorite NYC blogs, sounds off on art thieves and how stupid most of them have to be.

I couldn't agree with her more, and have railed against the fools before. After all, as she points out in both her commentary and her links, where are you going to move a stolen van Gogh or Picasso? The Salvation Army?

My problem really stems, however, from "great" collections in "great" institutions that are about as stupid as the thieves themselves when it comes to keeping their art safe.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:40:41 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Buying stolen antiques online - a cautionary tale
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Bad things do happen, even to antiques people and even in the South.

This is a story from a Nashville TV station - Newschannel 5 - about a guy whose rental was broken into, in Nashville, and who had $3,000 worth of antiques stolen from his house. A few months later he finds a listing for his property - as someone else's property, of course - on Craigslist.

The address associated with the sale ended up being on the same street!

The police, however, do not think the seller knew he was selling stolen goods, let alone stolen goods from a house on the same street he lived on. I guess the thief, or thieves, took off that piece of yellowed and peeling masking tape with "In case this valuable antique is stolen please return to..." written in Sharpie on it.

"What? This stuff is stolen? And it belongs to you? And you live next door? Man, do I feel stupid..."

Chances are that stuff like this happens quit a bit, really.

The report does contain the rather ambiguous statement from the police that: "We're hopeful this incident will get us to a major player in antique business in the area."

For what, exactly?

Maybe the police are simply looking for some vintage posters to decorate the precinct...

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:01:18 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Is eBay trying to fill a leaky bucket?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I like this story about eBay after Whitman on the Forbes Magazine Web site, even if it is a bit too much re-hash and a bit too much corporate speak.

The writer, from Wharton College, outlines some interesting options that eBay and CEO-elect James Donahoe might take to shore up some of the problems it has right now. The article is, however, stictly from a business perspective and fails to approach the human side of the story, which is what we all know is going to drive the future of the business.

There still seems to be a disconnect between the corporate side of eBay and Wall Street to the nuts and bolts dealers who live and die in the trenches of online auctions.

One of the main thing I took away from the above article was thatr eBay will be looking to make inroads into Asia in order to beef up its revenue and return to the glory days of bazillions of dollars. Interesting philosophy, but if a bucket is leacking water from a hole, and you simply fill it at the same rate, there's certainly no net gain and - eventually - you're going to run out of water.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 4:34:34 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1]

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

"eBay specials won't raise sinking ship"
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I'm hard-pressed to disagree with Daryle Lambert's take on eBay's latest salvo - too late - to it's angered buyers.

Daryle posits, as several in the business have, that it's the mid-level buyer that get's hurt the most. eBay's original attempt to please stockholders was it's first mistake. Then it throws a piece of candy to a starving person and says it's dinner.

Many readers have written and agreed with this stance, and many have said that eBay, because it's eBay, will always have a palce. What alternative is there, right?

Right...

antique | Antique Blog | Antiques | Antiques Blogs | eBay

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 9:01:03 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Ephemera your thing? Here's a good site...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I've been enjoying Marty Weil's ephemera blog for quite awhile now.

Being a great fan of ephemera, especially the really obscure and cool stuff, this site is a breat of fresh air. Marty's a good writer with a keen sense of humor, an excellent touch as a blogger, and he doesn't take himself or his subject matter too seriously - as the Buddha said, or perhaps it was Oscar Wilde, seriousness is the last refuge of the shallow - which allows for good stories and excellent interviews with prominent collectors.

Check it out and enjoy. It's worth a daily click or two...

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 5:07:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Dude... It's like, this dude's got all these records... and, dude, he's selling them...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Antique Trader had an article about this sale, by one Paul Mahwinney of Pittsburgh, of perhaps the greatest single collection of records ever to be sold at one time. Our story was in the 2-20 issue.

It is truly an amazing collection, and, if I had a cool $3M for just about every record ever recorded - and you can bet there are some rare and valuale ones in there - then I'd get in a second.

I'd reference Trader's article, but I couldn't resist this headline: Dude Auctions off "World's Greatest Record Collection."

Dude... Whoa...

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 4:52:51 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Monday, February 18, 2008

Beats the CoinStar at the IGA
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

A collector just got $10M for a collection of rare pennies. So, before you head out to the supermarket with that glass jar full of coins - in anticipation of the $35 it'll get you for the mid-week meal at your local Olive Garden - check out what you got and remember this story.

Your pennies could be worth big bucks!

Monday, February 18, 2008 6:52:45 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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U.K. busts stolen antique jewelry fence
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Good for the Brits! If the U.S. would police and regulate traffic in stolen antiques more often than we might have less of a problem with scammers hurting dealers at shop shows and auctions.

Check out the story here.

antique | Antique News | Antiques | stolen antiques

Monday, February 18, 2008 6:49:43 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Save the suburban ranch house!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Growing up in the Dallas suburbs, the ranch house was ubiquitous. It's what the word "suburb" means to me. I see a ranch house and I see yellowed summer days, neat little lawns, abutting fences and paved driveways with little pieces of broken glass just waiting to lodge in the unsuspecting foot of a kid running to the front door for lunch - baloney sandwiches on Wonder with yellow mustard. (Forgive me, but there has been steady snow, more than a foot, over the last 24 hours and I am a bit snow-blind, desperate for a warm day, if only in memory.)

This is an article from the Arizona Star Net about Tucson's vast tracts of ranch houses, and whether some - or all - of them could be considered historic and worth of preservation.

For the record, seeing the proliferation of McMansions that have sprouted like weeds across the nation, I do believe these houses are worthy of preservation and historical designation.

I've been to Tucson a few times, and find it to be a pretty groovy - if funky - little town. It rambles and has a certain endearing shabbiness to it. It also has some of the coolest looking post-war neighborhoods you'll ever come across, with bright colors and - believe it or not - totally pleasing ranch architecture.

I've always found that the ranch house spoke to the American boom of the the 1950s, when millions of Americans were able to buy houses and settle areas that were pretty inhospitable, at least by today's suburban standards. The best of ranch house architecture embodies the Usonian ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright, and speaks to the master's philosophy. They have open living spaces, open fire places and large windows onto the backyard, even if it's just scrub or hardpan with a rusting swingset. The worst have that horrible peeling green carpet that everything in the 1970s seemed to have.

Take a look and decide for yourself.

Monday, February 18, 2008 4:14:09 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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How to stay current - CA antique dealer does a good job
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Here's a cool article out of Costa Mesa, CA about a longtime L.A. Antiques Dealer who opened up a shop that takes into account changing tastes in collectors and styles.

The place is call Big Daddy's Antiques, and owner Shane Brown is approaching his first strictly retail antiques outlet with an open-minded approach.

I know there has been much griping among traditionalists in the antique world about the influx of Modern, industrial and design elements into shows and shops, but it's simply the reality of the business right now and of new collectors. Very few people just collect one thing or style only. It's about mixing elements.

The article's interesting and the Big Daddy Web site is well-done. It's a good look at a dealer keeping up with modern trends in collecting antiques.

antique | Antiques | Antiques News

Monday, February 18, 2008 3:50:56 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Friday, February 15, 2008

Trader Question of the Week - 10 Years from Now?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

In 1998, the Internet boom was full steam ahead, billions were being made simply by attaching .com to certain words. The age of the World Wide Web had arrived! In a matter of days - no, hours! - the everything was going go completely digital and anyone left behind was going to be sorry and, worse, poor in a world of uber-millionaires!

No one needs to be told what happened next.

We can also remember a little online auction site called eBay that was just starting to get legs under a female CEO named Meg Whitman. In the 10 years from then until now, eBay has helped redefine not only the auction business, and the antiques business, but the very nature of the Web itself. Who, exactly, could have foreseen that? My guess is very few.

