The title page of the 1623 First Folio of William Shakespeare’s plays.
LONDON (AP) — An unemployed book dealer who paraded as a wealthy playboy was sentenced Monday to eight years in prison for possessing a stolen first edition of Shakespeare’s plays, a rare volume described as a “quintessentially English treasure.”
Last month, a jury cleared Raymond Scott, 53, of stealing the First Folio but found him guilty of handling stolen goods and removing stolen property from Britain.
Scott was arrested after he took the 1623 volume to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. two years ago and asked to have it authenticated. Experts there alerted police, who say the folio was stolen from a display case at Durham University in northern England in 1998.
Scott claimed he had found the volume in Cuba and denied all charges.
In passing sentence, Judge Richard Lowden said Scott had tried to use the book to “fund an extremely ludicrous playboy lifestyle” and to impress a woman he had met in Cuba. The judge said Scott was “to some extent a fantasist” but was not suffering from a mental disorder.
Prosecutors said the flamboyant collector drove a yellow Ferrari and posed as an international playboy despite living with his elderly mother on welfare benefits and amassing huge credit-card debts.
Scott arrived for his trial at Newcastle Crown Court in northeast England in June in a silver limousine, sporting a Panama hat and flashing victory signs at reporters.
Durham chief prosecutor Chris Enzor welcomed the sentence, calling Scott “a dishonest con man and serial thief who found himself in possession of a national treasure.”
The First Folio was published seven years after William Shakespeare’s death and was the first collected edition of his plays. Some 750 copies were printed, and about a third have survived, though most are incomplete. Only about 40 complete copies of the book are known to exist, most in museums or public collections.
The stolen copy was shown to the court during the trial, the first time it has been displayed in public for a decade. It was taken into court in a padlocked black strongbox and laid on a pillow next to the witness box.
The folio had its binding and title page cut out after it was stolen to disguise its identity. Independent experts said even in its damaged state it was worth about $1.5 million.
Durham Vice chancellor Chris Higgins said the university was delighted to have the book back but called its mutilation “blatant cultural vandalism.” The university plans to put the folio on display in January as the centerpiece of an exhibition entitled “Durham Treasures.”
Six other centuries-old books and manuscripts, including a 15th-century fragment of poem by Geoffrey Chaucer, were stolen in the same 1998 raid. They have not been recovered.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
WEST BEND, Wis. (AP) – The Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend will soon be showing off new art donated by MillerCoors.
The more than 20 pieces are by all Wisconsin artists but cover a variety of subjects, like the Guggenheim, New York City, Japan, Toulouse-Lautrec, abstractions and animals.
The exhibit, called “A Case of Wisconsin’s Finest: New Acquisitions from the MillerCoors Collection,” features paintings in oil, watercolor and graphite and serigraphs in mixed-media, silk-screen, aqua-tint and lithographs.
The artists include Robert Burkert, Warrington Colescott, John Colt, Peggy Thurston Farrell, Earl Kittleson, Robert von Neumann, Frances Myers, Francisco Mora, Marko Spalatin, Helmut Summ, Evelyn Patricia Terry, Arthur Thrall and Tom Uttech.
The exhibit opens Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010, and runs through December.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
One of the Forbidden City thrones in the exhibiton is this highly carved example of the rare tropical hardwood zitan, cedar and lacquer. The throne is 50 inches wide. Copyright the Palace Museum, Beijing. BEIJING (AP) – Deep in a long-forgotten corner of the Forbidden City and up a twisting stairway are four sets of twin doors, shut for more than eight decades. They reveal rare sweeping views to the north, south, east and west above the golden-tiled rooftops of the imperial palace.
The surrounding walls silence the passing tour groups. On the horizon, modern high-rises are softened by the Beijing smog. The view from this private corner has hardly changed since the Chinese emperor Qianlong designed this courtyard for his retirement more than 200 years ago.
“In my 80s, exhausted from diligent service, I will cultivate myself, rejecting worldly noise,” Qianlong wrote of the pavilion, where the floors have been stripped to packed earth and straw as part of a major restoration.
