June 2012 - Page 4 of 18 - Auction Central News

Philly’s historic Cedar Grove house closing for major renovation

Historic Cedar Grove, located in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, was built as a country retreat in 1750 by prominent Quaker Elizabeth Coates Paschall. Image courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art.

PHILADELPHIA — Cedar Grove, a historically important house located in Philadelphia’s West Fairmount Park, is closing for a major restoration project of the building’s exterior envelope and roof, which will continue into the fall of 2013. July 8, 2012 will be the last day Cedar Grove is open to the public until the project’s completion.

Cedar Grove was built as a country retreat by prominent Quaker Elizabeth Coates Paschall in 1750. Five subsequent generations of the Paschall and Morris families continued to add to the property as they made it their home. Originally constructed in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, the house was moved to its current location in 1926, after Lydia Thompson Morris generously donated Cedar Grove to the City of Philadelphia and the furnishings to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The City, in an effort led by the Museum, moved the house to a location in West Fairmount Park overlooking the Schuylkill River and opened it to the public in 1928. By keeping Cedar Grove open for over 80 years as a historic home, the Museum has offered visitors a window onto the past complete with the furniture and household goods collected and used by members of the same family over the course of nearly two centuries. The restoration project is in keeping with the mission to keep this house in pristine condition and accessible to visitors for generations to come.

“The Philadelphia Museum of Art has a responsibility and desire to care for and maintain the remarkable properties it administers on behalf of the city,” said Timothy Rub, The George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer. “Like the Rodin Museum, which has been restored and will open to the public once again on July 13, Cedar Grove must also close temporarily in order to be preserved for future Philadelphians to enjoy.”

While the unique interiors and historic furnishings of Cedar Grove have been well maintained, the restoration will give much-needed attention to the building’s exterior. Critical priorities for this project include storm water management, tree removal and pruning, re-shingling the roof, repointing all of the masonry, rebuilding the porch, and the repair of doors and windows. This two-story house is constructed in Wissahickon schist stone, which has weathered the property’s shaded the conditions well, but the exterior woodwork is in need of careful restoration.

This historic property tells the story of the daily life of five generations of a well-known Philadelphian family (descendants also left the Morris Arboretum to the University of Pennsylvania) through original household furnishings and records. Cedar Grove contains an extensive collection of furniture and the decorative arts, providing a rare opportunity for visitors to see these materials displayed in a historic context. The extensive documentation that the family kept includes the medicinal recipe book of the house founder, healer Elizabeth Coates Paschall, and the 1809 wedding dress and trousseau receipts of Lydia Poultney Thompson.

“Cedar Grove has within its walls the stories of 150 years of day-to-day living—the moments of happiness and those of struggle,” notes Justina Barrett, the Museum’s site manager for Cedar Grove. “When the site re-opens to the public, new programs will enable visitors to experience and appreciate Cedar Grove’s stories, collections, and spaces. Visitors can relate to a mother trying to find a medicine for her son’s colic, or a father watching his daughter toddle across the room. Because this house, as well as its furnishings and many of the documents have been preserved, we can really bring visitors into close conversation with the past.”

The scope of the project was defined through a comprehensive building assessment completed by Atkin Olshin Schade Architects and CVM Construction. In 2006 the Museum oversaw a similar preservation project with Mount Pleasant, a historic home also operated by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

This project is generously supported by the William B. Dietrich Foundation and an anonymous donor. The William B. Dietrich Foundation also provided the primary funding for the earlier preservation project at Mount Pleasant.

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Germany mediates dispute re: ownership of sacred rock

Salto Angel (Angel Falls) in Canaima National Park in southeastern Venezuela. Photo by Rich Childs, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

BERLIN — The German government said Monday it was mediating talks for an “amicable” end to a dispute over the return of a rock considered sacred by an indigenous community in Venezuela from a Berlin park.

The foreign ministry said it had put forward proposals in discussions with the parties in the protracted dispute which had led to progress “in important factual issues” but that further talks were needed.

The dispute centres on a 30-tonne rock that the indigenous Pemon people call Kueka (meaning “grandmother”), which they claim was given without their consent to a German artist 14 years ago by a former Venezuelan president.

Last week the indigenous community in Venezuela staged a protest outside the German embassy in Caracas to demand the rock be repatriated from its current spot as part of an outdoor art exhibition in Berlin’s central Tiergarten park.

The foreign ministry “is trying in talks with all parties to mediate an amicable solution”, spokesman Andreas Peschke told a regular government news briefing.

