Innehållsförteckning för August 1, 2021 från Kovels Antique Trader

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The 49th annual Gold Rush promises to be an exciting show for people seeking antiques, collectibles and other treasures. The show, August 20-22 at Graham Park (Olmsted County fairgrounds), will feature dealers from all across the nation coming to exhibit. All COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted by the governor for the show. This indoor/outdoor event covers 52 acres with more than 1,200 spaces and eight buildings, which will include antique furniture, primitives, advertising signs, antique toys, peddle cars, farm toys and farm-related items, car-related items, comics, postcards, sport cards, hunting, fishing, brewery items, art glass, pottery, Depression-era glassware, jewelry, clocks, lamps, perfume bottles, sewing items, children’s furniture and dishes, decorative arts, paintings, prints, textiles, vintage clothing, door stops, bookends, Americana, Native American items, crocks, repurposed and upcycled…

Ask me what I know about Decatur, Illinois, and I’ll tell you that that’s where Hi-Flier kites come from. Came from, at least, in the era when I was an ardent consumer of kites. This was from about 1960 to 1966, roughly when I was in second through eighth grade, on the Northwest Side of Chicago, near Talcott Road and Canfield, right on the border with Park Ridge. I say “consumer” of kites because that’s how it worked: I saved up a dime, bought a kite down at Bud Maday’s Talcott Hardware Store at Talcott and Canfield, and flew it until I destroyed it, which was anywhere from five minutes to five days after standing up in the Edison School playground and committing my doomed possession to the Windy City’s…

If you were a child in The Fifties, your hand shot up like a Soviet Union R-7 ICBM rocket. You know, the fiery beast that in 1957 launched not only Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth, but also launched the fears of a nation. So a little uranium among friends? Sure, why not? Back then, amidst the chill of the Cold War, science mattered. Today? Not so much. In The Fifties there was no debate, just white-lab-coated doers. The ability to successfully blast a satellite into space was a Big Deal. It meant the Russians were strong, forward thinkers and certainly about to crush us. By comparison, Americans were weak, lazy and – sure enough – our national pants zipper was open. If something wasn’t done fast, we’d…

The work of a noted photographer is the heart of an upcoming Hess Fine Auctions sale, with proceeds going to a children’s hospital. Hess is presenting the estate of William Edward Dassonville, along with other fine art, on Saturday, July 31. The auction starts at noon Eastern Time. Dassonville (1879-1957), a California pictorialist photographer primarily known for his soft-focus landscapes, was an associate of Ansel Adams and worked with William Keith, George Stirling, Maynard Dixon, and John Miur. Born in Sacramento, he was secretary of the California Camera Club and contributed to Camera Craft. He also invented a velvety surfaced printing paper that he later manufactured commercially. His chemistry was heralded by Adams and Imogen Cunningham, and he exhibited alongside Alfred Stieglitz, Clarence White, and Gertrude Kasebier. Proceeds from the…

The Hi-Flier Manufacturing Co. was once the world’s largest kite maker, headquartered in Decatur, Illinois. With kites such as the American Beauty, Strato-Flier and Hi-Flier Little Boy, and with the slogan “Playmates of the Clouds,” Hi-Flier ruled the sky. Here’s how it happened: 1921:Harvey A. Sellers, a paper salesman, begins tinkering with kite designs in his Decatur, Illinois, basement. He uses a wire loop to hold two sticks together — a decision credited with making the product strong but light. 1922:The Hi-Flier Kite Co. is o›cially founded, and within a week moves into Sellers’ garage to handle orders. The bow kite and barn-door kite are early models. 1923:The company relocates to a plant at 165 E. Marietta St., where 34 employees produce 10,000 kites a day. “The whole world seems…

In medieval times, foul odors were thought to carry diseases — and since the streets smelled so bad from garbage and sewage, many women carried around small pomanders and vinaigrettes filled with bouquets of fragrant herbs and spices to offset the rank aromas. By the 18th century, new decorative deodorizers arrived in the form of small vases, which could be pinned to clothing or held in the hand, so that one’s nostrils were never far from a fragrant bouquet of sweet-smelling posies. In the 19th century, these posy holders still had the practical use of protecting from unpleasant odors, but they were now romanticized by the Victorians as a popular fashion accessory for young ladies to hold flowers brought by courting gentlemen callers. These small bouquets of flowers, called tussie-mussies,…

a style of Japanese animation characterized by stark colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-›lled plots often with fantastic or futuristic themes. When he was a kid, Mike Glad collected stamps, but he never had enough money to specialize. “I had a world collection,” the collector, photographer and Oscar-nominated film producer says with a laugh from his Modesto, California, home. “You could buy 500 different worldwide stamps for two dollars. You’d then go home, spread them out on a table and start looking through your stamp album. When you found a picture of one of these stamps in your album, you got excited. It was a very, very wonderful moment.” Mike is remembering his earliest forays into the world of collecting, which has seen him ascend from a youthful enthusiast…