Door knockers make a lasting first impression

A Hubley ‘Girl Knocking on Door’ door knocker, Grace Dayton design, went for $200 in November 2016 at Bertoia’s Auctions. Photo courtesy of Bertoia Auctions and LiveAuctioneers

NEW YORK – Door knockers instantly provide insight into a homeowner’s personality and tastes. Quirky, bold or folky door knockers come in endless varieties, from mythological figures or a ram’s head to a bunch of grapes, a winking Cheshire cat or a basket of flowers.

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$110,700 prototype Coke bottle tops Morphy’s $3M Vegas auction

In remarkable condition with no chips, cracks or case wear, this 1915 modified prototype Coca-Cola bottle was designed by Earl R. Dean of the Root Glass Company. It is the only intact example of its type known to exist and sold within estimate for $110,700 on April 14 at Morphy Auctions Las Vegas. Image courtesy of Morphy Auctions

LAS VEGAS – An effervescent six-figure winning bid drove an extremely rare Coca-Cola prototype bottle to the top of prices realized at Morphy’s April 12-14 auction in Las Vegas. The elite three-day offering of antique coin-op and gambling machines, Old West relics, and antique advertising chalked up more than $3 million, with $110,700 of that total attributable to the early-20th-century soft-drink bottle.

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Macron pledges to rebuild Notre Dame ‘even more beautifully’

View of the Notre Dame cathedral as seen from the River Seine. Photo taken in 2008 by Madhurantakam, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron pledged Tuesday to rebuild Paris’ beloved Notre Dame Cathedral “even more beautifully” after a raging fire destroyed its spire and its roof but spared most of the structure, including the church’s twin medieval bell towers.

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Japanese couture is runway ready at Indy’s Newfields museum

Yoshiyuki Miyamae, designer (Japanese, b. 1976), Issey Miyake, design house, (Japanese), Dress, Fall/Winter 2014. Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Gift of Ann M. Stack, 2015.5 © Yoshiyucki Miyamae

INDIANAPOLIS —Woven into Seasons of Japan at Newfields, guests will discover Japanese couture in “Fashion Redefined: Miyake, Kawakubo, Yamamoto, an exhibition devoted to contemporary Japanese fashion that celebrates the lasting legacy of these Japanese designers and their impact on the world of fashion in the past 40 years.

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