Cincinnati Art Carved sideboard with Benjamin Pittman carving, possibly made for exhibition. Estimate: $10,000-$15,000. Image courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions. CINCINNATI – Cowan’s Summer Fine and Decorative Art Auction to take place on Saturday, July 23, promises to be an exciting event. The 364-lot sale, to be held at Cowan’s sales room, will offer fine and decorative art items from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Highlights in the sale include a 1944 Martin D-28 herringbone guitar, and a Cincinnati Art Carved sideboard with Benjamin Pittman carving.
LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
Cowan’s will offer a George Jensen sterling coffee and tea service estimated to bring anywhere from $15,000 to $25,000. This coffee and tea service is made in the blossom pattern and includes a coffee pot, teapot, covered sugar, cream pitcher, milk jug and oblong tray, all of which have carved ivory side handles.
A 1944 Martin D-28 herringbone guitar is estimated to sell for $30,000-$40,000. The guitar still retains its original keys. C.F. Martin & Co.’s primary factory is located in Nazareth, Pa., and is renowned for its high quality lines of guitars.
A Cincinnati Art Carved sideboard with Benjamin Pittman carving, possibly made for exhibition is estimated to bring $10,000-$15,000. It is a rare example of a Cincinnati Art Carved School piece bearing the personal stamp of the school’s founder.
Another great item in the sale is a copper panel by Maria Longworth Nichols Storer. The panel is American, circa 1913, and is embossed with fish and sea creatures with bejeweled eyes and is estimated at $5,000-$7,000. It is mounted in a wood frame, under glass, and rests on a small custom-made tabletop.
A monumental sideboard, atrributed to Alexander Roux, is expected to bring anywhere from $6,000-$10,000. This beautifully carved 19th-century American sideboard was manufactured by P. Mallard of New Orleans.
A Large KPM Porcelain plaque of Queen Louise is estimated to bring $6,000-$8,000. The plaque is German, 19th century, and depicts Queen Louise of Prussia.
A Queen Anne-style secretary bookcase is estimated to bring $8,000-$10,000. This bookcase is English 19th century and is in walnut with pine and oak secondary. Having dovetailed construction, the upper case opens to a fitted architectural interior, and the lower case opens to a fitted interior with a tooled leather writing surface.
A Picasso ceramic jug is estimated to sell anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000. This ceramic jug depicts a man and horse in black, white, blue and brown glaze and the base is marked “Edition Picasso 216/300.”
A Margaret Bourke-White photograph of the U.S.S. Akron airship is expected to bring $4,000-$7,000.
For details check Cowan’s website at www.cowanauctions.com or phone 513-871-1670.
OAKLAND, Calif. – Clars Auction Gallery is gearing up for an exciting classic vehicles auction to be held on Tuesday, July 12, featuring the life-long collection of a major San Francisco Bay area “mobile” aficionado. In all, nearly 100 vehicles will be offered on behalf of the bankruptcy trustee. LiveAuctioneers will provide Internet live bidding.
Spanning over eight decades of vehicle makes and manufacturers, domestic and foreign, this collection is one not to be missed. The sale’s headliners include a spectacular 1929 Cadillac Series 341-B Roadster, a cool 1953 Spohn Roadster and a sexy 1931 Stutz Model MB convertible. This is just a taste of the wealth of classic cars to be offered. Further highlights include a 1934 Cadillac Series 452-D limo and a rare 1924 Locomobile Touring car. Flashing forward to the more contemporary models to be offered finds a 2002 Bentley Continental R and 1996 Jaguar XJS convertible. But there’s far more than cars.
This private collection also features vintage motorcycles, trailers and trucks. A 1937 Pierce Arrow Travelodge trailer will be offered, as will a 1935 and a 1936 Curtiss Aerocars 26-foot trailer; and a 1935 24-foot Travel Coach that was used in the movie Aviator. A 1940 Monk boat with floating boathouse (in Seattle) is among the unusual “mobiles” in this great collection. There’s even a 1958 Mack fire truck.
