MANHEIM, Pa. – Conestoga Auction Co. will sell Rodney “Scott” Sweger’s brewery and whiskey bottle and advertising collection, which took the Holtwood, Pa. resident 35 years to gather. The unreserved auction will be Saturday, Aug. 21, beginning at 9 a.m. Eastern. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
Consisting more than 800 lots, the collection includes most known Lancaster County brewery bottles. Also included are many large whiskey bottles, script decorated stoneware, wicker-covered and paper-labeled bottles, various flasks and etched shot glasses, bitters bottles, apothecary bottles, back bar bottles, seltzer bottles and milk bottles. Advertising items include trays, calendars, signs, keg tap handles, pocket mirrors, corkscrews, bottle openers and early paper labels.
Among the rare items is a J.A. Sprenger zinc sign, which depicts a gladiator waving an American flag. The sign, 34 inches by 23 1/2 inches, is signed by the Kentucky manufacturer and has a patent date of September 1887. It is estimated at $1,000-$3,500.
Among the early beer bottles is from A. Reinochl, Lebanon, Pa. The cobalt blue applied top squat bottle, 7 1/2 inches high, has a $2,500-$5,000 estimate.
Advertising calendars include one from Sprenger Brewing Co., Lancaster, Pa., 1908 that pictures a beautiful young woman in beach attire, and a 1940 calendar that pictures a toddler with wearing large boxing gloves. Both are estimated at $1,000-$2,500.
For details visit the Web site www.ConestogaAuction.com or call 717-898-7284.
A. Reinochl, Lebanon, Pa., bottle, attic bottle, one of a kind, 7 1/2 inches tall, excellent condition. Estimate: $2,500-$5,000. Image courtesy of Conestoga Auction Co. Wacker Beer, Lancaster, Pa., 1940 calendar, artist signed Adelaide Hiebel, image size 27 3/4 inches by 13 1/2 inches. Estimate: $1,000-$2,500. Image courtesy of Conestoga Auction Co. John Horting half-gallon stoneware jug with blue script marked ‘John Horting, 142 N. Queen St. Lancaster, Pa.’ Estimate: $1,000-$2,000. Image courtesy of Conestoga Auction Co. Sprenger Brewing Co., Lancaster, Pa., 1908 calendar depicting a young lady in beach attire holding a bottle of Sprenger beer, image size 22 1/4 inches by 16 1/4 inches, framed and matted. Estimate: $1,000-$2,500. Image courtesy of Conestoga Auction Co.
World War II dive bomber, the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver. U.S. Navy image.
SAN DIEGO (AP) – It was a surprising image for the fisherman hoping to find bass on his electronic fish finder: The outline of an airplane submerged 85 feet below the surface of a San Diego reservoir.
Navy divers later confirmed it was a rare World War II dive bomber that crashed after its engine failed during a training exercise on May 28, 1945.
The pilot and gunner aboard managed to ditch the craft and swim ashore to safety. But the plane remained at the bottom of the lake, forgotten for six decades until it turned up last year on the angler’s device.
Now private salvage divers have been slowly and gently clearing away the silt and mud covering the SB2C Helldiver. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the craft was set to be raised on Thursday, Aug. 19 — 65 years after it plunged into the cool waters.
If it can be restored, the National Naval Aviation Museum hopes the Helldiver fills a void in its collection, considered to be one of the world’s largest displays of naval aviation history with more than 150 planes.
“We’ve been looking for a Helldiver for quite some time,” said Navy Capt. Ed Ellis, of the museum in Pensacola, Fla.
Only a handful of the 5,100 dive bombers manufactured during World War II still exist.
“At the end of the war, they were obsolete and so they just chopped them down, melted them and made most of them into tin cans,” Ellis said. “It wasn’t a particularly good airplane.”
One of the Helldiver’s nicknames was the “Beast,” because of its reputation for being difficult to handle.
The aircraft was plagued by problems from the start with the first prototype crashing in February 1941. The second went down as well when it was pulling out of a dive.
The British Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force canceled their orders.
