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.

This is breaking news inside the building where I work, and where the Warman's title is based, edited and published. I have it on good authority that Warman's and longtime writer, appraiser, antique-lover and all around cool lady, Ellen Schroy, have decided part ways. I understand an official announcement will be forthcoming.



I want to say on a personal note, and as a fan of Ellen's prolific body of work over the decade - almost three of them - that she is one of the most knowledgable and personable folks in the business. Most of all, she's honest with her opinion, which is invaluable. It was my pleasure to work with her on the Atlantique City Antiques Show last October, and it will be a pleasure again to emcee the appraisal event this coming March 29 and 30. We will be able to properly fete Ellen at the show. Get her to sign those books if you got them.



Ellen is a class act. I hope I will be able to tempt her to write some things for Trader in the months to come. As many have said to me about her, Ellen has forgotten more about antiques than I'll ever know.

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.

This will be the last post about Modern architecture today, I promise. As you might be able to tell, I'm a bit of a biulding nut.

I wrote below, in the post about IBM building 25, about the U.S., and the world, lagging behind Abu Dabhi in architectural innovation, and this site only goes to prove it.

Look at what Dubai has planned for itself. Putting all the inequities in that society aside, it's quite amazing, really. If Dubai can pull of all of these buildings, it will truly outshine, archiecturally, anything America or the world has pulled off in terms of imagination and innovation of urban space.

Just a big wow here for some of these buildings. The one below is but a sampling of the amazing stuff being planned there.

The tallest building in the world? A resort, literally, in the louds... Crazy, man, crazy...

The big question is will it all be built, and will it last?

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.

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.

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?

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...