In addition, there will be a large amount of vintage cars, trucks and trailers in various stages of restoration to catch the attention of parts collectors.
The auction will be held at Clars Auction Gallery in Oakland, California. For additional information on any lot in the sale, call 510-428-0100.
1929 Cadillac Series 341-B roadster. Image courtesy of Clars.1931 Stutz Model MB convertible. Image courtesy of Clars.1937 Pierce Arrow Travelodge trailer. Image courtesy of Clars.
The S.S. Admiral retained its signature Art Deco look from a 1930s makeover. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. ST. LOUIS (AP) – A century-old riverboat-turned-casino that folded under withering competition from the St. Louis region’s growing array of gambling sites is headed to a scrapyard, piece by piece.
Crews are dismantling the S.S. Admiral along the Mississippi River at St. Louis, months after a would-be auction failed to attract what the owner considered serious bids for the vessel that until last summer was The President Casino.
Gateway Marine Services’ Bill Kline told the Belleville News-Democrat that about a half dozen of his company’s workers are using saws, cutting torches and other tools to pick apart the once-shimmering, floating giant with an Art Deco look.
“The boat’s being recycled,” Kline said, noting that the dismantling must be done meticulously. “Old boats tend to be like an archaeological dig. The materials are in layers, so you have to be very conscious of flammable material. So you can’t just break out the torches and go at it.”
The work on the river’s Missouri side, beneath the Martin Luther King Bridge linking the state with Illinois, will take about a month before the boat will be taken to Alton, Ill., just north of St. Louis for completion.
Kline called the Alton site preferable, given that it has better access and the location of locks and a dam there mean the river conditions don’t vary as much.
At tens of thousands of square feet, the vessel was billed in the auction postings as the world’s biggest inland entertainment vessel.
Built in 1907 as a Mississippi-crossing ferry, the boat was lengthened by 70 feet in the 1930s and converted into what was then the only air-conditioned excursion boat, according to the eBay listing.
The President was among Missouri’s first casinos after the state legalized casino gambling in 1993. But over time, the vessel permanently moored near the equally glistening Gateway Arch became by far the St. Louis area’s smallest casino and was hampered by its age, size and location.
Flooding over the past several years frequently forced it to close temporarily, and its business suffered as more modern, fancier casinos cropped up around St. Louis. In December 2007, Pinnacle opened a massive downtown casino called Lumiere Place just a few hundred yards from the President, hastening the boat’s demise.
And in March of last year, Pinnacle opened its River City Casino in south St. Louis County
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-06-30-11 1733GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
The S.S. Admiral retained its signature Art Deco look from a 1930s makeover. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
NASA photograph of Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 lunar module pilot. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. MIAMI (AP) – NASA is suing former astronaut Edgar Mitchell to get back a camera that went to the moon on the Apollo 14 mission – a historic device Mitchell apparently tried to sell recently at an auction.
The lawsuit filed in federal court contends that the 16mm Data Acquisition Camera is NASA’s property and there are no records showing it was transferred to Mitchell. NASA calls Mitchell, one of only 12 humans to walk the lunar surface, “a former NASA employee who is exercising improper dominion and control” over the camera.
“The United States has made numerous requests to defendant and defendant’s counsel for return of the NASA camera to no avail,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Macchiaroli wrote in the lawsuit filed Thursday.
“All equipment and property used during NASA operations remains the property of NASA unless explicitly released or transferred to another party,” Macchiaroli added.
Mitchell, 80, has a home in the Lake Worth, just south of West Palm Beach, but a phone listing for him was disconnected. His attorney did not immediately respond to a phone message and email. A message was also left with the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which Mitchell founded in 1972 as an organization dedicated to exploring mysteries of the human mind and universe.
NASA contends in the lawsuit that it learned in March that the British auction house Bonhams was planning a “Space History Sale” that included an item labeled “movie camera from the lunar surface.” Bonhams also provided a more detailed technical description and four photos of the camera.