“In order to facilitate a possible handing back of the stone and at the same time protect the interests of the artist, the foreign ministry has made relevant proposals for an amicable agreement,” he said.

The rock had been in the Canaima National Park, home to the Pemon, in south-eastern Venezuela until 1998, when it was given by ex-president Rafael Caldera to German artist Wolfgang von Schwarzenfeld.

The sandstone rock was transported to Germany where it was sculptured, polished and displayed as part of a project for peace called Global Stone in the Tiergarten.

Von Schwarzenfeld told AFP that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had been calling for the rock to be returned for six years based on false claims such as that the stone had been stolen.

“There are all the documents… which show that it is a present from the people of Venezuela to the German people. I am not the owner of this rock, I can’t return it,” he said.

The German ambassador in Caracas said last week he would pass on to officials in Berlin the rock’s spiritual interest for the indigenous community and that it had always been considered a gift from Venezuela.

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Reading the Streets: FLOW.12 at Randall’s Island

'Two Viewing Rooms, Offset,' Randall’s Island, by Michael Clyde Johnson. Photo by Kelsey Savage.

NEW YORK – The five-artist environmental Art Exhibition on display along the Randall’s Island shoreline makes the trip across the East River footbridge, connecting Manhattan and the Island, well worth it. Open through September, the exhibit is a continuance of last year’s Flow.11, featuring artwork developed through the partnering Bronx Museum of the Arts. While there are several installations making up the exhibit, one of the most striking and demanding of public interaction is that of Michael Clyde Johnson.

Upon approaching the wooden cube perched on the top of a gentle hill, you think you are looking at the strangely designed bones of a tiny house. Upon closer inspection, you become aware of the way the container has focused your view and realize it’s a sculpture designed to manipulate the way you perceive the landscape. Depending on which way you are looking, the wooden installation frames out the view of the city across the water, or opens to look out on a bridge and a sports field. The way you approach the piece determines what aspect of the environment is showcased. You become a participant in the view, watching the landscape become successively more focused as you step up the platform and further into the cube. Sitting within, you become aware of the way the light filters through the slatted walls and the sense of relief from the sun the shade offers. It’s public art of the best kind—meant to be played with and explored, and helping shape the way you take in the environment around you. It challenges the way you interact with nature.

Michael created a similar piece that sits in the Catskills Forest Preserve. His art has also been displayed throughout New York and in his home state of Nebraska.

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

Calder jewelry, Royere lighting in demand at Woodbury sale

Alexander Calder brooch and ring, combined result $76,200. Woodbury Auctions image.

WOODBURY, Conn. – On Sunday, June 17, Woodbury Auction held a Father’s Day barbecue in conjunction with the company’s third anniversary Spring Fine Estates auction. The event featured over 500 lots of fine and decorative art and American and Continental furniture from seven estates and more than 70 individual consignors from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas and California. LiveAuctioneers.com provided the Internet live bidding.

Top lots of the sale were two original pieces of sterling silver jewelry by renowned sculptor Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976), whose workshop was in Roxbury, Connecticut. The items, a spiral brooch and a ring, had never before been offered for sale, having been given by the artist to the consignor, a local Woodbury resident, in 1952. According to Thomas Schwenke, owner and auctioneer, the items were discovered as a result of the firm’s consignment event held in April. The combined price realized for the two pieces was $76,200.

Four related lots of red painted metal and brass serpentine lighting that Woodbury attributed to the renowned French designer Jean Royere brought a total of $57,000. The lots comprised four serpentine wall sconces, a corner serpentine sconce, and a circular serpentine 53-inch diameter chandelier. They had been in storage for several years after being removed from a Connecticut location where they were installed in the 1950s.

One of the rarest items in the sale was an original Art Nouveau-style bronze Porter garden telescope, serial number 21, which sold for $11,400. The garden telescope was designed in the 1920s by Russell W. Porter, father of amateur astronomy in America, founder of the Springfield Telescope Makers, and an instructor at MIT. Fewer than 20 extant examples are known, one of which is in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.

A large antique carved wood artist figure sold for $5,400 to a phone bidder from California, while a large antique Continental cage-form doll sold to an online bidder for $4,600.

The sale also featured many fine art lots including recently discovered oil on canvas of a harbor scene by Harry Chase (1853-1889), an American artist working in Europe, which sold for $3,000; and two works by Ernest Hennings, which were recently found in a Chicago attic. Hennings painted in Taos, N.M., and sold works through Marshall Field & Company in Chicago. One signed work depicting a desert scene sold to a phone bidder in New Mexico for $19,200. An unsigned painting of an adobe villa sold to a Western-states phone bidder for $4,200. The sale included more than 100 paintings, prints and drawings by various other listed artists including works by Marc Chagall, Le Corbusier, Joseph Newman and many others.