Few people have entered Qianlong’s courtyards since China’s last emperor was forced out of the Forbidden City in 1924, and it will take more years of work until the public can come inside. The restoration of the pavilion where Qianlong enjoyed the view over the Forbidden City rooftops is set to be finished by sometime in 2012. Bringing the entire complex back to life will take until at least 2019.
But now a collection of thrones, large-scale paintings and decor of one of China’s most powerful leaders is leaving the country for the first time. In September, the $1.5 million exhibition arrives in the U.S. for a tour that will show a more intimate side of a country often defined by vastness and control.
“This garden is completely different from the rest of the Forbidden City. The rest is formal, rigid, symbolic. This flows like walking up a mountain flows,” said Nancy Berliner, curator of Chinese art at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., where the exhibit of items from the pavilion and courtyards will begin. “You’re always finding surprises.”
The exhibit will also travel to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Milwaukee Art Museum.
The man who expanded China’s borders and brought its wealth to new heights was just as ambitious with the art and design of his surroundings. Qianlong, one of the longest-serving Chinese emperors, stepped aside only after six decades.
He is famous for his encounter with the visiting Lord George Macartney, the British emissary who came seeking better trade relations but was refused. “We have never valued ingenious articles, nor do we have the slightest need of your country’s manufactures,” Qianlong wrote in a smackdown well-known to foreign executives even today.
Yet, “The exhibit reflects Qianlong’s fascination with things in the West,” said Henry Ng, executive vice president of the World Monuments Fund, a partner in the restoration with China’s Palace Museum.
Ng’s favorite example is the glass throne, its panes sandwiched between carvings of blossoms and branches. The emperor had the new and fashionable plate glass imported for decoration, but it was mistaken for other materials, such as gray slate, under layers of dust for years during the restoration.
“Then one day I took a tissue and finally wiped it,” Berliner said. “It was a wonderful feeling.”
Qianlong never moved into the two-acre courtyard complex tucked into the northeastern corner of the Forbidden City. But he used its tiny, winding spaces and gardens for relaxation, and settled on a throne in the high pavilion to practice calligraphy. He’d write bits of poetry and paste them to the walls.
The courtyard’s location protected the space from war and upheaval as China struggled to find its political and economic place in recent decades.
When the doors opened again, the Qianlong courtyards were being used as storerooms, with everything covered in 2-inch drifts of dust. As work began, the dust was sifted for bits of treasure.
“They’d pick up every single piece and try to fit it back into the original,” said Berliner. “One man said they put each piece into little plastic bags. In the end, they had about 35,000 plastic bags.”
Officials have searched the country for craftsmen who remember the old arts and techniques to restore the courtyard complex and the exhibit pieces.
In another part of the Forbidden City, woodworker Zhang Shicun smiled over his glasses as he sat low on a bench over a Qianlong panel with a large gold-plated inlay.
“Before him, the emperors’ style of the time was rather plain,” Zhang said. “This decor, even this groove along the edge of the panel, there was nothing like it. Qianlong loved the details.”
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Online:
Peabody Essex Museum: http://www.pem.org/
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Cowan’s sold this collection of U.S. military dog tags in May 2008. Image courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions Inc. and LiveAuctioneers archive. WASHINGTON, Mo. (AP) – The last time Sgt. Duthiel “Dutch” Borcherding, Washington, remembers having both of his dog tags with him was right after the B-24 Liberator bomber he was aboard crash landed in a Dutch farmer’s field Jan. 30, 1944, during World War II.
When he came home from Germany in 1945 after spending more than a year in various POW camps there, Borcherding only had one dog tag with him. He always wondered what happened to the other one.
He still doesn’t know exactly what happened to it, but now – more than 65 years after the war in Europe ended – he has it back.
Recently, a veteran from Steeleville, Ill., Steve Ebers, who serves as senior vice commander of the American Legion Post 480 there, drove to Washington to hand deliver Borcherding’s other dog tag to him.
He had displayed the tag in a small black velvet box alongside a miniature American flag.
Ebers said a member of Post 480, Raynold Eggemeyer, purchased Borcherding’s tag and some 90 others in 1996 when he found them at an auction. He brought them back to the Legion Hall in Steeleville, where they sat on a shelf for more than 10 years.