The item, according to the auction house description, “came directly from the collection of Apollo 14 Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell.” The camera was one of two that went to the moon’s surface on the mission, during which Mitchell and Alan Shepard spent about nine hours collecting 95 pounds of lunar samples.
One of their achievements was showing that astronauts could walk long distances safely. They covered about two miles on one of their expeditions. Perhaps more famous was Shepard’s attempt at swatting a golf ball on the moon, and Mitchell made a “javelin” throw by tossing an unneeded metal rod.
Mitchell also made news by attempting to communicate using telepathy with friends on Earth during the mission. He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and other awards.
Since his retirement, Mitchell has devoted much of his life to exploring the mind, physics, the possibility of space aliens and ways of linking religion with scientific fact.
“He has devoted the last 38 years to studying human consciousness and psychic and paranormal phenomena in the search for common ground between science and spirit,” reads a biography on Mitchell’s Internet site.
Mitchell’s site says that he makes between 10 and 20 speeches a year and regularly appears at scientific and other conferences around the world. He also sells autographed photos of himself on the site and has links to articles he has written.
No immediate court dates were set for the lawsuit, which asks a judge to declare the camera U.S. property and prevent Mitchell from selling it. It also asks that Mitchell be forced to pay all legal and court fees arising from the case.
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Edgar Mitchell Web site: http://www.edmitchellapollo14.com/
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Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Olson House is open to the public as a part of the Farnsworth Museum complex. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. CUSHING, Maine (AP) – A weather-beaten farmhouse in Maine, featured in the backdrop of one of the most famous paintings from the 20th century, is now a national landmark.
The Olson House in Cushing where Andrew Wyeth painted Christina’s World was one of 14 landmarks to receive the designation from U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar on Thursday.
“It’s now affirmation that it’s an American icon,” said Christropher Brownawell, executive director of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, which has owned the farmhouse for the past 20 years.
Wyeth, who lived in Pennsylvania, spent 30 summers in Maine and he used the farm as a backdrop for the 1948 painting of Christina Olson, who suffered from polio and was unable to walk, crawling through a field toward the farm.
The Olson House, which overlooks the St. George River and Muscongus Bay, is where Wyeth, who died in 2009 at age 91, developed a relationship with Christina and Alvaro Olson that spanned 30 years. Wyeth’s gravestone is near the property.
The Farnsworth Art Museum is currently displaying a collection of 50 watercolors and drawings depicting the Olsons and the farmhouse. Christina’s World is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-07-02-11 1528GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
The Olson House is open to the public as a part of the Farnsworth Museum complex. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
The Marathon Motor Works factory was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Barry Walker was just 28 years old in 1986 when he first laid eyes on the Marathon motor car factory in what had become a rough part of town. The neglected, decaying Clinton Street structure was surrounded by weeds and inhabited by addicts.
“It was rough,” Walker says. “Dead dogs, needles, drug addicts. It was disgusting when I came over here.”
But Walker couldn’t stop thinking about the space, its proximity to downtown and what the history behind it could be. “I was taken by this building and just kept coming back and coming back,” he says.
Walker had been in the market for a building for his burgeoning business, Ingenuity Shop, which builds audio/video consoles and computer workstations. He also began building elevator cabs for an elevator company and supplying skilled labor to Vanderbilt.
“I got really big, really fast,” he says, adding he had more than 30 employees. “I would interview people at restaurants because didn’t want them to know how little I was.”
His office at the time was about 700 square feet, much too small for his needs. But space wasn’t a problem once he bought the 32,000-square-foot building.
“People are too apt to see old buildings and say, ‘Ah, it looks like hell, tear it down.’ We are tearing down pieces of beautiful art when we tear them down,” he says. “You can’t get this kind of stuff back.”
After he moved his business in, he still had an abundance of space he didn’t want to go to waste.
“I was creative, had done sculpture and all kinds of stuff, and so I said, ‘Gee, I’ll fix this space up for some real creative people and make it a real fun place,’” he says. So he did just that, fixing the upstairs of the building and renting out the units to an eclectic group of clients.