My powers of prognostication are limited, weak, but I did get to wondering this week where the auction business will a decade from now. If I had to guess, which I suppose I do seeing as how I'm the one posing the question, then I would say there will be two or three major online auction players who contract with every large and small auction house and individual dealer. The world of Web auctions will be like one giant Brimfield of the ether, where anything can be gotten to through a few central portals. There will, of course, always be a few rogue individual auctions that will have to be chased down and brought to heel...

Antique Trader, then, wants to know this week: Exactly where do you see the Antiques Business in 10 years?

Post and answer here in the comments, or email it to me at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com.

Friday, February 15, 2008 3:17:27 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Like a Byrdcliffe on a wire - Rare Arts & Crafts antiques on the block Feb. 22
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

One of my very first assignments as an antiques writer, way back when at the turn of the century, was to journey across the Hudson River from my home in Rhinebeck, NY to Woodstock, NY - the namesake town of he concert that actually happened in Saugerties, NY, just one town north (where, incidentally, I covered high school sports at the same time) - to do a story on the Byrdcliffe Colony.

I was working for a Hudson Valley antiques paper called Notheast Journal of Antiques and art, and it owner and founder, Harold Hanson thought it would be a good story for me. Harold was never wrong.

I knew Woodstock well, having one of my good friend's family based out of the town. I loved its natural beauty, and - sometimes - the funky hippy vibe. The Tibetan Buddhist vibe there was also very cool. Somehow, though I'd see the historical markers everywhere, the history of Byrdcliffe had eluded me.

Check out the link above to learn more, and let me just say that I was quickly charmed by the elegant furniture and Utopian ideals of the movement's founders. A tremendous amount of great talent was gathered in one place for a very brief time, and it yeilded extraordinary, and far too few results. The pieces of furniture are well-valued and well coveted.

Byrdcliffe was founded in 1903 by rich Englishman Ralph Whitehead and his American wife, Jane Byrd McCall. They might while students of Arts and Crafts guru John Ruskin. They set about creating Byrdcliffe in 1892. It continues today as the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild.

Here's some exciting news about Brigg's Auctions in Boothwyn, PA, auctioning off several pieces of Byrdcliffe furniture from the Whitehead house itself on Feb. 22. Amazing and elegant stuff and I'll be interested to see how it sells.

Friday, February 15, 2008 3:06:05 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Thursday, February 14, 2008

Antique Blog in NYC I've been enjoying
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Given that most of the reports Trader gets coming out of NYC are of super-high priced sales, where the glamorous and the flfthy rich - not to mention the beautiful - can afford to go an play while the rest of stubbornly soldier on, paying $3 or more for gas and wondering when that suitcae of money is going to fall from the sky. We snag what we can at auction, when we can. Or, if you're a dealers, then going to sales, auctions and shows, many many of them, is simply your job. It would be nice to know what it's like sometimes to simply be a journeyman antiquer...

The link here is to a blog in NYC called Here Be Old Things, and its proprietress faithfully charts the whole spectrum of NYC antiques, from the big shows and auctions they wouldn't even let me in the door to, to the weekly sales and shops, like Hell's Kitchen (formerly Chelsea) and some of the day-in day-out auction houses that aren't the monopolizers. It doesn't hurt that she's a fan of Trader's blog, as well.

Living in Manhattan for a dozen years, I had more than one occasion to go through many NYC fleas, and they were always interesting, and you could always tell who had the really good stuff because their booth was basically an empty spot on the ground.

Check out the blog and let me know what you think. We'll be linking to it from time to time to check out the coverage.

Thursday, February 14, 2008 8:26:12 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Drug bust jewels auctioned in Richmond, Feb. 20
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This was sent to me too late to get into the print version of Trader, but sounds like a good sale for a good cause, from Motley's, in Richmond, VA.

Richmond Auction House Sells Jewelry Seized In City Drug Bust.
Proceeds Help Police In Fight Against Drugs

RICHMOND, VA — Motley’s Auction & Realty Group will auction on Feb. 20, a large quantity of jewelry seized recently during a Richmond drug bust. All of the seized jewelry, including a diamond-encrusted man’s watch by Benny & Company, will be offered to the highest bidder, with no minimum price or reserves. The proceeds from the sale will be returned to Richmond law enforcement in an effort to help fund their continued fight against drugs.

Nearly 100 lots of jewelry, including those from numerous estates, will be offered starting at 3 p.m. at Motley’s galleries at 4402 West Broad Street in Richmond, VA.

All lots are viewable at www.motleys.com or are available for personal inspection on Monday, February 18, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Tuesday, February 19, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Items can also be previewed on February 20, the day of the sale, from 10 a.m. until all lots are sold. Motley’s offers online (eBay Live), absentee and phone bidding for those unable to attend the auction in person.

Motley’s next auction, on April 2, 2008.

For more information on any upcoming Motley’s auctions or their comprehensive appraisal services, visit motleys.com or call 804-355-2100.

There'll be some interesting stuff in this sale, sure enough...

Thursday, February 14, 2008 4:43:54 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Antique gun mishap? How 'bout drunken fool...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

The Cape Cod Times - daily sentinel to a place that is always fun to be smack dab in the middle of February, right on the ocean and facing some of the stiffest winds you can imagine - is reporting about a guy who shot himself in the leg with an antiques black powder colt.

Seems he was cleaning his gun when the thing went off. Police received a 911 call at 6 a.m., which means he was doing his business somewhere around 4 or 5 a.m.

Um...

First, I don't think anybody's going to set the alarm for 3 a.m. to get ready for a good gun cleaning, and second, I reckon the first thing I would do would be to make sure that the gun I was about to clean wasn't loaded. Just saying...

Methinks this guy was loaded himself, and thought it'd be fun to clean his gun by the soft glow of some 24 hour cable tv news. The comments attached to the article are pretty good, too.

antique | Antique news odd | Antiques | Antiques publications

Thursday, February 14, 2008 3:17:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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One banana, two banana, three banana four!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

It is snowing again here in Central, WI, making it a record setting year for snow - In Wisconsin. Did I mention that? At least in Madison, about 90 minutes to the south. Somehow, here in Central WI we manage to dodge a lot of the severe weather just above and just below this.

Going through Heritage Auctions' Web site I cam across a sale that speaks so directly to a Gen-Xer like myself that I had to mention it here. Part of the Dallas Auction firm's current online comics sale.

Man, I remember the Banana Splits like yesterday, along with the freaky cartoons that went along with it. They had a very bizarre version of Tom Sawyer that mixed a live Tom and Becky - maybe Huck - with the rest of the characters being animation. I used to watch in the afternoons - The Banana Splits, that is - as part of a show with an eerie clown who broadcast from a central Ohio amusement park and was always pushing some kind of red frozen treat, whjich I desperately coveted but never got. We moved from Cincinnatti long before the summmer... But I digress.

As you might be able to tell by this Wiki on the Splits, the show and its immortal characters - Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky - had quite a history, part of which was filmed in my hometown of Dallas. I also remember Bingo had a thing about hitting Fleegle.

Check out the sale, and that Banana Splits comic. A steal for $100, and my birthday's comin' up...

Thursday, February 14, 2008 2:48:42 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Antique Trader 2-27 comin' at ya
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

As we like to do around here, just a li'l sneak peak at the 2-27 cover.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:20:10 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Philatelics rejoice...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

If you've been living under an anti-auction rock for the last week, then it'll be news to you that Philip Weiss Auctions in Oceanside, NY, recently sold a very rare inverted stamp for a record $1.2M. The stamp is one of a handful printed in 1869 with an upsidedown repro of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on it.

