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.

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!"

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.  

Just wondering, as I negotiate the explosion of sales and sites that have sprung up in response to eBay's "changes," what sites, exactly, are you going to either to supplement your eBay sales or to use as a whole other alternative?

I'd like to check them out, possibly start offering some reviews and interviews.

Anyone? Anyone?

Let me know in the comments section here, preferrably, or at noah.fleisher@fwpubs.com (as long as email's working by today...)