Since that initial purchase in 1986, Walker has been adding piecemeal to it, buying up the other buildings that were built at different times – the oldest in1881 and the newest in 1912. He didn’t know what the buildings were when he bought it but now he is an expert on all things Marathon.
“In 1989, I finally found out it was part of the Marathon car company,” he says. “I started researching and there really wasn’t that much out there.” No stranger to treasure hunting, thanks to a history of scuba diving for shipwrecks, he kept digging. Then, he found out his hometown of Jackson, Tenn., is where the company originated.
In 1884, the Southern Engine and Boiler Works opened in Jackson, manufacturing gasoline engines and boilers for industrial use. By 1904, it had grown into the largest plant of its kind in the nation. Cars were becoming more popular and by 1909, the name was changed to Marathon. The company offered two models.
Marathon moved its operations to Nashville in 1910, but it was in the old building in Jackson that Walker hit jackpot.
“It was vacant and they told me I could have anything I wanted,” he says. “I found a sealed off darkroom, so I knocked out the plaster and found that it had 68 glass negatives and blueprints of the Jackson plant and all the Nashville stuff. I felt like Indiana Jones.”
He now owns and is fixing that building, too.
By 1914, Marathon had ceased operations and stopped manufacturing the cars. “At the time they made between 8,000 and 10,000 cars and had a dealership in every state of the country.” Walker says there are now only eight known left in existence. He owns four of them.
Of course, not everyone initially saw the beauty and potential of what is now Marathon Village. People thought he was crazy, Walker says, adding he acted the part – complete with a gun he would shoot into the ground – so people in that rough neighborhood wouldn’t bother him.
“I had to come in like a nut and have no fear,” he says. “People really thought I was crazy for buying this place. But that is how things get started. Someone has to make a move. And I knew it was only a matter of time. I would sit up here on top of this building and see all this land around here and be looking right downtown. Nobody could really see it, but I could.”
As the years have passed, the buildings have become a growing museum for all of Walker’s Marathon findings, while more and more tenants continue to move in. About six years ago, Lightning 100 moved their offices in, after a decade located on top of the L&C tower.
“It is unique and eclectic like we are,” says Fred Buc, general manager for the station. And while they gave up a killer view, what they got in return was easier access and like-minded neighbors. Yazoo Brewery anchored the other side of the building, which was a good way to help people understand where they were now located. Now, that space is occupied by the Corsair Artisan Distillery.
“It cost this company a lot of money for parking downtown every month, so it saved us a bunch of money moving here,” Buc says. “But what we lost in the process was being able to walk out our front door and have 20 places to eat and a post office and a bank and drycleaners and Walgreens and the Arcade. In return we got easier access in and out for our sales people who come in and out all day.
“And even though we are a little bit harder to find now, at least the people who are coming to us don’t have to fight for a parking space and pay $10. It is just easier.”
Among the nearly 50 tenants of Marathon Village are photographers, distillers, personal trainers, interior designers, sculptors, printmakers, music video producers, recording studios and advertising agencies.
The tenants seem to love being there, but might love Walker even more. After working through serious motorcycle accident three years ago, they rallied around him.
“Barry is one of a kind,” Buc says. “He has had some misfortune but he really is surrounded by a lot of people who care about him and love him. He has really bounced back, and I think that is due to the closeness of the people he associates.
“The building is his baby and, while a lot of tenants could go to other places that may be more developed or fancier or ritzier, I think a lot of people have chosen to come here because of him and because of the uniqueness of the building and the area.”
Walker feels the same about the building and neighborhood he has helped bring back.
“We never have a boring time,” he says. “I have had tons of people who want to buy but I am not interested in selling. I have my own little village. It is my own little hangout.”
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Information from: The Nashville Ledger, http://www.nashvilleledger.com
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-07-02-11 1639GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
The Marathon Motor Works factory was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Oil on canvas of wild turkeys, signed ‘O.J. Gromme. 43,’ 24 x 30 inches. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Manor Auctions. MILWAUKEE (AP) – Famed nature artist Owen Gromme was upset when his son wanted to buy his Cedar Creek-Mallards painting in 1955.
