April 12, 2010 - Auction Central News

Earth Day inspires theme for Pook & Pook’s April 23-24 sale

DOWNINGTOWN, Pa. – This year marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and to join in the celebration, Pook & Pook will host an April 23-24 Spring Auction that emphasizes “recycled” antiques made of wood. Internet live bidding will be provided by LiveAuctioneers.com.

“Antique furniture and accessories are unique and handmade, as well as sturdy, utilitarian and quite beautiful,” said Pook & Pook’s co-owner, Debra Pook. “Many examples can be purchased at reasonable prices for the quality in comparison with the price of new pieces – a money saver for young buyers trying to furnish their homes and reduce their carbon footprint.”

The auction will showcase not only a wide array of American and Continental furniture, but also paintings, Oriental rugs and decorative accessories from several important collections and educational institutions, including the Chester County Historical Society, Allentown Art Museum, the Estate of Peter & Marjorie Storm, the Estate of Jeannette Berger, and other sources.

The Friday evening session commences with a selection of fine art. Lot No. 1, a vibrant floral still life by Hobson Lafayette Pittman (est. $10-20,000) should start the sale on a high note. Albert Bierstadt’s oil on paper of a butterfly (est. $10-15,000) is quite an attractive piece. A double sided pencil study titled Miss Lala au Cirque Fernando by Edgar Degas is sure to garner some interest (est. $5-8000). After Benjamin West, a well-executed period rendition of West’s Death of General Wolf is one of the outstanding featured paintings. An analysis by Winterthur Museum dates this painting to around 1815.

Daniel Garber was born in 1880 to a Mennonite farm family near North Manchester, Indiana. He studied with High Breckenridge at the Darby School in Fort Washington, Pa., in the summers of 1899 and 1900. Between 1899 and 1905 Garber enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied with William Merritt Chase, Julian Alden Weir and Cecilia Beaux. He is known as one of the most original of the Pennsylvania Impressionists, painting the woodlands and landscapes of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. A brilliant autumn landscape by Daniel Garber titled Brinton’s Mill will be sought after by many. Signed lower right, the painting retains its original Badura frame (est. $100-150,000).

A lovely portrait of Helen Velasquez Chase by her father William Merritt Chase is an enchanting piece (est. $40-70,000). It was originally sold at the Chase estate sale in May 1917. Also offered is a pair of oils by luminist landscape painter Jasper Francis Cropsey of the Hudson River School, New York (est. $20-30,000). Other works include a Walter Koeniger winter landscape, a John Dare Howland buffalo-hunting scene, a charming Ben Austrian of chick and puppy, and a terrific watercolor of ducks landing in a marsh by Frank Weston Benson.

The Joseph Townsend family Samuel Malkin slip-decorated charger dated 1726 will be sold on Friday evening. The large plate has a dotted border surrounding three arched panels, the center one inscribed in raised press molded lettering with the Biblical reference “Remember Lot’s Wife Luke 17:32 1726,” surmounted by an image of Lot’s wife flanked by trumpeting angels and the makers initials “SM” in raised relief. The extensive notes and genealogy that accompany this plate suggest that it may be one of the earliest pieces of English tableware used in the colonies. According to family history, the original owner was Joseph Townsend, nephew of Richard Townsend who sailed to America on the Welcome, in the company of William Penn in 1682. An identical press-molded plate resides in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England.

Friday night will continue with a pair of Delaware Valley Chippendale shell-carved dining chairs (est. $8-10,000), an unusual Pennsylvania alphabet quilt (est.$3,500-$5,500), a five-piece, circa-1790 Chinese export garniture set (est. $6-9,000), groups of Anglo-Irish clear glass table objects and a Northampton, Pa., cherry tall-case clock by John Murphy (est. $9-12,000).

