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 Friday, August 27, 2010
Several pieces from antebellum potter Dave the Slave in Ga. auction
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
If you read Antique Trader magazine, you've occasionally seen Dave the Slave pottery cross the auction block. These pieces often achieve amazing prices of tens of thousands of dollars.
Who was Dave the Slave? According to www.davetheslave.org (a website by Mud Sweat and Tears Southern Antique and Folk Pottery):
Dave the Slave was
an enslaved African-American potter who turned wares in the plantation
potteries of Edgefield South Carolina before the Civil War. He made
pottery from as early as the 1820s to the mid-to-late 1860s.
Dave is
famous mainly for two reasons. First, he had the ability to turn large
pieces of pottery, forty gallons or more in size. This was an
incredible feat.
Secondly, he would sometimes write on the sides of his
ware. It was against the law for slaves to learn to read and write in
the antebellum South but Dave could and did. Dave sometimes wrote his
name and date on his pottery and on very rare occasions he would write
short two line couplets or short poems.  In 2004, an Edgefield District poem jar in ovoid form
with ear-shaped handles, inscribed with the poem: 'Whats better than
kissing (or) wishing while we both are at fishing'; and on other side
signed & dated: "Febry 10, 1840, Mr. L. Miles, Dave," sold for $140,000 at a Charlton Hall auction in Columbia, S.C. (The photo shown at right is courtesy LiveAuctioneers.com.)
More Dave the Slave pieces are crossing the block on Aug. 28 at Hawkins Auction Barn in Waynesboro, Ga. Among other important pottery pieces, Hawkins is offering:  Recently
Discovered Signed and Dated, Dave the Slave 4 Gal. Storage Jar, never
offered for Sale to the public. Another signed and dated Dave Jar (Oct, 16th 1854). (Photo at left courtesy Hawkins Auction)
Visit http://www.hawkinsauction.us/ to learn more.
— Karen Knapstein
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antique | antique auction | Antique News | Auction | Historic Preservation
Friday, August 27, 2010 11:53:23 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
17th annual Folk Fest this weekend, Aug. 20-22
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
NORCROSS, Ga. – Folk Fest – billed as “The World’s Greatest Self-Taught Art Show and Sale” – will celebrate 17 years in Atlanta with a three-day show slated for Aug. 20-22 at the North Atlanta Trade Center in Norcross. Nearly 100 galleries and dealers will exhibit at the air conditioned, 85,000-square-foot venue. Norcross is located north of Atlanta, off exit 101 of I-85.
Visitors will pour into Georgia from all around the country to see what’s hot in the world of folk art. Folk Fest is where museums, prominent galleries, serious collectors and major art publications make their new discoveries. Attendees will find items priced from a $5 starter piece to a $50,000 museum masterpiece.
Jumping on Grandma's Bed by Woodie Long.
Since its inception in 1994, Folk Fest has become the largest and most important event in the rapidly burgeoning folk art genre. Prestigious galleries and dealers from across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe – all specializing in self-taught art, outsider art, Southern folk pottery, antique folk art and anonymous works – have regularly attracted 12,000 people or more.
As with previous Folk Fests, this year’s show will kick off with a Friday night meet and greet with the artists. Attendees of past events have mixed and mingled with some of the biggest names in folk art: Woodie Long, Charles Lucas, Cornbread, Michael Banks, Chris Clark, Willie Jinks, Mary Proctor, Ruby Williams, Michael Crocker, the Meaders family and many others.
Double face jug by the late renowned folk artist Lanier Meaders.
Folk Fest has been staged from the start by Steve and Amy Slotin, owners of Slotin Folk Art, based in Gainesville, Ga. The couple regularly holds folk art auctions in Buford, a bit further north from Norcross, in addition to Folk Fest. It was Steve who got the folk art bug first, when he ran across an ugly Lanier Meaders face jug near his childhood summer camp in Cleveland, Ga.
“I discovered there were primitive forms of pottery and art all over the South,” Steve remarked. “These incredible pieces were created by housekeepers, janitors, factory workers, farmers and house painters. They created art, but had very little formal education at all. They used found materials – rusty metal, stray sticks, discarded objects, leftover house paint, mud.”
The art was pure and honest, beautiful in its simplicity and embodying the best the South had to offer. Slotin knew he’d found a treasure in his own back yard the day he saw that first face jug. He created Folk Fest to share it with the world. He advertised the very first event in a prominent folk art magazine, without a show date, a venue or even a single exhibitor signed up.
“I took this enormous leap of faith,” he said, “believing that if I could just share this primitive art, this local treasure with others, they would appreciate it as much as I did.” His gamble paid off. Exhibitors signed up and on opening night 6,000 enthusiastic people packed the auditorium. Over the course of its 16-year history, Folk Fest has doubled in size and attendance.
Guinea Fowl by the artist Cornbread.
Slotin said that, despite folk art’s emergence as a legitimate and popular art form (it’s regularly displayed at the prestigious High Museum in Atlanta), he still finds himself having to explain to people exactly what folk art is. Generally, folk art (also referred to as self-taught art or outsider art) includes paintings, sculptures and Southern pottery – some of it anonymous works.
“For a long time this art has been kept outside the mainstream art community,” Slotin explained. “Self-taught art is the most important visual culture America has ever produced. And it’s not country crafts, duck decoys or split-cane baskets. It is highly personal art. It’s religiously inspired paintings, crude tin cutouts, wood-relief carvings and environmental sculpture gardens.”
And it’s usually created from refuse and other found objects. “Self-taught artists don’t seek out the art world,” Slotin observed. “The art world, collectors and dealers passionately seek them out. Their art is done by untrained people who draw on their culture and experiences in an isolated world. It’s made with a true, untutored, creative passion, raw and totally original.”
Artistically acclaimed acceptance has caused the folk art genre to blossom. But, ironically, its very existence is threatened by the inevitable urbanization and population of the onetime habitat of self-taught artists: rural areas. The purpose of Folk Fest, Slotin said, is to celebrate these artists and share with the public an art culture whose roots may soon disappear.
Sadly, over the years Folk Fest has had to say good-bye to many of folk art’s more celebrated masters, legends like Howard Finster, Leroy Almon, Mose Tolliver, Jimmy Lee Sudduth, R.A. Miller and Steve Slotin’s first find, Lanier Meaders. But the enthusiasm for folk art continues to strengthen, as visitors pour into Atlanta to add unique pieces to their collections.
Folk Fest will begin on Friday, Aug. 20, with the Meet-the-Artists Party & Show Opening, from 5-10 p.m. ($15 includes readmission). The Aug. 21-22 show hours are 10-7 on Saturday and 10-5 on Sunday. Admission is $7 both days. Children 16 and under are free. The North Atlanta Trade Center is located at 1700 Jeurgens Court in Norcross, off exit 101 of I-85.
For more information, you may call Slotin Folk Art at 770-532-1115 or visit www.slotinfolkart.com.
Photos courtesy Slotin Folk Art
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Antique Show | Antiques Show | Historic Preservation | Outsider Art
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 9:44:04 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Preserving the relics of our collective past
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
 Everyone has a few items in their house they are saving for reasons only they know. Over the past few years I’ve worked hard to keep my pack-rat habits in check. However, there’s always one or two boxes full of newspaper clippings, magazines and assorted snapshots of our lives that seems to accompany us in every move.
This week’s cover feature offers a new look at what you can do to preserve the items dear to your collection or dear to your heart. Many people look at their collections as a personal, intellectual pursuit – one that their children may not be excited to inherit.
But the old quilts, jewelry, books and pocket watch in use every day is often the most cherished items passed down from one generation to another.
Congratulations!
A hearty congrats goes out to Sherri Jones of Tampa, Fla. As the lucky winner of the July Antique Trader Treasure Hunt Sweepstakes, Jones will get a two-volume set of jewelry reference books by Kathy Flood, as well as a blue and green crystal Christmas tree brooch featured on the cover of “Warman’s Costume Jewelry Figurals.”
August Treasure Hunt Sweepstakes
Make sure you visit the Antique Trader website each day to enter the August Treasure Hunt Sweepstakes for your chance to win one of four Noritake British Airways pickle plates. Enter at http://sweepstakes.antiquetrader.com.
— Eric Bradley
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• Find us on Twitter and Facebook
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•
Need pricing data? Check out Warman's Antiques
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• And browse the Antique Trader classified ads or place
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antique | Antiques News | Antiques publications | green living | Historic Preservation
Tuesday, August 10, 2010 1:07:53 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Roy Rogers' Trigger finds a new home
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Ok, so he’s not technically an antique, seeing as he passed away in 1965, however following the July 15 Christie’s auction of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans memorabilia, Rogers’ horse Trigger can be classified as one expensive collectible after selling for $266,500.
First purchased by Rogers on a payment plan for $2,500 back in 1938, Rogers needed to select a horse for the film Under Western Stars. The horse then known as “Golden Cloud,” handled so well it was reported Rogers never looked at another.
The horse starred in 188 movies and the Roy Rogers Show on NBC from 1951 to 1957. When he died in 1965 of old age, Rogers was reluctant to “put him in the ground” so he had Trigger mounted and put on display at the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum.
The mount was purchased July 15 by Patrick Gottsch, founder and operator of RFD-TV, a nationally-broadcast rural-themed TV network. Gottsch plans to display Trigger at RFD-TV’s corporate headquarters in Omaha.
Launched in 2000, RFD-TV initially reached 4 million homes through DISH satellite. RFD-TV now reaches 40 million homes through major cable systems, DISH and DIRECTV.
It seems Trigger is a good match for the channel’s television lineup as well. The station will air Roy Rogers movies starting in November with Rogers’ son Dusty and grandson Dustin as hosts of a regular program. ■
Trigger photo courtesy Christie's.
— Eric Bradley
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Auction | Historic Preservation
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 4:43:10 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Why buy a repro when you can get the real thing?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
My eyes just about bugged out of my head.
Glancing through a mail order catalog recently there they were: More than four pages worth of “vintage charm for your home.”
A major national catalog retailer has picked up a line of reproduction “Depression-era glassware” and has it on sale for just a few bucks. The glassware is in the more popular colors of Depression glass and there are also some pieces usually found made of milk glass, such as hens on nests and assorted candy jars.
These are the pieces that it took five pages in “Warman’s Depression Glass, 5th edition,” to illustrate.
The real troubling part is that the prices the new reproductions are selling for are the exact same prices for the originals that can be found at your local shop or county auction. I some cases, the originals can be found even cheaper. An EAPG footed candy dish selling for $5 online looks very similar to the reproduction selling for $11 in the catalog.
Sure $11 isn’t much. And to most people an $11 reproduction doesn’t represent the greatest threat to the antiques business. But it’s something to take seriously.
Isn’t it funny how often dealers and collectors can be heard lamenting the state of the antique market? Yet, major retailers are turning to our hobbies to make a quick buck when times turn tough. One would think a few knock-offs here and there would reaffirm our trade, but in the case of mass produced reproductions it only hurts.
Maybe these reproductions will catch the eye of more young collectors who will then start searching out new pieces and eventually discover the real thing. Plus, the repros further open the chasm.
The trouble is, the reproductions make it all that more difficult to sell authentic pieces and educate a customer on what makes the piece worth copying in the first place.
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• Find us on Twitter and Facebook
•
Visit the Antique Trader website and
sign up for our FREE eNewsletter.
• Browse hundreds of collectibles reference
books in our store.
•
Need pricing data? Check out Warman's Antiques
& Collectibles 2011 Price Guide.
• And browse the Antique Trader Classifieds or place
your
own online ad - FREE
antique | Antique Blog | Antique Glass | Antique News | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Antiques, Atlantique City, Antiques Show, Antique Trader, Collectibles | Historic Preservation
Tuesday, July 06, 2010 3:11:13 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, June 01, 2010
RWCS sponsors latest Antique Trader sweepstakes
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
We’ve been very busy working up new ways for readers to interact with fellow collectors and collections. One project in particular is a great opportunity for lovers of Red Wing stoneware and art pottery ceramics.
