It is highly unlikely my son, a fifth-grader, will ever have to actually dial a phone. Nor will he ever have a sneezing fit while cleaning the chalkboard erasers. Nor will he curse over jammed typewriter keys because his fingers were faster than the machine.

In fact, I’d wager his only exposure to typewriters is “history” articles like the one Martin Howard shares with us in this week’s Antique Trader.

Mr. Howard set out to collect something “off the beaten path,” and he certainly found it. I don’t know many people who collect the oh-so-heavy and clunky-to-handle writing tools of days gone by. Mainly because they are oh so heavy and oh so clunky to handle. But those who do, know they have in their possession one of the most essential pieces of machinery in history!

Although the shape, design and weight of typewriters have changed over time, and there was even some effort to rearrange the letters, one thing has remained the same: the keyboard is still an essential means for communication. In fact, as Mr. Howard notes, “The keyboard truly connects the planet.”

Look around you at all those businessmen and women typing on their BlackBerries. Look at just about every teenager out there “texting” their friends. Look at all the e-mails in your inbox.

Where would we be without those first typewriters and keyboards? How exciting it must be for folks like Martin Howard to track those down, buy them and, in his case, restore them.

I remember typing essays and reports in junior high and high school on my mom’s big Royal. Lifting that monster onto the dining room table may have been the start of my back problems! But it worked.

It typed. Not as fast as I’d like sometimes, but the letters went on the page and the papers were up to my teacher’s standards. So I really couldn’t complain. But I was a teenager, so I did – especially after we got electric typewriters in school and then, by my later high school years, computers with this “ultra-fast” keyboard.

Fast-forward 30 years and my 10-year-old already knows the “home row” and is typing with both hands poised over the keyboard. In his classroom, both the chalkboard and overhead projector have been replaced by what is called a SMART Board – an interactive, electronic whiteboard.

Let me tell you about this SMART Board. You can draw or write on the touch screen and save that info into a document. The teacher can display everything from class pictures to movies to Web sites. What an incredible teaching and learning tool!

But then again, that’s what the typewriter was and always has been. If someone hadn’t figured out a way to get type-written words on paper, you probably wouldn’t be holding this newspaper in your hands either. Those typewriters are pretty special to us writers and editors.
Perhaps I could start my own collection. They certainly would look a lot more attractive than that pile of outdated computer monitors and broken keyboards!

Antique Trader would like to know if you collect something that was significant to history (typewriters, telephones, radios, etc.) but evolved into something else we still use today — something that perhaps has transformed over time from something enormous to electronic. Use that new-fangled keyboard and send me an email at robyn.austin@fwmedia.com or post a reply here.

Until next time, keep your hands on the home row... asdf jkl;... asdf jkl;...

My grandchildren think I’m an antique.

I remember watching in relief as my grandparents had indoor plumbing installed in their home. No more midnight trips to the backyard. Yaaayyy! It always took me what seemed like hours to go back to sleep after a trip outside – it felt like I might have one of those outhouse spiders crawling around in the bed with me. The alternative was to use the chamber pot, something I absolutely refused to do. I had SOME dignity, even as a child.

I sewed my first doll dress on a treadle sewing machine. I managed to send the needle partway through one of my fingers.

I rode on the back of draft horses as they pulled a hay wagon that was being loaded with hay bales by the farmhand, not a machine. My grandparents had a tractor, but it was kept in the shed and used only for the really BIG jobs because the gasoline it ran on, was so expensive at 27 cents per gallon.

I remember our first television set … tiny screen and three channels. A remote? What’s a remote? Milk delivered to the back door. Stores closed on Sunday. A typewriter with a platen, a ribbon and a carriage return. What? No delete button?

My grandchildren can hardly believe some of the stories I tell of my growing up years. “Wow! Did they even have lightbulbs then?” is one memorable quote.

Some mornings I wake up with joints that are stiff and sore. I often feel like a turtle on its back as I try to sit up after a half-hour in the recliner; I huff and puff as I climb the second set of stairs. Sometimes it’s hard not to feel like an antique.

But, what makes something an antique?

An antique might be a 1945 Ford, an Early American pie safe or a wonderful painting by an Old Master. An antique could be a postcard sent from a lonesome soldier during WWI, your great-great-grandmother’s teacup, or a brooch found at an estate sale. An antique, while not necessarily always pretty or expensive, has class. Someone has seen the value in it or cherished the memories it brings. Someone knows that under what might be a not-so-beautiful exterior, it’s good and solid and they want to find a place for it in their life.