Several fine pieces of pottery will be offered, as well as Pennsylvania folk art and painted furniture, a Berks County unicorn dower chest, two Philadelphia painted fireman’s parade hats, a variety of watercolor fraktur and a painted Mahantongo Valley semi-tall chest. A rare double portrait watercolor from the “Reading Artist” is believed to be unique (est. $5-10,000). A circa-1915 American carved and painted pine whirligig, depicting a gentleman wearing a bowler hat and black jacket will cross the block (est. $10-15,000) as will a swell-bodied copper Dexter horse and jockey weathervane (est. $5-10,000).

Items from several museums including the National Association of Watch & Clock Museum, Chester County Historical Society and Mauch Chunk Historical Society will be offered on Friday night. Some of the highlights include a Baltimore Hepplewhite card table, a Pennsylvania tiger maple corner cupboard, a Chester County Queen Anne clock by Chandlee and a French ormolu mounted clock.

Three unusual pieces of Wharton Esherick furniture, purchased by the parents of the consignor from the Esherick workshop, include a coffee table (est. $15-20,000), a set of library steps (est. $10-15,000) and three stools (est. $1,500-2,500).

A nice collection from the Estate of Jeannette Berger of Pound Ridge, N.Y., will be offered throughout the sale. This includes a selection of American and English samplers and needlework, a Philadelphia tall-case clock by George Miller, Pennsylvania and New England furniture, Chinese export rose medallion and other accessory objects.

A group of Georgian furniture will be sold on Friday and Saturday including a set of 12 dining chairs, a mahogany breakfast table, work stands, commode, bottle case and many other items. A circa-1815 Regency mahogany drum table stamped “Gillows-Lancaster,” with a round leather inset top, will attract bidders.

Made for John Glendy Stuart of Baltimore, is an intricate appliquéd and embroidered album quilt (est. $5-8,000). This quilt features 25 floral and geometric decorated blocks.

From Frederick Town, Maryland comes a Chippendale cherry tall-case clock inscribed “Fredk Nusz” (est. $8-12,000). Also of interest in the furniture category is a circa-1800 Virginia Hepplewhite walnut sideboard (est. $10-15,000).

Meriting special mention are two lots originally from the Hermann Goring lodge Carinhalle in East Prussia. The first is a group of engraved silver flatware, made by Puiforcat, Paris. The second is a group of KPM porcelain dinnerware decorated with Goring’s crest, hunting scenes and game animals.

The collection of Peter and Marjorie Storm will be sold on Saturday afternoon. The group covers a wide range of objects from fraktur and folk art to furniture and decoys. Fraktur artist such as the “Cross-legged Angel Artist”, Daniel Otto, Martin Brechall and Heinrich Brachtheiser are represented.

There is a selection of very nice decoys. Shorebirds from the eastern United States are well represented with a nice yellowlegs attributed to Harry Shourdes, a William Bowman style yellowlegs, a John Dilley plover as well as other examples from New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York and Martha’s Vineyard. There is also an Ira Hudson brant as well as Illinois River and Wisconsin decoys. A group of fish decoys and vintage fishing lures is also included in the offerings.

An important Confederate Civil War flag for the Second Louisiana Cavalry, captured at Henderson, La., on March 21, 1864 by William Ayers, second sergeant of Company H, 35th Iowa Volunteers, Fifth Infantry, will cross the auction block. The flag was recently deaccessioned from the Southern Oregon Historical Society, where it has resided since the 1950s.

Saturday’s session will conclude with a well-rounded selection of firearms ranging from a Simeon North model 1819 pistol and a Springfield model 1795 flintlock musket, to a US model M1 Garand. The “everything in between” includes a Spencer saddle ring carbine, a James Merrill saddle ring carbine, a Brown Bess flintlock musket, a Harpers Ferry model 1855 rifle, a Japanese matchlock pistol and an Allen & Thurber pepperbox pistol, just to name a few.

For additional information on any item in the sale, call 610-269-4040.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Iron and fire fuel blacksmith’s imagination

A sheet iron trade sign depicts a blacksmith working a decorative piece of iron on an anvil. The sign measures 37 inches wide by 35 inches high. Image courtesy Cowan’s Auctions and LiveAuctioneers archives.

