DENVER (AP) – Gary Stone pulled a 78-rpm record from its paper sleeve. He placed the disc, which weighed about as much as a Big Mac, atop a felt-covered turntable. Its mahogany cabinet boasted as much craftsmanship as anything in an Ethan Allen store.

A stainless-steel needle hit the platter’s grooves. There was a crackling, then the vibrant, patrician voice of President Franklin D. Roosevelt jumped out, announcing to Americans that they had just lived through a day of infamy, but that the foe would be fought and vanquished.

“Every time I hear that I get tingly and emotional,” said Stone, who lives in Northglenn. “Just listen to the anger in FDR’s voice. He’s telling the country we’re going to war, yet no one could imagine what lay ahead.

“It’s as if you’re sitting in front of a tube radio on a cold December evening in 1941.”

The lure of owning an aural time tunnel – in this case a Victor II Humpback Phonograph from 1904 – is what binds Stone and his fellow collectors in the Old West Antique Phonograph Society.

“It’s an addiction, I’ll be honest,” Stone said. “You get hooked on it, and if you’re not disciplined it becomes an obsession.”

The machines are marvels, embodying a timeline of technological innovation that started when Thomas Edison – he of the 1,093 U.S. patents – launched the Edison Speaking Phonograph Co. in 1878. (“Phonograph,” for the record, was Edison’s coinage.)

There is also a deep aesthetic appeal. Cabinets were fashioned by master craftsmen from fine woods such as mahogany, quartersawed oak and bird’s-eye maple.

Price tags on the machines run from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Collectors vie for them on Craigslist and eBay.

“Each of these has a different story,” Stone said of his 10 machines. “They’re amazing. They were all handmade, and the wood they used was beautiful. You just don’t see that today.”

One of his prizes is a Victrola 18 model from 1915. Housed in a burnished mahogany cabinet, the machine cost $315 in its day – more than a car. It was later modified with an orthophonic speaker, an upgrade that was sort of the Dolby system of its day.

“It’s my pride and joy,” he said.

Stone’s wife is good-natured about his collection, referring to the parlor as the “toy room,” though lately she has imposed a “buy a new one, sell an old one” caveat.

She probably hasn’t seen Bob Stapel’s house.

On a recent evening, club members descended on Stapel’s house in southeast Denver. Stapel is a popular figure among these folks, in no small part because he’s a master repairman and restorer of the machines.

Stapel’s house is something of a museum to the early recording industry. The shelves of his workshop, redolent of machine oil, sag with spare parts.

His collection includes numerous players from early in the last century: an Edison William & Mary model with an intricate filigree, a couple of French Pathes, and a Columbia AF Graphophone with two rubber earplugs, just in case your teenager was driving you nuts playing Over There.

Stapel also collects ephemera, and Stone pointed out a turn-of-the-century record-cylinder cabinet that he covets. “I’m still trying to find one,” he said.

For Stapel, who is an attorney, scoring the wooden box was the result of a practiced eye.

“The lady I bought it from called it a lingerie drawer, but I saw the pegs in it to put the cylinders on, so I knew what it was,” he said. “It was a real find.”

Club member Fred Williams delights in cylinder players, where a steel needle traced a mechanical track across a spinning wheel. One of his machines is an Edison General, built in 1899 as an answer to the 1898 Columbia Model Q, with its “clockwork” motor.

His passion runs deep.

“It’s all about the hunting,” he said. “See this? It’s a recording of President William Howard Taft. An original, from 1905, not a rerecording. Who else has that? Me.”

Some record collectors specialize, concentrating on vaudeville acts, historical recordings or the works of a specific artist – say, pianist Jelly Roll Morton or Bix Beiderbecke, the cornet titan.

There are other collector niches too.

Curt Vogt specializes in the record brushes used to keep 78s clean. They are housed in their original ornate tins, many of them stamped with the colorful logos of the stores that carried them. Vogt pointed to a cabinet holding an array of tins, brands from such labels as Okeh and the American Musician Co.

“When I started collecting, I couldn’t really afford the machines themselves,” said Vogt, who works at Rockler Woodworking and Hardware in Denver. “Plus, I was in the Air Force, and most of the machines don’t meet the weight restrictions for traveling.”