Antique Trader is teaming up with the Red Wing Collectors Society to bring you a whopper for our monthly, online-only Treasure Hunt Sweepstakes. In exchange for signing up to receive our two, free weekly e-newsletters through the sweepstakes, entrants have a chance to win a $150 prize package through the month of June.
The Red Wing Collectors Society is one of the oldest most active, engaged and knowledgeable clubs in the United States. You can lean more about this great group of people at www.redwingcollectors.org, which incidentally is the No. 1 source of Red Wing Pottery knowledge in the world. Its famous national convention is scheduled for July 8-10, 2010, in — where else — Red Wing, Minn.
 The prize package includes a one-year membership in the RWCS, which includes the official newsletter six times a year, a rare 2009 RWCS convention commemorative advertising bean pot (available only to RWCS members and limited to 3,600 pieces) AND a 2010 RWCS convention commemorative, yet to be released, that’s only available to members at the July 8-10 convention.
You can enter at http://sweepstakes.antiquetrader.com/. This is the first time we’ve ever offered such a prize package and we’re proud to partner with the RWCS. Remember, this is an online only sweepstakes.
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antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antiques | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Antiques publications | Art Pottery | Historic Preservation | kitchen antiques
Tuesday, June 01, 2010 9:31:25 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, May 28, 2010
This issue made it all worthwhile
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
It has been a crazy-busy week this week.
We've had two publication deadlines: the June 16 edition of Antique Trader and the Summer edition of the Antique Trader Traveler. The Traveler will be available soon as a free PDF download, so you'll want to watch for that. We'll announce when it's ready and where you can get it.
 And, of course, we had the Auction Extra on Tuesday, and our regular e-newsletter that went out today. Plus, we had to produce next Tuesday's Auction Exra early because of the Memorial Day holiday on Monday. [You can sign up to receive your free Antique Trader e-newsletters at www.antiquetrader.com.]
Also, the office has been abuzz with preparations for the Randolph St. Market's Chicago Antique Market. Editor Eric Bradley will be out the door shortly to hop on down to Chicago and make final preparations there.
Whew! That's a lot of commotion!
But, I tell you what: Seeing this week's issue come together really made it all worthwhile. This may be our best issue yet! Here's a look at the cover. We've got a really fascinating piece on industrial antiques as our cover feature, and Eric had the chance to speak with American Pickers' Frank Wolfe on just that, industrial antiques.
I have to admit, when Eric told me about the industrial antiques feature, I had my doubts. But I have been completely won over.
We here at Antique Trader wish all of you a wonderful and safe holiday weekend. We're planning on sharing our weekend antiquing experiences with you — and we hope you'll do the same.
... and if you're in the area, drop by the Chicago Antique Market and experience the excitement! Eric will be at the Antique Trader Appraisal Fair.
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American Pickers | antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antique Show | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques News | Antiques publications | Antiques Show | Antiques, Atlantique City, Antiques Show, Antique Trader, Collectibles | green living | Historic Preservation
Friday, May 28, 2010 3:08:18 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Antique Trader is giving a free antique appraisal to attendees of the Chicago Antique Market
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Own an antique or collectible?
Of course you do!
Want to know its value?
Absolutely!
 Come meet Antique Trader at Chicago's largest antiques and collectibles
festival May 29-30! Every attendee to the Chicago Antique Market at the Randolph Street Market Festival will giving free antique appraisals at the inaugural Antique Trader Appraisal Fair. After shopping from aisles and aisles of more than 300 vendors inside and outside Chicago’s historic Plumbers Hall, regional and nationally-known antiques experts will answer your questions on family heirlooms and rare items from your collection.
Situated under the big top tent, every attendee is eligible for a free appraisal of an antique or collectible with additional appraisals (as time allows) available at $10 each. Appraisal fair hours are limited to 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, May 29 and from 11 to 3 p.m., Sunday, May 30.
Among the experts scheduled to appear:
* Mark Moran, appraiser and senior editor of Warman's Antiques & Collectibles 2011 Price Guide, 44th Edition antiques and collectibles books for Krause Publications and an appraiser for PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow.”
* Brett Benson owner of Jewel Sphinx Extraordinary Objects and Jewels
* Daryle Lambert, founder of the 31 Corp., and author of the book 31 Steps to Your Millions in Antiques and Collectibles.
Among the unique “show within a show” features at the Chicago Antique Market include:
* The Indie Designer Market, the lower level of Plumber’s Hall, features the hottest young designers creating avant garde and one-of-a-kind fashion, art and jewelry.
* The Vinyl Swap Meet, where thousands of collectible records from 45’s to LP’s, jazz to rock and show tunes are availabel to buy, swap or sell.
* The Fancy Food Market, offering all types of chocolates, cakes, breads, spices, olive oils, salsa to bring home or enjoy during the event.
More Info:
Chicago Antique Market at the Randolph Street Market Festival Saturday & Sunday, May 29-30, 2010
1350 Block W. Randolph Street & inside Plumbers Hall, 1340 W. Washington Street, Chicago.
Free pickup and drop off from Water Tower Place, 835 N Michigan Ave.
Show hours
10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, May 29
10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, May 30
Antique Appraisal Fair Hours
1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, May 29
11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sunday, May 30
Tickets
$10, available at the gate or in advance online
Chicago Antique Market
312-666-1200
info@chicagoantiquemarket.com
www.chicagoantiquemarket.com
-Posted by Eric Bradley
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antique | antique auction | Antique Blog | Antique Glass | Antique News | Antique Show | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Antiques Show | Antiques, Atlantique City, Antiques Show, Antique Trader, Collectibles | Architecture | Art Pottery | Auction | comic books | Ephemera | Fenton Glass | fine art | Folk Art | green living | Historic Preservation | kitchen antiques | Modern | Modern Architecture | Modernism | Outsider Art | pop art | Postcards | Toys | Vintage Fashion
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 11:59:13 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, May 14, 2010
Nostalgia is a powerful force.
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Nostalgia is a powerful force.
 If you read both Melody Amsel-Arieli’s cover story on Judaica and the fascinating story behind former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson’s recent duck decoy acquisition, you may see a common theme between two very different collecting areas.
The reasons people collect things have long fascinated me. It’s not so much what they collect, but why. For Amsel-Arieli, the collecting area of Judaica is deeply personal and reflects her family’s struggle and near extinction in the 20th century. For Thompson, his pursuit of Illinois-carved duck decoys reflects his admiration and respect of the state he served while in public office.
This is why we should never dismiss the reasons why someone collects. Thompson’s nostalgia for Illinois moved him to push the sales price of the Robert Elliston-carved decoy past its $12,000 to $15,000 estimate to its $40,250 sale price.
For true collectors, the object is a small part of the pursuit and joy. In most cases, it’s what the object represents that makes all the difference.
Happy Anniversary
This issue marks my one-year anniversary as your editor of Antique Trader. It has been a wonderful year and a fulfilling experience to talk with readers, work with talented writers and develop interesting projects and features on our website and in print.
Working with Online Editor Karen Knapstein, sales reps Ryan Solberg and Nick Ockwig and designer Wendy Wendt, our goal has been to diversify the magazine and provide information on the greatest variety of antiques and collectibles available. During the past year our team has completely changed the format, more than doubled the size of the magazine and has served more than 563,000 readers and more than 1 million page views on AntiqueTrader.com
The year to come will feature even more features, projects and plans. Thank you for making this year exciting and thank you for supporting our advertisers who support this magazine.
For me, each issue has been a collector’s edition.
— Eric Bradley
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antique | Antique News | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques News | Antiques publications | Antiques, Atlantique City, Antiques Show, Antique Trader, Collectibles | Antiquities | Historic Preservation
Friday, May 14, 2010 3:56:59 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, May 13, 2010
Blue & White Pottery Club to convene in June
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The Blue & White Pottery Club was founded in 1981 by a handful of Blue & White Stoneware pottery enthusiasts and collectors, principally in the Midwest. The Blue & White pottery interests include Blue & White, Uhl, Blue & Gray (Utica/Flemish), Sleepy Eye, Spongeware, Red Wing, and other stoneware. The Blue & White Pottery Club now has more than 300 members reaching from coast to coast and border to border.
 The principal goals of the Blue & White Pottery Club are to share information, encourage learning, and foster an appreciation of the distinct history, wide variety, and increasing collectability of Blue & White Stoneware pottery. Equally important goals are the promotion and nurturing of friendships with fellow collectors and to further the equal opportunity for all to participate in new discoveries and exciting information about Blue & White pottery.
Attending the Club’s annual convention each June is a highlight of membership; this year it will be held June 10-12, 2010, at the Cedar Rapids Marriott in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. One of the highlights of the convention is the Club Consignment Auction consisting of approximately 120 pieces of premium stoneware including Blue & White, Sleepy Eye, Red Wing, Western, Whites Utica as well as others.
To join the Blue & White Pottery Club, a membership form can be found on their website at www.blueandwhitepottery.org and you will also find this years convention agenda along with more information about convention and the Blue & White Pottery Club.
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ads HERE.
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Enter the Antique Trader Treasure Hunt Sweepstakes HERE.
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Thursday, May 13, 2010 12:49:03 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Annual Antiques & Gardening at Bryn Du opens May 14
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
GRANVILLE, Ohio — Antiques & Gardening at Bryn Du will open its doors for the fourth annual event this Friday, May 14 at the historic Granville Mansion. Proceeds from the event help support the Bryn Du's restoration and preservation as a National Register of Historic Places landmark.
During the event Bryn Du Mansion's porches, walkways and lawn will be highlighted by a variety of garden art, statuary and plants. In addition, the Mansion, Carriage House and adjacent Field House will host antique dealers from more than a dozen states, according to Bryn Du Mansion Executive Director Bruce Cramer.
Photo courtesy Eric Miller.
It’s an event well suited for the historic property.
The 19th-century Federal-style estate has served as a community venue for educational and cultural meetings and antique and art shows, athletic and social gatherings, weddings, and polo matches since its creation in 2002.
A preview brunch is set for Friday, May 14 to open the show. General admission to Antiques & Gardening at Bryn Du begins Friday at noon and continues until 6 p.m. Saturday, hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Preview brunch admission is $20 and includes re-admission to the show throughout the weekend. General admission tickets are $8 and are also good for the duration of the event.
A short drive east from downtown Columbus, Bryn Du is located east of the Village of Granville at 537 Jones Road.
The Antiques Show (managed by Melrose & Duddy) bring 25 years of antiques show experience to Antiques & Gardening at Bryn Du and has successfully managed antiques shows since 2007. More information on The Antiques Show is available at www.theantiquesshow.com. More information on Antiques & Gardening at Bryn Du and Bryn Du Mansion is available at www.brynduantiques.com.
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• Reference books available about your favorite collectibles HERE
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• Browse the Antique Trader Classifieds or place your FREE online
ads HERE.
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Enter the Antique Trader Treasure Hunt Sweepstakes HERE.
Antique Blog | Antique Show | Antiques Blogs | Antiques Show | Historic Preservation
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 10:18:25 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, April 23, 2010
Congrats to Ted Hake on 200th collectibles auction
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
 Ted Hake’s career dealing in iconic characters such as Mickey Mouse, Buck Rogers and famous politicians has risen to its own iconic status. Regularly referred to as a dean of American pop culture and Americana, Hake will go down in history as leading the charge to celebrate our nation’s shared childhood.
Hake has a deep and profound respect for his fellow collectors. That respect trickles throughout the rest of his business. What impresses me the most about him is that he doesn’t discriminate against the items that make people happy. It doesn’t matter if you find joy in tiny, inexpensive political buttons or in $150,000 display figures. We’re glad to offer you a snapshot, however brief, of his 50-year passion for collectibles.