The U.S. military sent untried planes to recently commissioned carriers, some of which saw disastrous results with wing folding mechanisms failing, bouncing tailhooks, leaky hydraulic lines and collapsing tail wheels.
Over the years, the Curtiss-Wright Corp. implemented a total of 96,675 engineering changes during the war to correct the problems and meet Navy requests to make it more combat-worthy. By the war’s end, the aircraft overcame most of its woes and had proven itself in action, experts said.
San Diego shut down the Lower Otay Reservoir to the public during this week’s salvage operation.
Taras Lysenko, a former Army ranger who has rescued 33 planes for the museum, said divers found the Helldiver covered in mud and silt that kicked up in the reservoir, which slowed their efforts to extract it.
Divers have been working with zero visibility while they prepare the plane to be lifted carefully out of the water without further damaging it. Lysenko said he expected the plane would emerge from the water Thursday.
Crews also have been keeping an eye out for anything bubbling to the surface that could indicate oil or fuel was leaking out and contaminating the city’s drinking water.
One of the people expected to be on hand to witness the event will be the son of pilot E.D. Frazar, who crashed into the reservoir with the gunner, Lysenko said.
“Wouldn’t it be amazing to watch it being pulled up, or to actually have it restored to flying condition, and I could sit in my father’s pilot seat and take the plane up?” Richard Ansel Frazar of Texas, son of the pilot, told the San Diego Union-Tribune last year.
A former volunteer at the museum left money to cover the cost of the plane’s extraction, Ellis said. The museum only salvages planes in which the crew survived. If anyone died, the site is considered to be a grave and is not touched, he said.
The museum has located hundreds of submerged aircraft, mostly in Lake Michigan and some oceans.
“This is always an exciting event. Some aircraft have been pulled up and we’ve found the batteries still hold a charge, or there is still water in the canteen left by the pilots in the cockpit, or some of the lights still work,” Ellis said. “We’re always amazed by what still works and is in good condition.”
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. (AP) _ It’s full steam ahead for a hands-on kids’ museum at the Caperton Train Station.
Jim Castleman is the project manager for the planned “For the Kids, By George” Children’s Museum, to be housed at the train station at 229 E. Martin St.
The museum, on track to open next spring, will provide young people with insight into how the railroad affected life in the Eastern Panhandle – even influencing turning points in American history.
During the Civil War, the North and South staged continual fights over control of the Martinsburg area. That’s because of the presence of the B & O Railroad, Castleman said.
“The railroad is the reason this area is even in West Virginia,” he said. “If it hadn’t been here, we’d probably still be part of Virginia.”
Castleman, a longtime tourism official, came on board to help plan the children’s museum in 2007 after he was approached by leaders of the Washington Heritage Trail National Scenic Byway Welcome Center, which operates from the Caperton Train Station.
“Heritage tourism is absolutely vital to the city and to the region,” said Castleman, a Martinsburg resident since 1989 whose maternal ancestors have resided in the Eastern Panhandle for generations.
During a recent tour of the site, Castleman pointed out why Martinsburg is an ideal location for a museum devoted to trains and history.
“Children are going to connect with history here because it’s where so many key events unfolded,” he said. “They can come here and stand on the spot where Stonewall Jackson ordered the roundhouses burned down.”
Besides its Civil War ties, the train station also is a landmark site in U.S. labor history.
On a July day 133 years ago, the country’s first nationwide strike began when rail workers in Martinsburg staged a protest after their pay was cut. The unrest soon spread to Baltimore and Pittsburgh and became known as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
Today, hundreds of travelers come and go daily on Amtrak as well as MARC trains that take commuters to jobs in Washington, D.C., and its suburbs.
Martinsburg’s Caperton Station, where the first steam engine arrived in the spring of 1842, holds the distinction of being one of the nation’s oldest continuously operating train stations. The building was named a national historic landmark six years ago.
Plans for a children’s museum began to gain steam after efforts to save the historic Roundhouse – built in 1866 and the only cast iron-framed structure of its kind still standing in the United States – brought in millions of dollars in the late 1990s. Local leaders found themselves looking for ways to put the restored space to good use.