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) – Bill Stoddard was pouring his morning coffee from an old graniteware pot when a familiar figure dressed in overalls appeared in the doorway of the city’s blacksmith shop.

“I don’t hear no hammering going on!”

Stoddard, the resident blacksmith, smiled at the greeting.

A stray dog he took in and named Ranger rose from the dirt floor and barked.

The visitor, Waid Benson, is one of more than 40 area metal artisans who fired up their coal forges one Saturday last month to mark Blacksmith Day at Stoddard’s rustic shop. The metal-roofed structure in the historic district is a replica of Charlie Millican’s blacksmith shop, where Benson learned to shoe horses as a youth in the 1950s.

Benson, 66, is a certified farrier and member of the North Texas Blacksmiths Association.

His stout frame and white handlebar mustache call to mind the town smithy portrayed in old Western movies and TV shows. In a typical scene, the blacksmith pounds on a glowing horseshoe, dips the tong-held object into a barrel of water – hisssssssssss – returns it to the fire and repeats the process.

“That makes no sense at all,” Benson said.

“You don’t cool that thing off till you’re ready to nail it on. The way they do it in the movies, he never would get nothing done.”

The volume of Benson’s voice is that of a man who has spent most of his life trying to be heard above the rhythmic clang of a hammer striking molten metal on an anvil.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described the music in an 1841 poem:

“You can hear him swing his heavy sledge

“With measured beat and slow,

“Like a sexton ringing the village bell,

“When the evening sun is low.”

Blacksmiths have been around almost since the dawn of civilization. Chuck Stone, a blacksmith and ordained minister, said Tubal-Cain is mentioned in Genesis 4:22 as the original blacksmith.

Stone taught himself how to work with coal, iron and fire by reading blacksmithing books. He operates the Master’s Forge blacksmith school (a one-day beginner’s class costs $150) in Newark and illustrates his sermons by heating railroad spikes to a hellish temperature and hammering them into a cross.

Stoddard learned the basics of the craft while growing up on a cattle ranch in western Colorado. As an artist, he said, he satisfies his “inner soul” by creating large sculptures and architectural pieces from metal, using simple tools and his callused hands.

Each item – including a hummingbird Stoddard fashioned from a truck’s universal joint – has its own unique identity.

The banging inside the Diamond W shop in Haslet is the sound of Benson shaping horseshoes. He also produces branding irons, hay hooks, knives and assorted trinkets.

“When I started out, coal cost a dollar a hundred (pounds),” Benson said. “Now I pay $20, and the coal ain’t any good.”

Despite inflation, he carries on the craft, fueled by his imagination.

“Can I take a rod and tie a knot in it?” he asks. “It’s a challenge.”

And, Benson will attest, a lifelong education.

“Back when I was 15, man, I thought I knew it all,” he declared. “I didn’t know squat. You learn something every time you pick up a piece of iron. I’m still learning.

“The day you stop learning is the day they done throwed dirt on top of you.”

AP-WS-04-11-10 1252EDT

Colorado teacher finds rare dinosaur skull fragment

Skeleton of a Euoplocephalus, of the Ankylosauridae family, displayed in the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt. Sept. 2006 photo by Wilfried Berns, Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) – A high school science teacher with an interest in dinosaurs has discovered what federal authorities say could be the first skull fragment from a rare dinosaur.

Kent Hups, a teacher from Westminster, discovered the fossil in the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area in western Colorado.

Tests are pending, but the Bureau of Land Management said Saturday that the fragment appears to be the first from an armadillo-like dinosaur called the Ankylosaurid. The bone fragment is embedded in a rock weighing more than 100 pounds.

“I was an inch away, and I was looking in the area for 16 years. It’s about being in the right place at the right time,” Hups told The (Grand Junction) Daily Sentinel. “If we can confirm what it is, it will be very amazing.”

Hups digs for dinosaur fossils under a BLM paleontological use permit. The teacher has findings displayed in two Colorado science museums. In 2008, Hups found a perfectly preserved footprint of an Ankylosaurid.