It's an expensive stamp, for sure, and a mighty pretty one. Good for Anonymous for snapping it up. He or she seems to be buying a lot of good things lately.

There was also an inverted Jenny stamp, the Honus Wagner baseball card of the stamp world, that also brought healthy interest and almost $300,000. Seriously, a Jenny comes up for sale with the same frequency these days as a Wagner, and each time.

The stamp is one of only four known to exist. Whatever you do, Anonymous, don't lick it...

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 8:17:56 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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World's longest arch bridge to be built in Dubai
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

You just have to wonder why...

And you have to wonder what future alien civilizations will think of our cultures when they excavate our defunct planet millions of years from now. They'll find this bridge, and a building or two from Las Vegas...

I do have to admit that the picture is pretty funky and space age, but I have to wonder about the water in the pictures. Dubai is a desert, no? Also, Dubai? It says that the bridge will allow passage of 2000 cars an hour, that 48,000 a day, right? I guess there will be plenty of men busy driving back and forth on that thing, because they don't allow women to drive over there...

The info above came from a blog called Rocket Boom. Fun stuff.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 5:27:36 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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The greatest art thefts of all time?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

The recent theft of more than $160M in art from the Beuhrle Collection in Zurich has had me quite interested in how such a thing did, and continues to, happen.

Time and time again these little museums or collections have hundreds of millions of dollars worth of great art, and they protect them with the security equivalent of wet paper bags. They take no real precautions, then wring their hands and pull their hair when it happens and cry," How did this happen?"

Forbes magazine posted this great article about what it thinks are the "greatest" art heists of all time. I think, in these terms, that the theft at the Beuhrle ranks up their, though none of them actually have that Cary Grant "To Catch a Thief" thing to it, no sneaking in at night, avoiding laser alarm systems or dropping in on a caribiner from the cieling to cut a delicate hole in the glass with a glass-cutter.

They also mention the 1990 theft at the Gardener in Boston, America's greatest unsolved heist. That art is worth about $300M.

I have better security in my house for nothing more than a Victorian child's tea cup set. My security's name is Fiona. She's two, and she's a mean shot with a stuffed monnkey. So beware...

antique | Antique news odd | Antiques | stolen antiques

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 4:54:03 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Auction Dupe? Or the name of the game?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

A story like this one, out of Oregon - where auctioneers aren't required to be licensed - makes me believe wholeheartedly in the work of The Antiques Council and the National Show Management Assocaition to get some national oversite of the antiques business.

I know that this is an auction story, in the rural Northwest no less, but people should have a reasonable expectation of getting a certain value for merch at auction. The folks in this story - one of whom is terminally ill - got all of $200 or so for their stuff after being told - granted, there was no contract - they would get significantly more.

Come on, though... What about human decency?

antique | Antique scams | Antiques | Antiques Auction | Auction

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 4:24:18 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Certainly notable in the antiques business
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

That David Rago is working with Worth Point, one of the more interesting sites dedicated to antiques and those who love to buy and sell them out there. It's also a good research tool, and a place to get opinions from other folks who really have something to offer.

In the interest of full disclosure, I know David somewhat, and have always found him to be an honest and decent person, as well as a savvy businessman. I'm sure it factored into his decision here. He's a man who understands the brand side of antiques.

Just an FYI. Feel free to let me know what your opinions of Worth Point as a site are, especially in light of the recent eBay debacle.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 6:05:27 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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When Antiques Get Dangerous!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

We all know that buying antiques contains an inherent risk, and that's all part of the game. The least I believe we can expect, however, at whatever venue we're shopping at, is to expect that the site itself is not going to do us any damage...

Ellen Schroy, antiques price guide writer extraordinaire and intrepid correspondent to Antique Trader, brought this little story - hot out of Palmyra, NJ - about a flea market site that was a former firing range and the military's surveying for possible live munitions long buried when a drive-in movie theater was put up after World War II.

Talk about a bang for your buck....

Okay, I'm sorry for that...

antique | Antique news odd | Antique Show | Antiques | Antiques Auction

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:46:52 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Monday, February 11, 2008

More stolen Art in Europe - $160M worth
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Just what exactly will it take for owner's of private, important collections of art - especially those on public display - to add security?

This is an unbelivable story, reported widely across the world this morning, about more than $160M in art stolen from the Beuhrle Collection in Zurich. I like the New York Times coverage best, so I linked to it here.

Chances are the artwork will go underground and decorate the home of some one who doesn't care that it's stolen goods. The market in art theft if huge, and the paintings are re-sold at hugely below actualy value. You could pick up one of these paintings, the Cezanne for instance, for a song... Say $15 million...

Let me just go check that shoebox in my closet. Maybe I'll cash in those bonds I got for my bar mitzvah so long ago.

Hey Beuhrle Collection! Get a lock on those doors and a connection to the police. Then maybe those priceless paintings will remain where they are and you'll be proven worthy to own such cultural treasures!

Monday, February 11, 2008 6:41:14 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Spring Fever and the beauty of the Rhinebeck Antiques Show
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Man oh Man, it was cold this weekend in Central Wisconsin where I huddled up with my wife and sick two-year old daughter. The sort of cold that makes it difficult to go outside. I pictured myself freezing solid, quick, as I dropped last night's trash in the can out back. I also thought, for one terrifying moment, that the garage door had locked on me. With Lauren upstairs putting the baby to sleep I would have been a goner.

"Why?" I asked myself. "Why?"

While I do believe that you can only really appreciate spring and summer if you live in a place with real seasons, I'm about sick of winter. February is the month that forgot to pay its rent.

With spring coming I'm thinking of all the great shows that I'd like to get to, though my current location makes it a bit tough. I wil get to a lot of local and midwestern shows, but probably not Philly for Antiques Week there. I will, more than likely, make a sojourn to The Pioneer Valley for May Brimfield, just to see old friends, catch up and talk to folks about Trader and this site.

The show I will miss the most, however, will be Rhinebeck. My beloved Rhinebeck Antiques Show. Something so sweet and friendly about this show, the very first one I ever really loved, back when Jimi Barton was still with us, rest his soul.

There's the unbelievable beauty of The Hudson Valley and majesty of the Hudson River, but there are also great people at Rhinebeck and a host of really good restaurants. My pick? Get the chicken wings at Terrapin Bostro. They are very different, spicy and my most favorite wings ever, anywhere, period.

Bruce Garret and Bret Brandes do a great job with the Rhinebeck show, keeping it fresh and ever-changning. especially as tastes shifts. For years, known best for its folk art and Americana, Rhinebeck has succesfully navigated the minefield of adding modern and design-oriented antiques while featuring some of the best dealers in the nation. There are too many to name, but say hi to Bev and Doug Norwood at Norwood's Spirit of America, Steve and Lorraine German at Mad River Antiques, and Sandy at Jenkinstown Antiques. I'll probably hear from the folks that I miss, but - truly - my heart is with this show and I will miss it.

If anybody has any plans to hit any good shows this spring, let me know what they are... noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com.

Happy early spring and GO AWAY FEBRUARY!

antique | Antique Show | Antiques | Antiques Show

Monday, February 11, 2008 6:09:47 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Friday, February 08, 2008

Is calling someone a stupid thief an oxymoron?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This story came across the AP wire last night, and is being reported as an odd news story in various media outlets across the country, of which we are now one.

What an idiot this guy had to be...

Honey, are we insured for this? Wife's vandalism complaint leads to husband's burglary arrest

SUTHERLIN, Ore. (AP) _ They say problem gamblers never quit while they're ahead, and one properly insured Oregon man apparently didn't, either.

Authorities recovered a stolen antique slot machine worth $4,000 and arrested the 30-year-old, who they said asked his wife to help file an insurance claim to cover damage done to his van during the heist.

