Antique Trader Blog with editor Noah Fleisher - Historic Preservation

A synchroncity of antiques - Islamic antiquities dominate

Noah — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:07:33 GMT

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.

Search still on for looted Iraqi antiquities

Noah — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:54:12 GMT

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.

What the Dickens?! Antique desk on the block

Noah — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:24:06 GMT

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.

Lincoln letter goes for more than $3M

Noah — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:16:45 GMT

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.

Who can resist a rampaging ape? King Kong poster rages to $345K

Noah — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:01:38 GMT

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.

Even with so much uncertainty, Iraqi antiquities continue to amaze

Noah — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:35:02 GMT

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.

Contemporary, Modern and Classic architecture mix?

Noah — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:38:27 GMT

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.

A divergent tale of Modern architecture: the classic and the... um...

Noah — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:09:53 GMT

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...

Another battle at Antietam? Can't we all get along?

Noah — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:27:39 GMT

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?

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

Noah — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:00:42 GMT

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!

An unfortunate career choice - Mummy smuggler

Noah — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:44:06 GMT

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...

A Getty official comments on museum's antiquities "giveback"

Noah — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:46:03 GMT

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.

New Hope for IBM's Building 25?

Noah — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:09:39 GMT

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.

The burning of IBM Building 25...

Noah — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:08:35 GMT

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...

Amazing Helen Keller pic found

Noah — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:27:26 GMT

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.

Antique Trader 3-19 preview, comin' at ya'

Noah — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:45:09 GMT

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...

China joins the Big 3 - in Antiques and Art

Noah — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:38:06 GMT

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.

Um, Albright-Knox Museum?... Timing is everything.

Noah — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:21:01 GMT

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.

Travel lodging the Wright way

Noah — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:28:03 GMT

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.

These things were old when the pyramids were just being mapped out on papyrus

Noah — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:41:38 GMT

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

In Case of Apocalypse, break stylish glass

Noah — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:26:16 GMT

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.

A great piece of architectural glass gone in NYC

Noah — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:10:23 GMT

Living for so many years in NYC, I had more than my share of opportunities to check out the Robert Sower's window at JFK Airport's American Airlines terminal. It is - was - truly- an architectural masterpiece and a piece of Modernism that never lost its glory.

As an entry point to NYC and America for many millions of flyers, it spoke philosophically of the American spirit, its artistic soul and its ability to make the seemingly impossible possible. As a piece of art, I love this thing.

Now it's gone. Or going, at least, as reported across the nation and against the best efforts of the good folks at Save America's Window.

They did their best to get a sponsor to get behind the project, but many musuems said it would be too hard to keep the piece intact. Personally, I don't believe it and think it's a damn shame the window is coming down, piece by piece, to be scattered across the nation and possibly the world.

Often, traveling through JFK, the airport was so hectic to get into or out of that the only respite I was given, the only moment of zen and calm, was when I could walk out and see the sun streaming in distinct blades through those colored panes, or reflecting the light of night time, reminding me I had indeed just come home.

Goodbye to the Sower's window and goodbye to a distinct American art treasure.

Save the suburban ranch house!

Noah — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:14:09 GMT

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.

Trader Question of the Week - 10 Years from Now?

Noah — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:17:27 GMT

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.

Like a Byrdcliffe on a wire - Rare Arts & Crafts antiques on the block Feb. 22

Noah — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:06:05 GMT

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.

Antique Trader 2-27 comin' at ya

Noah — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:20:10 GMT

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

Philatelics rejoice...

Noah — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:17:56 GMT

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...

Just can't resist this - American Roadside Architecture as serious art...

Noah — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:23:38 GMT

This is about an exhibition of mid-20th century American Roadside architecture - pictures of it, at least - making its way across... are you ready?... Macedonia.

Yes, one of the most ancient places on the globe is getting a good look at how American represented itself architecturally in the era of post-war business hedonism.

Personally, I love this kind of architecture and remember fondly many roadtrips as a kid in Texas and in my 20s - during those blissful summers when i had nothing to do and a car to take to do it - when my friends and I would literally set out for a few days at a time and seek out these places. The more dated the better. I truly believe that America's rapidly dissapearing roadside architecture is replete with gems and they should be saved, if only for the enjoyment of the world and the throngs of Macedonian tourists that are bound to be flocking to our rapidly decaying rural highways...

Arson takes an historic Queen Anne in Mass.

Noah — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:06:35 GMT

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.