Inside this issue you’ll also discover a new feature to Antique Trader. Starting with the May 12 issue , we will feature the column 60-Second Silver by Jeffrey Herman, owner of Jeffrey Herman Silver Restoration & Conservation of West Warwick, R.I. Herman is a craftsman and expert silversmith. His columns will range from general information about silver to technical tips.
On a more serious note, we at Antique Trader and F+W Media, Inc. must differentiate ourselves from a company that has adopted our name into its business. This online company is offering an antiques-related scholarship contest for high school students using the Antique Trader name. It is important to us that our readers know our magazine brand in no way supports or endorses this promotion, nor are we affiliated with the company in any way. We have contacted the company and are working to resolve the matter.
Since Antique Trader has one of the most developed and comprehensive antiques related websites on the Internet, we shouldn’t be surprised over this latest incidence, a practice known as cybersquatting.
We sincerely apologize if the fraudulent use of our name causes our longtime readers and recent subscribers any inconvenience – you can do that when you’ve been around for 53 years.
— Eric Bradley ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Friday, April 23, 2010 4:19:10 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Anniversary of PT Barnum's 200th in Antique Trader
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
 The May 5 edition of Antique Trader is filled with antique and collectible news and features.
The main cover feature celebrates the 200th anniversary of P.T. Barnum's birth. Circus enthusiasts are planning a year of celebrations and events to commemorate the occasion.
CLICK HERE to read the Antique Trader cover feature on P.T. Barnum and circus collectibles
This week's Antique Trader Question of the Week:
What do you think of collectors or crafters physically altering postcards for craft projects?
Post a reply here or drop us a line at eric.bradley@fwmedia.com. Or feel free to send us a note: Letters to the Editor, c/o Antique Trader, 700 E State Street, Iola, WI 54990.
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ads HERE.
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Tuesday, April 20, 2010 12:42:28 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, April 16, 2010
RWCS announces free trial membership offer
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
RED WING, Minn. – As part of its 2010 membership initiative, the Red
Wing Collectors Society (RWCS) is offering FREE trial membership to
everyone interested in Red Wing stoneware and pottery.
Established in 1977, the RWCS is the largest group of collectors
dedicated to the study and preservation of Red Wing and American pottery in the country.
As part of the free trial, participant will receive the February and
April issues of the 2010 RWCS Newsletter. Packed with full-color
feature articles about various lines of Red Wing wares, collector
profiles, collecting trends, latest finds and club news, the Society
has one of the best newsletters of any collectors group in the nation.
Those who take advantage of the offer will also have access to the
“Members Only” section of the RWCS Web site with a temporary user id
and password. When you log in, you will be able to access the hundreds
of resources available to our members including: past newsletters,
articles, Convention supplements, etc.
This offer has no gimmicks and no catches. Since a credit card number
is not required for this free trial, trial membership will simply
expire May 31, 2010 and you won’t need to call the Society to cancel.
“If you find value in the trial membership, we’d love for you to
contact our office and join the RWCS as a primary member,” says RWCS
Executive Director Stacy Wegner. “Annual primary membership costs $25
and includes a lot of great benefits, including the opportunity to buy
our annual members only commemorative piece. But if you decide the RWCS
isn’t for you, you can keep the newsletters as a gift and you owe us
nothing.”
Other benefits of RWCS primary membership include free access to the
RWCS video library of more than 200 educational presentations, the
opportunity to attend the annual July Convention and February MidWinter
events, and the ability meet and network with other members. As long as
there’s at least one primary member in a household, associate
memberships including all benefits except the newsletter are available
for spouses, etc. for an additional $10 annually.
To sign up for this free trial offer, please visit the Free Trial Membership page on the RWCS Web site [HERE], call the RWCS Business Office at 800-977-7927 or e-mail your name and mailing address to trialmembership@redwingcollectors.org. Use promo code ATa1.
For more information about the Red Wing Collectors Society, please visit www.redwingcollectors.org.
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Friday, April 16, 2010 3:18:38 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, March 08, 2010
Antique Trader columns cover a wide variety of antiques
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Tips on finding good antique furniture; Q & A's on what your antiques and collectibles might be worth; antique dolls; art market analysis - you'll find it all on www.antiquetrader.com.
Here are some of our recent antiques, art, and collectibles columns:
Furniture Detective: Avoiding phony mahogany
 Ask Antique Trader: Water cooler found at yard sale worth $400 to $500
Art Markets: LeRoy Neiman prints gaining momentum
Guest Column: How I paid my rent by thrifting - a favorite among Antique Trader readers
Postcard Album: Messages on humanitarian postcards still ring true
Furniture Detective: Veneer fact and fiction: Appreciating an age-old process
Speaking of Dolls: After 100 years, Bleuette still attracting new fans
Furniture Detective: Veneer fact and fiction: Appreciating an age-old process
This is a minute fraction of the wealth of information you will find on the Antique Trader Web site.
If you would like to see a specific topic covered, let us know: e-mail us at ATNews@fwmedia.com.
— Posted by Karen Knapstein
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Monday, March 08, 2010 12:36:58 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Thursday, February 18, 2010
Antique Trader goes out in the mail today
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Here's a look at our most recent cover:
Looks great, doesn't it?! This week's Antique Trader is packed full of information: We've got feature articles on collecting antique tools, including grading guides and practical advice. There's also a great story covering Renninger's Florida antique show that was held last month ... and so much more! And it's headed to subscriber mailboxes today.
Here are links to some of the antiques articles:
• Antique tool collecting gets down to brass tacks
• Stanley tools establishes itself as a new subset of tool collecting
• Ask Antique Trader: Mother of pearl ‘Last Supper’ valued at $2,000
• Speaking of Dolls: After 100 years, Bleuette still attracting new fans
• Vendors, shoppers dodge freezing temps at Renninger’s
— Posted by Karen Knapstein
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Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:56:14 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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To restore, or not to restore?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
While reading through the March 3 galleys, I was surprised to find that Restor-A-Finish has been around for 40 years. Four decades. Wow. Just think of all the pieces this product has touched.
[CLICK HERE to read Restor-A-Finish relaunched for 40th anniversary]
Notice I didn't say "improved," as I believe that word is subjective.
Personally, I have used Restor-A-Finish and have been very happy with the results. No, they didn't pay me to say that. But I will disclose that the Howard Company, the maker of the product, is a frequent advertiser in Antique Trader.
But I got to thinking and wondering about the Antique Trader readers' views of re-touching and restoring, which led to this week's Antique Trader Question of the Week:
What are your personal views on antique restoration? Do you feel a touch-up here and there makes a piece all the better? Or should antiques be left all-original, all the time?
Send your replies to eric.bradley@fwmedia.com or to Letters to the Editor, c/o Antique Trader, 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54945.
— Posted by Karen Knapstein
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Thursday, February 18, 2010 8:35:26 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Historian's $5M+ collection of American documents in NYC auction
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
NEW YORK — Described as a collection people have waited for decades to come on the market, a colorful author and historian's extensive multi-million dollar archive of important American manuscripts, maps, letters, early photographs, books and documents tracing America's journey to the Wild West will be offered in a public auction conducted in New York City by Spink Shreves Galleries, Jan. 27-29, 2010.
"They were collected over a 50-year period by Floyd E. Risvold of Edina, Minn., who participated in expeditions in the West with the Coast and Geodetic Survey in the 1930s and '40s. His jovial admonition to nearly everyone he met was, 'Keep your powder dry,'" said Charles Shreve, President of Spink Shreves Galleries of New York and Dallas.
"This collection chronicles the U.S. movement westward to find 'the Promised Land.' It's filled with unique, eyewitness accounts to American history. The presale estimate is $5 million or more."
Risvold died last June at the age of 97, and his family now is making his vast collection and library available to the public.
The wide array of extraordinary items, most of them one-of-a-kind, include a 12-page letter written by John Adams during The War of 1812, a prospector's 1849-era hand-drawn map to the California gold regions and an Indian peace treaty directive to the Secretary of State signed in 1864 by President Abraham Lincoln. There are hundreds of other items related to the Pony Express and U.S. postal history, the Alamo, the Civil War, expansion of the railroads and Mormon history including an 1841 letter signed by both Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith, early leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
"Collectors and museums have been waiting for decades for many of these unique historical documents to again become available," said Shreve.
For additional information, contact Spink Shreves Galleries at 212-262-8400 or visit online at www.SpinkShreves.com.
— Posted by Karen Knapstein
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 1:24:48 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Thursday, January 21, 2010
Antique telephones/museum needs new home
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
That's what our cover story is about this week.
Here's a look at the newest Antique Trader cover. What do you think?
It was sent out in the mail today.
CLICK HERE to read the "Calling for help" article.
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• Find us on Twitter HERE.
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Thursday, January 21, 2010 2:19:25 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Tuesday, January 05, 2010
The new kid in the vintage costume world: Welcome CJCI
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
The newly formed Costume Jewelry Collectors Int’l is launching a fresh, new Web site and quarterly print publication for friends and fans of vintage costume jewelry. 
CJCI was created after Lucille Tempesta, founder of Vintage Fashion and Costume Jewelry Newsletter and Club (VFCJ), announced her retirement in the last issue of the newsletter published late last year. VFCJ published for about 20 years and hosted a convention for the last 16 years, becoming the backbone of a group dedicated to the history and dazzle of the highly-collectible jewelry.
CJCI Co-founders Melinda Lewis and Pamela Wiggins want to continue Tempesta's excellent legacy as well as adding a strong Web site and engaging social media, a critical need to reach today's collectors.
Lewis is a long-time jewelry collector, historian, and stylist and is currently completing a book on Napier jewelry. Her personal Web site is here.
Wiggins, the expert guide to antiques for About.com, will lend her expertise as an author, editor and jewelry enthusiast to CSCI’s quarterly publication.
CJCI yearly memberships are available at several different levels ranging from $25 to $35. Memberships for $30 and $35 include a listing in the club’s member directory. Visit here for more information.
It's great to see fresh faces in antiques, but when it results in a new club and newsletter it is doubly exciting.
antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antiques | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Historic Preservation
Tuesday, January 05, 2010 9:58:20 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Rago's 20th Century auction antique tortoise lamp is a unique find
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Maybe it was the tortoise that won the race? Unlucky for him but lucky for us.
The rare copper and tortoise shell desk lamp being offered as Lot 49 in David Rago's Jan. 16 auction of early 20th Century design is beautiful for a 100 reasons. It's curved neck and leaf-patterned base share a beautiful amount of patination that is hard to come by in some lamps, not to mention the attractive mounting of a diminuative tortoise shell shade. The shell gives off a mica-hued glow that would look at home on a worn desk in dark, woodwork-lined den. The lamp is just 9-1/2 inches tall by 5-1/2 inches wide. It carries a pre-auction estimate of $2,000 to $3,000.
For such stunning craftsmanship, there is precious little information on the Internet about its maker, Henry W. Cleaveland.
Cleaveland, of Boston, wrote a book, it seems, titled "Village and Farm Cottages" in 1856. Technically, the full name of the volume is "Village and Farm Cottages: The Requirements of American Village Homes Considered and Suggested; With Designs for Such Houses of Moderate Cost." He also lent some critique to various forms of design of the day.
Lucky for us he knew quality when he saw it ... leaving us this gorgeous lamp as a reminder that good design is never resigned to a single era.