Fresh to the market formal American furniture lots included a rare Sheraton carved mahogany game table attributed to the workshop of Duncan Phyfe. It sold to a collector in the room for $4,312. A Hepplewhite inlaid mahogany swell-front chest with drop panel, probably made in Portsmouth, N.H., was purchased by a LiveAuctioneers bidder for $2,460.

Silver lots sold well, including a unique sterling silver presentation cup from Yale University, which sold through LiveAuctioneers for $1,722; and a four-piece sterling silver tea set by Thomas Prime, London, which went bidder in the room for $2,185.

Several bronzes were included in the sale. A very fine Bergman cold-painted bronze lamp “Carrying the Princess,” sold to a New York phone bidder for $6,600. A rare gilt bronze figure “Nude Study” by noted American sculptor Paul Howard Manship, was bid to $10,455.

The sale also included many estate Oriental carpets including Persian and Caucasian room and scatter-size rugs, and other regional Asian rugs of varying sizes, which sold for prices ranging from $120 to $2,040.

To contact Woodbury Auction call 203-266-0323.

View the fully illustrated catalog, complete with prices realized, at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Jean Royere, handelier and xconces, combined result $57,000. Woodbury Auctions image.

Porter garden telescope, $11,400. Woodbury Auctions image.

Antique jointed artist's figure, $5,400. Woodbury Auctions image. — Antique jointed artist’s figure, $5,400. Woodbury Auctions image.

Ernest Hennings, Western desert landscape, $19,200. Woodbury Auctions image.

NY classical table, attr. to Duncan Phyfe, $4,312. Woodbury Auctions image.

Paul Manship, nude study, gilt bronze, $10,455. Woodbury Auctions image.

Material Culture promoting affordability at June 30 auction

Extra-large Anglo Indian teak cabinet, circa 1900, paint, ceramic tiles, 66 1/2 x 63 x 18-1/2 inches. Property of Michaelian and Kohlberg. Estimate: $600-$900. Material Culture image.

PHILADELPHIA – Material Culture is ushering in the summer with a classic Estates Auction, featuring both a morning and an afternoon session, on Saturday, June 30. LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.

The aim is to serve the community with an auction in which everyone can participate, with many unique and interesting items accessibly valued. Starting bids are low, in the hopes that auction-goers both knowledgeable and new can experience the thrill of bidding at a sale, and walk away with bargains.

The morning session, which begins at 10 a.m. EDT, showcases property from local and regional estates. A group of mid-century furnishings is led by a rare turquoise Eames rocking chair, with a Herman Miller label, expected to sell for $600-$900. Similar lots include a mid-century upholstered and wood couch, valued at $300-$500, a pair of vintage Eames-style side chairs, valued at $200-$300, and a Knoll diamond chair with its original upholstery, also valued at $200-$300. Other furnishings include an 18th century German or Dutch commode chest, worth $800-$1,200, and a fine selection of early 20th century oak furniture in the style of the Arts and Crafts movement, including an antique oak table valued at $400-$600, six antique oak dining room chairs also valued at $400-$600, an antique oak cabinet at $300-$500 and an antique oak buffet at $400-$600.

Artworks also feature prominently in the morning sale, led by those of African-American artist and Philadelphia native Andrew Turner (1944-2001), whose Portrait of a Woman is expected to fetch $400-$600, and a paper drawing of two girls on a bicycle for $200-$400. Three etchings by German artist Lesser Ury (1861-1931), two of trees and one of a Holland house, are valued together at $400-$600. Another German artist, Klaus Meyer (1918-2002), is represented at auction by a watercolor worth $100-$200. Two works by German-Israeli artists, Hermann Struck (1876-1944) and Jacob Steinhardt (1887-1968) are both expected to sell for $100-$200. American artist LeRoy Neiman, who died on June 21, known for his bright, expressionistic depictions of athletes, sporting events and musicians, will be shown in two works, a Bear Bryant serigraph, valued at $200-$400, and a lithograph of a scene at a bar, valued at $100-200. Both are signed.

Other items of interest include a land grant signed by President John Quincy Adams, dated 1825, for 73 acres of land in the Zanesville District of Ohio. It is expected to fetch $400-$800. The morning session also features a large number of antique and decorative oriental carpets, priced everywhere from $100-$200 to $1,000-$2,000 in estimated value. Antique and vintage textiles, clothing and accessories, antique Chinese and Asian ceramics and decorative arts, and a collection of folk and ethnographic art from a Delaware estate round out the morning’s offerings.

