Innehållsförteckning för May 22, 2019 från Kovels Antique Trader

DALLAS – Important Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering cards and sets sold for nearly $300,000 at auction recently, after bidding wars blew away all expectations when they crossed the block at Heritage Auctions. A total of 37 lots were on offer and MTG cards claimed nine of the top prices. However, a bidding war broke out for a Pokémon First Edition Base Set Sealed Booster Box (Wizards of the Coast, 1999), which pushed the sale price to $78,000, the sale’s most expensive role-playing game item. The auction offered 12 Pokémon lots and 25 MTG lots, which sold for a combined $294,858 in Heritage Auctions’ Comics & Comic Art Auction Feb. 21-23. Bidders were determined to own the Pokémon First Edition Base Set, containing 36 unopened packs, each with 11 cards,…

Q Attached are several pictures of a metal spoon my husband and I bought many years ago. Can you tell us anything about it and its worth? Thank you. — D.M. A D.M. has sent photos of a spoon purchased years ago. No other information is provided except the photos. The photos reveal a spoon from low grade pewter or spelter, possibly with some copper. These were very common mainly in Germanic areas of Europe and had many variation depending on the purpose of the individual item. Some, this may be an example, had a religious connection. Others were communion or wedding spoons. Notice the cherubs in the motif. This spoon was cast and in a fairly crude way, revealing a large production. Because of the round bowl this example…

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian police have recovered a painting by French Impressionist Paul Signac stolen from a French museum. Police chief Serhiy Knyazev said the 1915 painting depicting the port of La Rochelle was found in the possession of a man who was arrested in Kiev on suspicion of involvement in a killing. The painting, estimated to be worth 1.5 million euros ($1.7 million), was stolen from The Museum of Fine Arts in the city of Nancy last May. Knyazev said April 23 that several Ukrainians suspected of involvement in the theft were arrested. Police believe that the same suspects could have been involved in the theft of a painting by Auguste Renoir in Vienna last year. The French ambassador to Kiev, Isabelle Dumont, thanked the Ukrainian police for…

BERLIN (AP) – An American art museum is demanding that a German far-right party stop using one of its paintings, portraying a 19th-century slave auction, in a campaign poster for the European elections. “We are strongly opposed to the use of this work to advance any political agenda,” Olivier Meslay, the director of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts [https://www.clarkart.edu/], told The Associated Press. “We did not supply the painting to the AfD,” he said, using the acronym for the party Alternative for Germany. The 1866 oil-on-canvas painting “Slave Market,” by Jean-Leon Gerome, shows a black, apparently Muslim slave trader displaying a naked young woman with much lighter skin to a group of men for examination. The AfD’s Berlin branch said they put up 30 posters of the painting…

Make sipping more sociable with vintage barware Always looking dapper in a suite and tie, Don Draper was known to knock back old-fashioned cocktails like they were going out of style. The face of AMC’s hit TV show “Mad Men” made men around the world envious of his classy lifestyle and women want to share a drink with him. Draper and the 1960s-set drama started the trend of bringing back vintage bar-ware when the show premiered in 2007. The series mixed its final drink in 2015. “TV shows like ‘Mad Men,’ and ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ have put barware front and center,” said Allie Taylor, who owns Allie’s Antiques in Norman, Oklahoma. “The obsession of entertaining in this iconic show is highly sought-after. Who doesn’t want to be as cool…

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – Most of the time when the city of Annapolis makes construction crews monitor any digging for archeological artifacts nothing of interest turns up. That’s not the case with a pit dug on Green Street [in Annapolis, Maryland] to replace a sewer line. The relatively small 5-by-1.5 foot trench was chock full of surprises, evidence of earlier walls, a foundation, and several pieces of pipe stems and Colonial and 19th-century ceramics. Not totally unexpected for property that was once owned by three generations of Charles Calverts, but there was more. Among the period material you might expect to find digging in Annapolis were pre-historic Native American pottery sherds likely of the Woodland period stretching from 1,000 B.C. to 1,000 A.D. “We probably found a half dozen prehistoric…

HELENA, Mont. (AP) – Montana Gov. Steve Bullock signed a bill April 23 to clarify that fossils are part of a property’s surface rights, not its mineral rights, unless a contract separating the ownership says otherwise. The bill, which passed unanimously in the House and Senate, was prompted by a legal challenge over the ownership of valuable dinosaur fossils unearthed on a central Montana ranch in 2006. The dinosaurs appeared to have died while locked in battle. Mary Ann and Lige Murray, owners of the surface rights where the dueling dinosaurs were found, along with Clayton Phipps, who found the fossils, joined Bullock for the signing along with representatives of the Museum of the Rockies and other dinosaur museums around the state. Phipps’ 12-year-old son, Luke, gave Bullock a fossilized…

