Innehållsförteckning för March 25 2020 från Kovels Antique Trader

The LEGO minifigure stands only about an inch and a half tall – or in LEGO terms, four blocks high. In the active imaginations of children of all ages, however, the minifigure is a giant. Danish LEGO designer Jens Nygaard Knudsen, the man responsible for creating the minifigure, one of the most beloved toys in the world, died February 19 in Denmark. He was 78. The Lego Group announced his death, describing Knudsen as “a true visionary whose ideas brought joy and inspiration to millions of builders around the world.” Although the modern LEGO building blocks were introduced in 1958, LEGO lacked a “human” to enliven its playscapes. It was Knudsen’s innovation, released in 1978, that forever changed the LEGO world. Early minifigures included a police officer, a firefighter, a…

OREGON, Ill. - The Oregon Women’s Club is gearing up for its 70th annual antiques show, one of the premier antiques shows in Northern Illinois. The club, as a member of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, sponsors this show as a major fundraising event and uses the proceeds to help fund various community projects and charities. The show, on Saturday and Sunday March 28 and 29, will feature 53 Midwest antiques dealers from Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Iowa offering quality antiques from the early 1800s through the mid-1900s. Items will include all areas of collecting — furniture, glass, china, pottery, toys, primitives, textiles, jewelry, dolls, silver, decorator items, fine art, and more. There will be items for all collecting tastes and budgets, for both the new and advanced…

NEW YORK — Alphonse Mucha’s enduring esteem reached a fever pitch at Poster Auctions International’s recent sale of rare posters, when a panel of his set a record price for his work. Mucha’s incredibly rare — and incredibly opulent — Precious Stones from 1902 saw fervent bidding and finally sold for $192,000, seting the new world record for sales of this work. The four decorative panels each personify a different gemstone, and this larger format version is exceedingly scarce: only three or four full sets are known to exist. The passion for Mucha continued with his iconic 1896 TheSeasons; the four idyllic decorative panels were won for $45,600. Also, his celestial 1896 design for Sarah Bernhardt, La Dame aux Camelias was claimed for $31,200. Clearly, Mucha’s appeal only grows with…

I ALWAYS FEEL SO heartbroken for brilliantly creative artists who are not appreciated in their time and pass before they can see how their work influences the world. Like ceramics artist George E. Ohr, “The Mad Potter” from Biloxi, Mississippi, who died in 1918 and is the subject of our cover story. I knew of Ohr’s pottery only in passing, so it was a great pleasure to learn more about his life and work though research and in talking to David Rago, founder of Rago Art and Auction Center, who, despite having a big auction going on at the time, graciously took time to answer a bunch of my questions. Rago, a passionate Ohr connoisseur, provides great insight into Ohr’s work. Ohr has said that when he found the potter’s…

BEAUMONT, Texas — Finder’s Fayre has been wildly successful as a Beaumont, Texas staple, providing art and antiques to clients for the last 55 years, and Dexter S. Augier, the experienced antiques curator behind Finder’s Fayre, has launched a new online antiques store, Bookmark Memories LLC. Like Finder’s Fayre, Bookmark Memories will serve a niche market, housing specially selected antiques and rare items from all over the world, with art dated from the 18th century to about 1925. Imagine finding hidden treasures online from the comfort of your home. “These carefully selected treasures connect us to our memories and dreams,” Dexter Augier said, “I’ve always wanted to share my love for antiques with others, and a website will allow me to broaden my reach.” An example of the one-of-a-kind items…

A group of singing, dancing, anthropomorphized raisins launched a sensational career after singing the 1968 Marvin Gaye song, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” in a 1986 commercial for the California Raisin Advisory Board. This was also the first time in history that a commercial spawned such a volume of merchandise, and in 1987, the California Raisins’ popularity exploded after Hardee’s created molded Raisins figurines to promote its cinnamon-raisin biscuits. Combined with more TV ads, and even a music album, The California Raisins Sing the Hit Songs, the Raisins’ images were everywhere, and a cultural phenomenon was born. More TV ads, albums, and merchandise ranging from lunch boxes to clothing followed. They also eventually starred in an Emmy-nominated TV special, 1988’s Meet the Raisins, and their own Saturday-morning cartoon on…

PARIS — Artprice, a leading online art price database, has classified the different periods of art history and how it pertains to artwork, particularly contemporary work. Artprice said its editorial team has always divided Art History into five main periods with artworks being classified according to a simple and indisputable criterion: the birth year of their creators: • Old Masters: artists born up until 1760 • 19th century: artists born from 1760 to 1860 • Modern: artists born from 1860 to 1920 • Post-War: artists born between 1920 and 1945 • Contemporary: artists born after 1945 As time advances, the period referred to as “Contemporary Art” is getting longer. It now covers artists as diverse as Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) and Oscar Murillo (b. 1986), Anselm Kiefer (b. 1945) and Kaws…

DOUGLASS, Kan. — Several important collections of American brilliant cut glass are crossing the block at Woody Auction Friday and Saturday, March 27-28. Headlining the auction will be the collection of the late Steve Owlett of Pennsylvania, who gravitated to J. Hoare cut glass because his family tree included John Hoare; the collection of the late Dr. and Mrs. Elizabeth Dudgeon of Florida, featuring items that include a Dorflinger green to clear vase with gilded sterling top; and the collection of Roger, Lois, Randy and Deb Rasmussen of South Dakota. Lots will include punch bowls, ice cream trays, vases, decanters and over 60 pieces of color. Rare patterns such as Pueblo, Wheat, Croesus, Richilieu, Coronet, Persian and Panel all grace this auction, along with a wide array of other notable…

During the Edo period in Japan (1603-1868), folklore heroes and mythological beasts worked alongside firefighters in battling blazes. Not in reality, of course, but they did symbolically have firemen’s backs. Fires were frequent during this period because of crowded living conditions and wooden buildings, and the firefighters’ objective was to prevent a burning house from spreading its flames to the neighboring residences. Japanese firefighters of the Edo period used much different techniques than American firefighters, and although they were supplied with portable hand-pumps, the stream of water was too weak to do much good against fire. This meant that firemen did not save the home, but rather tore down the burning structure and extinguished the fire. They did this by using long poles and other fire implements to demolish the…