The afternoon session consists of items from the New Jersey antiques importer Michaelian and Kohlberg, who have placed astonishingly low starting bids on all of their lots in the interest of moving these items into the hands of the public. Many19th century natural and polychrome Anglo-Indian teak cabinets, valued at up $900, have starting bids as low as $70. Anglo-Indian tables and sideboards, worth up to $500, start bidding at $90. A fantastic assortment of 19th-early 20th century Chinese furnishings includes screens starting bidding as low as $50, cabinets starting between $40 and $175, chests starting at $50, square tables from $40, stands from $20, and pairs of chairs starting at $100—all for items of furniture that are worth up to $900. Modern painted Chinese furniture is also well-represented, including matching sets of chairs, tables and cabinets sold as single lots, with starting bids as low as $80. Dealers, designers or everyday art enthusiasts will be able to acquire stunning, handcrafted pieces with spectacular savings from the normal retail price.

Material Culture welcomes all interested collectors, buyers, and art enthusiasts to take advantage of the auction preview in its facilities in person. The Summer Estates auction preview will be open daily from Saturday, June 23 to Friday, June 29. Previews are daily10 a.m.-6 p.m. Interested parties not able to visit the exhibition gallery in person can also find full catalogs of this auction online at liveauctioneers.com.

On the day of the auction, Material Culture will also be hosting a barbecue, and the opening of the exhibition “5 Vermont Artists: Sculpture and Assemblages,” that will run through July 30. The reception for this exhibition will take place from noon to 5 p.m. with two of the artists present.

Material Culture is located at 4700 Wissahickon Ave. in Philladelphia. Phone 215-849-8030 or visit the website www.materialculture.com for details.

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

Signed Leroy Neiman Bear Bryant serigraph (214/300), 47 x 40 3/4 inches (frame), 36 1/2 x 32 inches (sight). Estimate: $200-$400. Material Culture image.

President John Quincy Adams signed land grant. dated Aug. 6, 1825, Washington, D.C., 10 by 15 3/4 inches. Estimate: $400-$800. Material Culture image.

Hermann Struck Etching (German/Israeli 1876-1944) 'Portrait of Man,' 1904, signed lower left and numbered '2' in pencil, image size: 4 3/4 x 4 1/4 image. Estimate: $100-$200. Material Culture image. — Hermann Struck Etching (German/Israeli 1876-1944) ‘Portrait of Man,’ 1904, signed lower left and numbered ‘2’ in pencil, image size: 4 3/4 x 4 1/4 image. Estimate: $100-$200. Material Culture image.

Eames rocking chair (turquoise) with Herman Miller label, 27 inches high. Estimate: $600-$900. Material Culture image.

Antique oak cabinet, early 20th century, American, 54 x 33 1/2 x 15 inches. Property of a Philadelphia estate. Estimate: $300-$500. Material Culture image.

Diary of an artist-in-residence: Report from Verbier #2

VERBIER, Switzerland – The children have arrived, wide eyed and full of energy. They speak no English and my schoolboy French is already failing badly. Their teachers stare at me, and I feel slightly anxious. I am hoping that my scant preparations are going to satisfy their lust for attention. I have ordered several hundred strips of card an inch wide and two feet long and lots of colored pens, some tape and a stapler — will they do the trick? Two hours pass and the children prove to be very amenable to their art teacher. My iPhone proves invaluable, as it has a ‘flags of the world’ app that all the children find fascinating. The strips of card have been made into hats and armor and wigs. All in all, a resounding success and only three more hours to go.

At last I am able to carry on with the sculpture planned for the mountain park. I have started to lay out the aluminium angle on the floor and organize my tools. It is raining heavily, and inside the tent is awash. These conditions do not worry a sculptor. We like to think of ourselves as fairly tough individuals. and are always ready to put on a ‘hair shirt’ and suffer stoically. In truth I am very relieved when Kiki says it is time for my trip up the mountain.

Cable cars are quite something… and quite terrifying…. getting on a moving cab while others mill around you heaving bikes and bags around can be nerve wracking. The locals time their entry into the cabs to perfection just before they are hoisted aloft and away into the distance. These Swiss folk know how to be cool and laid back. I take my seat and tuck myself firmly into the corner as we lurch upward seemingly hundreds of feet from the ground. The fear turns to pleasure fairly readily, however as the Alps appear around me, quite simply breathtaking. We disembark and walk around the escarpment and stand looking across an enormous valley that stretches away for miles. Mountain peaks rise on either side of us as we begin to walk the route through the sculpture park.

