Innehållsförteckning för September 15, 2022 från Kovels Antique Trader

I discovered my first nineteenth century photographs in 1963 when I was around six or seven years old in the most unlikely place - a duck farm. If Dickens’ Miss Havisham had an outbuilding, it would have been the vast, antique-filled, dark barn in which I discovered these antique images. I wandered through that massive barn along pathways seemingly laid out with the use of a blindfold and an Etch A Sketch; it was literally a maze from the past. Victorian balloon-back sofas, pier mirrors, highboys, chests of drawers, spinning wheels, trunks, tables, oil lamps, and glassware of every description lined the aisle which led to the treasure that would spark a lifetime of collecting. Baskets and chairs hung suspended from crossbeams like an antique lover’s heaven. At the end…

You could not mistake Margarete Keane’s paintings of tearful waifs, haunted-looking adults and gloomy animals. They were everywhere in the 1960s. While originals were exhibited at the United Nations and the New York World’s Fair, posters, plates, figurines and postcards featuring her mournful, saucer-eyed figures were hot sellers at chain stores. Whether critics liked the work - and plenty did not fans of it couldn’t get enough. Keane, whose husband infamously took credit for her work before losing a high-profile legal battle - a story retold in director Tim Burton’s him about her life, Big Eyes - died June 26. She was 94 Keane’s work divided the art world. Some critics dismissed it as cliché and sentimental, yet others like Pop icon Andy Warhol praised her paintings. “I think what…

CALIFORNIA Every first Sunday of the month, Alameda. Alameda Point Antiques Faire. Mar 13-14, 2020 Alameda. Alameda Vintage Fashion Faire. Every first Sunday of the month through May, Palm Springs. Palm Springs Vintage Market, PS Cultural Center at the Camelot Theater, 2300 E Baristo Rd, Palm Springs. For more info, visit palmspringsvintagemarket.com. Every second Sunday of the month, Pasadena. World’s largest flea market at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena. More than over 2 million items offered for sale by more than 2,500 vendors. Shop for rareand unusual, vintage collectibles, antiques, new items, arts and crafts and second-hand items. SH: early birds, 5-9am; regular admission: 9am-3pm. For more info, visit rgcshows.com or call 323-560-7469. Every second Sunday of the month, Sacramento. Sacramento Antique Faire, located at Sleep Train Arena, East Entrance, Sacramento,…

DALLAS - Responding to mounting interest in the red-hot category of collectible sneakers, Heritage Auctions has created a Sneakers Division, naming Arman Salemi as its point guard. Salemi, a Miami native, will serve as consignment director of Heritage’s newest division, a seemingly natural fit for Salemi, an avid basketball fan who developed a passion for sneakers at age 12. “I remember the first time my parents allowed me to choose my first pair of sneakers,” Salemi said. “The wall of shoes showcasing the different designs and colors, it was as if I could express myself in a way I never had before.” Salemi quickly became a Sneakerhead and an enthusiastic collector, purchasing as many pairs as possible that fit his personality. At one point, his collection included roughly 200 pairs.…

So widely revered is Wright (1867-1959) that he entered Pop culture consciousness when Simon & Garfunkel, one of the best-selling duos in music history, paid tribute with “So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright.” Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin. Legend speaks of his mother prophesying about her unborn child becoming someone who would create historic buildings. She was not wrong. Her son’s distinct style helped him become one of the biggest forces in American architecture. Raised in rural Wisconsin, Wright’s design style, often known as “Prairie School,” is marked by horizontal lines, flat roofs and overhanging eaves that intend to evoke the wide and flat prairie landscape found in the American Midwest. Wright was a proponent of designing buildings to flow in harmony with the environment. Across his legendary career,…

Edith Head (1897-1981) is America’s best-known and most successful Hollywood designer. A winner of eight Academy Awards for Costume Design, Head defined the style of classic Hollywood with her striking work at Paramount and Universal. She dressed some of Hollywood’s most beautiful movie stars, including Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Lana Turner and Marlene Dietrich. Her work, however, was not limited to women. She designed wardrobes for such dashing leading men as Cary Grant, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, to name a few. Head’s gown designs for Ingrid Berman in the 1946 suspense classic. Notorious, was her first collaboration with director Alfred Hitchcock, a partnership that lasted for eight movies. All told, Head designed costumes for about 500 films and was nominated thirty-five times for an Academy Award. She…

Windmills have graced the landscape throughout most of the world for centuries harnessing the power of the wind. But all through the United States and especially in rural areas, windmills were engaged in pumping water to service farm and ranch livestock, irrigating crops and to use for daily household routines, especially the American west. The heyday for the windmill in the U.S. was during the last half of the nineteenth century and well into the first half of the twentieth. With the enactment of the 1861 Homestead Act, settlers and would be farmers and ranchers turned westward to set up their homesteads. And when the Civil War came to an end those numbers grew But once they settled upon their multiacre parcels located on the treeless grasslands it became obvious…

When it comes to the best of the best in costume jewelry collecting, the name Boucher (pronounced “booshay”) always makes the top of the list. Some of Marcel Boucher’s designs from late 1930s and ’40s sell for thousands. Of course, those aren’t the types of pieces jewelry afficionados run across very often. They are, however, what makes Boucher one of the most esteemed names in this realm of collecting. Meet the Bouchers Marcel Boucher, in addition to being a talented designer, was also a skilled craftsman. He began his career in the jewelry business as a model maker for Cartier bringing design sketches into dimensional form. He worked for the famed fine jeweler in France and then moved to New York City. Many workers in the industry transitioned to costume…