NEW YORK CITY — Veteran auction executives Deborah Schmidt Robinson, Warren P. Weitman, Jr., and Mitchell Zuckerman, vhave announced the merger of Art Market Advisors with Lioness Art Partners, the boutique art and estate consulting firm, founded by Ms. Robinson. In 2016, after nearly 40 years at Sotheby’s, former colleagues Mitchell Zuckerman and Warren P. Weitman Jr. launched the independent advisory company Art Market Advisors, which is dedicated to guiding clients and their professional advisors in the complexities of the international art world and maximizing the value of their collections. Deborah Schmidt Robinson’s addition to the Art Market Advisors [www.artmarketadvisors.com] partnership rounds out the formidable combined 100-plus years of knowledge and specialized experience the trio holds in the art and auction industry. Art Market Advisors offers business advisory services to…

Author Steve Woit’s Fly Fishing Treasures: The World of Fly Fishers and Collecting is a colorful review of the area where collecting and fly fishing meet. This hefty tome includes 30 interviews with collectors, tackle experts and manufacturers, auctioneers, museum and club curators, and dealers of antique, vintage and collectible fly fishing tackle. Woit has been fly fishing for over forty years and has been an avid collector of antique fly fishing tackle for over thirty years. His goal for Fly Fishing Treasures is to pass on some of the knowledge he acquired about fly fishing to other collectors. As he says, “to share an inside view of a community of extraordinary people.” Woit spent more than seven years meeting and interviewing the collectors, experts, auctioneers, and others who provided…

VANCOUVER, B.C. — On Sunday, June 9, 2019, the Retro Design & Antiques Fair – spring edition – returns to Vancouver’s Commercial Drive, considered one of Canada’s hippest and most colorful neighborhoods. The 175 different vendors participating in this fun, one-day fair are what make it unique to the city, and what guarantees the variety and volume of antiques, memorabilia, and funky retro collectibles, all in one place at one time. Expect a great selection of vintage and estate jewelry, mid-century Modernist decor, linens and textiles, old kitchenalia, retro glam accessories, dolls and toys, pop culture, boho and shabby chic design, advertising and memorabilia, decorative pottery and glass, sterling silver, and more. In addition to acquiring new old prizes, drop-in appraisals will be available all day on a first-come-first-served basis.…

ARIZONA May 16-19, Jun 20-23, Jul 18-21, Aug 15-18, Sep 18-22, 2019 Phoenix. Sweet Salvage Market, 4648 N 7th Ave, Phoenix, AZ; 602-279-2996; info@sweetsalvage.net; sweetsalvage.net. SH: Thurs 10am-9pm; Fri-Sun 10am-6pm Jun 2, 2019 Prescott. Prescott Antique Show & Vintage Market. Historic Prescott Rodeo Grounds 840 Rodeo Dr. Prescott AZ. 3 buildings plus outdoor exhibit areas. 60 vendors. Free parking. https://www.prescottantiqueshow.com/; harveyseeker@cableone.net; 928-443-1862. ADM: $3 Sep 3, 2019 Phoenix. Historical Americana and Pop Culture Collectibles Show/Sale, Mountain View Lutheran Church, 11002 S 48th St, Phoenix AZ 85044; 480-577-9575; https://go.evvnt.com/383227-1?pid=6369 ARKANSAS Ongoing: Outside the Box NWA, 1225 W Hudson Rd., Rogers, AR 72756; 479-631-8974; www.outsidetheboxnwa.com. Indoor flea market, 30,000 sq. ft., 100+ vendors, antiques, collectibles, general merchandise. SH: M-Th 10am-5pm; Fri-Sat 10am-6pm; Sun 12-6pm Sep 13-14, 2019 Mountain Home. 42nd Annual Stamp…

Once again in this edition you will find a wide variety of topics. Wayne Jordan changes it up a bit in this issue and starts us out with a column aimed at collectors. Wayne explores the “KonMari” process of decluttering as it applies to collections. I’ve been struggling with this a bit myself of late. Coming from a family of seven, and living in a somewhat small house for a family that size, I didn’t have much personal space. So, as an adult, I’ve always feathered my nest with “interesting” things to look at, touch, hold, and enjoy. I picked up things here and there that “spoke to me” for any reason or no reason at all. My family and I live in a big old farmhouse with more than…

