NEW YORK (AP) — An important Picasso painting accidentally damaged by a visitor last week will be repaired in time for a large exhibition of the artist’s works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in April, the museum said Monday.
The Actor, a painting from Picasso’s rose period, will be restored at the museum’s conservation laboratory, the Met said.
The accident has also led museum director Thomas P. Campbell to request a review of relevant policies and procedures, spokeswoman Elyse Topalian said.
The museum described the damage as an irregular 6-inch tear to the lower right-hand corner of the painting. Conservation and curatorial experts “fully expect” that the restoration “will be unobtrusive,” the museum said in a statement Sunday.
The artwork is nearly 6 feet by 4 feet and depicts a standing acrobat in a pink costume and blue knee-high boots striking a pose against an abstracted backdrop.
The restoration will be done in the coming weeks, and the piece will be displayed as planned in an exhibition of 250 Picasso works drawn from the museum’s collection, from April 27 to Aug. 1, the museum said.
The accident occurred in a second-floor gallery of early Picasso works when a patron participating in one of the museum’s art classes lost her balance and fell on the canvas, the museum said. She was one of 14 people in the guided group.
It happened during regular visiting hours when other visitors were in the gallery. People who attend the art classes typically roam through the museum in a group stopping in front of works of interest.
The Actor was donated to the Met in 1952 by art patron Thelma Chrysler Foy, the elder daughter of auto magnate Walter Chrysler. The museum said it had been included in many major exhibitions of Picasso’s works both in the United States and in Europe.
Picasso painted the work in the winter of 1904-05. It marked a transition from his blue period of tattered beggars and blind musicians to his more optimistic and brighter-colored rose period of itinerant acrobats in costume.
In 2001, another Picasso was accidentally damaged during a private showing of the artist’s “Le Reve.” The artwork’s owner, casino mogul Steve Wynn, was showing the work — a portrait of Picasso’s mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, to a group of friends in Las Vegas when he inadvertently poked a thumb-size hole in the canvas with his elbow.
The accident occurred just after Wynn had negotiated a deal to sell the painting for $139 million.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) – Organizers of a collector-car auction in north Scottsdale worked to assess damages Friday after an 800-foot-long tent blew onto a nearby freeway, snarling traffic and leaving hundreds of valuable vehicles uncovered in a pounding rainstorm.
Heavy tent poles hit some cars and rain pelted uncovered convertibles at the Russo-Steele Auto Auction. A collector-car insurance executive estimated that damages could be more than $1.5 million.
Russo and Steele said owners would not be allowed to inspect their cars until at least Saturday morning because the Scottsdale fire marshal has not declared the auction site safe.
Drew and Josephine Alcazar, Russo and Steele owners, hoped to resume the auction Saturday, but there was still a lot of cleanup to do.
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Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
DENVER, Pa. – Dan Morphy Auctions’ annual events calendar is about to become a lot busier with the introduction of several new auction series to augment the company’s traditional lineup of five to six cataloged sales per year.
Beginning on March 16, 2010, Morphy’s will conduct a regular monthly Discovery sale featuring general antiques, art and vintage collectibles. The live sales will be held at Morphy’s gallery in Denver, Pa., on the Adamstown antiques strip, and will include Internet live bidding through LiveAuctioneers.com. The initial Discovery sale will feature approximately 400-500 lots.
The quality of goods accepted for Morphy’s Discovery sales will be no different than what customers have come to expect from the company’s past major auctions, and the sales will be promoted, advertised and marketed in exactly the same fashion as Morphy’s major auctions, with an extended preview period in the run-up to each event.
“We’ve been formulating a plan for quite some time that would create a new outlet for dealers and estate executors who handle large quantities of general merchandise, as well as any other consignors who may prefer a quick turnaround time,” said Morphy’s owner and CEO, Dan Morphy.
Morphy said he believes the new sales will develop a regular following because of the potential they hold for treasure-hunters. “That’s why we’re calling them Discovery auctions,” he said, noting that the south-central Pennsylvania region is “rich with houses and estates that harbor antiques and other goods dating back to the earliest European settlement of the Commonwealth. There are exciting finds every day of the week in this part of Pennsylvania. We foresee tremendous potential for these sales, which, in time, could be stepped up to become twice-a-month or even weekly events.”