If anyone has more information about Cleaveland, feel free to share.
antique | Antique Blog | Antique Mystery Item | Antique News | Antique news odd | Antiques | Antiques News | Auction | Historic Preservation | Modernism
Tuesday, January 05, 2010 9:26:42 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wunderkammer on the cover
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
"What's a Wunderkammer?" you ask ... why, it's a "chamber of wonders." And we've got a fantastic feature from Melody Amsel-Arieli on the cover of this week's Antique Trader.
antique | Antique news odd | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques publications | Antiquities | Historic Preservation
Thursday, December 17, 2009 2:44:02 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Thursday, December 03, 2009 Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Question of the Week: When & how do you research?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Question of the Week:
Do you research your antiques and collectibles before or after you buy them?
If so, how do you research them?
Send your replies to eric.bradley@fwmedia.com or to Letters to the Editor, c/o Antique Trader, 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54945.
Or post a message here on the Antique Trader blog or HERE on the Antique Trader message boards.
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• Find us on Twitter HERE.
• Find us on Facebook HERE.• Visit the Antique Trader Web site HERE. Sign up for our FREE newsletters!• If you really like what you see, get your very own subscription to Antique Trader HERE. • Reference books available about your favorite collectibles HERE
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Wednesday, December 02, 2009 3:21:33 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Monday, November 30, 2009
Free download of Antique Trader Winter Traveler available
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
 Hot off the production line, the new Antique Trader Winter Traveler has been uploaded to our site and is ready for all of you to download.
The Winter Traveler is a 24-page PDF with stories on antiquing destinations throughout the United States.
Some of the articles include pieces on the Scott Antique Markets, the Tucson Gem Shows, department store displays at the Smithsonian, and timepiece and Americana displays at the National Heritage Museum.
All of the links have been made "live," so all you have to do is click on the URL or ad and you will be taken to the respective Web site.
What an easy way to find out more about antique shows, malls, museum exhibits, and more ... they are just a click away!
CLICK HERE or on the cover image above to download the Antique Trader Winter Traveler.
— Posted by Karen Knapstein
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• Find us on Twitter HERE.
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Monday, November 30, 2009 1:03:32 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
If you love unique then you'll love Chicago's Modern Vintage Holiday Market
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Image Pilots, the producers of the Randolph Street Market Festival featuring the Chicago Antique Market and Indie Designer Market, is returning this year with the 3rd annual Modern Vintage  Holiday Market.
This year, the Modern Vintage Holiday Market will be held indoors at the beautiful Beaux Arts Plumbers Hall, 1340 W Washington St for two days only Nov. 21 – 22.
Shoppers can kick their holiday shopping off to the right start with gifts in all price ranges, from pennies to thousands, available in a one-stop-shopping experience. Keepsakes range from embroidered hankies, sterling spoons and festive aprons, to estate jewelry, couture formal wear and crystal goblets. Independently designed handmade and preserved vintage ornaments round out the mix. This unique and beautifully-crafted mix of smartly priced vintage and modern goods makes for a unique one-stop shopping experience for seasonal shoppers looking for memorable and custom-made gifts.
The Sunday market hours have been extended and will now begin at 10 a.m. Regular market hours will be Saturday, Nov. 21 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 22 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Admission is $10 ($8 in advance online), which includes a $10 shopping voucher if you spend $50 or more with any vendor. Student admission with valid ID is $5 and children under 12 are free. Tickets can be purchased in advance at www.randolphstreetmarket.com. Free parking will be available in the Plumbers Hall parking lot and free gift wrapping and packaging will also be offered throughout the weekend. For additional information call 312-666-1200 or visit www.randolphstreetmarket.com.
-Posted by Eric Bradley
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009 5:24:20 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
From the Editor: The collector’s quandary
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
There are several methods to liquidate a collection, ranging from an
auction to an estate sale to selling to another collector. One method
that’s come up recently in two high-profile cases involves the role of
museums.
K*B Toys
co-founder Donald Kaufman and his wife, Sally, who assembled what will
forever be known as the largest collection of automotive toys, considered a museum but decided collectors would take care of the items as their cherished objects.
So, too, did Dennis and Terri LaMothe consider a few museums to house
their landmark mesh handbag and vintage couture collection.
When the Orlando couple interviewed a few museums, nonewould guarantee
the collection would not be sold in the future if the museum ran out of
space.
Both instances are examples of the quandary collectors may find
themselves as they try to liquidate their collections. For both the
Kaufmans and the LaMothes, the natural obligation they felt to preserve
the history and years of research they invested in their collection made a museum a logical choice.
Museums are indeed the backbone of a country’s heritage and play an
active role in the current hobby and research. Imagine how shallow and
poor America would be without the Smithsonian Institution. What would
the scholarship of American folk art be without the work of Winterthur
or New York’s American Folk Art Museum? But museums can also be subject
to politically charged boards, poor collection-care standards and vulnerable to economic downturns that decimate endowments.
Personally, I have always viewed collectors as a type of historical
militia, a force comprised of ordinary people who share knowledge and
preserve precious objects. Collectors are constantly engaging in new
research and sharing this information in new ways.
As collectors from all levels now take stock to downsize, they face a
world of decisions. These decisions are deeply personal — there is not
a single solution that fits everyone.
What do you think? What role should America’s museums play as a growing number of collectors dispense with their collections?
Post a reply here on the blog, HERE on the Antique Trader message boards, or send a reply to eric.bradley@fwmedia.com.
Eric Bradley
Editor
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Wednesday, October 21, 2009 3:21:56 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, September 25, 2009
How America lost its $50B furniture industry
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Check out this fascinating report on the future, or lack thereof, of the American furniture industry. The report asks, "do American furniture companies have a leg to stand on?"
The release on the report reads as follows: Baby Boomers don't care about owning fine furniture. Department stores aren't interested in stocking furniture. Design piracy flourishes. And marketing savvy is in short supply.
What's going on here?
It's another sad chapter in the history of the American furniture companies, a perfect storm of consumer trends, market forces and industry intransigence. A detailed report, The American Furniture Industry: What Will It Take to Survive?, has just been published.
Compiled by Anderson Bauman Tourtellot Vos, a leading turnaround management firm, in collaboration with Michael K. Dugan, author of The Furniture Wars: How America Lost a Fifty Billion Dollar Industry, the report is based on research conducted over the past two months.
Of the furniture manufacturing companies surveyed, sales dropped over 10% on average last year, with some of the best known brands taking the biggest hits. Retailers were similarly afflicted as housing construction came to a standstill and consumers made do with the furniture they owned.
The economic downturn exacerbated long-standing trends. The industry as a whole has been slow to adopt cost-saving tactics, such as Lean Manufacturing. Nor have there been serious attempts to penetrate the export market, even as production moved offshore. And unlike other consumer goods industries, furniture companies have not become adept at marketing and distributing their products.
The industry has some unusual challenges, such as the fact that well-made wood furniture doesn't wear out, and only goes out of style at a glacial pace. And then there's the truth that price discounts don't work the way they do in other industries where style counts. If the price of dresses goes down, the report notes, women may feel the need to buy more dresses. If sofas are marked down, the customer just needs one, if any.
As manufacturing companies and furniture stores fall by the wayside, some companies will have a chance of surviving.
"Those will be the companies that are open to change," said Peter Tourtellot, managing director of Anderson Bauman Tourtellot Vos. "The industry needs fresh thinking about marketing and branding, information technology, and manufacturing and distribution."
The PDF report can be reached here (safe to download).
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Friday, September 25, 2009 12:55:09 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, September 17, 2009
Antique Trader spotlights Woodstock collectibles
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Yes, that's right. In our latest issue, which went out in the mail today, has a wonderful cover feature on Woodstock and Woodstock collectibles.
Here's a look at the cover (click on it to go to www.antiquetrader.com):
Antique News | Antiques News | Ephemera | Historic Preservation
Thursday, September 17, 2009 3:52:44 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Valuable marketing tool for dealers: hold a show before the auction
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
This struck me as an innovative way to generate valuable pre-auction publicity, help educate the public and be a good citizen all at the same time.
Poster Auctions International and Long Island’s Cradle of Aviation Museum are teaming up to launch an exhibition of rare, early aviation posters. The exhibition, held on location at the museum opens tomorrow and runs through Oct. 18. The exhibition includes posters from private collections located around the world as well as the museum's permanent collection
Once the exhibit wraps up, the posters (not those from the museum's permanent collection) will be returned to Poster Auctions International in time for its bi-annual auction of rare, vintage posters on Sunday, Nov. 8.
What an interesting opportunity for both experienced and novice collectors visit a new museum to see a rare collection in one place at the same time. And what a savvy method to whet the appetite of poster dealers and collectors.
antique | Antique News | Antique news odd | Antique Show | Antiques | Antiques Auction | Antiques News | Antiques Show | Ephemera | fine art | Historic Preservation | Modern | Modernism | Outsider Art | pop art
Thursday, September 17, 2009 11:31:16 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
Got vinyl? Is it G, VG or better?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
When it comes to buying or selling vinyl records, getting the best price possible is the ultimate goal. And, as is almost always the case, that price depends a lot on what condition those records are in. But determining the condition of your records is no easy task.
Join Goldmine contributor Stephen Braitman at 8 p.m. Easterm Daylight Time on Wednesday, Sept. 16, for Goldmine's one-hour online seminar, "Record Grading Made Easy." The cost is only $15.
Click here for more information about the seminar and to register!
Historic Preservation
Thursday, September 10, 2009 5:00:05 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Question of the Week: Is more federal regulation needed?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Antique Trader Question of the Week:
Do you think increased Federal regulation is needed for the segment of the antiques market that deals in Native American artifacts?
Send your replies to eric.bradley@fwmedia.com or to Letters to the Editor, c/o Antique Trader, 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54945.
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Antiques, blog, question of the week | Antiquities | Historic Preservation | stolen antiques
Wednesday, September 09, 2009 4:55:06 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Colonial Williamsburg offers historic textile symposium
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
One of the items on my "To do before I die" list is a visit to Colonial Williamsburg. I won't make it this year, but we'll definitely go while our daughter is still young enough to be impressed (and want to learn more) about the history of our relatively-young nation.
If you're lucky enough to be in the Williamsburg area this fall, you may be interested in this:
On Sep. 20-22, Colonial Williamsburg is hosting a symposium entitled “A Very Large Curious & Compleat Assortment’: Textiles for Interiors, 1730-1830.
Annabel Westman of Historic Furnishing Textiles of London, England, will give the keynote address.
Other presentations include:
Agreeable to your liking: Dressing up the House in Early America by scholar and author Elisabeth Garrett Widmer
Modern ideas of comfort: Textile floor-coverings in England, 1730-1830, by independent scholar Anthony Wells Cole
Gathering the threads: Unraveling interiors and textile sources, by Lynne Dakin Hastings, VP of museum operations at The Montpelier Foundation
Textile for Interiors 2009 Symposium registration is open to the general public.
For more information, visit http://www.history.org/history/institute/institute_about.cfm
Meanwhile, if you're from the area or have been there, what are some of the "can't miss" sites and experiences? Feel free to post a reply here on the blog.
Thanks!
— Posted by Karen Knapstein
Historic Preservation
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 1:40:44 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, July 23, 2009
Rare Delaware sampler at All Saints’ Antiques Show
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
REHOBOTH BEACH, Del.— A rare New Castle County Delaware
sampler will be offered in the booth of John Tompkins of Richmond,
Va., at the 60th Annual All Saints' Antiques Show next week. The
sampler was worked by Priscilla Talley of Talleysville, in 1839, when
she was 15. A sampler is a piece of embroidery produced
as a demonstration or test of skill in needlework.
"The quality of the composition and colors belies the fact that it was
made by a young girl," says Tompkins. "It has the folky qualities of
something made by a much more mature craftsman."
Tompkins explains that the pot of flowers with hearts, the strawberry
border, twin squirrels roosters, are all motifs encountered in Delaware
Valley objects of this period, but rarely in such lush abundance.
The sampler was discovered in Richmond, still in the home of a direct descendant.