Stone has several hundred recordings, culled mainly from auctions and to a lesser extent from antiques stores. “Stores aren’t the best place to find things because they’re often picked through and it takes hours to go through the stocks,” he said.

The recordings recall another time.

Listen to Stone’s century-old recording of The Star- Spangled Banner through a conical, “witch’s hat” horn, and you hear a version of the song with none of the melisma and swooping vocal tricks found in performers at today’s ballgames. The singer gets the words right too.

Funny thing, how once- cutting-edge technology is reduced to an archaic novelty. Sony’s Walkman is nearly there. The iPod will be there soon enough.

Somehow, it seems doubtful these inventions, in their compact plastic casings, will enthrall people on the cusp of the 22nd century.

“I bring kids in from the neighborhood, and they look at these machines with practically no reaction,” Stone said. “They’re puzzled by it. Then I play them something, and they’re mesmerized.”

___

Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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NEW YORK (AP) – Her friends’ Lucite-and-white kitchens were far more inviting than the outdated, psychedelic wallpaper and avocado-colored appliances that greeted Jeannine Anckaitis at home during the late ’80s.

“It was the absence of color that looked so clean, fresh and bright,” she said. “They were clutter-free and seemed upscale. Our kitchen, on the other hand, seemed garish and was overwhelming to the eye.”

It’s been more than 75 years since rival chemical companies came up with a new generation of clear acrylics known in their world as polymethyl methacrylate. Lucite wasn’t the first brand in 1936, but it’s an enduring symbol of mid-century modern style spanning home furnishings and decor, industrial design and retail merchandising, contemporary art and costume jewelry.

“It’s so modern, but it also looks futuristic at the same time,” said Alexis Bittar. “It’s definitely the platinum of the acrylics.”

Bittar is the wizard of Lucite after a 20-year journey from hawking his jewelry on the streets of New York to hand-sculpting masks for Lady Gaga and floral pins for Michelle Obama. “You can manipulate it any way you want,” he said.

Lucite’s qualities – it’s easy to form, glue, cut, tint and fuse with other materials to add texture, color and sparkle – are the things that made it a hit. Lucite handbags from Charles Kahn and other designers in the ’50s now fetch up to $600 or more from collectors.

There were precursors when DuPont put tough, clear-as-glass Lucite on the market for the windshields and canopies of fighter jets, the eyes of submarine telescopes and the gun turrets of tanks. Cheaper to produce than Bakelite, Galalith and Catalin, with a unique ability to conduct light, it moved over the years to a myriad of other applications, from three-story aquariums to the heels of women’s shoes.

“It’s definitely fresh,” said interior designer Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, who created a sleek living-room set of clear Lucite for the New York City digs of Sean “Puffy” Combs. “I like that it’s clear, so the rooms tend to look larger when some of the pieces are in that material. I also combine it with white or black so it’s a combination of clear and solid. It’s easy to clean. You don’t have to paint it.”

Lucite has its purists. Some wouldn’t consider designing in color, for example, or embellishing it with metals and other bling. Perhaps all those neon Lucite laminate keychains produced by high schoolers during shop class in the ’70s left a bad taste.

Etienne Coffinier, an architect and furniture designer who grew up in Algeria, Holland and Dubai, works solely in clear Lucite.

“It’s a staple of our design,” he said. “We have clients who have huge rooms and therefore they have huge coffee tables. I don’t like to have the huge coffee table hiding the beautiful rug I have designed for them. The best quality of Lucite is that it’s more transparent than glass. It doesn’t scratch so easily, and if it does you can usually buff it out.”

Noriega-Ortiz straddles the divide, using pops of bright solids in chairs or yellow see-through tabletops in the same home as clear Lucite chandeliers, and shaped legs holding up other pieces.

Lucite is great, he said, for combining periods in home furnishings. “We mix it with antiques so it doesn’t compete.”

Ultimately sleek and modern, the designers said, the acrylic – in name and sensibility – has traveled far from the ’50s, considered its heyday, straight through to the ’70s, a period followed by several years of sagging interest revived by a new generation of designers.