Also this year, Morphy’s will be launching three new series of specialty auctions operating very similarly to the company’s major auctions. Each of the specialty sales, which will accommodate live and Internet bidding, will specifically focus on one of three categories: antique and vintage firearms; antique and collectible dolls; and antique and vintage toy trains. The monthly sales will follow a consecutive agenda so that each of the three categories is represented with one sale per quarter.
The categories for the new specialty sales were selected because of the high level of buyer interest and the abundance of merchandise consistently available to Morphy’s. “These sales will feature high-quality items for a targeted audience,” Dan Morphy said. “Our major cataloged sales have become so large that we had to find another way to serve the many consignors who want to sell through Morphy’s.” Dan Morphy Auctions’ new Specialty Auction Series is expected to begin with a mid-year toy train sale.
For additional information on any Morphy Auctions event, call 717-335-3435 or log on to www.morphyauctions.com.
Click here to view Morphy’s Feb. 26-27 auction catalogs or to sign up to bid absentee or live via the Internet through LiveAuctioneers.com.
This shelf clock, made by Terry & Andrews, is an example of single feature, the lancet arch. It sold for $330 in Cowan’s April 2007 Auction. Image courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions Inc.
Gothic style conjures images of extreme costume – black draping coats or gowns, spiky ornament, blackened eyes, a la Adams Family, but Gothic and the style enjoy a much richer, deeper, longer and more sophisticated history than its connotation among young adults going for dark shock valuue.
Gothic, or the French style, as it was known initially in the 12th century, was ecclesiastical architecture and pertained to the form and structure of medieval churches. Its predecessor, Roman architecture, was noted for the Roman arch – a half circle supported by columns at either end. Gothic arches were pointed, and in churches, buttressed to keep them stable. The whole idea – remember this is church architecture – was creating a tribute to the Creator, so the successor to Roman architecture went with height and heavenly light – vaulted arches, stained glass windows, ennobling height, all designed to inspire adulation.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, characteristics of the Gothic architecture manifest in the decorative arts – furniture, metalwork, textiles and ceramics – and there was an enormous vocabulary of ornament from which to choose. The lancet arch, which appears to be praying hands, is most prolific. Tracery, or the support structure for Gothic glass windows, is often used as a design background, rather a structure imperative. Trefoils, or quatrefoils, carved piercings or openings for light, are another. Crockets, or the stylized emulation of flowers or leaves, used to decorate spires, is yet another.
Gothic elements were not limited to churches in succeeding centuries, but found their way into domestic architecture and the smallest objects of domestic life, such as frames, boxes and tableware, which can be collected today. The 18th-century English writer Horace Walpole romanticized the look of all things Gothic with his celebrated home Strawberry Hill, near London, long before his Victorian counterparts revived it, yet again, in the 19th century. The Victorians crossed the Atlantic with carpenter gothic, a residential architecture enjoyed in New England, the South and throughout the Midwest.
In the Gothic style, ornament can be complex and heavy, or it can be one overriding feature of the object. Most often found are Gothic style side chairs, which are great examples of the verticality of the style and lighting through carved openings. Smaller, more esoteric objects of the style, such as wall sconces, shelf clocks and silver tablewares, can be found at reasonable prices.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, the Gothic style survives both in ecclesiastical and domestic architecture and in the decorative arts – its vocabulary subdued, its charms unabated. For interested collectors, the pursuit is in finding the ornamental vocabulary in both new and antique objects. The Gothic is a survival style, and doesn’t require horror movie staging or blackened eyes and dark clothing to appreciate its charms. It is a style that lends itself to being combined with the Rococo, or Chinoiserie – it doesn’t have to be historically correct, and in fact, most pieces today have little historical reference. In furniture, the Gothic style sometimes requires a certain ceiling height, but in small objects, all that is necessary is an appreciation and understanding of the vocabulary.
Research by Diane Wachs.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
A 19th-century Italian icon in a gilt carved and gessoed frame is estimated to bring $2,000-3,000 in Cowan’s Feb. 20 Fine and Decorative Art Auction. Image courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions Inc. A group of American Gothic-revival side chairs, circa 1840-1860, is estimated to bring $400-600 in Cowan’s Feb. 20 Fine and Decorative Art Auction. Image courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions Inc. This pair of 19th-century Gothic sconces, a harkening back to Medieval gargoyles with light emanating from lancet arches, is estimated to bring $800-1,000 in Cowan’s Feb. 20 Fine and Decorative Art Auction. Image courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions Inc. This table caster in silver plate shows Gothic lancet arches combined with elements of the Rococo. It sold for $1,150 in Cowan’s June 2008 Fine and Decorative Art Auction. Image courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions Inc.