"It was kind of an Antiques Roadshow moment," he says. "The owner
brought me in to see some pretty average furniture, and here was this
amazing object hanging on the living room wall."
The verse Priscilla stitched seems appropriate for a minister's daughter, although other young women wrought similar verses to:
"This work in hand my friends my have
when I am dead and in my grave
and when the work each time you see
I with my Saviour hope to be
The work I leave to those I love
when I have flown to world above
When all my sorrow will be ore
When friends will need to part no more"
"There are a great many samplers out there for sale," says Tompkins,
"but it is rare to find one with such lush composition and color, and
with a great history as well. There are many Pennsylvania samplers, but
Delaware examples are rarely on the market."
 Held at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center, the show will officially
launch 6 p.m., July 29 at the preview party. Tickets to the preview
party are $30, which offers unlimited attendance over the three-day
show. The show will be open to the public from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
July 30 and July 31, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 1. Admission is $7.
The show’s sponsor, All Saints' Church, is the only church in Rehoboth
Beach on its original site and maintaining its original design. Listed
on the National Register of Historic Places it was constructed in the
1890s to meet the needs of a growing number of Episcopalians migrating
to the area.
Show managers Melrose & Duddy bring 25 years of antiques show
experience to the All Saints’ show and have successfully managed
antiques shows since 2007.
Additional information is available on the web at www.rehobothantiques.com.
Photo courtesy Rehoboth Antiques.
— Posted by Karen Knapstein
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Antique Show | Antiques Show | Historic Preservation
Thursday, July 23, 2009 11:57:44 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Free Download: Antique Trader Traveler
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
 Did you know that the Summer 2009 issue of Antique Trader Traveler is available for download? And that it's completely free? No strings ... you don't even have to register. All you need is the Adobe reader.
For interesting news and features from historic destinations from coast to coast, including Vicksburg, Miss.; Coney Island; and Fredericksburg, Texas, download the Antique Trader Traveler PDF.
(The Adobe Acrobat Reader is required; CLICK HERE for the free Adobe Reader).
CLICK HERE or on the cover image to download your Antique Trader Traveler.
Antique News | Antiques News | Historic Preservation
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 8:58:47 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Question of the Week: Native American relics
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Question of the Week:
As seen on page 8 of this week’s issue, should Native Americans buy a tract of land to preserve a rare archaeological site or does the current landowner have the right to sell the artifacts, using the site as a “diamond mine.”
Photo courtesy John Shishmanian/ NorwichBulletin.com
Post a reply here on the Antique Trader blog, or e-mail your replies to eric.bradley@fwmedia.com or post your reply in the Antique Trader message boards HERE.
— Posted by Karen Knapstein
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Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques, blog, question of the week | Antiquities | Historic Preservation
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 5:41:44 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Regional collectors club conventions
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
American Cut Glass Association Annual Convention to be in Vienna, Va.
The American Cut Glass Association will hold its ACGA Annual Convention on July 24-26, 2009, at the Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner Hotel, in Vienna, Va.
The convention gives ACGA members a great opportunity to learn about glass and extra time for sight-seeing in the area. There will be a spectacular display of some of the world’s most elegant cut glass, plus lectures by leaders in cut glass and related fields.
For additional information on joining the American Cut Glass Association or about the Annual Convention, visit www.cutglass.org.
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Fenton Glass Collectors to meet in August for convention
The 19th Annual Convention of the National Fenton Glass Society will be held on Aug. 1-3, 2009, in Marietta, Ohio.
The convention headquarters will be the Comfort Inn. Glass displays and seminars are open to the public. Members and their guests will enjoy a dinner cruise aboard the Valley Gem Sternwheeler, participate in Glass ID, attend the NFGS annual meeting, play Fenton bingo, and enjoy the banquet followed by a whimsey auction.
For more information on the NFGS convention or the National Fenton Glass Society, visit www.fentonglasssociety.org.
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Carriage Association of America to hold 2009 conference in Leesburg, Va.
The Carriage Association of America will hold its 2009 CAA Conference on June 17-20, 2009, at the Morven Park Equestrian Center in Leesburg, Va.
For additional information on The Carriage Association of America or the upcoming 2009 conference, visit www.caaonline.com.
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Sewing Machine Collectors to meet in Charlotte in 2009
The International Sewing Machine Collectors’ Society will hold their annual convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 17-18, 2009.
The convention will include a sewing machine auction and row upon row of sales tables, plus tours and other activities.
For additional information visit www.ismacs.net/events.html or e-mail Graham Forsdyke at graham@ismacs.u-net.com.
— Posted by Karen Knapstein
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antique | Antique Blog | Antique Glass | Antique News | Antique Show | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Antiques Show | Antiques, Atlantique City, Antiques Show, Antique Trader, Collectibles | Fenton Glass | Historic Preservation | kitchen antiques
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 5:01:10 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, June 11, 2009
24 charged with Native American artifact looting
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Exciting news ... especially when we just went to print yesterday with a front-page feature on collecting Native American artifacts ... Score one for the good guys!
From the LA Times:
24 charged in crackdown on Native American artifact looting
Reporting from Washington and Denver -- Striking at a longtime practice
in the Four Corners area, federal authorities Wednesday unsealed
indictments against 24 people in what they called the largest
investigation ever into the looting of Native American artifacts on
public lands.
CLICK HERE to read the full story
This is an area of collecting where extreme caution must be exercised. There are only a handful of auction houses in the U.S. that handle reputable Native American artifacts (they're listed in the Antique Trader feature on collecting in this area).
BTW: You can read the article on collecting Native American artifacts here: Collecting North American Indian artifacts
— Posted by Karen Knapstein
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Antiquities | Historic Preservation | stolen antiques
Thursday, June 11, 2009 4:07:20 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, April 24, 2009 Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Worth more than a thousand words
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” but not just a thousand words. A picture is worth so much more, as they can cause the viewer empathetic pain, pleasure, sadness, joy. They can make you sit and ponder their intricacies and nuances for time that you don’t have to spare. These are significant moments frozen in time. One nice thing about the art of photography is that the artists can produce such prolific bodies of work, providing an eager collecting community plenty of opportunities to expand their collections.  Jeff Vallee “Harvey” from the series “ This time tomorrow, where will we be?” Courtesy iGavel.com.Currently, iGavel is holding an online photography auction celebrating American photographers and benefiting the Americans for the Arts organization. The show features the work of more than 40 artists, including Jock Sturges, Les Krims, Ben Watts, Cass Bird, Jason Nocito, and Vincent Laforet. Opening bids are $300. This auction is going on through April 30, 2009. (Click here to learn more about the online photography auction benefiting Americans for the Arts.) Eduard Steichen, Lilac Buds, Mrs S., 1906. Courtesy iGavel.com. Also, through May 13, is the Spring Online Auction of Photographs presented by Daniel Cooney Fine Art. (Click here to learn more about this online photography auction opportunity.)— Posted by Karen
Antiques Auction | Auction | Ephemera | Historic Preservation | Modern | pop art
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 2:45:36 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, April 17, 2009
Mitchell Museum focuses on Native American jewelry and beadwork
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Check it out: Old Native Jewelry and Beadwork To Be Focus of Events April 25-26 at Mitchell Museum EVANSTON, Ill. — Special events for seasoned and novice collectors of old Native American jewelry and beadwork — and anyone curious about these genres — are scheduled for Saturday, April 25, and Sunday, April 26, at the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, 3001 Central St., Evanston. Tom and Deborah Begner, of Turkey Mountain Traders, Scottsdale, Ariz., will make presentations, conduct an informal appraisal session, and exhibit a diverse collection of items for sale. Ten percent of sales proceeds will benefit the nonprofit Mitchell Museum.The Begners will give a presentation on “Antique Eastern Woodlands Beadwork” at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, focusing largely on beadwork made by members of the various Iroquois tribes from about 1800 to 1930. At 2:15 p.m., they will offer informal identifications and appraisals of old Native American jewelry and Eastern beadwork brought in by the public. They will speak on “The Top 10 Things to Look for in Old Indian Jewelry” at 3:15 p.m. The Begners, who founded Turkey Mountain Traders 20 years ago, will stage an exhibition and sale of old jewelry and antique Eastern beadwork from 4-7 p.m. Items for sale include beadwork items priced from about $100 to $3,000, including beaded bags, souvenir “whimseys,” and hats from the late 1800s. The jewelry is principally of Navajo and Zuni Pueblo origin, with items priced from $125. A noteworthy piece is a $12,000 Zuni fetish necklace made of shell and stone by the celebrated carver Leekya, who worked in the 1940s and 1950s. Antique Indian beadwork and old jewelry also will be exhibited and sold from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, April 26. Admission to the events is included with museum admission. Admission is $5 for adults, $2.50 for seniors, students, teachers (with valid school ID), and children. Maximum suggested admission per family is $10. For information, phone (847) 475-1030. On the Net: www.mitchellmuseum.org. Looks like an interesting opportunity ...
Antiquities | Historic Preservation
Friday, April 17, 2009 2:20:00 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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This week's Antique Trader comin' at ya
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Here's a sneak peek:  Some of the articles in this week's Antique Trader:
Antique Blog | Antique News | Antique Show | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Antiques publications | Antiques Show | Historic Preservation
Friday, April 17, 2009 1:11:50 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Question of the Week: Does your collection have a family connection?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
This week's Question of the Week: Does your collection have a family connection? Does it cross the generation gap or are you a “first generation” collector? Post a reply here, send one to Sandra.Sparks@fwmedia.com, or post a reply on the Antique Trader message boards HERE.
Antiques, blog, question of the week | Historic Preservation
Wednesday, April 08, 2009 4:51:08 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, April 07, 2009
FREE online classified ads
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Collect.com offers free classified adsEveryone wants to get something for nothing, and now that's possible, thanks to Collect.com’s free classified ads.
“The classified ads are completely free — no gimmicks, no strings
attached and no limit to the number of classified ads that can be
placed,” said Dianne Wheeler, the community leader for collect.com.
“This is a great way for collectors to sell the items that they don’t
love anymore — and shop for new ones that they will — without pricey
consignment fees or drawn-out bidding wars.”
Placing an ad is easy. Just visit www.collect.com, click on the collectibles area that applies to your item ( Comics, Music, Sports, Militaria or Antiques and Collectibles),
and add in the details. The Ad Wizard walks you through every step of
the process, including writing the description and adding a photo of
the piece that’s for sale.
The free classified ads are the first of numerous improvements that are
scheduled to come to collect.com this year, Wheeler said.
Produced by F+W Media, the world’s largest hobby and collectible
publisher, Collect.com is an online community where collectors can
discuss and display their finds, keep tabs on the value of their
collections, connect with buyers and sellers, read about the latest
hobby news and more.
CLICK HERE to sell your collectibles (or post a wanted ad) with Collect.com free classified ads.
antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antique news odd | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Antiques publications | Ephemera | Folk Art | green living | Historic Preservation | kitchen antiques | Postcards | Toys | Vintage Fashion
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 4:52:03 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, April 03, 2009
Collecting traditions
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
This week, we ran a story by Trina Spillman entitled Collecting Feature: Family traditions. It's a charming tale of her early introduction to the collecting habit when, as a child, she would help her mother and father search flea markets and antique stores for Royal Doulton Flambé and Nippon porcelain. And how she's grown into a passionate collector, and has passed the collecting tradition on to her children. I know many people will enjoy reading it as much as we here at Antique Trader have. You, too, may be able to spotlight your collection and/or collecting tradition in Antique Trader. Here's how: E-mail your story, with captioned photos to sandra.sparks@fwmedia.com or mail to Antique Trader Collecting Spotlight, 700 E State St., Iola, WI 54945, attn: Sandra Sparks.
Photos should be well focused and clear. Remove items from any
protective covering that may cause glare. Include a photo of yourself.
If sending your story and photos via e-mail (preferred), see directions
below.