“As a sculptor in addition to a designer, I was attracted to the endless possibilities of using Lucite to create new jewelry shapes – a loose-fitting bangle or cuff that wraps around the wrist, a solid Lucite ball on a long chain,” said Isaac Manevitz, creator of the Ben-Amun jewelry line.

“When I started my brand in the early ’80s, Lucite helped pave the way for outrageous fashion jewelry that was more fun than the smaller diamonds that had been so popular in previous decades,” he said.

In suburban Chicago, Wendy Piersall has the bug for vintage, inspired in part by a grandmother who passed down a tortoise-colored Lucite bag.

“My father’s mother was incredibly fashionable, with impeccable taste,” she said. “It’s really one of my favorite pieces of all time. You just can’t find stuff like that anymore.”

In the ’50s home, after the war and its rationing were over, all things “modern, fresh and clean” were appealing, and Lucite swept in, said Chris Robinson, business manager for Lucite International, a Memphis, Tenn.-based division of Mitsubishi Chemicals.

“It was cool to have clear Lucite cutlery. It was in everything,” he said. “Back then it was expensive stuff and arty stuff, so the fancy people were getting it. They were looking for things that weren’t metal, like the things their parents had. Lucite was a material that no one had seen before.”

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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SHELBYVILLE, Ill. (AP) – Mankind has long been uptight about buttons.

Once some enterprising clothier had invented the buttonhole (they appeared in 13th-century Europe) the button was sure to follow, and then people started getting obsessed with them.

Flashy, showy buttons sprouted all over the garb of medieval fashion plates, and a man’s social prowess could be judged by the magnificent extent of his gold, silver, ivory and bejeweled fastenings. It got so out of hand that church authorities feared the unraveling of the social order and sought to undo the harm by promoting “sumptuary laws” designed to criminalize excessive button frolicking.

Zipping forward in time, we find Maude Hartman living in the country south of Shelbyville with 250,000 reasons to be thankful such draconian couture constraints have gone the way of doublets and ruffs. Her home is packed with more than a quarter-million buttons, and she’s off to Urbana on Friday and Saturday for the Illinois State Button Society’s annual meeting and convention. Once there, the indefatigable button hunter hopes to add a few more treasures to her vast accumulation.

Hartman says you can come, too, and believes with evangelistic zeal that there is no finer hobby in the great sweep of the human fabric than button collecting.

“Don’t worry about buying buttons,” says Hartman, 60. “Just come to the convention to see what is going on, come to look and visit with everybody and talk to people. Talking to people is what got me going about buttons.”

And she’s so right. It’s best not to dive in too deep too soon when confronted with the infinite ocean of collectible buttons: You’ll drown.

Hartman’s own collection, for example, is awash in a riot of colors, shapes, materials, designs and button purposes. There are little stylish buttons shaped to look like a flapper’s head and designated to festoon women’s garters in the Roaring ’20s. There are buttons made by artists as collectibles shaped like Humpty Dumpty and other nursery rhyme characters.

And then there are the useful buttons, actually designed to hold our clothing together. These come in celluloid and bakelite (the 19th- and early 20th-century parents of modern plastics) as well as glass, china, fabrics, enamels, wood, bone, horn, brass and steel stretching across 150 years of fashion history.

Button shapes, however impractical, cover about anything you can think of: anchors, playing cards, ships, ice-cream cones, pieces of fruit, bees and even the intricate shape of an orchid. All of which is only just barely unbuttoning the topmost layers of this “fastenating” subject.

“There are buttons made using pee – urine – as part of the manufacturing process,” Hartman explains helpfully. “And there are buttons made of blood.”

Some rare buttons, she adds, have prices in the hundreds or even thousands of dollars, and yet you might find them in a jar at a yard sale if you know what to look for.

A retired teacher and school librarian, her ordered mind arranges her finds on neatly filed stacks of cards, where they are grouped by type and materials into a precisely ordered hoard the Smithsonian Institution would give its eyelets for.