The park is large, and the work impressive…. ‘Where would you like to put your piece on the mountain?’ I am asked. At this point I really don’t have an answer. ‘It usually takes three trips to decide,’ Kiki says as we make our way back down.

This evening we have some visitors to the tent. Wine is served and some local history is served up — stories of Saracens in the Alps and villages only accessible by ladders that are drawn up at night. Stories of fighting cows on which large sums of money are wagered. The vineyards in micro climates created by enormous rocks that soak up the heat of the sun in the summer…. and so it goes on, Switzerland really is an interesting place.

I have managed to make good progress with the sculpture, a few 12-hour days can do wonders and I know feel confident that I can make my deadline for the vernissage.

Tomorrow, however, is our trip to Art Basel, the major art fair a mere three-hour drive away. Cannot wait!

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Kovels – Antiques & Collecting: Week of June 25, 2012

The Uncle Sam image not only represented the United States but was also used to endorse products. This 100-year-old lithographed sign praised the Jackson razor that was used to shave Uncle Sam's beard. William Morford Auctions in Cazenovia, N.Y., sold this sign for $1,925 last fall.

Many figures have been used through the years to represent America. The earliest was the Indian Queen, who was the European symbol for North America from about 1570 to 1776. The attractive American Indian woman was represented in figurines and textiles. In 1776 her looks changed to a younger Indian Queen, who remained popular until about 1815. There was also Miss Liberty, a woman who wore the French cap that represented liberty, and Miss Columbia, similar to Miss Liberty but wearing a tiara and standing near a flag and eagle. They are both seen in paintings as early as the 1770s, but Miss Liberty soon lost favor. Columbia remained a symbol into the 1860s, when she lost out to Uncle Sam. He was invented in 1812 and is the most important and enduring representative of the United States. Legend says that during the War of 1812, Samuel Wilson, a meatpacker, stamped meat packages for soldiers with the letters “U.S.” for United States. Folks joked that the meat came from “Uncle Sam,” and soon the tall, thin man with white hair and beard, top hat and striped pants was created and seen in political cartoons, ads, packaging and even toys. He is still a favorite.

Q: My mother has a Little Red Riding Hood mechanical bank. It has Grandma in bed and Little Red Riding Hood sitting on the bed. If you pull the lever, Grandma’s head comes up and reveals the Big Bad Wolf’s face underneath. It you put a penny in, Red Riding Hood’s head tilts back as if she is startled. The bank is marked “Red Riding Hood” on the side just below her skirt. On the bottom, below Grandma’s head, are the words “Bits and Pieces.” The paint and condition are excellent. We would like to know if it’s a reproduction or an antique and what its value is.

A: The antique Little Red Riding Hood mechanical bank does not have a maker’s mark but is thought to have been made by W.S. Reed Toy Co., which was founded by William Reed in Leominister, Mass., in 1876. The company was known for its wooden toys. Reed made three different mechanical banks in the 1880s: Old Lady in the Shoe (patented in 1883), Girl in Victorian Chair and Little Red Riding Hood. The Little Red Riding Hood bank came in three variations, with a blue, green or yellow bedspread. The company became Whitney-Reed Co. in 1898. Your bank is marked “Bits and Pieces,” the name of a company in Lawrenceburg, Ind., that sells reproduction mechanical banks, puzzles and other gift items. The original banks sells for more than $30,000. Bits and Pieces sells reproduction banks for about $25 to $35, but the Red Riding Hood bank is no longer listed on the company’s website.

Q: My antique clothes iron has a little fuel tank attached to the front end. The top of the iron is marked “Sunshine” on one side and “Pat Pending, Made in the USA” on the other. The iron is 7 1/2 inches long. Please tell me what type of fuel it burned, when it was made and what it’s worth.

A: The manufacturer of your Sunshine iron is unknown, but it’s not hard to find the model at flea markets. Sunshine irons date from the early 1900s and burned gasoline. Other liquid-fuel irons burned kerosene, alcohol or liquefied natural gas. Irons that burned liquid fuel were a big improvement over irons that burned coal, which produced smoke and soot. Your iron is worth $75 to $100 if it’s in good condition.

Q: I got a pressed-glass toothpick holder from my grandmother. She told me it’s in the Crocus pattern and that she’s had it for a long time. Can you tell me something about this pattern? Is the toothpick holder valuable?