Hups said if the skull fragment is confirmed as an Ankylosaurid, it would be the first fossil of its kind from that dinosaur.

The fossil will be brought to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science for analysis.

Fossil hunting brings many to western Colorado, and Grand Junction tourism officials are hoping the find sparks new interest in bone hunting.

“To have this kind of find is wonderful for us,” said Barbara Bowman of Grand Junction’s Visitor and Convention Bureau.

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On the Net:

Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area: http://tinyurl.com/yyhlnow

AP-WS-04-11-10 1206EDT

Horological collection winds up at Skinner’s Science sale May 1

Thomas Green, Prescott, English wheel cutting engine, circa 1790, with a box of cutters, estimate: $8,000-$12,000. Image courtesy of Skinner Inc.

BOSTON – More than 500 objects from the Ted Crom Horological Tool Collection and Library will be offered at auction in Skinner’s Science, Technology & Clocks auction May 1at the auctioneer’s Marlborough, Mass., gallery. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding for the auction, which begins at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Ted Crom was a renowned collector of and international authority on horological tools. Thought to be the most comprehensive private collection of its type, the Crom collection was built over a 50-year span and featured wheel-cutting engines, ornamental turning lathes, mandrels, turns, and watch- and clockmaking tools.

Educated in engineering at the University of Maryland, Columbia University and the University of Florida, Crom received an honorary doctorate in engineering from the University of Maryland for his contributions to the field. He was a member of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, the British Horological Institute, the Antiquarian Horological Society, the American Watchmaker’s Institute, the Society of Ornamental Turners and Ornamental Turners International, to name a few. His membership in the NAWCC included lecturer and leadership status. Crom’s passion for such objects led him on an academic pursuit, which culminated in his authoring six books on the subject.

From Crom’s collection comes two Rose engines including an important example from the shop of A. L. Breguet, Paris, and an 18th-century brass and iron wheel cutting engine by Thomas Green, Prescott (United Kingdom). Wheel cutting engines, lathes, depthing tools, watch- and clockmaker’s hand tools and the extensive Crom library with horological titles from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries will also be up for bid.

The libray includes a copy of Instititutio Astronomica by Pierre Gassendi 1653; Edward Parry’s Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage, 1821; William Derham’s The Artificial Clockmaker, 1714. In addition, this sale will feature the David Evans collection of Liverpool watches, 1785-1850, including a pair of gilt metal pair-cased rack lever watches with complementary dials estimated at $2,500-$3,500 and an extensive collection of American and European clocks and scientific instruments.

Previews for the auction will be April 29, noon-5 p.m.; April 30, noon-7 p.m; and May 1, 8-9:30 a.m. Following Friday’s sale preview Robert Cheney, director of Science, Technology & Clocks at Skinner, will present an illustrated lecture, Fifty Years of Documenting the Trades: The Ted Crom Horological Tool Collection, which will share the highlights of the collection and the many of Crom’s academic accomplishments.

Illustrated catalog no. 2502 is available by mail for $35 ($42 for foreign requests) from the subscription department at 508-970-3000 x3240. It is also available at the gallery for $32. Prices realized will be available at skinnerinc.com during and after the sale.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Egypt teams with 25 nations to push for return of antiquities

The top-targeted antiquity that Egypt would like to repatriate is this bust of Nefertiti, which is housed in Berlin's Neuen Museum. Image taken Nov. 8, 2009 by Xenon 77, permission to reproduce granted through Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s antiquities chief has teamed up with 25 countries to press their campaigns to retrieve antiquities that were stolen and even those given as gifts, warning museums on Thursday that he would “make their lives miserable” if they refused his demands.

Zahi Hawass announced the expanded campaign at a news conference with officials from the U.S., Greece and Italy. By joining forces with other nations, he aims to add weight to an escalating campaign that even saw Egypt temporarily severing ties with the Louvre last year.

“Greece was fighting alone, and Italy was fighting alone, now for the first time we are united. We will fight together,” said Hawass. “But I will tell you: Some of us will make the life of those museums that have our artifacts miserable.”