“Unless and until we start making use of this site, I don’t think our downtown will thrive the way it should,” he said.
Drawings for the museum are nearing completion and should be unveiled to the public within weeks, Castleman said.
The project is being funded with a mix of private support, grants and government money. Proceeds generated at the welcome center’s bookstore and gift shop located on the porch of the Caperton Train Station also go toward the project.
“Excited doesn’t begin to describe how we’re feeling about this museum,” Castleman said. “We’re going to help children become living historians, and at the same time we’ll create a catalyst for all kinds of things to come together for our downtown.”
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Information from: The State Journal, http://www.statejournal.com
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Edmund Jenings Randolph (Aug. 10, 1753 – Sept. 12, 1813), seventh Governor of Virginia, the second Secretary of State, and the first United States Attorney General. ABILENE, Kan. (AP) – Valoise Armstrong knew she stumbled on something that was out of place among millions of pages from Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration.
In July, Armstrong was going through a box of White House files at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene when she found a document from 1794. It detailed the costs of a federal court case in Philadelphia that involved Secretary of State Edmund Randolph.
The document was found among papers and letters sent to Eisenhower in 1955 during his term in the White House. It came from a prolific writer in California and was never read by the president.
Armstrong was amazed that the piece of paper had survived for centuries, even though it was little more than a scrap.
It was sent to Philadelphia to be included with other federal court records that are in the National Archives.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Cinematheque Francais, designed by American architect Frank Gehry, holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. PARIS (AP) – It may seem backward to travel to one of the most beautiful cities in the world and sit in the dark.
In Paris, there are seemingly endless rues and quais and museums and cafes to explore, which means visitors often hurry past one of the city’s greatest attractions: its cinemas.
They’re found throughout the French capital – and in particular the Latin Quarter. No city in the world boasts such a bevy of independent theaters, where vibrant repertory series and exciting selections play nightly.
New York might quibble, but most of its independent theaters long ago shuttered. Manhattanites can proudly claim the essential Film Forum, but Parisians can stand on the Left Bank and have nearly a dozen similar options within a five-minute walk.
Spending an entire trip among flickering projections would, of course, be extreme. But it does occasionally rain in Paris and sometimes a cool night at the movies is just the ticket after a day of traipsing around the attractions. And, unlike many destinations in Paris, no one – or perhaps everyone – is a tourist at the movies.
Your first move is to pick up your moviegoing Bible: the weekly Pariscope, which can be had for less than a euro at any newsstand. In it, you’ll find a detailed listing of every showing that week. It’s in French, but addresses, movie titles and show times are easily understood.
A key point: V.O. signifies version original (with French subtitles), whereas V.F. means version francais (dubbed in French). Now, if your French is poor, you are limited to movies in English, but this is only a slight impediment. Great, old American movies are plentiful and the odds are good that at any moment, a flick with Humphrey Bogart or Woody Allen is showing somewhere is Paris. As with jazz, the French are ardent celebrators of American filmmaking.
This is, after all, a birthplace of cinema. Here, it is the seventh art. So some history is in order, which means a trip to the Cinematheque Francaise.
Any film buff is well aware of the Cinematheque’s significance: Formed from Henri Langlois collection in the ’30s, its archives and constant screenings have long served as a kind of home base for Paris’ film scene. Many of the famed directors of the New Wave, like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, gathered here, though you can’t imbibe this history from its original location. It moved in 2005 to a beautiful, curvaceous building designed by architect Frank Gehry on Parc de Bercy in the 12th arrondissement.
Aside from several fine, modern theaters at the Cinematheque, you can also find the Musee du Cinema, which includes some truly magical artifacts from the history of cinema: Louis Lumiere’s 35mm projector, Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope, Robert Wiene’s expressionist sketches for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a copy of the robot Maria from Metropolis made for the museum, and much more.
There are also rotating exhibits at the museum, and the collections – film excerpts, stills and props – will surely whet your movie appetite.
Turning to your Pariscope newspaper, the advice is simple: Follow the movies. See what’s playing and go after what intrigues you.