A: Your pattern is probably Croesus, a pattern first made by the Riverside Glass Co. of Wellsburg, W.Va., in 1897. Riverside Glass Co. was founded in 1879 and closed in 1907. The pattern features C-scrolls separated by crosshatching and fan shapes. It was first made in amethyst, emerald green or clear glass, with or without gold trim. Several different tableware items were made, including a butter dish, pitcher, salt and pepper shakers, sugar and creamer, toothpick holder and other serving pieces. The National Glass Co. made Croesus at the McKee factory from about 1907 to 1917. Reproductions have been made since the early 1970s. The toothpick holder was one of the first items reproduced. The value of your Croesus toothpick holder is about $35.

Q: We own a bed with a metal label on the headboard. The label says, “Made by Staples & Co. Ltd. by Royal Warrant.” There’s also a lion and unicorn crest and the words “Dieu et Mon Droit.” Can you tell me anything about the bed?

A: The label attests to the fact that Staples & Co., a British firm, has been a supplier of beds to the British royal family. The company was founded in 1895, when Englishman Ambrose Heal purchased rights to a U.S. patent for a spiral-spring mattress. King George V bought one of these mattresses in 1915 after his back was injured in a fall from a horse. The king granted the “royal warrant” in 1932, and every British monarch since then has renewed the warrant. Staples is still in business and, of course, uses the warrant in its ads. The French phrase, which literally translates to “God and my right,” is the motto of the British monarchy, and the crest is the royal coat of arms.

Q: I have a silver tray marked “Benedict” and “Georgian.” Between these two names there’s a diamond-shape mark with “E.P.N.S.,” “B.M.M.,” “Period” and “Plate” written along the four sides. It is also stamped with the number “1758.” I’ve seen a similar tray online, and the seller said that’s the year the tray was made. Can you tell me something about the maker and how old my tray is?

A: The number is definitely not the date the piece was made. It may be a shape or pattern number. “E.P.N.S.” indicates the tray is electroplated nickel silver. The initials “B.M.M.” indicate the tray has Britannia metal mounts or handles. The M.S. Benedict Manufacturing Co. was established in East Syracuse, N.Y., in 1894. It became T.M. Benedict Manufacturing Co. in 1906. Benedict started making flatware in 1897. The company went out of business in 1953. “Georgian” is the pattern name.

Tip: If you are storing a large closed container like a trunk for a long time, put a piece of charcoal in it to absorb odors.

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 email 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.

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.

Bookmark, March of Dimes, crutch figural, blue plastic, three dimes at top, 1940s, 3 inches, $20.
Hand puppet, Dopey, dwarf from Snow White, rubber head, felt hands, red and white checked shirt, red ribbon at neck, stamped “W.D.P.,” 1940s, 9 inches, $45.
Yellowware bowl, mustard beige, two mauve bands, late 1800s-early 1900s, 4 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches, $70.
“Play Family House,” No. 952, yellow roof, blue and white house, white door and chimney, wooden figures, plastic dog, doorbell rings, Fisher-Price, box, 1969, 15 x 9 inches, $85.
Advertising sign, “Jack Frost Cane Sugars,” cardboard, double-sided, hanging, image of desserts and boy holding box of granulated sugar, 1940s, 10 inches, high, $95.
General Electric Monitor-Top refrigerator bank, white cast iron with steel back, Hubley, circa 1927, 4 1/4 x 2 1/8 inches, $185.
Coca-Cola deliveryman’s hat, white with green stripes, inside tag reads “Brookfield Uniforms, Kansas City, Mo.,” 1950s, size 6 7/8, $225.
Hudson Bay blanket, white ground with red, black and gray stripes, label, 1930s, 62 x 82 inches, $325.
Federal sofa, inlaid mahogany, tapered square legs, horsehair upholstery, brass-tack swag design, Philadelphia, circa 1800, 34 1/2 x 76 inches, $2,600.
Galle vase, cylindrical, blown-out, yellow, blue leaves, green okra, footed, signed, 7 1/2 inches, $5,020.

Kovels’ American Collectibles, 1900 to 2000 is the best guide to your 20th-century treasures – everything from art pottery to kitchenware. It’s filled with hundreds of color photographs, marks, lists of designers and manufacturers and lots of information about collectibles. The collectibles of the 20th century are explained in an entertaining, informative style. Read tips on care and dating items and discover how to spot a good buy or avoid a bad one. And learn about hot new collectibles and what they’re worth so you can make wise, profitable decisions. The book covers pottery and porcelain, furniture, jewelry, silver, glass, toys, kitchen items, bottles, dolls, prints and more. It’s about the household furnishings of the past century-what they are, what they’re worth and how they were used. The book is out-of-print but online at Kovels.com; by phone at 800-303-1996; or send $27.95 plus $4.95 postage to Kovels, Box 22900, Beachwood, OH 44122.