The slot machine was reported stolen in a burglary Monday night at a home in Sutherlin, 170 miles south of Portland, Douglas County sheriff's deputies said. Investigators learned that the victim's housekeeper filed a police report a day earlier claiming someone had thrown a piece of sheet metal through the window of her parked van.

The sheet metal turned out to be from the back of the stolen slot machine, with the serial number attached.

Deputies said the housekeeper's husband stole the machine, which tipped over as he drove away, breaking the van window. He told his wife the van had been vandalized and asked her to report the damage so insurance would cover it, deputies said.

The husband and a 25-year-old man were charged with burglary and theft, but the wife wasn't charged.

The case was still being investigated.

Wow.

antique | Antique news odd | Antique scams | Antiques | stolen antiques

Friday, February 08, 2008 5:49:33 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Online auctioneers divide eBay exodus booty
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I've always wanted to use the words exodus and booty in a headline, and today was my chance. Just look at it... Marvelous in its simplistic complexity... Or maybe I just need another couple of hours of sleep - my two-year-old daughter has been up sick for most of the last two nights, so my mind is a little hazy...

Anyway...

I like this story from over at CNN Money, talking about how a lot of other online sites are already picking up the pieces of the shattered eBay buying coalition. Hardcore eBay-ers will stick with the compnay through thick and thin, but many others are leaving, or simply cutting back and "diversifying," if you will, in other online markets. Certainly a good idea given looming economic issues and a highly unorthodox presidential election.

The article also contains links to all of the Web sites it discusses, giving you a good chance to check them out and decide what, if anything, you like.

Friday, February 08, 2008 2:52:00 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Thursday, February 07, 2008

Probably not the best news for the antiques biz...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I have been criticized for reporting the negative before, but I'm a journalist first and the story is the thing. To ignore this news, and not analyze what it might mean for our business, would be irresponsible.

The overall January sales figures, as reported on Yahoo, by Reuters, were not too good.

That includes a lot of factors, especially big box stores like Wal-Mar and Target, and a lot of the items people aren't buying are things that they shouldn't be buying there anyway - art, furniture, etc...

A January lull is no big surprise to the antiques business; after the holidays and the lull in mid-level and flea market shows - a lot of high-end happens in the Winter, and you can't really count the health of The Winter Antiques Show or The American Antiques Show as truly reflective of the real health of the antiques economy - there is a lot of space. General line buyers are going online to auctions, or checking out shops or small shows nearby.

There are schools of thought that will consider an economic slowdown healthy for antiques, and I don't disagree with them. I do also know that when the economy gets bad - remember 2001? - the antiques business is one of the first to feel the lack of discretionary income, and one of the last to benefit when people come out of the stupor.

The above report, along a reported and well-documented contraction of the jobs market last month, don't add up to prosperity. No one wants to say recession, but the laws of economics are fairly immutable.

Thursday, February 07, 2008 6:46:09 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1]

Just curious... Good shows or auctions this weeked?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Anyone going to any good shows or auctions this weekend?

I'm curious to know, and curious to see if anyone cares to mention it in the comments below...

Come one, you know you want to try it...

Thursday, February 07, 2008 6:09:53 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1]

VBOE not on EBAY
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Since it was mentioned in the 2-20 Trader, and on this blog earlier this week, here's what Specialist Auctions has released about its sale to compete with eBay.

I understand well and good that this is a press release from the company and they are representing their best position on the subject. I feel, from an editorial standpoint, that it bears looking at because it is one of the most public counteractions to eBay's recent changes.

Here's how they put it:

"SPECIALIST AUCTIONS TO GO HEAD TO HEAD WITH EBAY DURING “VINTAGE BLOW-OUT SALE”

VBOE on Specialist Auctions February 14 – February 21, 2008

In an effort to attract both unhappy Ebay buyers and sellers, the rapidly expanding UK-based site Specialist Auctions (www.specialistauctions.com) announced plans to compete directly with a long-held tradition of Ebay vintage clothing sellers: the popular “Vintage Blow Out Sale.” During this sale, many vintage items are sold for $19.99 or less.

Specialist Auctions is calling its sale “VBOE,” and VBOE is rapidly catching on. Numerous Ebay vintage sellers, some of them Powersellers, are signing up on Specialist Auctions in order to take advantage of the event, which, like VBO, runs from February 14 through February 21, 2008. Many vintage items will be also be offered for $19.99 or less.

During VBOE, buyers will be able to pick from a huge variety of vintage clothes, hats, accessories, jewelry, and more. Just like on Ebay. And Specialist Auctions is also offering collectibles, comics, in fact, anything that dates before 1989.

The recent changes at Ebay have prompted calls for a boycott starting February 18 and lasting at least a week. By moving to sites like Specialist Auctions, sellers can sell with a clear conscience—and not be held hostage to payment method Paypal, an Ebay subsidiary that recently announced it could put a 21-day hold on payments, even if the item was shipped to the buyer. Sellers on Specialist Auctions accept a wide array of payment options, including Google Checkout, Western Union, money orders, and bank transfers. Not only that, the only charge to sellers that Specialist Auctions asks for is 3% of the sale price of an item—no matter how high or how low.

So if you REALLY want to shop victoriously, shop at Specialist Auctions during VBOE!"

I trust you can decide for yourself.

Thursday, February 07, 2008 4:49:25 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Antique Trader 2-20, coming your way
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Just putting the final touches on the 2-20 issue of Trader. Only one more left in the longest, if shortest, month of the year.

Click on the front page to go to the site, though the stories won't be up for a day or two...

Wednesday, February 06, 2008 9:21:57 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

RIP Sam Pennington, Maine Antiques Digest Founder
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

The Maine Antiques Digest is reporting the death of its founder, Samuel Pennington.

I knew Sam peripherally, as so many in the business did. He created an important paper for the antiques business, one that helped bring alot of northern New England dealers back into the mainstream.

Sam was loved and reviled equally. I always had to hand it to him for being so honest about things in the business, a much cherished and rare trait in this business. We all know, in the antiques print game, you don't always get to tell things unvarnished. Sam had enough power to do so and not suffer diminished returns for it.

It's been a tough month on antiques publications. First Alison Ledes of The Magazine Antiques passes, then Laura Brant sells her stake in the magazine. Now Sam.

To the MAD family, condolences from Trader.

antique | Antiques | Antiques publications

Wednesday, February 06, 2008 5:31:43 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

The eBay debate continues
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I know a lot of you out there that trade online, and with eBay are still talking to each other about the changes. This blog puts me in the enviable position of speaking with many of you via e-mail, and quite a few phone calls.

Also, I am able to get information from people within the industry as to their opinions and what their readers are saying.

One of these is Ina Steiner, who most of you will know via the blog www.auctionbytes.com. My thanks to Ina for the following:

"Overall, eBay's changes hit antiques dealers harder than commodity
sellers. eBay is making it cheaper to list but more expensive when an
item does sell. And every antiques dealer knows there are problem
buyers. Sellers tell us they will have virtually no leverage to deal
with them because eBay is taking away their ability to leave neutral
or negative feedback for buyers.

eBay believes this will make for a better buying experience - more
listings, and buyers who are not turned off by receiving negatives.
But eBay takes the risk that sellers will not only turn to other
venues (and antiques dealers have already turned to marketplaces like
GoAntiques, TIAS and RubyLane), but that those sellers will also stop
buying on eBay.

It's a high-risk gamble that is not being well received overall, by sellers."

I also have spoken with Antique Trader Web writer Gabe Constantine, who is a show dealer and a busy eBay dealer as well, and he's certainly talked to more than a few of you in his journeys through the message boards. His comments mirrored many of the ones I got via e-mail.