Chief among the items Egypt wants back is the bust of Nefertiti, which is at Berlin’s Egyptian Museum. Egypt says it was shipped out of the country in 1913 on the basis of fraudulent papers.

Egypt has also been seeking the Rosetta Stone, the slab of basalt with an inscription that was the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. It was taken out of Egypt in 1799 during French colonial rule and is now at the British Museum in London.

Hawass said a statue of Ramses from the Turin Museum in Italy was also on his “wish list.”

He did not outline a specific strategy for retrieving the items. He said, however, that he was not threatening to cut ties with more museums refusing to return artifacts, as he did in the fight with the Louvre.

Egypt is after items that it asserts were stolen and items that were once given as gifts, Hawass said.

Since becoming antiquities head in 2002, Hawass has recovered 5,000 artifacts, he says.

In one of the most acrimonious fights, Hawass has repeatedly requested the return of a 3,200-year-old golden mask of a noblewoman from the St. Louis Art Museum and has since cut ties with the museum and called on people to boycott its collection.

And in October 2009, Hawass cut ties with the Louvre, saying the museum had refused to return fragments illegally chipped from a tomb. Egypt suspended the Louvre’s excavation in the massive necropolis of Saqqara, near Cairo. French officials quickly agreed to hand over the fragments and ties were restored.

The British Museum said it had not received an official request for the permanent return of the Rosetta Stone, but that it was considering a request from Hawass for a short-term loan of the stone for the opening of the new museum in Giza in 2012 or 2013.

The American officials at Thursday’s announcement in Cairo wanted to signal they recognized the U.S. is a major market for stolen relics, said Tonya Fox of the U.S. delegation.

In March, a 3,000-year-old wooden sarcophagus confiscated at the Miami airport was returned to Egypt. Other items are still held in New York including wooden coffins, pottery and ancient art pieces.

Other countries represented at the meeting said they had wish lists of their own.

Greece said it wants the Parthenon marbles back from the British Museum, Libya wants the Apollo at Cyrene back from the British Museum, and Peru is in talks to retrieve the Machu Picchu collection that was loaned and remains in the Peabody Museum in Yale University.

The process of repatriating cultural heritage is complicated by inadequate local and international laws and many museums maintain they acquire their artifacts legally and in a transparent manner.

Determining whether an artifact has even been stolen requires delicate cooperation between government, law enforcement, museums and antiquities dealers. And frequently, there are gaps in the historical records.

AP-ES-04-08-10 1541EDT

Moundville Museum reopens after $5 million update

Stone pallette with Southeastern Ceremonial Complex motifs, from the Moundville Site in Moundville, Alabama. Heironymous Rowe photo taken in 2005 appears by permission Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

MOUNDVILLE, Ala. (AP) – The “Big Apple of the 14th century” is back in action with the imminent reopening of the Jones Archaeological Museum at Moundville Archaeological Park.

Visitors will see the results of the 10-year, $5 million renovation at the museum’s official opening on May 15. The newly renovated museum tells the story of one of the most significant Native American archaeological sites in the U.S. through modern technology and celebrated artifacts.

“When we started planning, we had two goals for the museum. First, we wanted to bring the Moundville culture to life through immersive experience,” said Bill Bomar, director of the Moundville Archaeological Park. “And we wanted to present artifacts in a way that shows their significance.”

The museum’s setup is the culmination of two years of collaboration between archaeologists, artists and Native American scholars. Exhibit designers Taft Design and Associates, made up of husband and wife team Geoffrey and Doris Woodward, were involved in the planning process from day one. The ultimate goal, Bomar said, was to provide a more up-to-date and in-depth interpretation of the Moundville culture.

“A key to interpreting the Moundville site is the Jones Archaeological Museum,’ Bomar said. ‘Yet because of the out-of -date condition of prior exhibits, the visiting public often left the site without developing a true understanding of the greatness of the Moundville culture.”

The renovated museum has been divided into three separate exhibit areas.