Format: Save as jpeg or tiff
Resolution: 200 dpi or higher
Size: Original image must be a minimum of 4 inches wide/deep
Compressing files: If needed, files can be “zipped” and we can unzip them here.
Posting files: Large files also can be posted to our ftp site at ftp.krause.com; select Inbound folder, then Antique Trader folder. Either drag image or copy and paste it into the folder.
If you have any questions, contact Sandra at the e-mail address above. — Posted by Karen
antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Antiques publications | Historic Preservation
Friday, April 03, 2009 8:18:46 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Thursday, March 19, 2009 Wednesday, March 18, 2009
ACNA headed to the Big Easy
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
The Antiques & Collectibles National Association is headed to New Orleans in January 2010 for their first national convention and trade show since 2006.  Association members and non-members are welcome. Early
registration is encouraged since discounts are given prior to June 1,
2009. They've chosen a fantastic theme: "Help Your Future – Buy Your Past." That says it all, doesn't it? And they have an exciting lineup planned: Scheduled speakers and topics for the classes include Kyle Husfloen,
keynote address; Fred and Gail Taylor – Antique Furniture; Randy and
Debbie Coe – Glass; DiAnna Tindell – Art Restoration; Connie Swaim –
Recognizing Fakes; Barbara Mauzy – Kitchenware and Beth Walker – Silver.
For more information about the ACNA, visit their Web site at http://www.acna.us/index.php
antique | Antique News | Antique Show | Antiques | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Antiques Show | Antiques, Atlantique City, Antiques Show, Antique Trader, Collectibles | Historic Preservation
Wednesday, March 18, 2009 8:41:44 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Chicago Antique Market schedule
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Visited their site this morning. Looks fabulous! Another way to enjoy the weekends during the summer: Chicago Antique Market schedule: Show dates: Saturdays & Sundays: Opening weekend: May 23-24, 2009 Memorial Day June 27-28, 2009 July 25-26, 2009 August 29-30, 2009 September 26-27, 2009 Show hours: Saturdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Admission: $10; students $5; children free. For more information: http://www.chicagoantiquemarket.com
antique | Antique Glass | Antique News | Antique Show | Antiques | Antiques News | Antiques Show | Antiques, Atlantique City, Antiques Show, Antique Trader, Collectibles | green living | Historic Preservation | Vintage Fashion
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 8:36:57 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Monday, March 16, 2009
Kamehameha quilt on Antiques Roadshow
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
I caught part of The Antiques Roadshow tonight on PBS. I almost didn't watch because I found myself unable to get excited about antiques in Hawaii. Much to my chagrin, I just didn't associate antiques with Hawaii. I was very pleasantly surprised. I know; many of you would tell me that I shouldn't be surprised. Just because the show was taped in a tropical paradise, doesn't mean the quality and/or rarity of the items on the show would be any less than another location. Believe me - I'm over it. And I'm glad I watched. I was absolutely blown away by the early 20th century Kamehameha coat of arms quilt. It was absolutely beautiful. The color and craftsmanship was second to none. And it was in absolutely immaculate condition too, as it had been properly stored - rolled, not folded. Did any of you see the show tonight? Were you as impressed by the quilt as I was? – Posted by KarenOh, by the way, if you missed it ... the quilt was valued at $25,000.
antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antique news odd | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Antiques publications | Historic Preservation
Monday, March 16, 2009 7:55:58 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Chattanooga
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
I've never been to Chattanooga. When I hear the name I think – of course – of the Chattanooga Choo Choo (I'll probably have the song stuck in my head for the rest of the day). As it was a vital transportation/rail hub and manufacturing center, Chattanooga is a city steeped in Civil War history. I think it's one of those places that shouldn't just be passed through, but made a destination location. The Antiques Roadshow has three upcoming episodes from Chattanooga (to air March 30, April 6, and April 13). I'm looking forward to seeing all the fascinating treasures and heirlooms come out. After so many seasons of Antiques Roadshow, do you still make an effort to catch the show? In my case, if I'm home on a Monday night I'm watching the Roadshow. And with a location like Chattanooga, Tenn., I'm going to make a point of being home to watch it. By the way, the Roadshow will be in Madison, Wis., for an appraisal event July 11, and in Atlantic City at the Atlantic City Convention Center June 6. Visit http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/index.html for more details.
Antique Blog | Antique News | Antique Show | Antiques News | Antiques Show | Historic Preservation
Wednesday, March 11, 2009 7:59:38 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Monday, March 09, 2009
What is old?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Terms of age are oftentimes relative.
I have an old house. It was built about a century ago. Pretty old, huh?
Not really. Not when it's compared to the Fairbanks House (built circa 1637-1641)  , which has the highly honorable distinction of being the oldest standing timber frame building in North America.
It's really quite remarkable that the house is still standing when you
think of all the things that can and do happen to obliterate a house.
It's a shame when old homes are neglected, as mine was as you can see in the picture.
Here's an opportunity to learn about the Fairbanks House:
“The Fairbanks House:
New Discoveries at America’s Oldest Timber Frame House”
Lecture, March 12
Dr. Alex Service, Director and Curator of the Fairbanks House, America’s
Oldest Timber Frame House, will be the guest speaker on Thursday, March
12, 7:30 PM, at the Dedham Historical Society. Service will share the
results of recent studies of the “old Fairbanks homestead,” including
the 2002 work that reinforced the Fairbanks House’s claim to be the
oldest standing timber frame building in North America. The cost of the
lecture is $5 per person, free to members.
The circa 1637-1641 house in Dedham
was home to Puritan immigrants and eight generations of their
descendants, until the house opened as a museum in 1904. It has long
been celebrated as the best-preserved example of early English colonial
architecture in New England, and it continues to reveal new insights to
this day.
Dr. Service has been Director/Curator of the Fairbanks House
since April 2006. Her previous positions have been with Haley Sharpe
Design, Limited,
Williamsburg, Virginia as Research Development Coordinator, Historic
Jamestowne Project, the Hot Springs County Museum and Cultural Center,
Thermopolis, Wyoming as Director, the Fort Caspar Museum, Casper,
Wyoming, and many others in related fields.
She holds a Ph.D.
from the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, England,
1998; an M.A. from the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of
York, England, and a B.A. in East Asian Studies from the
University of California at Los Angeles.
She has authored numerous publications.
— Posted by Karen
Historic Preservation
Monday, March 09, 2009 12:10:03 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Sunday, March 08, 2009
Do reproductions have a place?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
A question to ponder, and perhaps you all can voice your opinions as well: Is there a proper place for reproductions? If they are properly - and permanently - marked, can they be used as "placeholders" in a collection? Or simply as decorator items? Of course, there's always the risk of an item being altered by the unscrupulous to be passed off as genuine ... Do any of you have strong feelings one way or the other about reproductions? And how about fantasy pieces? Will they just cause problems for future collectors? — Posted by Karen
antique | Antiques | Historic Preservation
Sunday, March 08, 2009 4:07:06 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Thursday, March 05, 2009
Carriage Symposium
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
I love how our "field" includes everything historical.
Carriage Symposium in the West set for April 2-5 in Santa Ynez, Calif.
The Carriage Association of America will hold a Carriage Symposium in the West at Santa Ynez, Calif., on April 2-5, 2009.
Entitled “A Bit of the West that Was: A Symposium on Stagecoaches and Other Horse Drawn Vehicles,” the event will be held at the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum & Carriage House.
For additional information on the event, or to join the Carriage Association of America, visit www.caaonline.com, call 805-688-7889 or e-mail syvm@verizon.net.
— Posted by Karen
Antique News | Antique Show | Antiques News | Antiques Show | Historic Preservation
Thursday, March 05, 2009 11:13:05 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Hot News: Winterthur Announces New Admission Options and Tours
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Winterthur Museum & Country Estate has initiated new tour offerings and pricing options to provide visitors with greater opportunities to enjoy its world-class collections of American decorative arts. Winterthur will now offer visitors a single ticket option, providing them with full access to the Winterthur Garden and Galleries as well as an introductory tour showcasing some of the most spectacular rooms in the 175-room house. The new adult general admission rate will be $18, a $2 savings from Winterthur’s former two-tier pricing structure of $15 for Garden and Galleries admission plus an additional $5 fee for a house tour. The tours will be offered daily with first tours of the house departing at 10:30 am and final tours departing at 3:30 pm. Admission tickets are valid for two consecutive days. In addition, Winterthur will now offer specialized one- and two-hour reserved tours on a rotating schedule. Tour topics will change seasonally and will provide in-depth opportunities to focus on specific parts of the 85,000-object collection or on special themes. In March, the one-hour tour will be “Distinctive Collections,” providing a wide overview of the collections amassed by Henry Francis du Pont, and providing visitors with opportunities to appreciate the collection in period-era settings. Two options will be available in March for two-hour tours. “Living with Antiques I” and “Living with Antiques II” will provide detailed looks at specific objects in Winterthur’s collection of American decorative arts, showcased in period rooms throughout the house. The one- and two-hour tours will depart at scheduled times throughout the day. Details on tour times and offerings are available by contacting 800.448.3883 or by visiting winterthur.org. “These new admission offerings will make it easier for first-time visitors to sample all of the wonderful facets of Winterthur and will also provide return visitors with fresh, new ways to explore the collections,” said Jeff Groff, director of public programs. Winterthur’s general admission also provides opportunities to enjoy special exhibitions, narrated garden tram tours (weather permitting), the Campbell Collection of Soup Tureens, and the Enchanted Woods children’s garden. Full general admission pricing is as follows: $18 adults $16 students and seniors $5 for ages 2–11 Children under 2 are admitted free with a paying adult. General admission for Members is free. Group discounts are available by contacting 800.448.3883. Tickets are valid for two consecutive days. ### Winterthur Museum & Country Estate—known worldwide for its preeminent collection of American antiques, naturalistic garden, and research library for the study of American art and material culture—offers a variety of tours, exhibitions, programs, and activities throughout the year. Winterthur has been named one of the country’s “10 great places of historic proportions” by USA Today and “one of the 10 grandest mansions in America” by Budget Travel. Museum hours are 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday–Sunday. Winterthur, located on Route 52, six miles northwest of Wilmington, Delaware, and five miles south of U.S. Route 1, is closed Mondays (except holidays and during Yuletide), Thanksgiving, and Christmas Day. Winterthur is committed to accessible programming for all. For information, including special services, call 800.448.3883, 302.888.4600, or TTY 302.888.4907. Online, visit winterthur.org.
Antique News | Antiques News | Architecture | Historic Preservation
Tuesday, March 03, 2009 4:23:44 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
Question of the Week: caring for prized possessions
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Antiques, blog, question of the week | Historic Preservation
Thursday, February 19, 2009 8:33:49 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Tuesday, February 03, 2009
What's going on in New Orleans?!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
I know it's going on elsewhere as well, but it seems as though New Orleans — being what it is, an exciting city packed with culture, history, and mystique — has a perpetual spotlight on it. This is NOT the kind of thing it wants to be known for. After 5 burglaries New Orleanian gives up, moving to Austin by Ramon Antonio Vargas, The Times-Picayune
Francisco Galicia had to laugh when he noticed that his city tax
bill this year included a new line item: $200 for enhanced police
protection. In the past 13 months, Galicia has been burglarized five times, each
crime dealing a fresh blow to the longtime New Orleans resident's
ambition to restore his flooded rental property on South Gayoso Street
in Mid-City.
Click here to read the rest of this heart-wrenching story that will get your blood boiling.Galicia is a wood craftsman by trade who restored antiques at MS Rau Antiques for nine years. Feel free to post a reply with your comments.