When Ebers became senior vice commander in 2007, the previous commander handed the tags over to him. Ebers didn’t know what to do with them, but he put them in alphabetical order and put them on display in a trophy case.
Last year, Ebers started thinking about the men behind the dog tags and decided to try locating the men and return the tags to them.
Ebers began at his computer, doing searches on the various names. After he came across information on three or four of the men that said they were prisoners of war, Ebers moved on to searching the National POW archive and things took off.
“It got real interesting, real quick,” he said. “They were all airmen and all POWs.”
As Ebers continued his research, he has found photographs online of the men and their crews, as well as books that reference many of the men by name.
He flipped open a copy of A Dying Breed to read a paragraph that mentions a Jewish soldier, whose tag Ebers had and returned. After their plane crashed, the entire crew decoded to remove their tags to protect their Jewish comrade whose tag had an “H” for Hebrew.
“They didn’t want the Nazis to find out he was Jewish, so they all took off their tags,” said Ebers.
Flipping open a briefcase with a POW-MIA emblem on it, Ebers pulled out a stack of file folders filled with information he’s found about the men whose dog tags he has already returned. Among the information are rubbings Ebers makes of each tag before he returns it.
“I know these dudes by name now,” said Ebers, smiling, as he flipped through his folders looking for a specific photo.
“The first month I was working on this, they were in my head so bad I would sit up in bed at night thinking about them.”
Finding Borcherding proved to be a challenge at first, said Ebers, noting his searches for D.L. Borcherding never returned any information. Then he turned to the phone book – as he’s done with some of the other veterans – and came across a Borcherding who told Ebers about a relative named Dutch.
“When I typed that in (the computer), everything popped up,” said Ebers, laughing. “I even found his wedding photo.”
When Ebers was finally able to get Dutch Borcherding on the phone, he read off the serial number on the tag to make sure he had the right person. “Is that your serial number?” he asked.
“Yes,” Borcherding responded, without hesitating.
It took several weeks for the two to make arrangements for Ebers to return the tag.
Borcherding’s tag makes No. 22 that Ebers has been able to return, however, all but one other tag has been given to relatives because the veteran had already died.
Borcherding’s tag is the first one that Ebers has hand-delivered to a veteran. All of the others were sent priority mail with delivery confirmation.
“I’ve used up all of the little jewelry boxes I can find,” said Ebers.
In return he has received numerous thank-you cards and even a ham from grateful families.
Sitting at the Borcherding’s dining room table, Ebers listened intently as Dutch and his wife, Delores, shared details about how his plane crash-landed in the Netherlands. Ebers showed the Borcherdings some of the photos he has collected, and the Borcherdings gave him a copy of a newspaper clipping telling about Borcherding’s crash landing.
Ebers still has more than 70 dog tags that he’s trying to return to the veterans or their families. When he laid the bunch on the table, Borcherding was fascinated by the sight of them.
“This is interesting,” he said.
Borcherding doesn’t remember if the Germans took one of his tags when they placed him in the POW camp, but he believes that is a likely explanation. How then it ended up for sale at an auction in Illinois is still unknown.
Ebers fears they will never know.
The dog tags were part of the private collection of items owned by a group known as the Pioneer Historical Society. All of the items in the collection, including the dog tags, were put up for sale when the last caretaker of the society died, said Ebers.
So there is no one to ask, and no records to check.
Borcherding, who turned 90 in February, still has the one dog tag that he brought home from Germany in 1945. Now that his pair of tags has been reunited, he doesn’t plan to do anything special with them, but he is glad to have it back.
___
Information from: Washington Missourian: www.emissourian.com/ <http://www.emissourian.com/>
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
SAO PAULO (AP) – Police have recovered a painting by one of Brazil’s most famous painters two weeks after it was stolen from a museum.
Authorities say Candido Portinari’s O Enterro, or The Burial, was found with a suspect in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
It was taken from the Contemporary Art Museum in the northeastern city of Olinda earlier this month.