The front entrance, which is guarded by symbols of Native American culture, including the ivory billed woodpecker and the red-tailed hawk atop large wooden poles, introduces visitors to the museum. The museum’s first exhibit, ‘Realm of the Sacred Rulers,’ opens the museum’s Moundville storyline. The exhibit presents a group of Native Americans arriving in Moundville bringing the daughter of their tribe to marry the Moundville chief’s son. Each figure in the exhibit is modeled after Native Americans and adorned with regalia based on actual Native American artifacts. Surrounding the figures are replicas of and some actual Moundville artifacts that include pottery, baskets, shells, beads and tools.

The second exhibit, ‘Joining of Worlds,’ continues the story with the chief of Moundville and his wife, pictured with their son and the Moundville maker of medicine, awaiting the incoming tribe. In addition to representative figures, the second exhibit houses several Moundville artifacts that have been housed at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian for more than a century.

The Moundville duck bowl, what Bomar said is ‘arguably the most important prehistoric artifact in the U.S.,’ is included in the Smithsonian collection.

The 35 items on loan from the Smithsonian are significant, since they were first discovered in Moundville a century ago by Clarence Bloomfield Moore, credited as the first archaeologist to ever dig at Moundville. Moore, who traveled via steamboat from Philadelphia to Moundville, took up archaeology as a hobby and found “the best of the best” Native American artifacts. After taking the artifacts back with him to Philadelphia, they traveled from museum to museum and eventually made their way to the Smithsonian.

“When (the duck bowl) was found in 1905, it created a national stir,” Bomar said. “Harper’s Magazine, then the most popular magazine, did a major feature on Moundville.”

The third exhibit, ‘Portal to the Starry Sky,’ features a Native American medicine man, who is played by a Native American actor, in a three-dimensional presentation through a film process called Pepper Ghost. Throughout the film, the model performs ‘magic’ and talks about Moundville Native Americans’ beliefs in the afterlife. The key inspiration for this exhibit and traced in the other two exhibits, Bomar said, is linked to Moundville’s most important symbol, the hand and eye. This symbol, he adds, is interpreted to be a portal to the “path of souls.”

John Blitz, an associate professor of anthropology at UA, is confident the museum will generate greater interest in Moundville.

“It will bring Moundville into the 21st century,’ he said. ‘People with different interest levels will be able to enjoy the museum. It will make a connection to Native Americans who are still with us today.”

The renovated museum now features an expanded gift shop and cafe that overlooks the entire 320-acre park. The museum’s placement at the far end of the park, Bomar said, offers further explanation of the site.

“Our museum was built at the far end of the site but in the end it creates a unique visitors’ experience,” Bomar said. “Where else can you go and have a Native American flutist play while looking out at the Native American mounds?”

AP-CS-04-10-10 0000EDT

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Alabama - view of site from top of Mound B, the tallest mound. Photo by Altairisfar. — Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Alabama – view of site from top of Mound B, the tallest mound. Photo by Altairisfar.

Disowned Picasso painting to have US debut in NYC

NEW YORK (AP) – A painting disowned by Pablo Picasso is expected to have its U.S. debut in a major exhibit of his work at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, though it’s unlikely to be a highlight of the show.

Questions have been raised about the authenticity of the painting, which is called “Erotic Scene” and shows a naked woman nestling her head in a man’s lap.

But the Met’s curator of 19th-century, Modern and contemporary art says that wasn’t the reason it had been kept in storage since being acquired in 1982. Curator Gary Tinterow says it was simply “not very good.” He calls it “slapdash.”

Maybe that’s why Picasso said the painting was “a joke by friends.”

Tinterow says Met researchers confirmed it was by Picasso before including it in the show of 300 works opening April 27.

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On the Net:

Metropolitan Museum of Art: http://www.metmuseum.org/

AP-CS-04-08-10 2236EDT

Artist wins New Mexico license plate logo contest

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – The image of a largemouth bass jumping for a lure has been selected as the winner of a contest for a design logo on New Mexico’s new bass fishing license plate.

Artist Gregory Lucero de Scargall of Santa Fe had the winning entry.