I, for one, generally seek out the great films of the ’40s and ’50s, some of which found artistic renown through the French. The famed French film magazine Cahiers du Cinema, co-founded by Andre Bazin, was essential to trumpeting the artistry of American genre filmmakers like Howard Hawks and Nicholas Ray.
This is one reason Paris may be the best place to see a film noir, in all its black-and-white, moody, fatalistic grandeur. The films might feature fast-talking detectives in Los Angeles, but a film noir feels most at home in Paris.
The selection on any given week in Paris is usually exceptional. A recent week, for example, boasted an Alfred Hitchcock series, a new print of the Clark Gable-Marilyn Monroe film The Misfits (1961), an Al Pacino series, Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter (1955), the fabulous but lesser known noir Fallen Angel (1945), Bogart’s The Enforcer (1951), Robert Mitchum in 1947’s Crossfire, Sydney Lumet’s The Offense (1972), the new, touring print of Michael Powell’s The Red Shoes (1948) and much more.
You’ll quickly notice some differences to the Parisian moviegoing style. Show times are often listed for when the ads and trailers start and for when the film actually begins. Popcorn is not something generally eaten at the art house cinemas: Moviegoing is serious business.
Certain theaters are worth seeking out. Le Champo, on the rue des Ecoles, is perhaps the quintessential Parisian art house cinema. First opened in 1938, its survival has at times depended on the support of protesters refusing to allow closure.
If you don’t like the selections there, you can always try one of the other fine theaters around the block on rue Champollion. Many of Paris’ independent theaters are only a stone’s throw from here, including the nicely programmed Action Ecoles. After a movie at the Champo, walk up the hill for a drink outside at one of the cafes on the pleasant, restful Place de la Sorbonne.
One of the oldest cinemas in Paris is the Studio des Ursulines, near the Jardin du Luxembourg on the rue des Ursulines. It was built on the site of a Ursuline convent from the 1600s, and made into a silent film art house in 1926. It now shows first-run movies, but its plush red interior is hard to beat.
On the Right Bank, Cinema Mac-Mahon will always be dear to me, since it was where I first saw Taxi Driver on the big screen. It sits in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe, just off the Place Charles de Gaulle.
Studio 28, opened in 1938, is a lovely Montmartre theater and a good destination for Amelie fans. This is the place the beloved film’s heroine frequented, (and she did chomp on popcorn). If you can, time your visit to coincide with sunset, and from the top of Montmartre watch the lights turn on across Paris as the city dims.
There are other unique theaters, too, like the Pagoda on the rue de Babylone in the 7th arrondissement. True to its name, it’s styled after a Japanese temple. If you want a more modern view of Parisian moviegoing, try one of the MK2 theaters. The MK2 Bibliotheque at the Francois Mitterand National Library on the Quai de Seine, has 14 theaters and a futuristic vibe.
The Grand Rex is a movie palace built in 1932 and its main auditorium can seat nearly 3,000. The biggest theater in Paris, it’s a common spot for flashy premieres, so the selection is typically first-run films. Its exquisite Art Deco design gives it a fantastical aura, like a grand, fairy-tale cinema.
All of these theaters beam out wondrous films every night. As you exit to the street rubbing your eyes, you might think that the best part of all about moviegoing in Paris is that the city awaiting you outside is hardly less of a dream than the movies.
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If You Go…
CINEMATHEQUE FRANCAIS: Parc de Bercy. 51 rue de Bercy, 12th arrondissement: http://www.cinematheque.fr/
LE CHAMPO: 51 rue des Ecoles, 5th arrondissement: http://www.lechampo.com/
STUDIO 28: 10 rue Tholoze, 18th arrondissement: http://www.cinemastudio28.com/
Katharina Fritsch, Cock, model of proposed sculpture of cockerel in ultramarine blue. Image courtesy of the artist and Greater London Authority. All rights reserved. LONDON (AP) – A cake made from bricks and a big blue bird are among six artworks that were unveiled on Thursday as finalists for a coveted place alongside Adm. Horatio Nelson in London’s Trafalgar Square.
