Innehållsförteckning för March 2025 från Kovels Antique Trader

1485 West Housatonic Street, Pittsfield, MA 01201 (413)448-8922 info@fontainesauction.com www.fontainesauction.com…

Alifelong friend recently moved to Phoenix, trading the flannel and wool of arctic Wisconsin winters for industrial-strength, SPF 1000 sunscreen and a sophisticated scorpion defense system, all to survive in the dessert. Which to me, weather-wise, sounds like a wash. Even so, every time we talk, he asks when I'm coming to visit, like I'm some poor sap in dire need of sunshine, warmth and sensation to return to my toes. No thank you, I've gotten quite used to blue toes. They match my fingers. While I appreciation the invite, I know Winter can't last forever – can it? The greatest quality anyone has who lives in The Tundra is the ability to soldier on. Next to shivering, plodding along in bulky, sensible clothing is what we do best. That…

Rarely, if ever, is there a guaranteed jackpot in Las Vegas, but such was the case when Morphy Auctions offered eager bidders the chance to reap Part I of a world-class collection of antique advertising and coin-operated machines during its Dec. 5-7 sale held there. The collection, curated by Rich and Sharon Penn, who spent several decades acquiring the best examples of these items, was the special highlight of the auction. Dan Morphy, Morphy's founder, president, and principal auctioneer, called the collection “unquestionably one of the finest of its type. Every item Rich and Sharon acquired was handpicked with an emphasis on high condition, rarity, and eye appeal.” He also noted that based on bidders' enthusiasm for this first round from the Penns' collection, there's a lot of excitement for…

CALIFORNIA Every first Sunday of the month, Alameda. Alameda Point Antiques Faire, 3900 Maine St., Alameda, CA. The Alameda Point Antiques Faire is the largest antiques show in Northern California, boasting 800 dealer booths. All items 20 years old or older. For more info, visit alamedapointantiquesfaire.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 rare and 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. SH: 6:30am-3pm, rain or shine.…

YORK, Pa. – Hake's debut sale of Star Wars and other action figures and prototypes from the celebrated JeffJacob collection soared to a $1.45 million finish, crushing all expectations on Jan. 22. The initial offering of 435 lots from Jacob's 33-year collection launched a multi-part series of sales scheduled for 2025 and marked the first time an auction devoted exclusively to action figures broke the million-dollar mark. “When we landed Jeff's collection, we knew we definitely had something special, but we also sensed it could end up being legendary,” Alex Winter, president of Hake's Auctions, said. Nearly all figures, playsets, vehicles and other items in the collection were AFA-graded and served as a shining testament to Jacob's decades-long mission to upgrade his holdings to the maximum possible level. Most pieces…

If you're curious about the health of the antiques and collectibles hobby, look no further than Heritage Auctions and their stunningly successful 2024 for the answer. The Dallas-based Heritage reached nearly $1.9 billion in total sales last year, the highest ever for the 49-year-old company in the wake of three successive record-setting years. “Collectors continue to amaze us with their passion and curiosity, uncovering treasures that redefine what it means to preserve history and culture,” says CEO and co-founder Steve Ivy. “While much of the auction world faces its well-documented challenges, Heritage continues to thrive, driven by record-breaking results, innovative categories, technological advancements and a growing global community of collectors.” Heritage's year was defined by numerous significant sales, chief among them December's Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz,…

Written one night at a journalist friend's New Jersey home on a borrowed portable typewriter as he chain-smoked Camel cigarettes, Bob Dylan's “Mr. Tambourine Man” would become one of his best-known songs. Two sheets of weathered yellow paper with those typewritten lyrics and scribbled edits by Dylan sold for $508,000 at Julien's Auctions in January. Although not a hit for Dylan, a version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” by the Byrds was a smash, reaching No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1965. Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, is experiencing a Hollywood moment with the release of the new movie, A Complete Unknown, which stars Timothée Chalamet and chronicles Dylan's early career.…

In the final years of his illustrious career, William Morris founded Kelmscott Press that was a short-lived yet prolific passion project for the Arts and Crafts icon. Morris' printing press published 53 bespoke books between 1891 and 1898, which, for the first time in half a century, the complete collection hit the auction block at Bonhams in New York on Dec. 17, 2024, to the delight of antiquarian book collectors. Every book sold for a total of $690,000. The remarkable collection was previously owned by the late Joseph Mark Van Horn (1932-1983), an entrepreneur and inventor. The top lot was the 1896 edition of a Geoffrey Chaucer volume illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones that sold for $114,800 over a high estimate of $90,000. Known as the Kelmscott Chaucer, it includes the…

An unlikely international best seller in 2017, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, is a wise little book about how to sort through and dispose of many of your possessions before you die, thus sparing your family members an unpleasant task. Think of it as a fi nal act of consideration. “A loved one wishes to inherit nice things from you,” writes author Margareta Magnusson. “Not all things from you.” The idea to proactively declutter and organize your belongings is not only helpful to your loved ones, but to yourself by enhancing your current living space, Magnusson says. It emphasizes thoughtful consideration of what items are valuable and should be kept, and what we can be let go. Magnusson, who describes herself as being somewhere between age 80 and…

Founded by Arthur Guinness in 1759, Guinness relied primarily on word of mouth to help sell its product until after WWI. Advertising of Guinness began on a national scale in 1929, through the advertising agency S.H. Benson. The collaboration between the copywriter R.A. Bevan, art director Dicky Richards and artist John Gilroy, resulted in some of the most memorable posters ever produced. During Gilroy's long association with Guinness, he invented the famous Guinness menagerie of toucans, seals, ostriches, camels, giraffes, etc. – based on studies he made at the zoo. The campaigns also sought to associate Guinness with strength, so many of Gilroy's designs – like the one below of a man carrying a girder single-handed – show prodigious feats of strength. Humor, too, played an important part. Slogans like…

JUDY KENSLEY MCKIE (b.1944) earned a BFA in painting at Rhode Island School of Design in 1966 and turned to furniture-making a few years later out of necessity as she and her husband could not afford to buy any. Though McKie had never set foot in a woodshop during her studies, her father was a woodworker who taught her the basics during her childhood. She drew upon those lessons and began fashioning simple home furniture. Friends saw her furniture and requested some of their own, setting McKie on a path toward furniture design and craft. Throughout the 1970s, McKie honed her skills in workshop settings in and near Boston and taught herself how to carve decorative elements for her creations. She never took a formal class, later admitting “I probably…

If you're planning to celebrate St. Patrick's Day March 17, you could do worse than watch director John Ford's classic Irish tale, The Quiet Man, with a pint or two of Guinness. The 1952 film features John Wayne as the retired and haunted American boxer Sean Thornton who travels to his family's hometown of Innisfree, Ireland, and wins the hand of the fiery Mary Kate Danaher, played by Dublin's own Maureen O'Hara. While Wayne and O'Hara star, it's the lush Irish countryside captured in glorious Technicolor that nearly steals the show. The Quiet Man remains one of the most popular Irish movies of all time. This 27 in. by 41 in. movie poster one sheet sold for $1,000 at Heritage Auctions recently.…