Police said in a statement they arrested a man who was in possession of the 1959 painting, which is worth about 1.5 million reals ($850,000).
The statement did not give details of the investigation, but Brazilian media reported that fingerprints at the crime scene helped police track down the suspect.
It is one of seven Portinari artworks at the museum.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AUBURN, Ind. (AP) – The new owner of a long-running classic car auction in northern Indiana has announced plans to finish $1.5 million in improvements to the facility before running its traditional Labor Day weekend sale for the first time.
Ontario-based RM Auctions bought the Kruse International auction park in Auburn this month and pledged to continue the early September sales that have drawn thousands of people for nearly 40 years. The auction park’s future had been threatened by former owner Dean Kruse’s financial troubles.
RM Auctions announced Thursday that its renovations for the auction park would include new asphalt for the parking lots and repairs and painting for the buildings on the 235-acre site.
The company said it already had nearly 500 cars lined up for auction and that the Sept. 2-5 event will have lower ticket prices. Among the cars committed to the auction are a 1932 Ford Five-Window Coupe and a 2008 Ferrari F430, with up to 1,500 collector cars expected to the sale.
Ed Cepuran, chief financial officer of Auctions America by RM, said the company expected a successful auction since it has received many “enthusiastic inquiries.” He said RM Auctions had set up bank accounts to assure quick payments to sellers _ a step that follows numerous complaints about payment delays by Kruse.
The new owner doesn’t have any official ties this year to the annual Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival in Auburn, although company spokeswoman Kerrey Kerr-Enskat said it would consider that in the future.
“We’re all just busy, very, very busy. We can’t wait till Labor Day,” she said. “Failure is not an option, when we say we’re going to do something, we’re going to do it. And well.”
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
A bow-shape pin and working watch that are enameled and set with diamonds sold for $863 at a Cottone auction in Geneseo, N.Y. It is marked "J. Laforge Besacon."
First came the church-tower clock to help everyone in town know the time. Then in the 1500s, a watch on a chain or a ribbon was used by the very rich. By 1700, women could have a watch pinned to a dress as part of a chatelaine that held keys, scissors and other household tools. Later came the traveling clock, then the pocket watch. In the early 1900s, the first watches with a matching pin were made to wear on a lady’s lapel. In 1915 the lapel watch was improved — the watch face was upside down so the wearer could read it more easily. During World War I, the wristwatch was created for soldiers, and by the 1920s the wristwatch was the most popular timepiece to wear. Today, many have given up the wristwatch and rely on a cell phone to tell time. But attractive lapel watches — especially those with enamel finish and matching fleur-de-lis or bow pins — and wristwatches that look like gold or jeweled bracelets sell well. The very best of the brand name watches, like Rolex or Patek Philippe, and those with features that tell more than time sell for extremely high prices.
Q: Could you please tell me what the three-piece oak bedroom suite I bought in 1970 is worth? The pieces have pressed trim, wooden casters and beautiful hardware. Two marks are stenciled on the back. One says, “Fitted with Watson’s Improved Case Construction, Patented Dec. (illegible).” The other says, “Pioneer Furniture Company, Chamber Suits, Wardrobes, Chiffoniers, Eau Claire, Wisconsin.”
A: The Pioneer Furniture Co. once stood in what is now Phoenix Park in Eau Claire. The company made reproductions of old styles of bedroom suites. It was in business from at least the late 1800s until 1930, when a tornado destroyed much of the factory. The mark about Watson’s case construction relates to an 1896 patent granted to William H. Watson, also of Eau Claire. The patent was for a method of constructing case furniture that prevented damage by pests and dust. So, your bedroom set dates from after 1896. The value of the set depends on its quality, style and condition. It could be worth a few hundred dollars or more than $1,000.
Q: I have a tea set made by Camark Pottery. I’m trying to find some information about the company. Can you help?
A: Camark started out in 1926 as Camden Art Tile and Pottery Co. It was established on land donated by the Camden Chamber of Commerce in Camden, Ark. By the end of the year, the company name had been changed to “Camark,” a contraction of “Camden” and “Arkansas.” Production of hand-thrown pottery began in 1927. Vases, planters, figurines and other decorative objects were made. Cast and molded pottery was mass-produced beginning in 1933. Mary Daniel bought the company in the early 1960s. Production ended in 1983.