The square’s “fourth plinth” is one of the city’s major showcases for public art. Past works displayed there include Antony Gormley’s One & Other, which saw 2,400 members of the public stand atop the stone plinth for an hour at a time.
The current occupant is Yinka Shonibare’s Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle, a replica of the naval hero’s HMS Victory with multicolored sails of African cloth.
Finalists to replace it next year include British sculptor Brian Griffiths’ pink and yellow brick Battenburg cake, German artist Katharina Fritsch’s ultramarine cockerel – which “refers, in an ironic way, to male-defined British society and thoughts about biological determinism” – and a cash dispenser connected to a pipe organ that plays whenever the machine is used, created by U.S.-Cuban duo Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla.
The other shortlisted works are a sculpted mountainscape in the shape of Britain by Germany’s Mariele Neudecker; British artist Hew Locke’s vivid equestrian statue Sikander; and a brass sculpture of a boy astride a rocking horse by Britain’s Michael Elmgreen and Germany’s Ingar Dragset – intended as a thoughtful riposte to the square’s military monuments.
“Each of the artists has come up with a very different vision, their wit and originality offering a highly individual response to the historic backdrop of Trafalgar Square,” said London mayor Boris Johnson.
Models of the six works are on display at St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square until Oct. 31. The chosen work will be announced early next year.
One of London’s main tourist attractions, the square was named for Nelson’s 1805 victory over the French and Spanish fleets. A statue of the one-armed admiral stands atop Nelson’s Column at the center of the square, and statues of other 19th-century military leaders are nearby.
The fourth plinth was erected in 1841 for an equestrian statue that was never completed. It remained empty for a century and a half, and since 1999 has been occupied by artworks erected for about 18 months at a time.
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Online: www.fourthplinth.co.uk
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WS-08-19-10 1036EDT
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Brian Griffiths, Battenberg, model of proposed sculpture of Battenberg cake invented on the advent of the 1884 marriage of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Victoria of Hesse, to Prince Louis of Battenberg. Image courtesy of the artist and Greater London Authority. All rights reserved. Hew Locke, Sikandar, model of proposed sculpture of statue replicating an existing one of Field Marshall, Sir George White (1835-1912), adorned with horse brasses, charms, medals, sabers, jewels and other fetishes. Image courtesy of the artist and Greater London Authority. All rights reserved.
Max Factor’s 1932 so-called beauty calibrator looks like a prop from a Universal Studios monster movie. The only one in existence today, the device has an $85,000-$100,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Super Auctions. HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – Super Auctions, on behalf of Hollywood Entertainment Museum, will present the Max Factor Salon Collection on Saturday, Aug. 28. The auction will consist of 175 lots related to the name synonymous with Hollywood makeup. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live biding.
The auction catalog states, “During Hollywood’s golden age, 97 percent of all film personalities wore Max Factor makeup and wigs.”
In 1908 Russian immigrant Max Faktor moved to California to supply cosmetics and hairpieces to the motion picture industry. In 1914 he convinced silent film comedians Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Fattie Arbuckle to try his brand of greasepaint. From this point Max Factor’s career took off.
A one-of-a-kind piece in the auction is a “Beauty Calibrator” designed by Factor in 1932. Super Actions’ catalog explains that “it combined scientific analysis, phrenology and cosmetics for this face measuring device, which revealed that the ‘perfect face’ was a myth and enabled Hollywood make-up artists to quickly pinpoint facial corrections that had to be made on some of the screen’s legendary beauties.” The rare device, which covers the subject’s face and head, is expected to sell for $85,000-$100,000.
The auction will include vintage advertising and images of many of Hollywood’s most famous leading ladies.
The auction will begin at 10 a.m. Pacific. For details call 714-535-7000.