Hartman’s husband, Dwane, watches with a smile as his wife shows stunned visitors around the labyrinthine assemblage. He says people on the outside of the button world just have no idea how far the need for buttons can push you. “I tell someone, ‘She’s off to a button convention,’ and they say, ‘You’re kidding me.’ And I say, ‘No, I’m not.’”

Hartman started collecting seriously in 1995 and says the fascination of hunting and categorizing antique and modern buttons is a great way to knit up the raveled sleeve of care.

“Jobs like teaching can be very stressful,” says the collector, who is also a serious Harry Potter fan. ‘I had to have something to keep away the dragons (her word for buttonholing the nature of mental stress); I think we all do, don’t you?”

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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WATERFORD, Ireland (AP) – Waterford Crystal is renowned for its sparkle – and lately the city it’s named for lives up to that description.

But Waterford, in Ireland’s sunny southeast (sunny being a relative concept in Ireland), hasn’t always had it easy. The city is often passed over by tourists in favor of Dublin’s nightlife or the emerald-green seaside hills of Kerry. And two years ago, the crystal factory shut down, leaving Waterford without its most famous attraction.

Then last year, a Waterford Crystal-themed tourist center reopened. Now visitors can again explore Waterford Crystal’s history and the art of crystal-making, an unexpectedly fascinating and intricate process.

House of Waterford allows visitors to tour a new production facility where they can see master craftsmen at work. The new location, which produces high-end pieces and has crystal for sale in an expansive showroom, is far more central than the previous factory in Kilbarry. From molds to glass-blowing and sculpting, visitors see all the stages of crystal-making as the furnaces burn before their eyes and pieces take shape, emerging from hot glass to meticulously engraved collectibles. Guests can even don goggles and smash some crystal as guides discuss the fate of flawed pieces, an opportunity eagerly grabbed by the children on my tour. Also on view are replicas of some of Waterford Crystal’s work, from a Super Bowl trophy to a Sept. 11th memorial.

The experience is similar to the old factory tour but spiced up with more multimedia. It marks the continuation of a brand that has made its home in Waterford since 1783.

“Waterford Crystal is the marquee icon attraction, and within that, the city wants to harness the heritage it has adjacent to us within this quarter,” commercial director David McCoy said of the new location.

“We’re fortunate in the sense that the way we designed the facility, we want people to see every aspect of what we do. We’re very proud of the work and effort that goes into producing the crystal.”

After seeing the crystal center, visitors may continue the pursuit of all things luxurious at Waterford Castle, located on its own island, with access by ferry. The secluded castle dates back centuries but has been converted into a four-star resort with 19 elegant rooms, including fixtures like freestanding bathtubs with carved, ornate legs. If you prefer more modern accommodations on the island, the 320-acre property also offers three- and four-bedroom lodges. A restaurant offers afternoon tea and gourmet meals, and there is an 18-hole golf course designed by former Ryder Cup player Des Smyth.

Another way to experience Waterford is to get a taste of hurling, a 2,000-year old, lightning-fast Irish field sport similar to field hockey, using a ball and flat, curved wooden sticks called hurleys. It’s especially popular in counties Tipperary, Waterford and Kilkenny. Though it’s an all-amateur sport, many loyal fans travel to away games and matches in Dublin, and there is no greater buzz than in Waterford City when the county team plays. National league games are played from winter until April, and All-Ireland qualifying matches follow until the end of September.

The city comes alive in a sea of Waterford blue-and-white jerseys, with pubs like Alfie Hale’s drawing particularly big hurling crowds shouting “Up the Deise” (pronounced day-shuh), as Waterford is known as An Deise in Irish.

Waterford is also home to several shops where hurleys are still made. Hurley-maker Frank Murphy learned the craft from teachers and relatives, meticulously fashioning the hurleys from wood such as ash and often personalizing them for new owners. Other hurley-makers include Peter Flanagan, who is newer to the trade but comes from a carpentry background. It’s worth a visit to their home workshops for a chat and a look at the process.

And while a hurley from Waterford won’t sparkle like a crystal bowl, it’s a worthy souvenir of your visit.

___

If You Go…

GETTING THERE: Waterford is located about 115 miles from Dublin. The city has its own airport.

