Sad news from Cleveland...

Ralph M. Kovel, nationally known antiques author and expert, died Thursday, August 28, 2008, in Cleveland.

In the early 1950s, Kovel came up with the idea of publishing a book that indexed antiques by the factory-specific marks found on the bottom of the pottery. He and his wife, Terry, became nationally known with the publication of their first book, Dictionary of Marks: Pottery & Porcelain, published in 1953. The book led to a weekly question-and-answer column, "Kovels: Antiques & Collecting," syndicated in 1954, which still runs in more than 150 newspapers. It was also the first of 97 books that the couple would co-author.

Ralph Kovel was born in Milwaukee. He moved with his family to Cleveland Heights, Ohio, in the 1930s. A Cleveland Heights High School graduate, he attended the Ohio State University, and later taught courses in antiques at Case Western Reserve and John Carroll universities.

Kovel was a food broker at the same time he found success with antiques. In the late 1970s, he purchased a small Cleveland company called Sar-A-Lee. The company was
sold in 1989 to Sara Lee Corp., where he continued as Senior Vice-President of Sara Lee Coffee and Tea's Foods Division until 2000. He never retired. He was president of U.S. Brands, Inc., a Beachwood-based direct marketing firm, president of Lucayan Aquaculture, a shrimp farm in the Bahamas, and owner of R & R Roosters, Inc., a restaurant in Cleveland.

Ralph and Terry Kovel were featured in their own television series on public television, the Discovery Channel and, most recently, on HGTV (Home and Garden Television Network). They wrote columns for Forbes Magazine and House Beautiful. Their articles have appeared in Family Circle, Woman's Day, Redbook, Town and Country, Giftware News and many antiques-related publications. They contributed the "Art, Antiques and Collections: Collectibles" section for Encyclopedia Britannica Book of the Year and were once the prize for a Publishers' Clearing House contest.

Their best-known book, Kovels' Antiques and Collectibles Price Guide, has been published annually since 1968. The 2009 edition was just released. In 1974 the couple began to publish a monthly newsletter, Kovels on Antiques and Collectibles. Their subscription-based newsletter has over 60,000 subscribers and is available in a digital version on the website, Kovels.com, which is visited by over a quarter of a million readers each month.

Ralph Kovel served on the boards of trustees of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Western Reserve Historical Society, and Public Broadcasting stations WVIZ-TV and WCPN-NPR. He won numerous awards for his public service and two Cleveland Emmys for his television work.

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For nostalgia lovers young and old, the D.C. Big Flea promises two days of treasure hunting Sept. 20 & 21, 2008.

The D.C. Big Flea is held at the Dulles Expo Center.

Whether your area of interest is general store collectibles, vintage advertising, folk art, vintage toys or anything old, if you're in the area, it's worth checking out.

Hours for the show are: Saturday Sept. 20th 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Sunday September 21st  11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.. Admission is $8, good for both days. The address: Dulles Exposition and Convention Center, 4368 Chantilly Shopping Center Chantilly, VA 20151.

Only 10 minutes from the Dulles Airport.

Welcome to the latest issue of Antique Trader.

You don't want to miss the tiny treasures that are thimbles. Check out the story ... many of the thimbles are 3-D works of art!

From the good people at the Edna Hibel studio:

(By the way, if you haven't checked out her artwork, I encourage you to do so. She's a talented artist. You can see her work at www.hibel.com.)


The opening up of The People's Republic of China to the degree where it has welcomed the world inside its borders for the 29th Olympiad—hardly conceivable a scant thirty years ago—has occurred in small, incremental steps, beginning with the ping-pong diplomacy days of President Richard Nixon. In addition to sports, art has been instrumental in this increase of freedoms within China. Perhaps two important small steps toward China's increasing freedoms that have occurred along the way were the historic 1986 Edna Hibel art exhibitions in Beijing's China National Art Gallery, and Chongqing's Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts. These were the first exhibitions by a foreign woman in China.

Here is a brief history of what occurred in the aftermath of Edna Hibel's exhibitions in China, both of which were endorsed by then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, and then-Chinese Ambassador to the U.S.A., the Honorable Han Xu. (Other official endorsements came from then-Florida Governor Bob Graham, the then-American Ambassador to China, Winston Lord, along with officials from important American art institutions, such as the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.)

The Beijing opening of Hibel's exhibition was seen by many millions of Chinese on television. During the broadcast, the host said, "Hibel's beautiful art touched the hearts of the Chinese people." Several viewers from outlying provinces reported that they had sold their bicycles—their only mode of transportation—in order to travel to Beijing to view the Hibel exhibition.

Upon the conclusion of these historic Sino-American art exhibitions in 1986, China's Consul General to the U.S.A., Ni Yaoli, proclaimed to a large audience, "Edna Hibel has built a golden bridge between our two nations." Immediately, another exhibition invitation was extended to Edna Hibel by the Chinese government.