Here's what Gabe had to say:

"I feel that the eBay leadership needed a change, and since I wasn’t contacted for the job I will have to hope that this newbie will do what needs to be done.

I disagree that eBay is shifting focus. Right off the bat, they lowered listing fees. Don’t be fooled, read carefully and you will see that they raised the final value fee enough to where it will almost equal out and make no difference.

Maybe this new head honcho will shift direction but in 2007 I witnessed a successful “Bid Victoriously “ eBay advertising campaign generated towards their online auctions. Compared in the commercials to Jumping Higher than everyone else and winning the touchdown Catch of a Vase. To me this isn’t shying away from the auction aspect.

I think eBay will remain a strong force in the Antiques & Collectables marketplace. It’s a monopoly of the online auction world. With the growing success of EBay Live auctions I feel it will have no trouble remaining a force.

One thing eBay has always needed to do is get the input from us, the people who specialize in Antiques & Collectables. We need “our voice” as Antiques & Collectables dealers to be heard in all decision making. Just look at how poor the category system is and you should understand how little our input is."

antique | Antiques | eBay

Wednesday, February 06, 2008 5:19:08 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Arson takes an historic Queen Anne in Mass.
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Hate to see something like this, as reported by The Preservationist Online.

These lovely old houses in Massachusetts are amazing and this one was all set for restoration... Someone decided to toss a match on it... I wonder how they can sleep at night, or if they do at all. Maybe it was an organized thing. Maybe it was a bunch of idiot kids, and maybe it was a crackhead who dropped their pipe... Hate this, especially when it was going to be brought back to life...

Check it out.

antique | Antique news odd | Antiques | Architecture | Historic Preservation

Wednesday, February 06, 2008 5:06:35 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

If you're in a primary state...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Stop reading this blog and go out and vote!

Your country needs you!

Antique Trader does not care who you vote for, only that you vote!

Minus this public service announcement, this is a politics free zone...

antique | Antiques

Tuesday, February 05, 2008 4:57:54 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

"It's about the antique bottle, I swear!"
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I do have to say that I hate to see this, especially if authorities do actually have to dump the bottles of whiskey in this report out of Tennessee. The story is from the Shelbyville (TN) Times-Gazette, but has been national news for a while.

Seems this man was indicted and faces possible prison time for possesing a whole bunch of Jack Daniels. He says that he's a bottle collector. Seems reasonable enough to me, given that one of the bottles in the collection mentioned in the link above is worth $10,000 and dates to 1914.

I'm no fan of Jack Daniels, but if bet it tastes pretty good if it's been aged the right way...

antique | Antique Glass | Antique news odd | Antiques

Tuesday, February 05, 2008 4:56:22 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Monday, February 04, 2008

Antiques and the eBay problem continued
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Had an interesting conversation with Bob Clements, one of the principal founders of UK auction site www.specialistauctions.com.

This is a site that started in direct response to the eBay model. Bob and his company place expert moderators to oversee paticular subsets of collecting, making an effort to make sure that their auctions are "vetted" and discussed if questions arise. They've done well for themselves in the European market, with significant gains in this country, as well. SpecialistAuctions is especially well known for its strong vintage fashion component, which can generate a huge amount of hits for its auctions.

The long and the short of it in the U.K. is this: Just like Americans, the British are made about these changes, but even more so. Everything applies the sameas far as the changes, except that in Britain eBay isn't eliminating the gallery fee - which users pay for posting pics of items for sale - which costs them about .30 cents. Ouch.

"People are very upset," Clements said. "Here in the UK they don’t even have the benefit of the removal of the cost for gallery images."

The "Final Value Fee" hike is also a big deal. Clements was able to bottom line the increase, one that equals more than a 50% hike.

"(EBay is) reducing the cost of actually creating the listing," he said, "and then they’re moving the final value fee amount from an average 5.5 percent to an average 8.7 percent."

Ouch again.

The real kicker is that those things aren't even what Clements sees as what's got people riled up.

"What's really got to people is the fact that sellers will no longer be able to give buyers neutral or negative feedback," he said. "But buyers will be able to give sellers neutral or negative feedback."

Besides be a keen gage on the sentiment across the pond, SpecialistAuctions is also hosting it own VBOE sale, or Vintage Blow Off Sale, with a huge amount of dealers and a more hospitable atmosphere.

Check them out above if you wish, if only to see an alternative that many are considering in the wake of these changes.

antique | Antiques | Antiques, blog, question of the week | eBay

Monday, February 04, 2008 7:59:45 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

eBay Sellers and Customers respond to changes...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

... and boy are they ticked off.

Since the Antique Trader e-newsletter went out last Friday, Feb. 1, with the question about whether eBay, with its changes to sellers and final fees, as well as tweaking its feedback to disallow negative feedback on buyers, I have been overwhelmed with the responses. My inbox has been literally overflowing since early Friday and just slowed down last night. I have not counted the responses, but it is well more than 100 - I usually get 20 on a good week - and illustrates the passion that readers and eBay regulars are feeling in realtion to these moves by the auction giant. That, and the question is just now hitting newstands and subscribers.

As many of these as I can fit will be printed in the 2-20 issue of Antique Trader, and I will make sure the rest get onto the AT Web site and into the e-newsletter of 2-8. Some I can't post in any instance due to the anger and language expressed... Let's keep it clean, folks... I don't want my dear old Ma and Pa to read this and get offended...

Here's what I understand from the overwhelming majority of the responses:

eBay seems to be shooting itself in the foot, or as the old adage goes: "Don't spit on my leg and tell me it's raining," which one reader wrote with a different metaphor for spit.

The companie's loss of revenue and perceived competition, along with Meg Whitman's resignations, have led to some abrupt changes in terms of those things listed in the question an d it seems that eBay is deliberately trying to squeeze out what it perceives as "small" buyers and sellers, or "mid-level" buyers and sellers. To me, this means anyone that buys and/or sells between $800 and $5,000 a year, give or take a few hundred or thousand.

There must be, literally, a million or two million sellers at this level and more buyers. These are the folks that are most at risk to be hurt and, cumulatively, I would imagine represent a great big chunck of cash for the eBay. Yet here they are, alienated and angry by abrupt changes made without explanation or ceremony. Trust me, the anger is palpable, and will drive people away from eBay - if they haven't already bailed - and towards other already extant auction sites, or antique malls like Ruby Lane, where thet can deal in a setting that respects who they are, what they buy and - most importantly - what they spend.

Take note, eBay - if you read this - people are unhappy.

Perhaps this is part of the plan, to lost some business in order to gain liquidity an shift the business model elsewhere. Just as antiquers can't forget what eBay has done for the business in the last 10 years, eBay should not overlook what antiquers have done for its business in the last 10 years.

All empires fall because they fail to change with the times.

antique | Antiques | Antiques, blog, question of the week | eBay

Monday, February 04, 2008 4:37:54 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1]

Antiques Scammer nabbed in Miami
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Eric Bradley, the Show Manager of Atlantique City - which is owned by Trader's parent company, F+W Publications - was in Miami Beach over the weekend at the big show there - lucky man to be away from Midwest cold and snow. Evidently there was a scammer passing bad checks on the floor, and thanks to the actions of some dealers, the guy was picked up and a most- if not all - of the merch found.

Here's what Eric wrote from the floor:

Miami police arrested a man on Sunday suspected of passing bogus checks proportedly worth at least $10,000 at the Miami Beach Antiques Show. The man is suspected to have been working with an accomplice.