Before Americans loved Lucy’s TV series, Lucille Ball was a Hollywood starlet in the 1940s. This 8-inch by 10-inch negative pictures Miss Ball in an advertisement for Max Factor makeup. It has a $75-$250 estimate. Image courtesy of Super Auctions. Hollywood legend Joan Crawford inscribed this 8-inch by 10-inch negative, "To Max Factor a Great Artist." The image has a $250-$700 estimate. Image courtesy of Super Auctions. Max Factor, famous for developing makeup for the movie industry, is pictured in an original self-portrait. The 23-inch by 33-inch framed portrait has a $1,500-$3,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Super Auctions. Another bizarre device from the Max Factor Collection is this "Kissing Machine," which was also used for Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Greatest Hits album cover in 2003. With noted damage, the Kissing Machine has a $25,000-$55,000 estimate. Image courtesy of Super Auctions.
The Four Corners region is in the red area on this map. Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) – The nation’s largest and longest-running Indian artifact show opened last year under a cloud of fear and uncertainty as a federal investigation into the sale of Native American artifacts intensified throughout the Four Corners region.
Since then, suicide has claimed the government’s informant and two defendants, some say the prehistoric Indian art market has bottomed out, some collectors’ lives have been turned upside down and several federal indictments have resulted only in probation for some of those accused of plundering artifacts from federal lands.
Now, artifact dealers and collectors attending the 32nd annual Whitehawk Antique Show in Santa Fe are sharing their concerns over how the government handled the case and the way authorities are interpreting federal laws designed to protect the nation’s archaeological sites and cultural heritage.
“We have suffered a stigma for so many years. I think it’s time for people to stand up for their rights to collect and enjoy things that are old,” Dace Hyatt, a restoration expert from Show Low, Ariz., told The Associated Press.
Hyatt and other members of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association organized a special panel discussion before the start of the show Monday to talk about the federal raids, informant Ted Gardiner and the laws that govern everything from arrowheads to centuries-old pots.
Once a mentor and friend to Gardiner, Hyatt said federal authorities should not have relied on him to make their case. He explained that Gardiner had financial problems and had reached a low point in his life before agreeing to work as an informant.
“In my opinion, he stooped to levels of misrepresenting the truth, embellishing and lying and that’s unfortunate because you would think there would be more checks and balances within the departments to credit or discredit his statements before they orchestrated an entire two-and-a-half-year sting operation that cost the taxpayers – I would be willing to speculate millions of dollars – to only come up with 26 indictments. That’s the travesty,” Hyatt said.
Gardiner was credited with making the case for federal authorities by secretly recording more than $335,000 in purchases over two years from people later accused of digging, collecting, selling or trafficking in artifacts taken from federal and tribal lands.
However, Hyatt alleged Gardiner also tried to bait honest collectors, including himself, by not being forthcoming with information about the items he was offering to sell.
In his case, Hyatt said Gardiner offered to sell him artifacts that came from an area known as the Arizona Strip. Hyatt declined the offer because he knew the area included parcels of federal land.
Retired attorney and avid collector Jim Owens cited another case in which Gardiner was accused of signing a disclosure statement that some items he was trying to sell to one collector were legal. Later, Owens said, Gardiner showed the collector on a map where the items had come from. The collector recognized it as federal land and turned down the deal.
Owens, Hyatt and others with the art dealers association said Monday’s forum was an effort to start a conversation about how to better police the market for real criminals and avoid entrapping innocent collectors who simply have a passion for artifacts.
Last summer, federal authorities rounded up more than two dozen defendants in Utah, New Mexico and Colorado following a sting operation that was fueled by Gardiner’s undercover work. So far, eight defendants have reached plea agreements that resulted in leniency and no prison time.
In the latest case, a Utah man who once bragged about taking Indian artifacts from federal lands received three years of probation. Charges are pending against 16 more defendants and an investigation remains open in Arizona and New Mexico.
Dealers and collectors acknowledge that the operation helped eliminate what they called a “fringe criminal element” in the artifact market, but they vehemently denied claims by authorities that an underground black market exists.
“That is a total myth and it needs to be debunked right now,” Owens said.
Owens and others also said that some of the raids went too far and the rights of honest collectors were trampled.
Melodie Rydalch, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Utah, said Tuesday that prosecutors are confident in the way the cases have been charged and noted that a federal judge found sufficient reason to sign off on the plea agreements that have been reached so far.