As an example of this "golden bridge," one of the paintings in Hibel's groundbreaking 50-year retrospective exhibitions in 1986 in China was a portrait of one of her classmates, Winnie Cheng, who returned to her native China shortly after the painting was completed in 1936. Winnie and Edna corresponded, but lost touch with each other after the start of WWII. As a result of the exhibition, however, a photograph of the Winnie Cheng painting appeared in a Shanghai newspaper.

Consequently, Winnie's son and grandson were found to be living in the U.S., and a tearful meeting was arranged where Edna learned that Winnie and her husband had died shortly after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Edna then created a drawing of Winnie's grandson, William, which was slated to be used as a poster in "A Golden Bridge," the forthcoming Hibel exhibition scheduled for September 1989 in Beijing. Unfortunately, the Tiananmen Square incident intervened and that second Hibel exhibition in China did not take place.

Back when I was a kid – and I’d like to think it wasn’t that long ago – I can’t recall many occasions where we had to lock the doors of our house or our car. Sometimes, during the deep-freeze days of winter, we’d even leave the old station wagon running while we popped into the store to grab some milk and bread.

We weren’t concerned someone would drive off with our car. Or sneak into our house and rob us blind while we were away at church. We trusted our friends and neighbors. We trusted people in general. We didn’t give it a second thought.

Somewhere along the line, that ability to trust became an exception rather than the norm. We want to give people the benefit of the doubt. And many times we can. On rare occasions, though, we get burned and the thought of trusting someone with our friendship, with our business, with our money, leaves a bad taste in our mouth.

Last week, a North Carolina woman named Patricia Jacoby was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for a pyramid scheme. Why do we care? We care because she represented herself as an antiques dealer and investor who bilked dozens of people like you and me out of an estimated $2.5 million.

The first troubling fact about this news story is that she was representing herself as a legitimate member of our industry. She lied to investors, telling them she purchased estate lots of antiques to resell them at profit and promised a 22 percent return on their investments within 30 days. The victims trusted her at her word.

The other troubling fact is that this latest conviction was her third offense. According to news accounts, Jacoby was previously convicted in two other schemes. She spent a year and a half in prison for bilking investors in an art scheme after a 2000 conviction. In 2006, she pleaded guilty to similar charges and paid $56,000 in restitution to victims.

Investigators said she used money raised from investors in the latest scam to repay previous victims, noting the antiques investment scheme was in the works as soon as Jacoby completed her sentence in the earlier case.

Fortunately, this brand of schemer doesn’t come along every day. For the most part, we can be proud to be a part of an industry of honest, hardworking dealers and shop owners. These rare exceptions, however, do raise some red flags. Whom can we trust? How do we know if someone is running a legitimate business? Can I trust that I am not buying a fake or reproduction?

Antique Trader would like to know how you determine a seller (or buyer for that matter) is trustworthy. Up to and including a police background check, what do you do to safeguard your investment before making it? Have you ever been the victim of an antiques-related scam? Please share your advice so other readers can learn from your experience, too. We’re all in this together. Let’s continue to watch each other’s back as we have been ... and pat each other’s back for your efforts to keep this industry clear of scandal.

Please e-mail me at robyn.austin@fwpubs.com, post a reply here, or drop me a line in the trusty old mailbox!

There’s no need to take your antiques on the road to find out what they are worth. A new class offered by Macomb Community College’s Center for Continuing Education will help attendees learn about the business of valuing and selling antiques.

“Hidden Treasures – Valuing Your Antiques” will be feature a panel of local antique professionals who will share their insights into the world of antiques. After the presentation, the panel will provide courtesy appraisals for one item per attendee.

The class will be offered 1:30-4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 3, at Macomb’s South Campus in Warren, Mich. The class fee is $39.

For more information about the class or to register, call 586.498.4000 or visit www.macomb.edu/cce.

About Macomb Community College
Macomb Community College (www.macomb.edu) is one of the nation’s leading community colleges, providing learning experiences to more than 59,000 students annually. Macomb nationally ranks in the top two percent in the number of associate degrees awarded and as the largest grantor of associate degrees in Michigan. The college’s comprehensive educational programming includes pre-collegiate experiences, university transfer and career preparation programs, bachelor degree completion and graduate degree programs, workforce training, professional education and certification, and continuing education and enrichment opportunities.

Well, folks, Labor Day is two weeks away. That means, of course, the end of summer. Kids head back to school and we can look forward to cooler weather, shorter days, and autumn colors sool following.

Labor Day also means antique shows. The York Antiques Show runs from Aug. 29-31, there are many holiday antiques fairs, shows, markets and fleas also running through the Labor Day holiday weekend all over the country...not to mention all the auction opportunities.

But let's not forget about the collectibles dedicated to this century-old holiday itself! Robert Reed wrote this week's Antique Trader cover story on Labor Day collectibles.

Visit www.antiquetrader.com and check it out! (Or you can click on the cover image below.) And don't forget to check out the story "An antique collection can save the day when times get hard" — it's a MUST read.