Q We are cleaning out our great aunt’s home and wondered if these dishes or lamps have any value, what they are and where they may be from. The tall “lady” lamp was our great aunt’s mother’s so I know it’s an old piece. Thank you! — J.G. A We hold dear our most treasured finds but when associated with a loved one they become even more treasured and handed down from generation to generation. Your lovely boudoir lamps and cut glass of your great aunt presented for appraisal appear in pictures to be in pristine excellent condition. The lamp you refer to as the tall lady lamp I believe was manufactured in Dresden, Germany with its elaborately flounced porcelain lace skirt, and delicate applied flowers adorning the skirt. Dresden…

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Santa Fe police say a Nevada man with a history of stalking famed art and antiquities collector Forrest Fenn’s family has been arrested. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports Francisco “Paco” Chavez of Henderson was arrested in Nevada on April 22, two days after he allegedly went to Fenn’s home. According to jail records, he is being held in lieu of bond. Fenn’s 2010 memoir, in which he writes of hiding $1 million in treasure in the Rocky Mountain region, has drawn would-be treasure hunters over the years. Police say Chavez was sentenced last year to three years of probation after admitting to stalking Fenn’s daughter and adult granddaughter in order to find the treasure. When reached by email, Fenn said he wished to remain…

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – An upright piano that John Lennon used to write Beatles’ songs has been sold at auction. Just “A Day in the Life” of the owner of the Indianapolis Colts. Jim Irsay tweeted April 20 that he’s “elated” to now own the instrument Lennon used to compose songs for The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album. The Indianapolis Star reports the piano, made in the 1870s, was auctioned on the site GottaHaveRockandRoll.com. The site estimated it would sell for between $800,000 and $1.2 million. As of Saturday afternoon [April 20], the final price tag had not yet been announced. Irsay calls ownership of the piano a “responsibility I take seriously, with future generations in mind.”…

CAIRO (AP) – Egypt says archaeologists have uncovered an ancient tomb with mummies believed to date back about 2,000 years in the southern city of Aswan. The Antiquities Ministry said in a statement on April 23 that the tomb is from the Greco-Roman period, which began with Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. It is located near one of Aswan’s landmarks, the Mausoleum of Aga Khan, who lobbied for Muslim rights in India and who was buried there after his death in 1957. The statement said archaeologists found artifacts, including decorated masks, statuettes, vases, coffin fragments and cartonnages – chunks of linen or papyrus glued together. Egypt often announces new discoveries, hoping to spur the country’s tourism sector, which has suffered major setbacks during the turmoil following the 2011 uprising…

NEW YORK CITY — The Board of Directors of the International Fine Print Dealers Association has announced that art fair veteran Helen Toomer will join Executive Director Jenny Gibbs at the helm of the Fine Art Print Fair as Fair Director. Gibbs, who became Executive Director of the International Fine Print Dealers Association, the Fine Art Print Fair and the IFPDA Foundation in February 2019, says, “I am thrilled we were able to recruit Helen to head the IFPDA Fine Art Print Fair! Her expertise and flair are just what we need to stand out in this crowded art-fair landscape.” President of the IFPDA, David Tunick, says, “Jenny and Helen make a formidable team – their breadth of experience and energetic leadership is what we need to advance the mission…

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The second edition of the Old California Show is slated for June 1 at Pickwick Gardens in Burbank, California. The Old California Show offers a diverse collection of California and American art from 1880-1950. Exhibitors will present for sale Mexicana, pottery, silver, textiles, Taxco jewelry, Native American, Navajo rugs, baskets, vintage cowboy and Western, California Tile and folk art. After the success of the inaugural show in February, promoter Dan May, who is a long-time California and Mexican art collector, expands to a larger venue. This event offers more room for dealers and free parking. Only hours after the announcement of this second show, half of the dealer spaces were booked. And dealer spaces are currently sold out. The one-day show will be held in the…

LAS VEGAS – An effervescent six-figure winning bid drove an extremely rare Coca-Cola prototype bottle to the top of prices realized at Morphy’s April 12-14 auction in Las Vegas. The elite three-day offering of antique coin-op and gambling machines, Old West relics, and antique advertising chalked up more than $3 million, with $110,700 of that total attributable to the early-20th-century soft drink bottle. A bona fide American treasure, the modified prototype bottle was created by the Root Glass Company in 1915 and submitted to Coca-Cola executives for consideration as the design for their standard Coke bottle. After remaining out of sight for more than a century, the bottle was discovered in the collection of a retired Coca-Cola employee who also had previously worked for Root Glass. According to Morphy Auctions…