By that definition, I guess I’m OK with being an antique.

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From the latest "Kyle on Antiques" column:

Q  This print was removed from an office of a closed-down petroleum company. It is 47 1/2 inches by 34 inches. At the top is printed “Bank by Andy Warhol. Pretty as a pigture, huh?” Though it certainly looks like something Warhol would paint, but I have been unable to find anything about it.

­—H.P., Pampa, Texas

A  I did quite a bit of research online to try and determine if this is based on the artwork of Andy Warhol but didn’t have any luck. Of course, he produced hundreds and hundreds of designs and I couldn’t locate a resource that lists them all. The value of this piece will depend greatly on how scarce it is and whether Warhol actually licensed it as an advertising piece. Of course, original Warhol silk-screens are extremely valuable but huge numbers of reproductions of them are available today at modest prices. My guess is that this isn’t a terribly rare item but perhaps some reader may be able to enlighten us further.

If you can help, please post a reply here.

EBay. At the mere mention of the site, strong feelings tend to surface, and whether you love it, hate it or couldn’t care less, it is a powerful force in the cyber-marketplace for buyers and sellers. The changes made earlier this year haven’t seemed to cause much of a ripple in the number of listings, though it did “inspire” a few eBay sellers to venture out and start their own auction sites. (OnlineAuction.com is just one of these sites, and is picking up steam; when I last checked, they were up to 14.8 million items listed.)

I admit it: I am an eBay fan. I’ve been a registered user since 2000 and the great majority of my experiences have been positive. But, I’m only a buyer – I’ve never sold anything on eBay or any other online auction site. I’ve participated in enough eBay auctions to recognize certain “adversaries” who collect the same treasures as I do, and I’m fine with getting involved in an auction with these opponents because I bid what I’m willing to pay and no more (which, I believe, is one of the secrets of always being satisfied with any auction purchase, but I’ll save that for another time) and may the highest bidder win.

Recently, I’ve been reading discussions about one of the eBay changes that I believe affects buyers more than sellers: bidder anonymity. Keep in mind, though, I don’t have a seller’s perspective. (Perhaps some of you can help me out with that.)

In the U.S., eBay bidder IDs are kept “partially anonymous,” that is, you can always see the sellers’ IDs, and if you sign in, you can see your own ID. Everyone else’s is kept somewhat anonymous (“to enhance bidder privacy” and protect bidders from fake second chance offers) by asterisks filling in between two random characters from bidders’ User IDs. Only after an auction ends does the winning bidder’s full User ID show up in the bidding history.

There has been quite a bit of discussion on the “absolute anonymity” that eBay has implemented in Australia and the U.K., where bidder IDs are now kept completely anonymous. Think about that from a bidder’s perspective. The largest ramification that I can think of: What will keep a seller from logging in and shill bidding, that is, making phony bids to drive up the final sale price?

EBay has discouraged its sellers with its recent restructuring of seller fees and taking away the seller’s ability to leave negative feedback for buyers.

This week Antique Trader wants to know: If eBay implements absolute bidder anonymity in the U.S. – which some people think is imminent – what effect will it have on bidder, and thus, buyer, participation? How important is it to you that you know who you are bidding against?

What do you think? E-mail robyn.austin@fwpubs.com and tell her what you think, or post a reply here.

Philip Capewell will have around five years to think about what he's done.



On April 25 an English judge sentenced the man for handling valuable antiques stolen from a couple, who was tied up in their country house, and threatened with various tortures like having thier fingernails pulled out if they didn't tell the thieves where the valuable antiques were.

They did as any of us would have done when faced with such a thing; they told the thieves exactly where the antiques were.

Two other men were also found guilty of conspiring to handle stolen antiques, but not of the theft itself. I'm not exactly sure if anybody has been charged with the deed itself, because this article from the Midhurst and Petworth Observor is rather poorly written. I do hope, however, that someone pays for the heinous act of committing the crime itself.

This sentencing is a clear message at least to would be antique thieves and fences in England: You will do time if busted.

Capewell is in poor health, suffers from depression - and has a penchant for selling stolen goods. He's a serial offender. I'm sorry for his health issues, but if you do the crime, you will do the time. Sorry. Them's the breaks. Capewell evidently showed no remorse for his crimes, and in so doing gave the entire antiques community a black eye. I hope he uses his time to the truly reflect on how he's wasted his life.