Across the hall from the forum, about 100 dealers set up booths for the annual show. Colorful Navajo rugs hung from the walls, painted pottery lined shelves and case after case had on display everything from rare figurines to delicate bead work, woven baskets and turquoise jewelry. The aisles were tight with prospective buyers and those who were there just to soak in the art.
Hyatt, who has been interested in artifacts since he was a boy, said the mood has improved this year.
Bob Gallegos, a past president of the dealers association, said some dealers and collectors don’t know the law as well as they should and could easily fall into a trap like those described by Hyatt and Owens.
Part of the problem, Gallegos said, is that federal law allows for the collection of artifacts on private land and that has created a loophole for criminals to claim their items are legitimate. Proving otherwise and enforcing the law has become very difficult for authorities, he said.
The government, Gallegos said, has to resort to tactics that have created fear and paranoia.
“We have to become partners with the government in helping them impart these laws,” he said. “We all have the same goals, we all want to preserve our cultural sites, our cultural resources, but we can no longer have these win-lose situations.”
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copper and brass lightship beacon with fresnel glass lens, hinged and vented top, triangular protective glass panels, 49 inches tall, 20 inches in diameter, estimate: $8,000-$12,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions
BOSTON – Ship ahoy! Kaminski Auctions announces its August Nautical and Antique Auction, which will be conducted Saturday, Aug. 28, and Sunday, Aug. 29. The sale features a wide selection of fine art, antiques, fine furnishings and a large collection of maritime antiques from across New England. LiveAuctioneers will facility Internet live bidder for the sale, which takes place under the tent at Kaminski Auctions, 564 Cabot St. in Beverly, Mass.
Bidding commences at 11 a.m. on both days and auction previews are scheduled Tuesday-Friday, Aug. 24-27, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and on the mornings of the sale beginning at 8 a.m.
Highlighting the sale’s maritime offerings is a fleet of museum quality cased ship models. Included in this collection is a circa 1978 model of Corona de Espana (est. $5,000-$10,000), a model of the presidential steam yacht Mayflower (est. $5,000-$7,000) and a circa 1980 model of the HMS Endeavor (est. $5,000-$7,000). Each of these high-quality pieces features fine details including scaled lifeboats, rigging, polished decks and hand-painted accents. In addition to these stunning ship models, the sale also includes shadow boxes, pond yachts, telescopes, marine paintings and charts.
A copper and brass lightship beacon ($8,000-$10,000) is also offered. The beacon features a fresnel glass lens, a hinged and vented top and triangular protective glass panels. Standing at 49 inches tall, this highly polished piece is sure to garner attention.
A wide selection of jewelry highlight’s Sunday’s auction. A platinum eternity band set with a total of 7 carats of Asscher cut diamonds (est. $12,000-$15,000) is the sale’s top jewelry lot. Additional jewelry includes a platinum, diamond and 3.06-carat ruby ring (est. $12,000-$15,000) and a graduated white South Seas pearl necklace ($8,000-$12,000).
Gearheads will rev up at the chance to bid on a 1978 Harley Davidson motorcycle (est. $12,000-$15,000). The motorcycle, a 75th Anniversary Edition Electro Glide, boasts a four-speed frame with extended wheelbase and low seating position. In running condition, the motorcycle has been expertly restored and is road-ready.
“Our summer nautical auctions definitely resonate with our North Shore audience,” said Frank Kaminski, owner of Kaminski Auctions. “We’ve seen a vast amount of new consignments come in over the past months, nautical and otherwise, many of which were discovered at our weekly free appraisal Tuesdays.”
For details visit www.KaminskiAuctions.com or call 978-927-2223.