Online auction prices rounded to the nearest dollar. Exclusive of shipping costs. Within the Ropes, by Harold Rice, $107 The Dunwich Horror, by H.P. Lovecraft, $105 Let’s Kill George, by Lucy Core, $91 The Moneyman, by Thomas B. Costain, $83 The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells, $70 Sleep No More, by August Derleth, $63 The Diamond as Big as the Ritz, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, $45 When Worlds Collide, by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie Tortilla Flat, by John Steinbeck, $29 Strange Fruit, by Lillian Smith, $19 The Pastures of Heaven, by John Steinbeck, $17 The Passionate Witch, by Thorne Smith, $15…

Dear Antique Trader: I read the article about Notre Dame covering up some murals showing Columbus and local Indians. [Antique Trader Feb. 13, 2019] My thought was, just how goofy people these days actually are. It is called Political Correctness. I call it insanity! A letter writer connected the mural with slavery. I would imagine slavery went back to the cave man days. American Indians took slaves from other Indian tribes. They also were at war with each other, so our history is full of non-peaceful Indians and people. We can never change what went on hundreds or thousands of years ago. What was a normal thing to do many years ago is not acceptable today. I can think of many examples of that from medicine on down. A simple…

The Marie Kondo “decluttering” craze has created a mini-crisis in the thrift industry and shaken the confidence of some collectors. Kondo, author of the best-selling book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” [https://amzn.to/2VEUh7I] and host of the Netflix show “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” [https://www.netflix.com/title/80209379] touts the KonMari method of decluttering and organizing. KonMari advises users to discover if items in their home “spark joy” and, if they don’t, to discard them. To “spark joy” means to elicit a positive emotional response. The popularity of the method has caused thrift donations to increase dramatically nationwide and collectors to revisit their collections, wondering if some items should be discarded. In a broad sense, the difference between a collection and an accumulation is more than…

FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man who opened an antique bottle of rat poison he thought contained whiskey was taken to the hospital after complaining of burning on his hands and throat. Fall River Fire Capt. Neil Furtado tells The Herald News firefighters responded to a self-storage facility in the city at about 7:30 p.m. April 23. The man said he had bought several bottles at auction and was told they were at least 60 years old and probably contained whiskey. The man is expected to be OK. His name wasn’t released. Furtado says the only bottle he opened contained strychnine powder, used as rat poison. A hazardous materials team responded and tested the other bottles, some of which contained acid. Nothing was spilled but the storage facility…

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – In one photo an elderly immigrant in a neat but well-worn suit looks to an unseen horizon through tired eyes. In another, a Reconstruction-period soldier stands proud in Union blues. Moving through the collection of historic photographs, a young African-American girl poses in a turn-of-the-century dress; a young flapper woman appears in fashion of the Jazz Age; and a businessman strikes a portrait in the days leading up to the Second World War. Their photographs are just a few that make up “Faces Found: Boone County Portraits 1886-1940,” a unique exhibit currently on display through November at the Boone County History and Culture Center. The display represents the work of four photographers who operated out of the same Columbia studio throughout the period and represents the…

MACON, Ga. (AP) – Before toymakers realized there was a market for black baby dolls, a black handyman in Macon was making them by hand. When he was not working on houses for white families in Macon during the late 1800s and early 1900s, Leo Moss was painting the faces of his friends and family on papier-mache heads, coloring their skin with chimney soot or boot dye. Today, the dolls are rarities worth thousands of dollars. Moss never saw a penny of it. He died poor and it is said he is buried in a pauper’s grave in Illinois. Private collectors and a few museums across the country are among those in possession of the dolls. None of them are on display in his hometown of Macon, where his story…

CROAKER, Va. (AP) – It wasn’t exactly the heist of the century, but disappointing nonetheless when Howard Hankins discovered one of the presidential busts missing from the collection on his Croaker farm. The crumbling, damaged large busts of 42 presidents – and a much smaller bust of Barack Obama – are all that remains of Presidents Park, the defunct open-air museum near Williamsburg where visitors once walked among the presidential heads. The York County park opened in 2004, at a cost of about $10 million, but went belly up in 2010 because of a lack of visitors. That’s where Hankins, who helped build the park, came in. He offered to take the 18- to 20-foot heads and move them about 12 miles away to his 400-acre farm, where they have…