The cops nabbed him after our good friend Howard Roberts spotted a guy who fit the description of a man who passed a phony $4,400 check to one of his friends the day before. The man - who claimed to be from Philadelphia but spoke with a Russian accent - was identified while he was browsing some jewelry in the booth of dealer Michael Weinstein (who also does Atlantique City). After interrogating the man, police sought search warrants for three Miami-area hotel rooms. Not sure if any were in Miami Beach proper.

Police were able to recover items stolen with the bad checks on Sunday. It's not clear if they were unable to secure some, or all, of the merch purchased on Saturday.

The Miami police should have a report shortly. It will be in the local press soon!

Eric

Trader will keep an eye on this in the next few days, but thanks Eric!

Monday, February 04, 2008 3:46:00 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Friday, February 01, 2008

Clearly, "lower listing fees" should be in quotes
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

I'm getting a tremendous amount of email from readers on our question of the week - see below - and I clearly should have put lower listing fees in quotation marks.

I apologize for the oversite, but love the passion that people are bringing to this argument, whether in support of the changes (a few) or against (most)... Alot of these responses will be in the 2-20 issue of Trader, with the rest online.

Meanwhile, keep responding, and keep on keeping me on the straight and narrow...

antique | Antiques | Antiques, blog, question of the week | eBay

Friday, February 01, 2008 7:16:11 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [3]

Effect of eBay changes on smaller antiques buyers
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

One of Trader's online readers, Frank, responded to our question of the week - Can eBay stay relevant with its current changes? - and raised a good point from the view of a "casual" user, of which there are many - myself included.

Here's what he has to say:

Noah:

I was reading about eBay, the current subject for your new blog site. Here are my comments. I'll let you decide if they are "bloggable".

I have been a registered eBay user for nearly 10 years. While my selling has been fairly limited, I planned to increase it in the coming years when I retire. My area is mostly antique toys in the $75. to $800. range (at a few dozen per year, a very small dealer in eBay terms). So I look at every strategic and revenue adjustment at eBay from that perspective.

I don't really think that the site thinks of me as a member of one of their most important revenue categories. If that turns out to be increasingly true, then I may go over to listing quantities of items with traditional auctioneers (some of whom also use eBay or some other internet auctioneer anyway) to appeal to a wider range of buyers. It all comes down to dollars. If it's a wash, who needs the hassle of packing, shipping and the occasional non-payer? The decision will be an easy one.

Frank

I have to agree with what he says. I believe that eBay might be hurting themselves from the standpoint of the small user, like Frank. If, however, these "small" users are spending anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 a year on eBay - listing and buying - that has to add up when you consider the sheer volume.

EBay might get some of the money from users like Frank, using bigger eBay dealers, but alot of that money is going to go to other dealers on other sites that are specifically dedicated to antiques already, and aren't as problematic, like Ruby Lane, et al.

antique | Antiques | eBay | Toys

Friday, February 01, 2008 4:01:07 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [7]

Thursday, January 31, 2008

A blow to Antique Glass collectors and dealers
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Probably not what glass lovers wanted to hear.

Gary Barnum, a well respected glass dealer and collector sent this to Trader; not very good news for glass collectors whose buying/selling season depends in large part on the Marietta Civitan Club Glass Show during the Fenton shows:

January 21, 2008
Marietta Civitan Club
PO Box 68
Marietta, OH 45750

Dear Glass Show Exhibitor:

We regret to inform you that the Marietta Civitan Club has decided not to hold the Glass Show this year. The combination of the organizational effort and increasing cost makes it impossible for us to continue this effort.

The club owes a deep debt of gratitude to Alice Hall, who along with her late husband Don founded the show, with the idea of using the profits to supporting Civitan. They put many years of hard work into the show.

We appreciate your support over the years and will miss the spirit of camaraderie that we have enjoyed with you. If no one else steps in to hold a similar event, our community will also miss the economic value that you and your customers brought to Marietta and the surrounding area.

To find out whether there will be another show during the conventions that may be helpful to you, we suggest contacting the following organizations:

Marietta/Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau
121 Putnam St.
Marietta, OH 45750
(740) 373-5178
www.mariettaohio.org

Fenton Art Glass Collectors of America
702 W. Fifth Street
Williamstown, WV 26187
(304) 375-6196
http://users.wirefire.com/fagcainc/

National Fenton Glass Society
156 Front Street
Marietta, OH 45750
(740) 374-3345
www.fentonglasssociety.org

Thank you again for your support over the last twenty-five years and best wishes for your continued success in your business.

Very truly yours,

Marietta Civitan Club

And here’s what Gary wrote about the news:

Subject: Annual Marietta Glass Show/Sale Closing

Sad news…

The very large Glass Show and Sale held annually at the Fairgrounds in Marietta during the Fenton Conventions will not (after 25 years) be held in 2008 unless and until someone can take over from the Civitan Club!

What a blow that is to the hundreds of vendors who, like me, counted upon the Fairground's Show/Sale to peddle their glass. What a blow also to the buyers who count on going to the event to find a treasure or a needed item to add to their collections.

The Civitan notice declares rising costs to be a reason for closing, but did not comment on the fact that they could have passed those costs on to the vendors. I, for one, would have expected an increase in the space rent to be normal under the circumstances. No. They are just not going to make the effort to promote or hold the show for the foreseeable future.

While I sure hope that someone or some organization can step up to the plate and keep the show going, I will be looking for other possible venues to set up and sell glass.

Options include: A.) Setting up in the motel holding the convention; in the rooms of the motel; B) Persuading the City of Williamstown to organize once again, the use of the City Park for vendors, or; C) Trying to squeeze more vendors into the Williamstown School Auditorium.

It looks bleak as it stands. I hope some enterprising person or group can and will step up and keep the show going and doing it during the Fenton Glass Society’s conventions, as before, the end of July. Heck, the NFGS, FAGGC and the Stretch Glass Society are ALL planning their conventions at that time. I know that all members of those groups will surely miss buying glass from the vendors who would have set up on the Marietta Fairgrounds.

If anyone hears more, please post the info or write a note to me.

Wait! There’s a little more bad news, adding insult to injury… The Old Knight’s Inn, where a popular room-to-room show was set-up during the glass conventions is being razed, maybe to not come back…

Here’s what Gary writes on this:

One long time favorite of glass vendors for the Fenton convention scene is going into history, too.

Sellers would annually occupy a sprawling one level motel that was arranged in perhaps six rows of rooms with about 20 rooms in each row. The vendors packed each room in the place and sold glass out of their rooms. If the door was not locked, it signified seller was 'in' and for buyers to open the door and come in to see what glass was for sale. Sales there went on for five or six days during the conventions.

Here's the info about the Old Knight's Inn; Best Value Inn/Old Knights Inn is being torn down and replaced with a Microtel.

That means another glass selling venue in Marietta is gone and perhaps not coming back as a place to sell glass during future conventions!

I’m curious to know what any of our readers who are in on the glass scene think about this, and what it says about the health of the market.

Antiques | Antique Glass | Fenton Glass | Antiques Show

Thursday, January 31, 2008 8:37:31 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Antique Trader Question of the week - Can eBay remain relevant?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Everyone in the antiques business - collector and dealer alike - have an opinion about eBay. However you feel about it now, it's played a major role in antiques commerce over the last decade. The role, however, has been changing rapidly in recent weeks.

Ebay has suffered a well publicized decline in market share in the last year - something like 14% - in its auction business and has not seen it's Marketplace feature do as well as investors would have like to have seen in the face of Amazon and Google's growing share.

This all culminated last week when it was announced that Meg Whitman, the CEO who guided eBay to glory in the late 1990s, was resigning to "spend more time with her family." That last bit was mine... I just put it in for dramatic effect...