Owen Gromme was paying for half of his son’s college education and thought if the young man spent $400 for the painting, he could pay more for his own education.
Roy Gromme reminded his dad they agreed he could use his leftover money to buy anything he wanted, except a car. So Owen Gromme sold it to him, rather than the Janesville area mink farmer who asked him for it. Roy Gromme said it’s a special painting to him because it reminds him of a hiking trip with his dad.
“It held fond memories for me, plus I liked the picture,” Roy Gromme, now 78, said in a telephone interview from his home in Oconomowoc, Wis.
That painting will be featured in “Owen Gromme: The 115th Birthday Exhibition,” which is at the Waukesha County Museum in Waukesha.
It features more than 30 family-owned works and numerous personal items that have never been publicly shown. The collection will not be exhibited again after the show ends in October.
Roy Gromme said his father ended up doing a different mallard painting for the farmer, who was conservationist Arthur MacArthur. He had many of his father’s works. His family also donated 14 Gromme paintings to the state in 1988 after he died. They are now in various state buildings in Madison, including the governor’s office.
The hike Gromme and his family went on that inspired Owen Gromme to paint Cedar Creek-Mallards was in Washington County, where a woman in the group fell, startling some mallards. The piece was recently appraised at $40,000, Roy Gromme said.
Gromme, born and raised in Fond du Lac, was a prolific painter of Midwestern birds and designed the 1945 Federal Duck Stamp. He was also a taxidermist and worked for the Milwaukee Public Museum for 40 years, including 10 months in 1928 when he and a team traveled to Africa to collect materials for large museum displays.
In 1963, Owen Gromme published the book, Birds of Wisconsin, which featured 25 years’ worth of his paintings.
Roy Gromme said many of the paintings in the exhibit had been passed on to the grandchildren, which was his father’s request before he died in 1991. Many were in the condos of Roy Gromme and his sister in the Twin Cities, since their children don’t have the space for them yet.
The museum’s executive director, Kirsten Lee Villegas, said they try to pick a different Wisconsin artist every summer to show off at the museum and Gromme is one of the most famous from Wisconsin.
“His paintings of cranes are just phenomenal,” she said. “They are luminescent.”
Another painting in the show features the family dachshund, Rusty, which Owen originally painted for his wife. It was a second attempt since the first one Gromme sold to someone else, much to his wife’s dismay. Roy Gromme said his mother and sister hated it – it was different than the first and had the dog on a green shag carpet with a ripped-up ball. Roy Gromme said it’s ended up in his basement.
His father would mostly only do commissions and he would paint from memory, often changing details of a setting, depending on how he was feeling, he said.
His dad always liked wildlife and art, but never graduated from high school and never took art lessons.
“It was probably something that was born in him,” Roy Gromme said.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-07-04-11 1518GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Oil on canvas of wild turkeys, signed ‘O.J. Gromme. 43,’ 24 x 30 inches. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Manor Auctions.
Rembrandt’s ‘The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’ was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990. Its whereabouts remains unknown. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heist (Palgrave Macmillan), by Anthony M. Amore and Tom Mashberg: In 1997, a gang of criminals escorted Boston Herald Sunday Editor Tom Mashberg to an undisclosed warehouse and showed him an Old Master oil painting.
Inspecting the painting by flashlight, Mashberg believed it to be Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, famously stolen, along with several other priceless pictures, from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. Since Mashberg’s possible sighting, the missing Gardner artworks have gone back underground, and the crime remains unsolved.
Mashberg has now teamed up with the Gardner Museum’s head of security, Anthony M. Amore, to write Stealing Rembrandts, a detailed look at numerous robberies targeting works by the great Dutch master over the past century. Combining impressive shoe-leather reporting skills with solid art-world knowledge, this fascinating book debunks many myths about museum heists while providing vivid profiles of the criminals and their motives.
The wealthy-but-evil collector who commissions museum robberies to enrich his private holdings is pure Hollywood fantasy, the authors convincingly demonstrate. Most museum heists are carried out by professional criminals who wrongly imagine a Rembrandt can be fenced as easily as other stolen property.