Q: I was involved in planning the 1998 centennial celebration for my hometown, Titonka, Iowa. One of the century-old souvenirs that turned up was a 6-inch glass hatchet with a clear handle and ruby blade. The glass is inscribed “Souvenir of Titonka.” We think the hatchet was made sometime during the first 10 years of Titonka’s founding. When we displayed the hatchet at our centennial antique exhibit, area residents started bringing in similar pieces that were souvenirs of other Midwestern towns. Can you tell us who made it, why it was used as a souvenir by various towns and what it’s worth?
A: Pressed-glass hatchets, a symbol of “taming” the West, were made as souvenirs for several American towns and celebrations around the turn of the 20th century. Some were made as souvenirs for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair and the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Although other glassmakers may have been involved in manufacturing these hatchets, the majority of them were produced by the Libbey Glass Co., which moved from Cambridge, Mass., to Toledo, Ohio, in 1888. Souvenir glass hatchets like your city’s sell for about $20. Those from the World’s Fairs sell for more.
Tip: Cover the nose of your hammer with a piece of felt to protect the wall when you are putting up picture hooks. If the wall is smooth, some of the new stick-on hooks might work.
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.
Need more information about collectibles? Find it at Kovels.com, our website for collectors. Check prices there, too. More than 750,000 are listed, and viewing them is free. You can also sign up to read our weekly Kovels Komments. It includes the latest news, tips and questions and is delivered by e-mail, free, if you register. Kovels.com offers extra collector’s information and lists of publications, clubs, appraisers, auction houses, people who sell parts or repair antiques and much more. You can subscribe to Kovels on Antiques and Collectibles, our monthly newsletter filled with prices, facts and color photos. Kovels.com adds to the information in our newspaper column and helps you find useful sources needed by collectors.
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.
Louis Vuitton soft-sided fold-over garment bag, leather hardware straps, brass, zip-and-buckle closure, LV logo, 17 x 23 x 10 inches closed, $255.
J.D. Kestner & Co. child doll, No. 171, bisque socket head, blue sleep eyes, open mouth with upper teeth, blond mohair wig, white cotton lace gown, circa 1900, 16 inches, $260.
St. Louis Beef Canning Co. sign, lithographed paper, “Cooked Corned Beef,” image of man being served by black servant, red border, 14 3/4 x 12 x 11 inches, $770.
Goofy Walking Gardener toy, tin lithograph, pushing wheelbarrow, windup, Marx, 1948, original box, 8 1/2 inches, $860.
Plow plane, rosewood body and fence, boxwood arms, nuts and wedge, Lamb and Brownell, 1800s, $960.
Silver-plated napkin ring, applied fireman’s hat, Pairpoint Manufacturing Co., circa 1865, $1,555.
Pressed-glass nappy, electric blue, shallow, 31-point rim, 40-point star in base, hexagonal stem, dome base, New England, 1850-60, 5 3/4 x 7 inches, $2,645.
1920 Indian bicycle, original brass electric headlight, Klaxton horn, brass tire pump, dark red, older restoration, $2,875.
Appliqued and embroidered bachelor’s quilt, 25 floral and geometric blocks, red dividers, made for John Glendy Stuart by his fiancee, Isabel Windsor, circa 1839, 99 x 97 inches, $6,435.
Kovels’ American Antiques, 1750-1900 by Ralph and Terry Kovel is the book that introduces you to the collected antiques from past centuries. Learn about American antiques, from art pottery and old advertising signs to rare silver. Written to help you recognize and evaluate the valuable items of Grandma’s day. Hundreds of color photographs, marks, makers, dates, factory histories and more. Chapters on pottery, glass, furniture, silver, advertising collectibles, prints, jewelry, pewter, tools and ephemera. An easy-to-use book with current information. Available at your bookstore; online at Kovels.com; by phone at 800-571-1555; or send $24.95 plus $4.95 postage to Kovels, P.O. Box 22900, Beachwood, OH 44122.