He gets $500 along with his design on the license plate. Motorists will be able to buy the plate for a one-time fee of $25 and an annual fee of $10 in addition to regular registration fees.

All but $10 of the fees will go to the Bass Habitat Management Program of the state Game Protection Fund.

A bill passed by the 2009 Legislature authorized the Motor Vehicle Division to issue the special bass fishing plates.

AP-WS-04-10-10 0640EDT

Third man pleads guilty in antiques dealer’s death

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – A 23-year-old former soldier has pleaded guilty to killing an antiques dealer in December of 2008.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports Brian Towndrow reached a plea agreement with prosecutors just days before he was scheduled to go to trail, and pleaded guilty on Wednesday for the death of 62-year-old Daniel Frederick, who owned Blondie’s Antiques and Military Supplies.

The newspaper reports Towndrow will not serve more than 40 years in prison for the killing.

Two other former soldiers – Raymond Jones, 30, and Michael Moore, 25 – have already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Prosecutors says Moore pushed Frederick to the ground while Towndrow strangled him. They say the trio was attempting to halt a military investigation.

Frederick’s family says it is disappointed by the agreement.

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Information from: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner,

http://www.newsminer.com

AP-WS-04-08-10 1113EDT

Kovels – Antiques & Collecting: Week of April 12, 2010

This Chrysanthemum Sprig master berry bowl, 5 by 8 by 10 inches, is referred to as

Custard glass usually is the color of egg custard, but collectors have added to the definition and now identify some glass as blue custard, custard with nutmeg stain and custard with painted roses or other decorations. The original catalogs from the companies that made custard glass called it Ivorina Verde (Heisey), Ivory decorated (Jefferson Glass Co.) or ivory and gold (Northwood Glass Co.). But it is difficult to tell real custard glass from glass of a similar color. Original custard glass was made in England about 1880. Most of the pieces were mugs, drinking glasses or novelties — small pieces like toothpick holders or match holders. Many pieces were made to be souvenirs, so event or town names were added to the decoration. It was not until the 1890s that custard was made by Northwood Glass Co. of Indiana, Pa., the first maker in the United States. Northwood made some of the famous patterns collectors prefer today, including Inverted Fan & Feather and Chrysanthemum Sprig. The company used hand-painting, stains and gilding, and even produced “blue custard,” which was made using a different glass formula. At least 10 other companies made custard glass before 1930, and a few are making it today. It is easy to tell if any cream-colored glass you come across really is genuine custard glass. Get a black light, shine it on the glass and look for the luminous glow caused by the uranium in real custard glass. A Geiger counter will click near real custard glass. But don’t worry. Little uranium was used, so the glass is not dangerous.

Q: I bought a baby doll in the early 1960s from an antique store in California. The doll’s head is porcelain and her body cloth. Her closed mouth is set in a slight frown. There’s a copyright symbol on her neck followed by the words, “by E.I. Horsman Co. Inc., made in Germany.” What is she worth today?

A: The mark on your doll is a clue to your doll’s identity. She’s Horsman’s “Tynie Baby,” one of the company’s most popular dolls. Tynie Baby was made with a porcelain head and cloth body, like your doll, or with a composition head and cloth body. She also came in a smaller all-porcelain version, and in 1950 was made in vinyl. Your porcelain-head doll is the most valuable of the Tynie Baby dolls and in perfect condition can sell for more than $650. E.I. Horsman Co. was founded in New York City in 1865. The company manufactured dolls, but also imported French dolls and German dolls. Yours was made in Germany.

Q: Sixty-five years ago, when my family would visit my grandmother, it would be such a treat to get to use one of the teaspoons hanging from the rack around her silver sugar bowl. The large bowl with its attached 12-spoon rack always sat in the center of her dining table. The mark on each spoon is “1835 R. Wallace 6.” Can you tell me something about its age and maker?