SEYMOUR, Ind. (AP) – Workers installing sewer lines across a southern Indiana farm unearthed the fossilized bones of a mastodon that likely stood about 9 feet tall. The bones include most of a tusk, parts of a skull and a jawbone with teeth. They were recently dug up on a farm in Seymour, about 60 miles south of Indianapolis. Joe Schepman owns the farm with his family. He tells The Seymour Tribune that “it’s amazing to think about something this large roaming around this area.” Ron Richards is senior research curator of paleobiology at the Indiana State Museum. He says the mastodon would have stood between 9 and 9 1/2 feet tall. Richards says the fossil’s age will be determined using radiocarbon dating.…

KODIAK, Alaska (AP) – Officials say the Baranov Museum in Kodiak has a new name after completion of extensive renovation of its permanent exhibit space. The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported on April 19 that the Kodiak Historical Society’s board of directors voted to change the name to Kodiak History Museum to better convey the broad Kodiak history that is encapsulated at the museum. The Historical Society says the Baranov Museum name misrepresents the museum’s mission and place in the community as it doesn’t focus on Russian history alone. The museum’s $750,000 permanent exhibit renovation began in September. As part of the reopening, the Historical Society unveiled a new bronze outdoor sculpture by Alutiiq artist Perry Eaton and featured a performance by the Alutiiq Dancers. The museum reopened on May 4.…

On the banks of the Mississippi River on an eagle flyway in Wabasha, Minnesota, a massive tribute to an American icon is underway. The Preston Cook Collection of 25,000 eagle objects is housed and displayed in a major expansion currently underway at the National Eagle Center. In addition, American Eagle: A Visual History of Our National Emblem (Goff Books, $75 hardcover), has just been released, showcasing for audiences worldwide a sampling of this iconic collection. A bold expression of a fledgling republic’s aspirations and bravado, the American bald eagle has been designed, drawn, illustrated, stamped, engraved, painted, sculpted, carved, photographed, and etched by thousands of artists and artisans since 1782, when it first appeared as the central figure on the Great Seal of the United States. As America’s most versatile…

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Some things never get old, like the Annual New Hampshire Antiques Show back for its 62nd year. This year boasts 67 exhibitors from all over the country showcasing some of the finest displays of antique jewelry, folk art, furniture, fine and decorative arts, and more. Held at the Double-Tree by Hilton (formerly The Manchester Downtown Hotel) from August 8-10, highly reputable dealers will join together with thousands of buyers and enthusiasts in search of high-quality antiques while enjoying New Hampshire’s tax-free state. “We all have many regular buyers that come back year after year,” shared Tommy Thompson, president of the Board of Directors for the New Hampshire Antique Dealers Association. “These dealers are informed art and antiques experts you aren’t just buying an item you are buying…

BOSTON – A historically significant Apollo Guidance Computer Display and Keyboard (DSKY) sold for $210,261 according to Boston-based RR Auction. During Apollo 14, a loose ball of solder floating inside the abort switch of the Lunar Module Antares caused an intermittent short circuit, threatening to accidentally activate the switch and rocket the module back into orbit during its landing sequence. In order to prevent that scenario, MIT computer programmer Don Eyles, a developer of the AGC’s source code, was asked to hack his own software to find a workaround. This represented the most dramatic moment for MIT’s programmers throughout the entire Apollo program, as they had just three to four hours to work out a fix, test it, and relay it to the astronauts in time for Powered Descent Initiation.…

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Norton Museum of Art reports it is presenting a large museum exhibition of classic movie posters from one of the most prominent private collections in the world. Titled Coming Soon: Film Posters from the Dwight M. Cleveland Collection, the exhibition includes more than 200 posters representing comedies, musicals, Westerns, sci-fi thrillers, dramas, and others that date from the turn of the 20th century to the late 1980s. Coming Soon will be on view from July 12 through October 29, 2019. The exhibition is co-organized by guest curator Matthew Bird and Norton Assistant Curator J. Rachel Gustafson, who selected 215 posters, from the more than 3,000 held in the Cleveland Collection, to present a comprehensive history of movie poster art and the long-standing allure of…

DALLAS – Led by The Otto Penzler Collection of Mystery Fiction and a copy of The Federalist Papers in its original boards, Heritage Auctions’ Rare Books Auction realized $1,684,038 against $993,900 in pre-auction estimates, the department’s third consecutive sale to realize more than 160 percent the estimated total. The sale was held March 6. Otto Penzler Collection of Mystery Fiction Penzler won an Edgar Award as co-author of the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, founded The Mysterious Press and owns The Mysterious Bookshop in New York [https://www.mysteriousbookshop.com/]. His collection of mystery fiction, the first 231 lots of which were offered in this sale, is considered one of the most extensive in the world. This sale featured mostly American authors, with a focus on hard-boiled writers. The total realized for the…