Historic Preservation
Tuesday, February 03, 2009 9:39:06 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Monday, January 12, 2009
What's going on at The Met
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Coming up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Art and Love in Renaissance Italy through February 16, 2009
This exhibition explores the various exceptional objects created to
celebrate love and marriage in the Italian Renaissance. The
approximately 150 objects, which date from about 1400 to the mid-16th
century, range from exquisite examples of maiolica and jewelry given as nuptial gifts, to marriage portraits and paintings that extol sensual
love and fecundity, such as the Metropolitan's Venus and Cupid
by the great Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto. The exhibition also
includes some of the rarest and most significant pieces of Renaissance
glassware, cassone panels, birth trays, and drawings and prints of amorous subjects. See the exhibition preview for more information, including sponsorship credits. And then ...Beyond Babylon: Art, Trade, and Diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C., through March 15, 2009
This exhibition focuses on the extraordinary art created as a result of
a sophisticated network of interaction that developed among kings,
diplomats, merchants, and others in the Near East during the 2nd
millennium B.C.
Approximately 350 objects of the highest artistry from royal palaces,
temples, and tombs—as well as from a unique shipwreck—provide the
visitor with an overview of artistic exchange and international
connections throughout the period. Because many of these works have
either only recently been excavated or have never been shown abroad,
"Beyond Babylon" is a singular opportunity for the public to experience
the rich artistic and cultural traditions of this period. See the exhibition preview for more information, including sponsorship credits. Visit the Met's Web site at http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp for more news and information on other exhibits.
Antiquities | Historic Preservation
Monday, January 12, 2009 4:36:53 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Friday, January 09, 2009
Mummies are fascinating - Female mummies even more so
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Ancient Egypt captures the imaginations of old and young alike - even mid-lifers like me. BBC News posted an article that captured my attention today:
Mummy of female pharaoh uncovered
Egyptologists have discovered the remains of a mummy thought to
belong to a queen who ruled 4,300 years ago, Egypt's antiquities chief
has said.
It's a brief article. Stories like this make me squirm in my chair and want to say "tell me more, tell me more!"
I remember once asking one of my college professors about new discoveries and their impact on how we interpret history. His response was something like: as time goes on, the chance of such discoveries decreases, along with the chance of re-interpreting history. It made sense to me at the time. But now I find myself unsatisfied with that answer and looking forward to new discoveries of the old. Do any of you have an opinion you'd like to share? Feel free to post a reply.
Antiquities | Historic Preservation
Friday, January 09, 2009 10:34:12 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Monday, January 05, 2009
If they have everything ...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
 ... and money is no object, opt for the triceratops! Heritage Auctions has announced they have a 93% complete and intact triceratops skull in their January 18 Natural History auction. The artifact was discovered on a private ranch in Montana some years ago and - literally - kept under wraps. Get this: It's 7 1/2 feet long, so you'll need plenty of space to store or display this amazing piece. If you find you've gotta have it, it'll set you back about a cool quarter million, though. You can click here or on the image to learn more about the dino and about some of the other amazing natural history highlights Heritage has to offer.
Antique News | Antiques News | Antiquities | Auction | Historic Preservation
Monday, January 05, 2009 3:05:54 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Dead Sea Scrolls on exhibit in St. Paul in 2010
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Exciting news. This is truly a rare and exciting opportunity. The priceless treasure from the shores of the Dead Sea will be put on rare display in 2010 at the Science Museum of Minnesota.
It will be the first time the ancient and priceless writings will be
displayed publicly in Minnesota, museum officials said Tuesday.
You can read the full article from the Star Tribune by clicking here.
Antiquities | Historic Preservation
Wednesday, December 10, 2008 4:13:41 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Politically collect
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
 My father, who is a child of the Great Depression, can recall with a high amount of respect, how critical President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was in terms of turning around the economy and providing jobs for the unemployed. My mother, who remembers President John F. Kennedy with fondness and sadness, can remember her reaction the moment news of his shooting came over the radio. “He can’t die! He’s the president!” and her shock when she saw live, on television, Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald. I, born in the tumultuous year of 1968, can recall 20 years later, working for the campus newspaper, having the privilege of shaking the hands of just about every presidential candidate from Paul Simon and Michael Dukakis to Al Gore. Politics create moments in history – and history itself. That’s one of the reasons why so many people collect political memorabilia today. Each pin and banner not only represents a time and person, but perhaps a cause or movement as well. I know I can’t look at a women’s “right to vote” badge without being very thankful there were women (and men) who cared enough to lobby, protest and fight for that right. I bet you can’t look at a candidate pin for Thomas Dewey without thinking of that famous “Dewey defeats Truman” headline. Can you look at a caricature of Carter without thinking of peanuts? Or study a family photo of Lincoln without experiencing empathy for the many tragedies in his personal life and challenges in his administration? While some of the more frivolous items do find themselves abandoned on the convention floor, others are finding themselves in the hands of political collectors like author Dr. Enoch Nappen and James Warlick. Be sure to read our cover story by Dr. Nappen, who shares insight into collecting trends and gives a sneak preview to his recently released book, Warman’s Political Collectibles Identification and Price Guide, published by Krause Books. To see the real deal, make a point of visiting the Atlantique City fall show Oct. 18-19, where Mr. Warlick will display numerous items from this personal collection dubbed “The American Presidential Experience.” Warlick has had a love of politics from an early age and has opened six political memorabilia stores in Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Washington and Georgetown. Check out our Atlantique City show section on the following pages to see what else is in store at the Atlantic City Convention Center. You won’t want to miss your chance to spout politics and feel like a winner yourself when you find a collectible treasure there. As the election approaches, Antique Trader would like to know if you collect political memorabilia or if you have a memory to share about a historic election or political moment. We’ll share these before the nation chooses its new president next month. Drop me a note, post a reply here, or e-mail me at robyn.austin@fwpubs.com. Hurry, before the polls close!
Antiques Blogs | Antiques, blog, question of the week | Historic Preservation
Wednesday, September 17, 2008 4:37:04 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008
"... and we can't make any exceptions"
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
I'm troubled. I read a news story this morning and I'm stuck on it. At the heart of the matter: A Waterbury antiques dealer has been barred from selling vintage
American flags on eBay because of restrictions he placed on who can buy
the flags.
(You can read the full story here.)
Mark Albino, owner of C&M Antiques and Collectibles in Waterbury, veteran, and dealer of vintage flags, will not sell a flag to anyone who might desecrate it. An honorable stand to make. Albino is also a powerseller on eBay, and eBay will not allow such buyer discrimination. Their policy is you either sell internationally or you don't - you don't get to pick and choose which countries you will ship to. Perhaps Albino needs to find a new venue to sell his vintage flags ... What are your feelings about this? It's a sad situation when we have to worry about the buyer's intent. — Karen
Antique News | Antiques | Antiques News | Antiquities | Auction | eBay | Historic Preservation
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 11:21:18 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Take in a historical house tour this weekend
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Looking for something to do this weekend? The Dedham (Mass.) Historical Society informed us it is holding its biannual House Tour this Sunday, June 1, from noon to 3:45 p.m. Tickets will be available at the Historical Society, 612 High St., beginning at 11:30 a.m. Advance purchase tickets are $16 for members and $20 for non-members. All tickets purchased on the day of the tour will be $23.  In addition to this year’s homes, the Fairbanks House, the oldest timber-framed building in North America, will again be on the House Tour. The Society’s current exhibits will also be on view. Houses included on the tour include: The Rev. Alvin Lamson House, 1847: Rev. Alvin Lamson, minister of the First Church Unitarian, built the residence in 1847, in the fashionable Italianate style, with strong Gothic Revival overtones. The Waldo Colburn House, 1870: The honorable Waldo Colburn, (1824-1885), a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, prominent local politician, and descendant of Dedham’s early Colburn clan, built this robust Second Empire style dwelling on an extensive plot of land which originally incorporated the entire street and extended down to the flats of the Charles River. The Waldo Colburn Carriage House, 1870/1952: This residence was originally built as the carriage house for the Waldo Colburn house next door. The original utilitarian structure is now a charming residence, hidden from the bustle of downtown Dedham. The Carriage house was converted into a dwelling in 1952, when the property was split off from the main house. It has subsequently been added onto and, most recently, remodeled extensively by its current owners. It sits above the flat marshes extending to the banks of the Charles River.
The John Gardner House, 1845: John Gardner, a local Dedham builder, built and occupied this Gothic Revival style house, rare in Dedham. The current owners have created an oasis of gardens and paved terraces, which encompass and enhance home. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1859: The present church is in the Gothic Revival style, modeled on medieval parish churches of the English countryside. The Church is built of rough-cut Dedham granite. In 1869 the two-stage tower base forming the main entry was added along with the tall spire and gold cross. Structural flaws in the steeple required it be reconstructed in 1928. This year the church celebrates its 250th anniversary. The Gay Tavern, c. 1745: One of Dedham’s most historic structures, the Gay Tavern stands at the junction of the Old Boston Post Road (Highland Street), and the Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike, (Court Street). The tavern was established about 1750 by Benjamin Gay, whose grandfather John paddled his dugout canoe up the Charles River from Watertown, to found the Town of Dedham in 1636. Upon Benjamin’s death, his son Joshua kept good cheer within its walls until his death in 1781. His widow and son Timothy served food and drink, and provided lodging to travelers until the inn was sold 1807. The John Coolidge House, c. 1812, is a late Federal house, believed to have been built for the Coolidge family. It may have started life as an early blacksmith’s shop operated by Jonathan Guild on land obtained under the Colburn Grant. The classic Federal dwelling visible today has been altered and added to over its almost 200 year lifetime. For more information, call the Dedham Historical Society at 781-326-1385
Antiques | Architecture | Historic Preservation
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 8:59:55 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Coming soon to a theater near you: Antiques Adventure
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Armed with his trusted whip and those dimples, archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones is ready for another treasure hunt in theaters this weekend.
My son and I have been gearing up for the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by watching the first three Indy flicks. If you've ever questioned if there's anything sexy about antiques, then you've got to see at least one of these! But I have a feeling you already know the pursuit of rare artifacts -- the chase, the hunt for that perfect find -- can be quite thrilling. Probably not on the same level of violence and intrigue, but an interesting process nonetheless.
I think the reason I have enjoyed the Indiana Jones and National Treasure movies is that they go beyond adventure. They provide an entertaining avenue of unlocking the history behind the mystery while their goal at heart is preservation.
These treasure hunters are archeaologists and historians. They want that artifact in their hands so they can safely turn it over to a museum or secure historic property. A viewer might miss that during the adrenaline rush, but those of us who are serious about historic preservation, think that's an important aspect that should never find its way to the cutting-room floor.
What was your most exciting antiques adventure? We'd love to hear about it. -- Robyn
Antiques | Antiquities | Historic Preservation
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 9:53:12 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Are we there yet?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Every time I fill up my little Honda with gas these days, I cringe at the prices. When I’m driving the minivan, with its 20-gallon tank, I can almost physically feel the pain at the pump. Is there an end in sight? Regrettably, not likely this summer. Summer is supposed to be the time to pack your kids and pets into the family station wagon and take off somewhere on an excursion that may last for days and may require sunscreen and bug spray – especially if camping is involved. Ideally, there should be a good mix of learning and fun – that’s why museums and historic sites are so popular. Probably my most memorable summer vacation, if you can call it that, was a day trip to an attraction in southern Wisconsin called the House on the Rock. Frankly, the five-hour drive seemed endless with six of us squeezed in. I am sure we four kids pestered our dad a time or two with “Are we there yet?  How much longer?” while trying not to bicker in the back seat. It was definitely worth the agony. Designed and built by Alex Jordan of Madison, Wis., the House on the Rock is an architectural marvel perched on a 60-foot chimney of rock. Begun in the early 1940s, the 14-room house is the original structure of what is now an extraordinary complex of rooms, streets, buildings and gardens covering over 200 acres. Furnishings include Oriental art, stained glass lamps, bronze statuary, a three-story bookcase filled with rare books and so many antiques – dolls, carousels, you name it. It would be wonderful to get back there now, as an adult, when I can appreciate the beauty, the rarity, the history. And, of course, share it with the next generation. Are you going to visit any historic points of interest? Will you be traveling to any antiques shows in search of your own national treasure? This show season is going to be a challenging one for both dealers (who have to travel and haul their goods around) and buyers (who may be pinching their pennies for fuel). Let’s do our best to support each other in these uncertain times. If you can take a day trip to attend a show, please do so. Better yet, grab a friend and split the cost of gas. The dealers and show promoters will appreciate your support. And you may find something worth a tank of gas or two. These days, that’s a pretty good return on investment! Antique Trader would like to know how the rising gas prices will impact your summer shopping, selling and travel plans. E-mail us at robyn.austin@fwpubs.com or post a reply here. Travel safely! — Robyn
Historic Preservation
Thursday, May 15, 2008 10:40:50 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, April 28, 2008
The death of the suburbs?