Whitman's resignation, and her successors pledge to amp up the Marketplace and "Buy It Now" features while de-emphasizing the auction business, along with a reduction in listing fees and a tweak to the feedback system - which many sellers fear will lead to shady buyers not being weeded out - have given eBay more press than its had in a few years. Whether it's positive remains to be seen.

Here's what Trader wants to know this week: With a leadership change, lower listing fees and a shift in selling focus, can eBay remain a relevant force in the marketplace?

Post your answer to the new Antique Trader Blog at www.antiquetraderblog.com/atblog, or send your response to noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com.

| Antiques | Antiques, blog, question of the week | eBay

Thursday, January 31, 2008 3:05:52 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1]

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Antique Trader 2-13, coming your way
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Here's a sneak preview at this week's cover... Actually the 2-13 cover, but we all know it breaks about 10 days early.

Click on the image to go to Trader's main site.

Antiques

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 7:37:26 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Trouble at The Magazine Antiques?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

It was reported yesterday in The Bee (Antiques and the Arts Weekly) that Sandra J. Brant is selling her stake in The Magazine Antiques, the nation's oldest, most venerable and certainly highest-end antiques magazine.

It's no secret that TMA has been having issues of late - all segments of print are - but this is pretty big news. Two weeks ago the editor of the publication - Alison Ledes - lost her battle with cancer. She was only the fourth editor in the 80+ years of the mag, and quite a nice lady, too. I had the chance to speak with her on several occasions before she got too sick to continue, and always found her to be polite, professional and sharp as a tack. She is indeed missed in the business, if such things matter to you.

With Ms. Brant selling her stake in TMA (and Interview Mag and Art in America) to her ex-husband, one has to wonder about the future of the publication, not to mention its massive and invaluable archive - it is a virtual catalogue of the last century of material culture in America.

TMA's audience and Trader's audience don't really cross much, so we have no stake in its future, but on a personal level, as an editor and lover of antiques and their history, I have pull for it to survive.

Click on the link above to read The Bee's coverage.

Antiques

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 6:01:01 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

English Art Scammer gets suspended sentence
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

It's being widely reported across international media today that the English family who passed of sophisticated forgeries as real - and fooled some of the best in the world in the process - is getting off relatively lightly. The link above is to the Yahoo News coverage. Here's the begining of the AP story:

LONDON – An elderly art scammer who fooled museums, auction houses and galleries on both sides of the Atlantic avoided jail Monday after a judge in the north England city of Bolton handed him a two-year suspended sentence.

Police say George Greenhalgh, 84, his 83-year-old wife, Olive, and his 46-year-old son Shaun spent the better part of two decades cranking out statues, paintings and other objects and passing the sophisticated fakes off as priceless pieces of art.

All three pleaded guilty in 2002 to charges of laundering money from the sale of forged artworks. Shaun, who created the fakes, was sentenced to more than four years in jail in November. His mother received a 12-month sentence.

The family manufactured a wide range of objects, including sculptures attributed to Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, paintings purportedly by American artist Thomas Moran, and gold and silver items dated to Roman and Anglo-Saxon times.

The family's assets are being split up between those they duped. Part of me is intrigued at their skill - they were boviously quite good. The other part of me is a little taken aback at how easy they got off. Seems to me that plenty of people have done much more, and much harder, time for much less.

| Antiques | Antique scams

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 4:59:12 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

I don't know whether to laugh or cry...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Um... The world's largest pencil. 22,000 pounds, a a 450 pound eraser, a 4,000 pound lead, and it works. Tell me, though, who's going to sharpen it?

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Good for St. Louis... I guess...

They have the arch and the bowling museum... Now this...

antique | Antique news odd | Antiques | pop art

Wednesday, January 30, 2008 4:50:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

What do you think of this new site - www.antiquesacrosstheus.com
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

This is a good idea, but there are many good ideas out there... It's a new site called www.antiquesacrosstheus.com, and it needs the help of dealers and buyers to get the word out and get sites linked.

The lady who started it sent me this press release:

AntiquesAcrossTheUS.com was born out of frustration. In the summer of 2005, my family decided to embark on an antiquing extravaganza. We rented a trailer and spent three days filling it up with our treasures from the “World’s Longest Yard Sale.” Well, we got some great bargains at the yard sale which filled two-thirds of the trailer. Great, we could hit the antique malls on the way home to California!

We planned ahead by locating a couple websites listing the stores we intended to visit. The databases did not seem to match, but no worry, we printed both to be safe. Boy, were we surprised when we arrived at town after town and could not find the stores. The listings we had so diligently printed were about ninety percent inaccurate. The websites apparently had not been updated in ages. That was the summer the idea for antiquesacrossamerica.net was born.

The idea was to develop an up-to-date website of the antique stores/malls across the United States. The site will be constantly updated through contact with subscribing stores and malls and fine-tuned by visitors to these establishments.

You will have noticed two web addresses by now. There are currently five, for the user’s convenience. They are as follows: AntiquesAcrossTheUS.com, AntiquesAcrossAmerica.net, AntiquesAcrossTheUS.net, AntiquesAcrossAmerica.biz and AntiquesAcrossTheUS.biz. This website was designed by antiquers for antiquers. Since we are located in California, we began entering data for those antique malls and worked our way east across the nation. At present, an asterisk next to the state’s name on the home page identifies the completed states.

Minimum information of the antique malls listed will be the store name, address, and phone numbers, while the hours of operation, square footage of the store, number of dealers, a list of specialties and a link to the store’s website will be included for paid subscribers. This website, unlike many others, will be constantly updated. The antiquing public will be invited to email me with any information or changes they think would be useful. I will then enter the information with the “visited” date nearby. Also, the pages are designed to print easily in landscape format on a standard piece of paper. No more long lists to print that go on forever. We have chosen to enter as many stores on the website that we can locate through good detective work. Most diligent antiquers will agree that it can be rather difficult to find some great, hidden antique malls.

It is our hope that you will now spend many more hours hunting for your treasures and much less searching for the store!

There have been a few who have tried this type of site for antiques and it never quite takes off. Maybe this one will have the charm. Check it out...

Antiques

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 5:19:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [2]

NYS Archivist selling invaluable documents - on eBay!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Wow. This is... Well, let's just say that some of the smartest people you'll meet can end up being the dumbest.

This story is being widel reported on most major news outlets. It seems that an archivist at the New York State Library in Albany has been scamming and then selling invaluable documents, just to pay his bills. He's been selling them on eBay, no less!

I just find this to be unfathomable, both ethically, and logistically. Daniel Lorello - who I had dealt with in my previous jobs with a couple of other magazines when I was living in The Hudson Valley for many years - was taking documents from the library and posting them online for sale. Now, I know you can sell alot of things anonymously on eBay - there are alot of fools and charlatans out there that never get caught - but alot of these things are of low value, both historically and monetarily. Somehow, though, Lorello thought that things like a letter from Vice President John C. Calhoun (pictured above) would go unnoticed. the troubling thing is just how much he stole, and how long he's been doing it.

Authorities recovered more than 400 stolen items from his house in Upstate NY. He plead not guilty...

"Officer, I swear I have no idea how those got there. It's a conspiracy!"

Wow... Just wow...

Antiques

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 5:01:26 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Monday, January 28, 2008

The value of antiques in a sluggish economy
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

Just a few thoughts as I eat my lunch...

Anyone who regularly reads my editorials in Antique Trader - Anyone? Anyone? - knows that I love to pick on the minutiae of the market, especially as it pertains to those that have and those that have not. The high-end is an easy whipping boy, because if you've got millions in the bank, it doesn't matter what the rest of the market is doing, or how it's trending; you will still be able to buy what you want, when you want it. The result is that, yes, the high-end is generally out of touch with the middle and low end of the market. Them's the facts.