The Fontenot brothers of St. Landry Parish served in the Opelousas Guards, 8th Louisiana Infantry during the Civil War. This quarter-plate tintype sold for $2,700 at Cowan’s Auctions in Cincinnati in 2004. Image courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions Inc. and LiveAuctioneers archive.BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Mary Anne Hynes Frenzel faced a dilemma – what to do with family photos, news clippings and memorabilia collected over generations.
Two of her three children live away. Her one son who lives in Baton Rouge had some interest in collecting family items but not enough to go through boxes and boxes of photos, clips and scrapbooks.
Frenzel couldn’t bear to throw the items away, but she knew that in a generation or two, there would probably be no family member who would want the materials. Even a large family scrapbook would deteriorate over time.
“I had pages and pages of newsprint, things that had been in newspapers and magazines about my family,” she said. “People had begun sending me things, and I didn’t know what to do with them.”
Frenzel’s sister, Juliette Hynes, heard from Ann Smith, a library associate with the Louisiana State University Libraries, that Faye Phillips, then head of special collections at the LSU Libraries, was working on a pictorial history of Baton Rouge.
Hynes and Frenzel met with Phillips, now associate dean of libraries, and Elaine Smyth, now head of special collections, and decided to give their family papers to the library.
“It’s a hard decision for a family to let go of these things. We understand that they mean so much to families,” said Tara Laver, curator of manuscripts for special collections. “But by putting them here, they are in one place, protected from humidity and deterioration. Everyone can know that they are here and use them and see them. The family has peace of mind knowing that they are taken care of.”
The result is the Gebelin-Walsh-Hynes-Frenzel Family Papers – 2.5 cubic feet of approximately 490 physical items and 500 digital files carefully secured in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections at the LSU Libraries.
Frenzel’s family collection begins around 1860 and continues through the 1980s with portraits and informal photographs documenting the lives of family members and friends in the connected families.
“Juliette calls this collection ‘off the wall’ because all of the Hyneses took their pictures off their walls,” Frenzel said.
Laver says family papers tell the story of the area’s social life and customs – what it was like to live in Baton Rouge in the context of the lives of the people and cultural organizations.
“It is important to document the experiences of families in historical events and movements that occurred in their lifetime – civil rights, the Great Depression, Huey Long. As Baton Rouge changed, how people changed,” Laver said.
The collection tracks the ancestors and descendants of Joseph Gebelin and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Walsh, who were married Oct. 31, 1900, at St. Joseph Church (now St. Joseph Cathedral).
Joseph Gebelin served as assistant secretary of state, police jury president, city councilman, banker, St. Joseph Church trustee and a founding member of the Baton Rouge Country Club.
Photos record family debutante presentations, weddings, graduations, birthdays and events that were all a part of the social fiber of Baton Rouge.
Laver says that people come from all over the world to find information in LSU’s Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections.
“Whenever I’m talking to students, I tell them that events occur naturally as people live their lives. It’s not all about the person. It’s not all about a single thing that’s happening like World War II. Different researchers can come to a collection and find different things that we are not even focusing on,” she said.
When people approach the library about donating family papers, members of the staff go through the materials to see what is there and to get a sense of how to organize it.
“In terms of family papers, we look for correspondence, identified photographs, tapes or video, family history, ephemera, diaries, memoirs or reminiscences, family business records and scrapbooks,” Laver said. “In keeping with our collection’s focus on Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi Valley, we look for materials that document social life, culture, customs, family life and family businesses in our region.”
Families frequently bring their donated materials in “piles of stuff.” Librarians at Hill Memorial go through the materials and put them in archival boxes. “If something needs preservation work, we’ll do that,” Laver said.
As the librarians work through materials, they take notes. They make an inventory, which they put on the Internet. “Then people can see what kind of information is there,” Laver said.
When people type in a name on a search engine, they often find links to collections at Hill. “People come from all over the world and just down the street to do research,” Laver said.
She urges people to contact the library if they have items of local interest. One of the favorite parts of her job is seeing what people have.
“It’s not just the important people whose histories we want to study,” she said. “Whether or not family members are ‘prominent’ or ‘famous,’ through their lives we can document a certain place and time.”