Here's a British article aimed a teeny, tiny little audience, but it's an interesting discussion just the same - especially if you have a few mil to throw at a Warhol...

Tinley Chojor was a very well-known name in Buddhist art circles.

Chojor painted many many beautiful things, among them the Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Monastery in Woodstock, NY, just across the mountain from where my best friend and his family had a house in the area, and where I spent many happy hours as a young man in my 20s.


Times Herald-Record/DEBORAH MEDENBACH

This is a picture of Chojor in Woodstock, takinga break from his work.

Chojor's awesome lines were second only to his deep belief in the philosophy he was charged with painting. He was a native to Tibet, who learned the art from his father.

This story is from the Times Herald Record, based in the Hudson Valley, where I lived for almost a decade.

I would say I'm sad, but not really. He had an amazing life and leaves behind an amazing legacy of great art - ceratinly the best at his craft in the states, if not all of the world. According to the Buddhist principles that Chojor based his life and art on, he's already moved on toward his next life.

Rest in peace to a great artist.

Just a tiny mention here at The Press Association regarding the upcoming London sale of a rare three-volume first edition set of Jane Austen's "Emma," inscribed by the great woman herself to her governess.

I will plead ignorance here and tell you I've never read "Emma," or seen any of the film, PBS or BBC adaptations of it. Austen just isn't my thing, really, but I respect her place as a huge and enduring literary figure, and actually do regret the gap in my literary knowledge. Back inmy early 20s, when I was working a night job at Shakespeare and Co., on lower Boradway in NYC, my focus was really on Faulkner, Nabokov, Cormac McCarthy, Russel Hoban and a plethora of great Russians. Perhaps when my daughter gets a little older, and I have time to read a real book in large chunks, I'll pick up Austen. Oh well.

The books are expected to bring about 50,000 pounds, or $100,000, depending on the exchange rate when the sale takes place June 24.

Interesting post here from a blog called Victorian Antiques and Design.

It's questions whether the current mortgage crisis is causing the death of Suburbia. I heard the story on NPR the author was talking about and was intrigued at the idea.

The issue, as a whole, is very interesting, especially from a sociological, post-war point of view, as the suburbs, a big car and big backyard were the backbone of the American Dream. Now, thanks to greedy lenders lying to some unwary folks, and buyers who knew they had no business getting ARMs, all mixed with terribly suspect financial policy from our government, and you have - quite possibly - what author Paul Wilham is talking about.

I grew up in suburbia, and my very sense of self and society is somewhat tied up in those ideas - the mall sas everything, the modern ranch house was uniquitous and nobody ever questioned whether it was the right place to be or the right thing to do, except when bullies threw my brother Cris's shoes into a creek, and maybe it was just me who wanted to move away...

Anyway, this is an important discussion in 2008, and one that's only going to gain relevance as the housing crisis deepens and properties lie empty.

Check it out. An interesting read and a good blog.

I wrote about the Triceratops auction in Paris a while back...

Here's an update from a North Dakota archeologist who is hoping the buyer will give it back to the state, since the state was never given a chance to get it in the first place. There has been no word from the buyer, either on whether he or she will give it back, or who they are.

Look... As much as I'd like to give you back my triceratops - I call him Sticky - I just can't bear to. I rule the playground now, and the chicks really dig it...

Here's a very cool new site for an architecture online magazine.

Great stuff. A lot of insight into modern htinking on building, and a great place for all those new college grads with architecture degrees, which is the new art history...

If you haven't checked it out yet, then check it out. If you came here through it, then you know why we're all so excited here to get this thing up and running.

The new Antique Trader Web site is the culmination of many months of hard work and collaboration, not to mention much forward-thinking by the upper management of F+W Publications. It is the hard work of all of the staff here (Karen Knapstein - Web editor; Sandra Sparks - Senior Editor; Robyn Austin, Editorial Director; Scott Tapa, Associate Group Publisher; the entire ad team, and the Interactive team in Cincinnatti) to get all the information just right, get everything linked just so, and to make sure that all our various players are up and running.

At the new AT site you'll find breaking news, industry shop, show and auction information, calendars, features, columns, advice and more than 1,000 archived articles from the past several years of AT. You'll find stories that don't get into the paper, and expanded photo coverage of auctions and features. It's easier to navigate and hopefully gives you all the information you need within a couple clicks.

Check it out, click around to get a feel and see what's there. Check back often and enjoy!