A few weeks ago, however, when we asked the question of our readers: Can you still find good antiques dirt cheap, and where?, I got an email from Darylle Lambert, the author of "31 Steps To Your Millions in Antiques," pointing out, among other things, that if the economy tanks it's even better for the overall antiques market because people will want to put there money where their investment is safe and others will want to sell their antiques to meet their overhead. Regardless of how you slice it, at whatever level, we all know that your money is safe in antiques. Unlike most things, the money you put into a piece is going to stay there - as long as it remains in good condition - and, in most cases, increase as the years go on. Darylle is a smart man, and he makes a good point; one that I've been thinking about for the last few weeks since he wrote me.

I have to say that I agree with him, and - even if there is much turmoil and change in the antiques business right now as dealers get in or out of the business, as the best stuff becomes harder to get and as a segment of the antiquing population dies off - I would say that the market in general seems to bear out his theory. As things have gotten diffifult in the last few years it does seem that people have been drawn to auctions and shows just as others have been drawn to sell off their collections to put some cash in the bank. If they aren't spending big bucks on the items that make a dealer's, or auctioneer's day with a single sale, they are indeed spending. In times of turmoil - like now, with a looming recession and an uncertain presidential election - people are going to turn to comfort objects. They might not buy a Chippendale highboy for a few hundred thousand, but they're going to pony up $75 for that good condition 1962 copy of a Scrooge McDuck comic, or for anything that takes them back to a safe place in there lives. I myself, being a kid of the 1970s, go back to the arcade games and cartoon characters that populated the simpler days of my early life and I have been buying things that take me there.

There will always be examples of people who can find something cheap and make a healthy - sometimes hefty - profit off of it, but more to the point, I think, is that people will always be willing to spend something that reminds them of the uncomplicated times in their lives, be it tin soldiers, ceramic cups or postcards. This is what makes the heart of the market beat, even if it's the million dollar sales that make it pound. We all need the thrill, but me? I'll gladly take a steady pulse over a racing one.

Antiques

Monday, January 28, 2008 8:02:02 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0]

Looted Buddhist booty in American Museums
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

The Los Angeles Times reported last Friday on Federal agencies raisding American Museums, all in Southern California, to recover artifacts stolen from South Asian Countries. The AP is reporting the same thing.

As a longtime lover of Asian art, particularly the sublime Buddhist art of Burma, Bhutan, Thailand and Cambodia, this is a disturbing story, especially when you consider that the museums in the story continued to pursue stolen goods long after they knew it was a crime, that the goods were stolen and long after federal agencies had made it clear they were cracking down and foreign countries were looking to get their cultural heritage(s) back.

The looting of the aritfacts of other nations is nothing new; it's been going on for centuries. In fact, a lot of people got fabulously wealthy on brokering stolen good - particularly Asian, because there was so little oversight, with many Asian government officials actively participating for a cut of the cash.

In recent years, Greece and Italy in particular have gotten very proactive about recovering the artifactsof bygone eras in foreign museums, and there have been several high profile lawsuits to bring this to international attention. This latest offense, though, as reported in the story linked above, is a bit much to handle.

I personally love seeing these artifacts - they are often unparraleled in beauty and craftsmanship, but I don't want to participate in the pillaging of another culture. In this editor's opinion, it's been long enough that affluent countries have taken advantage of their wealth and power to deplete the material culture of ancient societies that deserve to keep it for themselves, lest they forget from whence they came.

Worse is that the museum's are claiming ignorance to the crimes. Considering the relatively minor offenses that many people get put away for many years for, their claims ring particularly hollow. The ring of theft of Asian antiquity is well-documented and well known for many years.

Antiques

Monday, January 28, 2008 3:13:59 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Friday, January 25, 2008

Whitman's retiring means changes for eBay's Antique Auctions
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

To be fair, it means change for the entire business, but I needed a way to get you reading.

As was widely reported earlier this week, Meg Whitman is stepping down as CEO of eBay. While there she oversaw phenomenal growth in the business, making the company a household name and turning on countless thousands of people to the business of auctions - even if they weren't strictly antiques auctions. The impact of eBay on the antiques business, as noted earlier this week, has been huge.

The last few years, however, eBay has seen a precipitous decline in its listings, its sellers and its overall business, so Wall Street was expecting Whitman's resignation for a while, and - as reported here in a good article from Fortune Magazine - her successor John Donahoe will most likely be making some significant changes to the online auction giant to make it more competitive with other sites like Amazong and Google, where a lot of sellers are going to market their goods.

Some have blamed eBays diminished status on the yearly hike in seller's fees, while others in the media have speculated that eBay has lost market share because it didn't focus on buyer's needs. In the print version of Antique Trader our Web writer Gabe Constantine has written about this before. And it does indeed seem that eBay is already trying to make itself more customer friendly in light of its problems.

Here's what the real change is going to be, and its ramifications on antiques will be interesting to watch, considering how good it's been in the past for many dealers and buyers. Basically, eBay, under Donahoe, will emphasize its auctions less and put more into its Marketplace where you can "Buy it Now," and not have to wait.

For many, I imagine, this will be great, because you will simply click and buy and await the arrival of your booty in the mail. It does, however, fundamentally change the nature of what antiquers on the eBay have come to expect. NOt to mention the many people and services that make a good bit of do-re-mi from sniping software - the programs that allow you to get a last second bid in as time expires.

I can hardly blame eBay for wanting to change and be competitive with the other online retailing giants. This is America and anything is fair game. Also, antiques and its varying subsets have evolved in the past decade themselves, with sites like Ruby Lane and others, to conduct eBay type auction and Marketplace business in a quality-controlled atmosphere run by people with actual expertise in the area. We've all heard stories, and experienced it ourselves, where what you got was not what was represented in the sale - a fake, fraud or something of severaly diminished quality - or the price was artificially inflated by scamming dealers looking to fleece excited buyers caught up in the heat of the moment. With the ability to control our own sites and quality, the need for eBay among hardcore antiquers is certainly less. It should be interesting to see ow eBay weathers the transition.

Personally, I wonder if it isn't too late for eBay to make up that ground. The company enjoyed so much success and such heightened status in the last decade, that it seemed that it thought that - because it was the industry leader - that it didn't necessarily need to change and that the busines would follow it instead of the reverse. It's a classic mistake, one that's been made countless times over the centuries.

What does everyone else think?

Antiques | eBay

Friday, January 25, 2008 3:39:01 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Thursday, January 24, 2008

Big prices from Americana Week Auctions
Posted by Antique Trader Staff

It's no surprise that the accounts of Americana Week sales in NYC are generally positive. You get that much great stuff, that many high-end dealers and that many rich people and... Recession? What recession?

The question is always, after Americana Week, will it filter down to the rest of the market for the rest of the year? I have my own opinions, and anybody that's read my editorials probably already knows what it is. If you really want to know, and don't yet, email me and I'm happy to discuss it.

Meanwhile, the news from Christies and Sotheby's was huge, with Christie's posting absolutely huge numbers! Check them out below, and keep reading after!

Those are some big number, that's for sure, and some beautiful stuff.

Here's the scalloped table that caused such a stir, and don't set that drink on it without a coaster!

Lovely, to be sure. $5.4 million? Hmmm... If you got it, then why not spend it?

antique | Antiques | Antiques Show

Thursday, January 24, 2008 4:37:54 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Antiques stolen in Monroe Twp. barn burglary

by MATT MILLER, Of Our Cumberland County Bureau Monday March 17, 2008, 11:14 AM

by MATT MILLER, Of Our Cumberland County Bureau
Monday March 17, 2008, 11:14 AM