Early 20th-century ship’s binnacle by Kelvin, Bottomley and Baird Ltd. of Glasgow and London, highly polished top and varnished base, 59 inches, estimate: $4,000-$6,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions Circa 1978 ship model of Corona De Espana, built by Maurice Bexgneux, 47 inches long by 42 inches high, estimate: $5,000-$10,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions Model of the presidential steam yacht Mayflower, 50 inches long by 15 inches wide by 55 inches high, estimate: $5,000-$7,000 Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions Two J class yachts shown in tacking position under full sail with crew on deck, oil on canvas, signed lower right ‘D. Tayler,’ mounted in wood and gesso frame, 36 inches by 48 inches sight size, 46 inches by 58 inches frame size, estimate: $3,000-$4,000. Image courtesy of Kaminski Auctions
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Three years after his death, pieces of Kurt Vonnegut’s life are coming together in his hometown, where a new library will chronicle the Slaughterhouse Five author’s harrowing World War II experiences and his works that struck a chord with the Vietnam generation.
The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library scheduled to open this fall in downtown Indianapolis will be part library and part museum, with a collection including first editions of his books, a replica of his writing studio, his Purple Heart and rejection letters that preceded his success.
The 1,100-square-foot space will also house an art gallery featuring his distinctive line drawings and a gift shop that will help generate income for the nonprofit library, said Julia Whitehead, the museum’s executive director and founder.
Whitehead approached Vonnegut’s son, Mark, in 2008 and proposed the idea of a memorial center. Weeks later, all three of Vonnegut’s children signed on.
Vonnegut’s eldest daughter, Edie Vonnegut, said her father loved libraries and would have wanted visitors to learn about his perseverance in the face of dismissive publishers. Among the items she’s loaning the library are some of his rejection letters.
“We have boxes of rejection letters, letters saying ‘You have no talent and we suggest you give up writing,”’ she said. “He did not have an easy time of it, and I think for anyone who wants to be writer, it will be important for them to see how tough it was for him.”
Vonnegut worked as a reporter, in public relations for General Electric and later sold Saabs on Cape Cod before finding success in the 1960s with darkly comic, satirical works that combined social commentary, science fiction and autobiography.
He was born into an affluent German-American family in 1922 and left Indianapolis for good when he went to college in 1940, but he returned periodically for visits. He died in 2007 at 84.
As a young man, he faced a string of tragedies _ including his mother’s 1944 suicide just before his Army unit left for Germany. Later that year he was taken prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge and eventually imprisoned in Dresden, Germany. There, he witnessed the Allied firebombing believed to have killed tens of thousands _ people whose bodies he and his fellow POWs were forced to dig from the rubble and burn in piles.
Vonnegut’s account of that ordeal eventually became the cult classic Slaughterhouse Five, which captured the cruel absurdity of war. Published in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam War, it solidified his reputation as an iconoclast.
The library, which opens in November, will feature items that belong to his three children, including a photo of their father just after his release as a POW, a Nazi sword he brought home as a souvenir, his cigarette-stained Smith Corona typewriter and a portrait of him by artist Joseph Hirsch.
Sidney Offit, a fellow author and longtime friend of Vonnegut’s, expects the library to give visitors a sense of his complexity, creativity, his triumph over tragedies and his worries about humanity’s future.
“I hope they get a full vision of a man who was one of those rarities, who was like his work. He was a writer who, when you read him, you heard him,” he said. Offit is giving the library copies of letters Vonnegut sent him and the bound galleys of two of Vonnegut’s books.
Vonnegut lectured regularly and exhorted audiences to think for themselves, warning that modern society was dehumanizing them. The library hopes to carry on those ideals, partly through its writing programs for high school and college students emphasizing Vonnegut’s works.
Donald C. Farber, who was Vonnegut’s attorney and agent and is now executor of his literary estate, is rounding up signed first editions of his friend’s works for the library.
Farber said Vonnegut was complicated, mysterious and prone to periods of depression, but never ran short of humor.
“I never had a conversation with him where I didn’t end up laughing,” he said.
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Online:
Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library: http://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/
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AP-CS-08-18-10 0309EDT
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007), photo courtesy of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Three years after his death, pieces of Kurt Vonnegut’s life are coming together in his hometown, where a new library will chronicle the Slaughterhouse Five author’s harrowing World War II experiences and his works that struck a chord with the Vietnam generation. 