Unlike diamonds or gold, a celebrated old master painting actually has little street value. Instantly recognizable, it cannot be reintroduced into the legitimate marketplace without attracting attention and is therefore difficult for criminals to monetize.
In-depth interviews with several art thieves show that taking a Rembrandt usually nets the robber not a financial windfall but a hostage made of paint and canvas. Ransoms can be demanded and produced, but as the authors note, most hostage situations ultimately go badly for the criminals.
Popular culture too often glamorizes museum heists. As Amore and Mashberg show, stealing a Rembrandt seldom pays off for the thieves but makes the world at large infinitely poorer. With hard facts and a clear-eyed perspective, this book sets the record straight.
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Jonathan Lopez is editor-at-large of Art & Antiques.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Rembrandt’s ‘The Storm on the Sea of Galilee’ was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990. Its whereabouts remains unknown. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Rich Penn Auctions of Waterloo, Iowa, sold a salesman’s sample of a Masler Safe Co. Cannonball safe in May for $35,000. It came with a velvet-lined oak carrying case. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Rich Penn Auctions. FRISCO, Texas (AP) – In a Frisco museum, there sits a mystery made of steel.
This 3,700-pound Mosler cannonball safe once held the riches of a railroad town. Today, the bronze-colored behemoth sits frozen shut because of a design guaranteed to thwart bank robbers at the turn of the 20th century.
Its possible contents likely have captured imaginations among the hundreds of schoolchildren who each year tour the Frisco Heritage Museum. Frisco Public Library director Shelley Holley, who oversees the museum, is curious too.
She said the city has talked to a handful of experts. But their safecracking solutions call for breaching the hull of manganese steel. The antique safe – with its ornate lettering and original finish – is too valuable for that, she said.
“Our job is finding someone who has enough experience and won’t damage it in the process,” Holley said. “Locksmiths who are willing to try are a dime a dozen, but they all want to drill out the back.”
The census listed Frisco’s population as 332 in 1910, the year the Mosler cannonball likely arrived by rail in a community of cotton farmers. It’s anyone’s guess how it was hauled several blocks uphill along a dirt road to Frisco Guaranty State Bank.
But it was surely an event for the bank, which opened with one employee that September, along Main Street between the railroad tracks and the cattle trail to the east.
“If you spent the money to have a cannonball safe, you wanted to display it,” Holley said. “You wanted everyone to know that you had one, so that people weren’t constantly kidnapping your bank president.”
That was the way bank robbers worked back then: Kidnap the president, force him to open the safe at gunpoint late at night when no one was around, and then ride out of town before anyone was the wiser.
The Mosler safe put a stop to that, with a triple time-lock mechanism behind its combination lock. It could be opened only after a set amount of time passed on its internal clocks, among the finest timepieces of the day.
When the Frisco bank closed its doors in 1928, the town went without a bank for nearly two decades. Tenants came and went at the building at Fourth and Main. Then in 1947, First State Bank opened there, with Jack Scott Jr.’s father as the cashier. The Mosler safe, which sat inside the vault, became part of the daily operations.
Scott, who started working at the bank in 1964 at age 21 and later became its president, said the safe was used to store cash, savings bonds and loan collateral. A separate compartment inside was secured with another combination lock. Scott said that’s where the bank kept the $500 and $1,000 bills.
When the bank moved to a new location, Scott said, he never considered moving the Mosler. It had simply outlived its usefulness.
Ownership of the safe went to the city of Frisco in 1977, when it bought the old bank building for its City Hall. Jan Alexander, who was Frisco’s tax assessor and collector at the time, said the city stored records and its postage meter in the vault but left the cannonball safe untouched.
“I don’t think we ever opened it,” she said. “It probably just died of old age.”
But the Mosler gained new fans after it was moved in 2008 to the Frisco Heritage Museum.
“We thought the only thing that was stopping us from getting it open was finding someone with the combination,” Holley said.