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
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.
antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Historic Preservation | Modern | Modern Architecture
Monday, April 28, 2008 2:09:24 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, April 25, 2008
Not just a Jewish girl - The Jewish girl! Anne Frank postcard found
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
This story has made the various rounds of media - electronic, tv and print all - about the discovery of a postcard from Anne Frank - she of the famous diary bearing her name - to a friend just before the family went into hiding from the nazis.  I've held back from writing about it for various reasons. One was to let it make the rounds and see what sort of life it took on. Then the gem of the Web presenting me with exactly what I was waiting for. This headline: " Card from WWII Jewish girl discovered in Dutch shop." It comes from the Chinese Xinhua news agency - which I like to frequent for just this reason. Here's a word to them, though: Anne Frank is not just a Jewish girl. She's the Jewish girl. When I was growing up, Anne Frank was revered everywhere. School, my home, my synagogue, and at the Jewish Community Center, which decided to honor Anne the year I was 14 by producing the play version of The Diary of Anne Frank. I was up for the part of Peter - Man, how I wanted that part! I would've been great, too! - as the director, his name was Fred if I recollect correct, tried without gusto to find a younger Anne, he eventually cast the older pretty boy in the part. I think Fred later offered me a part in the "ensemble" cast of the JCC production of Grease, but I never even called back. My acting career was over by then. This good thing was gone.  Anyway, the postcard... It's a wonderful piece of ephmera, and a testament to the longevity and continued relevance of a Anne Frank's story. It is a tangible link to a girl whose unyeilding faith in the goodness of humans, even as they sought her destruction, has continued to inspire countless thousands of people more than 60 years after her death in a German concentration camp. It's a shame she is not alive to see how inspirational her brief life and writings have been to so many. It's interesting to ponder if it would still mean the same had she lived.
antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques News | Ephemera | Historic Preservation
Friday, April 25, 2008 3:24:02 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Asa Ames at AFAM in NYC - Folk art as good as it can get
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
Say the name Asa Ames to collectors of folk art and their eyes will glaze and they will begin to salivate. Just look at that stuff.   Amazing amazing painted wood sculptures with so much detail, energy and life that it's hard to look at the pictures. I simply want to scoop one of these things up, take it home, make it a cup of tea and ask it about its creator. Right now, just opened - and as reported here by the New York Times - The American Folk Art Museum in Manhattan is featuring an exhibition of eight sculptures by Asa Ames, one of the most talented and mysterious of the itinerant 19th century folk artists, born and died in Buffalo, NY when he was just 27.  Ames left behind only 13 known examples - there may well be more hiding out there - many of which were done toward the end of his life. Where did he learn his art? Why didn't he make more? Did he make more? Who has them? Part outsider, part folk artist and all genius, check out the Times article and the slide show of the works in the exhibition. The AFAM is an amazing place, with as much great art as any museum of its size in the world. For lovers of real folk and Outsider art, there is nothing quite like it. Simply the best.
antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | fine art | Folk Art | Historic Preservation | Outsider Art
Friday, April 25, 2008 11:39:54 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, April 24, 2008
The most permanent impermanent - Oldest oil paintings in Afghanistan
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
This is pretty cool, especially considering that a) the philosophy of the Buddha was about the impermanance of all things and b) it's in Bamayan region of Afghanistan - well associated with the destruction of the giant stone Buddhas there by the taliban in 2001  - and these paintings are the earliest oils known.  This story is from Discovery News. The giant stone buddhas are blown-up. Much gnashing of teeth. Seven years later, more, and rarer images show up in a hidden cave. Afghanistan is so widely associated with Islam and the taliban, that it's easy to forget how important the region was in terms of the Buddhist way for several hundred years. It was a center of study and art and monasteries. I hope these paintings are kept safe and sound. If not, never fear. It's all about impermanence anyway...
antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antiques | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiquities | Buddhist Art | fine art | Historic Preservation
Thursday, April 24, 2008 2:03:47 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, April 17, 2008
Good news for Wright's Taliesin West: Phoenix approves preservation plan
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
This is a happy thing for lovers of Modern architecture - Wright in particular - which anyone that knows me knows that I am.  Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West in Phoenix, an absolute masterpiece among the master's masterpieces, has finally gotten approval for a preservation plan from Phoenix and the Wright foundation. The link is to the East Valley Tribune. My in-laws live in Scottsdale - Hi Cy and Joan! - and they took my wife and I out there for a tour of the place about five years ago, which was precisely the time I started to get thoroughly obsessed with modern architecture in general on a wide scale. It was a real eye-opener, touring those wonderful buildings, feeling the harmony with nature that informs their very existence. I could feel the presence of the master on the grounds and I sorely wished to be young again and be able to go to architecture school there. The air is charmed at Taliesin West, and the buildings themselves rise out of the desert sand and blend with the surrounding flora and fauna in ways that are very different from Wright's other masterworks. It was, after all, the place where he would spend his winters, and would educate many of his apprentices. I will admit to you that, more than once on that tour, I thought about sneaking off and hiding in a closet until closing time so I could live there during off hours. This, though, was bound to have been a lonely enterprise, so I abandoned it. Plus I love my wife and didn't really want to put that kind of strain on our marriage...  Just this past March, visiting my in-laws - Hi again Cy and Joan - I spoke with my father-in-law about the disrepair that Taliesin West was in and the need for it to be preserved. He said he didn't know what was going to happen to it, and I lamented that that incredible campus might be razed, or crumble into dust. Obvioulsy Wright designed some complex buildings, with infrastructure that is nearly impossible to keep going in its original state. The city of Phoenix, though, with its taste for good architecture, knows what it has and has done the right thing by it. Taliesin West now has the chance to survive into the future, and to have its lessons, it incredible lines and symmetry, preserved for generations to come. In an age and society that is increasingly disposable, it's good to see that this is happening, and that rare genius is being preserved. 
antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Architecture | Historic Preservation | Modern | Modern Architecture | Modernism
Thursday, April 17, 2008 4:15:04 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Crystal Skull mania!
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
This summer, as the world prepares for the fourth installment of Indiana Jones - I ndiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls - you can bet the real crystal skulls will be getting plenty of scrutiny from the public at large.  Yes, the Crystal Skulls really exist. This is an article that appeared today on archeology.org, and it's quite enlightening as to the history of the real crystal skulls, about which there is suprisingly little really know, other than that they date back to ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures, among others, are weighty, valuable and bear little stylistic resemblance to any of the great art of antiquity that came out of these cultures. If you're one of the 10s - yes 10s - of people that have read this blog with any sort of semi-regularity, you know I'm always game for a good conspiracy theory, especially if it involves shadow governments, aliens or marshmallow Fluff. The crystal skulls fit all of these in that there are widespread theories about their mysterious magical qualities, that their secrets have been contained by malignant government forces, that they were gifts to ancient humankind from alien overseers and that I'd love to get my hands on one to see how well a jar of Fluff would spread on it - I can see an Elvis pompadour right now. When me lived in the Hudson Valley, my wife was a longtime employee of The Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY, and every summer there would be a weekend workshop dedicated to the crystal skulls, in which at least one of the skulls would make an appearance and its magical powers would be revealed. I always wanted to attend this workshop - along with the one about learning how to do remote seeing (see conspiracy theories above) - but never did, for fear of the ridicule I would have to endure. The aging hippies in the area loved it, though, and I heard tales extolling the virtues of these mysterious sculptures over and over. I should have taken the chance when I had it. Who needs to see Thich Naht Hahn, anyway? They are indeed beautiful to behold, and certainly a little creepy. There are countles dissafected teenagers dying to burn a candle on top of one of these things and take a black and white picture of it, or put it on a shelf next to their similarly designed bong.  Indy will certainly reveal something important about the skulls when he makes millions this summer, so if you want to impress your friends with your advance knowledge of the skulls, check out the link to the truly informative archeology.org article, written by an expert. All kidding aside, it's good stuff.
antique | Antique Blog | Antique News | Antique news odd | Antiques Blog | Antiques Blogs | Antiques News | Historic Preservation | Antiquities
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 12:53:48 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, April 11, 2008
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.
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Friday, April 11, 2008 9:07:33 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, April 09, 2008
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.
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Wednesday, April 09, 2008 1:54:12 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, April 04, 2008
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. 
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Friday, April 04, 2008 12:24:06 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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. 
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Thursday, April 03, 2008 3:16:45 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Wednesday, April 02, 2008
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 S teve Geppi himself, who has the greatest collection of rare movie posters in the world at his museum in Camden Yards in downtown Baltimore, MD.
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Wednesday, April 02, 2008 10:01:38 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Saturday, March 22, 2008
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.
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Saturday, March 22, 2008 10:35:02 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Monday, March 17, 2008 Friday, March 14, 2008
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 StollerThe 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 BrownThere'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...
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Friday, March 14, 2008 12:09:53 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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?
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Friday, March 14, 2008 8:27:39 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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! 
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Thursday, March 13, 2008 1:00:42 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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...
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Thursday, March 13, 2008 7:44:06 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
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.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008 8:46:03 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008 8:09:39 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Monday, March 10, 2008
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... 
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Monday, March 10, 2008 8:08:35 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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.
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Thursday, March 06, 2008 10:27:26 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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... 
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Wednesday, March 05, 2008 1:45:09 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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.
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Tuesday, March 04, 2008 9:38:06 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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. 
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Tuesday, March 04, 2008 9:21:01 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Monday, March 03, 2008
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. 
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Monday, March 03, 2008 9:28:03 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Friday, February 29, 2008
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
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Friday, February 29, 2008 9:41:38 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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.
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:26:16 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Friday, February 22, 2008
A great piece of architectural glass gone in NYC
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
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.
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Friday, February 22, 2008 12:10:23 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Monday, February 18, 2008
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.
antique | Antique News | Antique news odd | Antique scams | Antiques | Architecture | Historic Preservation
Monday, February 18, 2008 10:14:09 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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.
antique | Antique News | Antiques | Antiques, blog, question of the week | Auction | eBay | Historic Preservation
Friday, February 15, 2008 9:17:27 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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.
antique | Antique News | Antiques | Antiques Auction | Antiques News | Antiques publications | Historic Preservation
Friday, February 15, 2008 9:06:05 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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. 
antique | Antiques | Antiques Auction | Antiques publications | Antiques Show | Auction | eBay | Historic Preservation | stolen antiques
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 3:20:10 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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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...
antique | Antiques | Antiques Auction | Antiques publications | Auction | Historic Preservation
Wednesday, February 13, 2008 2:17:56 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Just can't resist this - American Roadside Architecture as serious art...
Posted by Antique Trader Staff
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...
antique | Antique news odd | Antiques publications | Architecture | Historic Preservation | pop art
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 12:23:38 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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Wednesday, February 06, 2008
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 11:06:35 AM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)
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