Innehållsförteckning för October 7, 2020 från Kovels Antique Trader

DENVER, Penn. – A lifelong fan of antiques who grew up attending shows and auctions with his family, Dr. Joshua Tauber has joined Morphy Auctions as a consultant in their Fine & Decorative Arts Division. A native of Morristown, New Jersey, Tauber operates an antiques store in Phoenix well known for its array of early twentieth-century lighting and decorative arts of the Art Nouveau period. “Josh is not only extremely knowledgeable about Tiffany Studios productions,” Dan Morphy, president and founder of Morphy Auction, said, “he also has a special interest in the more obscure makers, such as Suess, Bigelow & Kennard, and Duffner & Kimberly. We know he’s going to be a great asset to our Decorative Arts Division.” Morphy’s is accepting consignments for a December 9-10 Fine & Decorative…

A noose hanging from a tree. A sign that reads: “No Negroes Allowed After Sundown.” Photos of Ku Klux Klan members posing next to a beaten and bloody African American. These are just a few of the powerful, incomprehensible images that show how Black men, women and children have suffered intolerance and social injustice over the past couple hundred years in the U.S. They are also signature pieces on display at the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia on the campus of Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan. “I think we’ve done a great job in terms of facilitating good discussions about race, race relations, racism and about inclusion,” said Dr. David Pilgrim, museum founder and curator. “In this country, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again,…

Born in Brooklyn in 1928 and recognized early on as a gifted talent, Frank Frazetta is widely regarded as the master of modern fantasy art, influencing generations of artists and filmmakers with dramatic science-fiction images of muscled male warriors, curvaceous maidens and creatures seemingly spawned in the depths of hell. His status does not come without concerns. Some viewed his depictions of powerful, sensual women as over the top. Their curvaceous boldness was an easy target for critics. But those detractors were missing the point – and the appeal – of his work. The supremely confident Frazetta was simply not interested in ordinary. “Everybody knocks my female figures,” Frazetta said in a 2003 interview. “They say they’re overblown, that women don’t look like that. And I agree. Certainly all women…

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – When the first World War exploded in the late summer of 1914, armies took the field in bright uniforms and navies steamed to sea flying the colors of their nations. For the ensuing years of global war until the peace treaty was signed on June 28, 1919, most history has centered on battles, leaders and empires. Throughout this time, a largely unrepresented population in the histories were women in countries involved in the war. Women worked in war industries like agriculture, nursing and transport, while engaged in the fight for voting rights, equal pay and respect. In France, recent scholarship has shown that the survival of women’s fashion also played an important role in keeping up morale, maintaining ties with allies and even helping the war-time…

OH SURE, $8 MILLION sounds like a lot of money, but come on, we all know if we rifled through Jeff Bezos’ sofa cushions right now we’d come up with a big chunk of change. And I’m sure if we checked out Bill Gates’ pants pockets on laundry day we’d come across an enormous wad of bills, not to mention the occasional Kleenex or two. Mark Zuckerberg, with all his Facebook cash, you just know his coin jar alone could put us over the top. My point is, $8 million is just not that much money – if you’re filthy rich, which comes in handy if you are, like me, interested in buying just about the coolest conversation piece in the history of conversation pieces: a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Let’s face…

TELL EL-BURAK, Lebanon — Archaeologists have unearthed new evidence of the extensive overseas trade in wine by the ancient Phoenicians, with the discovery of the oldest wine press in Lebanon. The find sheds new light on wine-making by the Phoenicians, the seafaring merchants who introduced a culture of drinking wine throughout the ancient Mediterranean, and whose influence lives on in the beverage’s worldwide popularity. Excavations at Tell el-Burak, about five miles south of the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon, have revealed the well-preserved remains of a wine press used from at least the seventh century B.C. It is the earliest wine press ever found in the Phoenician homelands, which roughly corresponded to modern Lebanon. The discovery is featured in a study published on Sept. 14 in the journal, Antiquity. Large…

When Western Publishing debuted Little Golden Books in the 1940s, the success was immediate. Little Golden Books were cheap to make, used little paper, were durable in the hands of children and – best of all – they were inexpensive, a popular feature given the frugality of the war years. Today, fans include the young and the young-at-heart, as well as collectors. Below are some interesting facts about Little Golden Books. 1 Little Golden Books premiered with 12 titles, all published in September 1942. All 12 were hardcover and 42 pages. The first advertisement announcing Little Golden Books appears in Publisher’s Weekly, September 19, 1942. All 12 titles were priced at 25 cents each. Today you can expect to pay around $5 per book. 2 The first 12 books released…

While in Germany in 1961 to photograph the building of the Berlin wall, photojournalist Leonard Freed noticed an African American soldier guarding the border. Struck by the fact that the man was risking his life to defend a country that limited his own rights, Freed was inspired to capture the African American experience in the civil-rights era. After returning home, Freed (1929-2006) began his new project. For years he visited Black neighborhoods in New York, Washington, D.C., and throughout the South, capturing black-and-white images that reflected the struggle for the end of racial segregation. The result was the influential 1968 book, Black in White America, that strove to document a culture and also to raise public awareness of the inequalities it had to endure. On October 6, Heritage Auctions is…

The name Jim Crow is often used to describe the segregation laws, rules, and customs which arose after Reconstruction ended in 1877 and continued until the mid-1960s. How did the name become associated with these “Black Codes” which took away many of the rights which had been granted to blacks through the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments? “Come listen all you galls and boys, I'm going to sing a little song, My name is Jim Crow. Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow.” These words are from the song, “Jim Crow” as it appeared in sheet music written by Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice. Rice, a struggling “actor” (he did short solo skits between play scenes) at the Park Theater…