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Information from: The Advocate, http://www.2theadvocate.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Van Gogh’s ‘The Night Cafe’ is said to be worth as much as $150 million. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) – A Van Gogh painting at the center of a dispute between Yale University and a man who believes the artwork was stolen from his family during the Russian Revolution is worth $120 million to $150 million, the man’s attorney told The Associated Press on Friday.
The evaluation is the first public estimate of the painting’s value, and the lawyer, Allan Gerson, said it comes from a top auction firm.
Gerson represents Pierre Konowaloff, the purported great-grandson of industrialist and aristocrat Ivan Morozov, who bought The Night Cafe in 1908. Russia nationalized Morozov’s property during the Communist revolution, and the Soviet government later sold the painting.
The artwork, which shows the inside of a nearly empty cafe with a few customers seated at tables along the walls, has been hanging in the Yale University Art Gallery for almost 50 years.
A Yale spokesman said the university could not offer a value of the 1888 painting, saying the goal is to have it on public display for perpetuity.
Yale filed a lawsuit in federal court in March to assert its ownership rights over The Night Cafe and to block Konowaloff from claiming it.
Yale claims the ownership of tens of billions of dollars of art and other goods could be thrown into doubt if Konowaloff is allowed to take the painting. Any federal court invalidation of Russian nationalization decrees from the early 20th century also would create tensions between the United States and Russia, Yale argues.
The university says former owners have challenged titles to other property seized from them in Russia, but their claims were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court and state, federal and foreign courts.
“Yale is confident that the court will see through Konowaloff’s latest rhetoric and recognize that he is asking a U.S. court to turn back the clock 90 years and undo the Russian Revolution,” Yale said Friday.
Gerson said in court papers Thursday that Yale was engaging in “scare tactics.” He said neither Russia nor the United States expressed any concerns about the case and that any ruling would not affect Russian paintings.
Gerson says the trend by U.S. courts has been to invalidate confiscations of art. He said in court papers that Yale’s argument amounted to compelling U.S. courts to “rubber-stamp good title on any dictator’s plunder.”
Yale received the painting through a bequest from Yale alumnus Stephen Carlton Clark. The school says Clark bought the painting from a gallery in New York City in 1933 or 1934.
Konowaloff has filed court papers calling Yale’s acquisition “art laundering.” He argues that Russian authorities unlawfully confiscated the painting and that the United States deemed the theft a violation of international law.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
The Psalms scroll is one of the documents that comprise the Dead Sea Scrolls. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.MILWAUKEE (AP) – The young American native dodging bullets as he ran through the streets of Jerusalem in 1948 carried a remarkable secret. He knew that if he were hit, the greatest biblical discovery of all time might be lost to the world forever.
John Trever, a student of the Old Testament at the American Schools of Oriental Research, was playing a leading role in revealing the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In the Milwaukee Public Museum’s current exhibit, Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible, which opened Jan. 22, Trever is honored as a hero in interpreting and preserving the scrolls and their meaning.
“Dad helped reveal that the scrolls’ importance was the validation of the Bible,” said his son, writer James E. Trever.
It’s a strange case of synchronicity: a Milwaukee connection for ancient biblical scrolls from desert caves in the Holy Land. Outside the realm of biblical scholarship, Trever’s is hardly a household name.
But in fact Milwaukee native Trevor is the Dead Sea Scrolls’ answer to Indiana Jones. And the museum’s exhibit spotlights him, explaining his role in bringing the scrolls to international attention.
The 2,000-year-old scrolls contain the earliest known copies of the Old Testament. The scrolls also contain writings that shed light on Jewish culture in that ancient time. But for months after they were found in early 1947, no one knew exactly what the scrolls contained or whether they were fakes.
“Trever was one of two scholars who first looked at the scrolls, and he first suggested they were 2,000 years old,” said Carter Lupton, Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit curator.
Bedouin shepherds discovered the scrolls in a cave near the Dead Sea, but no one realized the importance of the parchments at first. That was fortunate because the scrolls quickly went up for sale, and they might have wound up with some antiquities collector waiting for a big sale.
But “my father was the right man in the right place at the right time,” said his son, himself a scrolls author and lecturer.
The son of a local district attorney, John Trever was born in Milwaukee in 1915. He graduated from Yale Graduate School in 1943 with a doctorate in the Old Testament and an emphasis on ancient Semitic languages. He also was a skilled photographer.