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Woods yield clues to 1637 Pequot Indian-British battle

The Charles Stanley Reinhart (1844-1896) watercolor, circa 1890, titled 'Lion Gardiner in the Pequot War.' Gardiner (1599–1663) was a noted English settler and soldier.

MYSTIC, Conn. (AP) – Most local residents are familiar with the massacre and burning of the Pequot Indian fort in 1637 by English forces and their Native American allies.

What is lesser known is that as the surviving 75 British soldiers and 200 allies retreated toward ships on the Thames River, they had to fight off fierce attacks from 300 Pequots and at one point may have burned a smaller Indian village they came across.

Now Kevin McBride, the director of research at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, with help from 20 college students from across the country, is spending the summer in Pequot Woods retracing the steps that Capt. John Mason and his men took during that retreat.

“This is a real window into that time period,” McBride said recently as his search team worked deep in the woods off a trail that leads to Mystic Meadow Lane.

So far the team has found musketballs, gun parts, bent arrow points, gun flints, tools, buttons and other artifacts that have helped them map the soldiers’ steps. Using metal detectors, team members meticulously examine grids that are 10 meters square before moving on to adjacent areas. They have also been digging test pits, hoping to find evidence of the destroyed village.

“Right where we’re standing they were fighting off repeated Pequot attacks,” said McBride, whose team uses historic documents and descriptions of the battle to gather clues about where to search.

“I’m not sure whether we’re getting good or we’re lucky, but I don’t care,” said McBride, who heads the University of Connecticut’s Field School in Battlefield Archaeology. “The challenge is putting yourself into the head of a 17th-century English commander as well as the Pequots.”

So far McBride and his team have completed a mile of the search and have two more to go, as the retreat stopped short of the Thames. They plan to continue their work through the fall.

Two student researchers using metal detectors that can probe 20 inches deep recently got a hit on a metal object. After a few minutes of digging and screening soil, they found an irregularly shaped iron object encrusted in dirt. Turning it in his fingers, McBride placed it a sealed plastic bag.

“It’s definitely worth an x-ray,” he said. “This is the fun part of the discovery. You never know what you’ll find out here.”

In another area, researchers dug test pits to search for evidence of the destroyed village such as pottery, stone tools and English trade goods.

“The village would be an incredible find,” McBride said, showing off a stone spear point from one of the test holes that he estimated was made between the years 1000 and 1600.

The project is being funded with a $60,000 grant from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program along with continued support and funding from the Mashantucket museum.

With funding from both groups, McBride and his team completed an archaeological study of the Mystic Fort off Pequot Avenue two years ago and mapped a location in Old Mystic where the English and their allies camped before the massacre.

The result of the studies has been documented in 400-page reports for the park service.

“We’ve learned more about the Pequot War and the colonists in the past four years than in the previous 25,” McBride said. “The archaeology and the historic narrative coming together begin to tell you the story.”

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Information from: The Day, http://www.theday.com

AP-WF-06-23-12 1504GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Ohio man donates vintage fans to keep neighbors cool

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – A central Ohio man has donated hundreds of fans from his collection to help neighbors in need keep cool despite high temperatures.

Bill Galloway, of Columbus, began collecting fans in 1999 and amassed about 1,000 of them, packing the items into his garage. When spring arrived with unseasonably high temperatures, he decided there were others who needed the working fans more than he did.

“It’s very simple,” Galloway told WCMH-TV. “I said, ‘Are you going to use this? No, you’re not.’ So out (the fans) went.”

Since the spring, Galloway has donated about 600 fans—all in working order—to his church’s food pantry so they could be distributed to people who could use them. The recipients are warned to keep the fans away from children because they don’t have modern safety features.

Food pantry volunteer Phyllis Taylor said as soon as one load of fans was distributed, Galloway would bring more.

“They would disappear and the next day there would be another table full of fans,” Taylor said. “I’ve seen him shed a tear over some of the stories that he’s heard and people with the thanks that they give him.”

Galloway, 70, said he has kept about 300 fans for himself, including one that dates to 1912 and still operates.

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Information from: WCMH-TV, http://www.nbc4i.com

AP-WF-06-21-12 1448GMT

ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Vintage fireworks collection pops at Morphy’s, earns $438K

Crax Boy firecracker pack with imagery similar to that of vintage Whitman’s Sampler chocolate boxes, $3,025. Morphy Auctions image.