A: Your grandmother’s combination sugar bowl and spoon rack was made by R. Wallace & Sons Manufacturing Co., which was in business under that name in Wallingford, Conn., from 1871 until 1956. The mark indicates that the set is “triple plate” – triple-plated silver. Combination sugar bowls and spoon racks were first made in the United States in 1874. They’re favorites among spoon collectors and were made by many American silver companies until the 1920s.

Q: Some tiles we found in a chicken coop near a Victorian house we just bought are marked “Providential Tile Works, Trenton, New Jersey.” The horizontal tile shows a dog chasing a buck in the woods. Two long vertical tiles picture hunters. The set of 10 tiles can be put together to make a fireplace surround. What are they worth?

A: The Providential Tile Works of Trenton, N.J., operated from 1885 to 1913. It made many different glazed tiles with decorations that were either flat or in relief. It is difficult to find an old fireplace surround, so your tiles could sell for as much as $750 to someone who needs the set.

Q: Is it safe to wear cloisonne jewelry or even to keep cloisonne pieces in the house? I was told cloisonne is radioactive.

A: Cloisonne does not present a radiation problem. Although pieces may make a Geiger counter click, the radiation is very small. It comes from the color used in the enamel. You’ll get more radiation exposure from a smoke detector or some kinds of red brick.

Q: I inherited a walnut secretary-bookcase from my mother. The only mark I can find on it is on the locks. The mark is “G. Bayer, Pat. Feb. 6, 1872.” Does that mean the secretary is that old?

A: Your secretary was made sometime after Feb. 6, 1872. And the mark relates only to the lock, not to the company that made your secretary. Joseph Loch of New York City actually filed for the patent on Feb. 10, 1882, and assigned the patent to himself and George Bayer, also of New York City. The patent was granted on Oct. 17, 1882. So either you read the date on your lock incorrectly or Mr. Bayer considered filing for the patent a decade before he and Mr. Loch finally did so.

Tip: Graniteware and other enameled kitchenwares should be cleaned with water and baking soda. If necessary, use chlorine bleach.

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.

Brooch, Cupid with bow and arrow, 3-D, gold-tone, by DeNicola, 2 1/8 inches, $68.
Ohio Amish doll quilt, cotton, Shadows pattern, blue ground, red and white vertical lines, black border, 1910, 11 x 16 inches, $225.
Ideal Saucy Walker doll, head turns side to side, hard plastic, flirty blue eyes, open mouth, auburn hair, blue taffeta dress, 1951, 22 inches, $300.
Sunbeam Bread sign, embossed metal, blond girl eating a slice of bread with butter, yellow and red ground, late 1950s, 11 3/4 x 29 3/4 inches, $358.
Revolutionary War folding knife, brass handle, horn panels, 18th-century, 14 inches, $550.
Appliqued and pieced pillow, hand-stitched, brown house, blue smoke from chimney, brown tree with red bird, sun in corner, Arie Meaders, 1879, 15 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches, $630.
Galle vase, cameo-cut, amethyst over melon glass, floral design, signed, circa 1975, 4 7/8 inches, $660.
Stoneware face jug, dark olive glaze, pinched face with ceramic teeth, marked Reggie Meaders, 7 1/2 inches, $977.
Mickey Mouse tea set, 3-inch teapot, 1 1/2-inch sugar and creamer, 2 3/4-inch saucers, Rosenthal Bavaria mark, circa 1932, 14 pieces, $1,808.
Wrought iron andirons, griffin head, heraldic emblem, curved legs, hoof feet, 20th century, 44 x 15 x 29 inches, $1,912.

The best book to own if you want to buy, sell or collect. The new full-color Kovels’ Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide, 2010, 42nd edition, is your most accurate source for current prices. This large-size paperback has more than 2,500 color photographs and 47,000 up-to-date prices for more than 700 categories of antiques and collectibles. You’ll also find hundreds of factory histories and marks and a report on the record prices of the year, plus helpful sidebars and tips about buying, selling, collecting and preserving your treasures. Available online at Kovelsonlinestore.com; by phone at 800-571-1555; at your bookstore or send $27.95 plus $4.95 postage to Price Book, Box 22900, Beachwood, OH 44122.

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