HOUSE OF WATERFORD: The Mall, Waterford City, Ireland; http://www.waterfordvisitorcentre.com. Open daily March-October (closed St. Patrick’s Day, March 17). Factory tour, 9 a.m.-4:15 p.m. (retail store until 6 p.m.) Hours vary by season. Adults, $16 (11.50 euros).

WATERFORD CASTLE: http://www.waterfordcastle.com. Overnight lodging rates range from $95 to $485 (69 to 350 euros) depending on accommodation and season, with some rates per person and others by the room. Dinner menu, $90 (65 euros) a person. Reachable by ferry.

HURLING: http://www.upthedeise.com/waterfordhurling/. For links to Waterford hurley makers, go to http://www.handcrafthurleys.com and click on “Handcrafted Hurleys” and “Munster Hurley Makers.” Hurleys sell for up to about $42 (30 euros).

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Pairs of volunteers watched anxiously as a screen sifted archaeological treasures from cold, damp dirt.

The group of about 20 professional archaeologists, Ohio State University students and history buffs shared a quiet sense of excitement and urgency as each historical find was unearthed yesterday at the Deardurff House, a 193-year-old log house in Columbus.

The house is the oldest known structure in Franklin County still on its original foundation. It was built in 1807, just four years after Ohio achieved statehood.

Archaeologist Andrew Sewell, one of three principal investigators hired to lead the dig, scrutinized a brass plate about 5 inches in diameter.

He rubbed it and flipped it over and over, trying to discern the inscription on the dirt-covered find. Satisfied as to its historical value, he determined that the plate dates to at least the early 1800s.

“This is rare. You don’t get many chances to do an archaeological dig like this within a city’s limits,” Sewell said.

The plate is one of many artifacts found in the dig, which continues today. Animal-bone fragments, pieces of pottery and brick, nails, plates and a clay marble were unearthed.

They were just the types of remnants that Walt Reiner, 67, a real-estate agent and property developer from Westerville, hoped to find.

Reiner, who bought the Deardurff House about 30 years ago, authorized the dig as part of his effort to restore the house and turn it into a museum by 2012, in time for Columbus’ bicentennial celebration.

The restoration will cost at least $400,000, most of which Reiner will pay. He owns several log buildings in central Ohio, including his realty office, which he converted from a 19th century log cabin. He said he hopes to turn the Deardurff house’s neighborhood into a replica of what the Franklinton neighborhood once looked like.

For the 39 volunteers, the dig was a rewarding opportunity to “get their hands on some old dirt and stuff,” said Anne Lee, an archaeologist and principal investigator on the dig.

“People are generally interested in archaeology and the history of this area,” she said, noting that the two-day dig had a waiting list of at least 30 others who wanted to volunteer. “It’s important for a lot of people to have sort of a connection to their history.”

For Benjamin Keller, a fourth-year anthropology student at Ohio State University, participating in the dig not only added practical experience to his resume, but it also was fun.

“You get to be outside digging holes,” he said as he tossed dirt onto the screen for his partner to sift. “Who doesn’t like to do that?”

___

Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, http://www.dispatch.com

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-12-05-10 1640EST

 

 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) – He found it, of all places, in a small antique shop right here in Charleston. “It was serendipity, just happenstance,” he said. “I was looking for something else.”

It was an ancient Psalter, a book of psalms painstakingly handwritten in Latin by hermit monks in the Netherlands nearly 800 years ago.

Imagine.

“It’s my newest and most exciting acquisition. It’s not just rare. It’s unique. There is literally only one. It was quite a find for me.”

He wasn’t surprised that it hadn’t attracted a buyer. “There would be no market for it in Charleston. It’s mainly of interest to nuts like me.”

Frank Martin collects medieval books. “Some men like fancy motor cars, I’ll pay a fortune for a good book. It’s a hobby and also a kind of passion. It enriches your understanding of history.”

An Alabama native who practiced law in Washington, D.C., Martin splits his time in retirement between Alabama and Charleston. “My daughter, Jessica Lane, lives here and we like the city,” he said in a noticeable Alabama drawl. “We could live anywhere. We live in Charleston by choice.”