Trever arrived to study at the American Schools of Oriental Research and found himself almost alone there during spring break in February 1948. The original scrolls were then in the hands of the archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, who was trying to identify them in the midst of the violence surrounding the partition of Palestine.
After a series of mysterious phone calls and covert negotiations, the scrolls were brought to the school and shown to Trever and fellow student William Brownlee.
Trever had done his doctoral dissertation on the Book of Isaiah. When the first scroll was unrolled before him, Trever recognized the writings immediately. According to Weston W. Fields’ new book, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Full History, Trever “burst into (Brownlee’s) room with the thrilling announcement.” The writing on the scroll was, amazingly, from Isaiah.
“Dad recognized it very quickly, and he realized it was very significant. He knew from the writing the scroll wasn’t a fake. He realized it would push the origin of the complete Bible text back more than 1,000 years. He was coincidentally the best-suited person in the world for that initial revelation,” James Trever said.
John Trever knew the scrolls were priceless. As gunfire and mortars went off around him breaking fragments of the scrolls onto the floor, he knew they must be preserved somehow for future research.
He needed to save the writings through photographic copies. But he was out of film.
“There was fighting in the streets around the school, and he ran through the streets and dodged bullets to get film. There was only a minimum available in the city at the time,” James Trever said. “He knew he had to photograph the scrolls and get the photographs out to the world because the scrolls could be destroyed at any time. He was running and ducking. It was pretty scary.”
John Trever found film and set up a makeshift photo studio in the school basement. There he took the first photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since they were taken that day, Trever’s photos have remained the best documentation for the scrolls in the world, because, as he feared, the parchment scrolls started to crumble soon after he took the photos.
Trever would go on to a life dedicated to writing and lecturing about the scrolls and their meaning. He documented the events surrounding their discovery in his 1965 book The Untold Story of Qumran.
Trever died in 2006, but his photos from 1948 remain the master works of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. A copy of his original negatives is housed at the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center at the Claremont School of Theology in California.
“John Trever’s photographs of the four scrolls were most important for preserving the way they looked in 1948, and they also made it possible for their immediate study and for preliminary publication in a very short amount of time,” Fields said. “They are still the best photos of those scrolls 62 years later.”
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Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,
http://www.jsonline.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Two pheasants decorate this rare 6 1/4-inch-high stoneware gemel jug. Although small, it is rare and brought $24,725 at a recent Crocker Farm pottery auction in Riderwood, Md.
“Gemel” is the name for a special type of bottle. Two bottles with curved necks are heated and joined together to form one unit for two liquids, such as oil and vinegar. The term gemel is related to the word Gemini (twins). Gemini is a constellation with two stars that represent Castor and Pollux, twins who in Greek and Roman mythology were great fighters and patrons of horses and shipwrecked sailors. A rare 6 1/4-inch-high gemel stoneware flask was recently found. It is two jugs joined together with one handle and decorated with one large blue incised bird decoration. Gemel jugs were made by potters in Connecticut and New York in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is suggested that because of its small size and because one jug is marked “M” and the other “B,” it held Madeira and brandy for sauces. Crocker Farm Inc. of Maryland auctioned this unusual piece for $24,725.
Q: I would like some information on the North Staffordshire Pottery Co. (Cobridge). I have a “Windsor Castle” plate made there.
A: North Staffordshire Pottery Co. Ltd. was established at the Globe Pottery in Cobridge, Staffordshire, England, in 1940. The company made earthenware. The pottery was taken over by Ridgways (later Ridgway Potteries) in 1952. North Staffordshire Pottery Co. was one of eight potteries that became part of Ridgway Potteries in the 1950s.
Q: Do you know where I can find insurance for jewelry? I have an extensive collection of Mexican silver jewelry and I think it’s time I insured it. But I can’t seem to find information on this.
A: Homeowner’s or renter’s insurance typically covers jewelry up to $1,000. If your collection of jewelry is more valuable than that, you should buy additional coverage. Contact the agent that handles your homeowner’s or renter’s policy to see what you need to provide in order to cover your collection. Valuable artwork, musical instruments, silverware and other items of great value must be insured by buying additional coverage. Unique collections may require insurance from a company that specializes in insuring specific items, but any major insurer that provides homeowner’s insurance can sell you an additional policy to cover your jewelry. Ask if your jewelry is covered if it is damaged or lost or stolen, if there is a deductible and if the policy provides replacement value. A professional appraisal of your jewelry may be required.