Scott still remembered the code – a single number. “I must have opened that safe a couple thousand times,” the retired Frisco banker said.
While he was able to get through the first door, the second, with that time-lock mechanism, didn’t budge.
Holley said the city has considered putting out a call to experts and holding a safecracking party. Maybe make it a fundraiser.
“We would love to find someone who feels like they really do have the skill set and would be willing to perform under pressure with cameras and people watching, so we could all discover together what’s in there,” Holley said.
But what if there’s nothing in there?
Images come to mind of Geraldo Rivera’s much-hyped opening of Al Capone’s vault on live television in 1986, Holley said. The TV newsman had a medical examiner and IRS agents on hand to catalog any contents the famed gangster may have hidden away. Millions watched as crews blasted through walls to find only a few empty bottles.
Holley wonders about the Mosler:
“Is the romance of not knowing what’s in it more powerful?”
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Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
AP-WF-07-03-11 1955GMT
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
Rich Penn Auctions of Waterloo, Iowa, sold a salesman’s sample of a Masler Safe Co. Cannonball safe in May for $35,000. It came with a velvet-lined oak carrying case. Image courtesy of LiveAuctioneers Archive and Rich Penn Auctions.
Enjoy Fourth of July with this patriotic Brownie dressed for the holiday. The turn-of-the-century majolica figure sold for $165 at a Strawser auction in Wolcottville, Ind.
In the days before Disney, many imaginary sprites that excited children’s imaginations could be found in books. In 1881, Palmer Cox wrote an illustrated story about a group of characters called “Brownies” for Wide Awake magazine. Brownies were imaginary characters based on Celtic mythology. The tiny men had long skinny legs, round bellies and large heads. They were never seen by mortals, but they lived in the homes of humans, helped with chores and sometimes played jokes and caused mischief. In the world of the Brownies, there were dozens of characters, each dressed appropriately. It was easy to tell the policeman from the farmer from the businessman by their clothes. It was a time of massive immigration in the United States, so the Brownies included Chinese, German, Irish and other ethnic figures familiar to children. But there were no female Brownies to be seen. The cartoonlike figures were soon an important part of 19th-century pop culture, and the original magazine article inspired a series of books, comic strips and commercial goods like toys, games, dishes, candleholders, figurines, sheet music, fabrics and even the very popular National Biscuit Co.’s Log Cabin Brownies Biscuits. A series of majolica Brownies were made in the late 1800s. Each stand-alone figure was about 9 inches high. The Brownies faded from view after Cox died in 1924, but collectors are showing new interest today. A Brownie doll was introduced in 2007. Prices are beginning to go up. A majolica figure sold this year for $165.
Q: I have a Numsen silver pitcher, 8 inches high, inscribed with my mother’s initials (AES) and with the words “From the Wardroom Officers, USS Marblehead.” My dad served on the cruiser Marblehead in the early 1930s. Any notion as to value?
A: A 1929 Stieff Co. ad in the Baltimore Sun pictured a Numsen pitcher. The president of Stieff at that time was Gideon Numsen Stieff, son of the founder, Charles C. Stieff. The company was founded as the Baltimore Sterling Silver Co. in 1892. The name became the Stieff Co. in 1904. The company ceased production in 1999. The USS Marblehead was attacked by Japanese bombers in 1942. One of the bombs exploded in the wardroom. The ship was repaired and put back into service later that year. It was decommissioned after World War II ended and was scrapped in 1946. If your pitcher is solid silver, you should weigh it and figure out the meltdown value. Your pitcher would be worth 10 percent to 20 percent more than its meltdown value.
Q: I have an 1889 metal hatchet commemorating the 100th anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington. There is a cutout of his profile on the blade. Is it valuable?
A: The 100th anniversary of George Washington’s inauguration in 1889 was marked with three days of festivities, including a parade, naval review and ceremonies. Many souvenir items were made, including hatchets like yours. The hatchets were made in several sizes in bronze, cast iron and other metals and were meant to be hung on a wall. The value varies depending on the size, material and condition. Some souvenir hatchets sell for less than $50, but bronze hatchets sell for more than $2,000.