DENVER, Pa. – Morphy Auctions’ June 22-23 auction was devoted exclusively to things that go bang in the night – the antique and vintage fireworks collection of Pennsylvanian George Moyer. The 40-year assemblage of rare antique and vintage firecracker packs and labels; salutes, sparklers and other pyrotechnical rarities went out with a flourish during the two-day sale that realized $438,000. LiveAuctioneers.com provided the Internet live bidding capability for the sale. All prices quoted are inclusive of 20% buyer’s premium.

The Moyer collection had been widely publicized in the mainstream media, both in the USA and abroad. Feature articles appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Times and Forbes.com, and there was coverage on at least two television networks. “This level of media attention might not have seemed so unusual had it been a collection of Picassos, said Morphy Auctions CEO Dan Morphy, “but we’re talking about firecrackers – ephemeral objects that cost as little as one cent when they were first marketed.”

Morphy’s “one cent” comment was in reference to what collectors call “penny packs,” which were manufactured to provide cheap thrills for financially challenged Fourth of July celebrants. In particular, these auction lots proved a pennywise investment for Moyer.

“There were over 40 packs in the sale that sold for individual prices of $1,000 or more, and several were penny packs,” said Morphy. “Not a bad return on George’s money.” Moyer started his collection at age 10, picking up wrappers that his older friends discarded after removing the crackers.

The top lot of the sale was a rare salesman’s display board containing 20 sample sparklers, caps, and firecracker packs. It finished at the midpoint of its estimate range, at $7,200. A second salesman’s display board containing 12 fireworks samples from the R.F. Company of Rochester, N.Y., was considered historically significant because it presented an especially diverse overview of the firm’s product range, including elusive pinwheels and “bombs.” Against an estimate of $1,000-$2,500, the assortment sold for $4,800.

The appeal of firecracker packs, with their vividly colored labels and fantasy themes, crosses over into many other collecting genres. Packs with depictions of athletes, soldiers, sci-fi and pop culture icons; Native Americans, clowns, cowboys, and Christmas characters are pursued by a wide range of collectors who do not specifically pursue fireworks.

A Balfour’s 40-piece pack of “supercharged flashlight crackers” with a depiction of early, open-wheel Indy-style racers competing on a racetrack no doubt received a boost from automotive collectors. The pack raced past the checkered flag with a winning bid of $3,900.

A packet of 32 Tally Ho! Firecrackers adorned with a vibrant image of riders on horseback, flanked by hunting dogs in full stride, finished at $3,300; while a Greyhound pack emblazoned with the image of a sleek hound bolting across the countryside more than doubled its high estimate to reach $2,280. Manufactured by Tung Fong, a 24-pack of Jackass Brand Firecrackers from the company’s “Lucky Series” advertised its product as being “the cracker with a kick.” Possibly the only extant example, the lot was entered with a $500-$1,000 estimate but was bid to $2,700.

Another pack that may be the only known example of its type was the one advertising “Crax Boy Loudest Flashlight Crackers.” Executed in appealing primary colors, the label featured a knock-off character nearly identical to the Whitman’s Sampler candy messenger boy. But instead of chocolates, Crax Boy delivers packets of fireworks. Estimated at $500-$1,000, the Crax Boy pack was bid to $3,025.

The pack that Moyer said he found hardest to part with was the one called “Marine,” with a depiction of US Marines in a battlefield. “I had a sentimental attachment to it because I, myself, served in the Marine Corps,” he said. The pack of 70 crackers – possibly a unique survivor – achieved $3,000.

Other top lots included: Merry-Go-Round, $3,000; Mercury, $2,280; Evergreen, $1,920; and China Goo Boy [probably an aberration of “Good Boy”] – $2,400. The image of a Native-American brave adorned the label on a pack of Three Feathers crackers, which sold for $1,440.

After the sale, George Moyer remarked that he had found it “very gratifying” that so many fellow collectors took the time to speak with him at the auction. “I had a great time meeting everyone and signed many, many auction catalogs, copies of the fireworks book I wrote, and fireworks posters. It made all those years of collecting worthwhile.”

To contact Morphy Auctions, call 717-335-3435. Visit the company’s website at www.morphyauctions.com.

View the fully illustrated catalog, complete with prices realized, at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Top lot of the sale: salesman’s sample board containing 20 sample sparklers, caps and firecracker packs, $7,200. Morphy Auctions image.

24-pack of Jackass Brand Firecrackers, ‘the cracker with a kick,’ $2,700. Morphy Auctions image.

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