Q: I have an old, clear, half-pint canning jar that’s about 8 inches tall. Its flat glass lid is marked “Whitall, Tatum & Co., Philadelphia, New York, Pat. June 11, 1895.” The closure is a heavy metal yoke-shaped clamp with a horizontal wheel for tightening. Does it have any value?
A: There is an avid group of collectors who hunt for antique fruit jars, also called canning jars. Yours obviously was first made in 1895 or later. Whitall, Tatum & Co. was the first glass factory founded in the United States. It operated in Millville, N.J., from the early 1800s until 1938, manufacturing bottles and jars of all types. Your jar, one of five types Whitall made, sells for $50-$75 today.
Q: I bought a hutch at an estate sale 20 years ago. It appears to be old and its painted surface is original. “Jasper Cabinet Co.” is stamped in one of the drawers. When was that company in business?
A: Jasper Cabinet Co. is still in business in Jasper, Ind. It can trace its history back to 1904, but was formally incorporated under its current name in 1928. The company changed ownership a few times before temporarily closing in 2002. An Indiana investment group, including some former employees, then acquired the company and reopened it in 2005. Jasper Cabinet Co. is best known for its desks, chests, breakfronts, secretaries, curio cabinets, entertainment units and gun cabinets. It’s likely your hutch dates from either before or soon after World War II.
Q: A friend gave me an old cast-iron skull-shaped bottle opener. It’s 4 inches high by 3 1/4 inches wide. The mouth is the opener — you put the top of a bottle in the mouth and pull the bottle down to remove the cap. Have you ever seen anything like it?
A: Old skull-shaped bottle openers come up for auction every once in a while. The last two we have seen auctioned for $300 each, but condition affects price. If yours is in good shape, without chipped paint or rust, you could expect it to be worth about the same. Most funny cast-iron bottle openers were made in the 1940s and ’50s by either John Wright Co. or Wilton Products Co., both located in Wrightstown, Pa.
Tip: If you store photos in plastic holders, be sure to avoid any plastic that contains PVC (polyvinyl chloride). It breaks down into hydrochloric acid that will damage photos. (Safe holders include the brands Mylar, Melinex or Estar).
Terry Kovel answers as many questions as possible through the column. By sending a letter with a question, you give full permission for use in the column or any other Kovel forum. Names, addresses or e-mail addresses will not be published. We cannot guarantee the return of any photograph, but if a stamped envelope is included, we will try. The volume of mail makes personal answers or appraisals impossible. Write to Kovels, Auction Central News, King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.
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CURRENT PRICES
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.
Tiddlywinks Game, four felt squares, five large discs, six small red, blue, yellow-and-white discs, original glass cup, Parker Bros., box, 1897, $32.
Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks diamond stickpin, elk head, cut-diamond eye, 14K gold, letters BPOE on base of neck, circa 1920, 2 3/4 inches, $105.
Coverlet, wool, hand-woven, twill weave, green, red and navy, fringe, Pennsylvania, mid 1800s, 82 x 76 inches, $440.
Mount Washington salt and pepper shakers, fig shape, Royal Flemish cranberry glass, bark texture, tiny enameled flowers, 2 1/2 inches, pair, $475.
Hanging pie safe, tin, pinwheel punch design, 19th century, 35 x 39 x 19 inches, $590.
California Perfume Co. calendar, red-haired woman wearing green hat with yellow bow and tie, 1910, 12 x 9 inches, $635.
Tabletop globe, “The New Twelve Inch British Terrestrial Globe,” turned-leg tripod stand, England, 1802, 18 inches, $825.
Gustav Stickley sideboard, No. 816, hammered copper hardware, branded signature, 45 x 18 1/4 inches, $3,480.
Carousel horse, jumper, Coney Island-style design, arched neck, open mouth, glass eyes, horsehair tail, fish-scale blanket detail, saddle with tassels, circa 1919 $7,950.
Keep up with changes in the collectibles world. Send for a free sample issue of our 12-page, full-color newsletter, Kovels on Antiques and Collectibles, filled with prices, news, information and photos, plus major news about the world of collecting. To subscribe at a bargain $27 for 12 issues, write Kovels, PO Box 420347, Palm Coast, FL 32142; call 800-571-1555; or subscribe online at Kovels.com.