Q: I have a brown top hat from the 1892 U.S. presidential campaign. Grover Cleveland and A.E. Stevenson’s pictures are inside. Also printed inside are the words “Tariff” and “Reform.” The hat is size 7 3/8 and it has a leather band. I’d like to know the value.
A: Grover Cleveland is the only U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms. He was president from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Although he won the popular vote in 1888, he lost the electoral vote to Benjamin Harrison. The vice-presidential candidate in the 1892 campaign was Adlai E. Stevenson, grandfather of the Democratic party’s presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956. Cleveland and Stevenson campaigned on political reform and on lowering tariffs. Both Harrison and Cleveland used a top hat as a campaign symbol. Harrison’s slogan was “Grandfather’s Hat Fits Ben,” referring to his grandfather, former President William Henry Harrison. Cleveland called Harrison’s ideas the “same old hat.” The value of your top hat today could be more than $300.
Q: I recently visited a museum and saw dishes from a set made in China that pictured the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Were these dishes made in the late 1700s?
A: The history of the dishes you saw is a recently solved mystery. It was thought the dishes were made soon after 1776. Then, scholars decided the dishes had been made for the American Centennial in 1876. The latest research suggests that this pattern, and other Chinese export pieces decorated with U.S. historical scenes, were made in the 1920s or 1930s – or even the 1940s. The design is based on a painting by John Trumbull that wasn’t finished until 1818. The dishes were first noticed in 1947, when they were offered for sale by a missionary in China. Forty-seven pieces were bought by Henry du Pont and are in the Winterthur Museum in Wilmington, Del. Another group of these dishes was offered for sale in 1950. The dishes could be old plain china with 20th-century decorations or new pieces made in the old way. There is no mention of these dishes in American books until the 1950s. Tests prove the dishes’ glaze includes chemicals not used by the Chinese before the 1900s. It’s a good lesson for all collectors. Fakes are identified by comparing them to the real thing. When the piece is a fantasy – something that appears to be old but is not a copy of anything – dating it is much more difficult.
Take advantage of a free listing to announce your group’s events or to find antique shows and other events. Go to Kovels.com/calendar to find and plan your antiquing trips.
Tip: If your American flag is tattered and can no longer be used, be sure to dispose of it in the proper way. Give it to a Boy Scout, an American Legion post or the U.S. military. They can perform the official ceremony that includes burning the old flag.
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.
Camel Tire Patch cardboard container, tin top and bottom, contains 50 Diamond Vulcanizing patches for tubeless tires, image of camel in Egyptian desert, circa 1946, 6 x 4 inches, $60.
1964 New York World’s Fair license plate, blue, yellow numbers and letters, R-7629, $70.
Talking Charmin’ Chatty doll, blond hair, sailor outfit, red knee socks, blue and white saddle shoes, five records, pull string, original box, Mattel, 1963, 24 inches, $115.
Wicker plant stand, original zinc insert, white paint, 1920s, 27 x 10 1/2 x 30 inches, $125.
Stoneware storage jug, cobalt blue grapes with leaves, applied loop handle, inscribed “Cowen & Wilcox, Harrisburg, Pa.,” 16 inches, $145.
Vogue picture record, Irving Berlin’s Blue Skies, Hour of Charm All Girl Orchestra, picture of young woman shading her eyes from sun, 1930s, $195.
Split willow fishing creel, leather straps and measuring strip, 1930s, 16 x 6 x 8 1/2 inches, $195.
Phillips 66 Buddy Lee doll, hard plastic, light-brown herringbone twill attendant uniform and cap, orange badge, moveable arms, 1950s, 12 inches, $650.
Mt. Washington sugar shaker, fig shape, yellow and rose ground, blue, red and yellow pansies, 4 1/2 inches, $1,000.
Navajo rug, lightning-bolt pattern, black, white and red, grayish brown ground, central white diamond pattern, half diamonds along edges, 1930s, 37 x 65 inches, $1,175.
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. Out-of-print but available 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.