His hobby started in 1987 with a visit to an old bookshop in Alexandria, Va. A student of Latin since high school, he spotted a crudely bound Venetian Bible printed in 1497 and “negotiated” a purchase.

“It was a beautiful book. And that’s when I fell in love.”

Along with its craftsmanship and age, he discovered a significant distinction. “This book was the first printed book ever to have a title page.”

He started shopping for old books in earnest, both in Alexandria and on the Internet. “If you’re interested,” he said, “things kind of pop up.”

The second step, his favorite part, is research. “It doesn’t take me long to buy a book. It takes a long time to figure out what it is. Nobody knows about this book,” he said, picking up one of his finds. “There is no date in it. You have to analyze the contents. It’s a tedious thing. But I’m mainly into that part of it, not the acquisition or possession.”

He had access to a rare book room at a seminary near his Virginia home. When working in Washington, he made frequent trips to the Library of Congress.

He searches for handwritten manuscripts and incunabula, a Latin word for “in the cradle” or “in swaddling clothes.” It refers to the infancy of printing, books printed before 1501. Gutenberg, the first to print a book with movable type, introduced printing in Germany in the 1450s.

“Any book printed in the first 50 years of movable type is valuable,” Martin said. “It was so long ago and there are so few of them. Through fire, water and war, so many were destroyed.”

Early printing methods could prove challenging. “Look at the print on this book. It’s microscopic by our standards. Imagine setting that type. You could only set maybe eight pages. Then you would break it up to set the next eight.”

His most valuable book is a New Testament volume printed in 1481, one generation after the invention of movable type. He found it at a book sale. “It belonged to a wealthy woman in California, Estelle Duhaney, who gave so much money to the Catholic Church that the pope made her a countess.”

In New York, inside a cigar box, he found a small square Bible five inches thick, an octavo. “You fold a sheet of paper to form eight leaves and you get the octovo,” he explained. “This one was all black and unbound. They didn’t know what they had.”

He had the book rebound in Magnolia Springs, Ala.

He discovered through research that the book was printed by a woman in 1549. “Experts for hundreds of years thought it was an incanubulum printed before 1500, but I found it was printed 50 years later by a woman in Paris, the widow of a famous printer.”

Bibles are the cheapest books for collectors to buy, he said, because there were so many of them. “Before we had books, we had scrolls. As long as people have written holy writ, there have been more Bibles because there is more demand. There are more Bibles printed every year than any other book.”

His collection includes a handwritten Ethiopian Psalm book. “You can’t read it. It’s all in the ancient language of Ethiopia. They didn’t develop printing until very late. They were doing liturgical manuscripts into the 18th century. This book isn’t so old, but it has these beautiful icons.”

All hand-painted on sheepskin, icons include the Ethiopian version of “The Madonna, Mary and Her Beloved Son,” with angels Michael and Gabriel standing watch on either side.

“And these are saints,” he said, carefully turning from one page to the next. “This fellow grew a beard so long he made clothes out of it. That’s an Ethiopian saint we don’t know anything about. And here’s a fellow who prayed so long his foot fell off. So God made him three sets of wings. An Ethiopian scholar told me that.”

The meticulous penmanship required of scribes hand-lettering liturgical tomes amazes him. “Think of the number of man-hours invested in a book. I don’t know how long it took. How many pages can a man do in a day? Two or three? They had one man who read from the original text and another man wrote it down.

“Then the Vikings would come and destroy all the books, and they had to start over again. That happened two or three times.

“A book used to be worth what a house was worth,” he said, “and now we just throw them away.”

Martin gives his ancient books extra special attention. He handles them gently, reverently. “And they go in a lockbox in the bank.”

___

Information from: The Charleston Gazette, http://www.wvgazette.com

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-11-29-10 0000EST

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Metal detecting enthusiasts’ feet are inches from pieces of history every day.

Consider Joe Barnett, a 55-year-old Clinton resident who had walked across his backyard “hundreds of times” before finding a .58 caliber Civil War-era bullet barely below the ground’s surface.

Welcome to the world of metal detecting, which is a lot like fishing and hunting. One never knows what will be found on a particular day, but the search is often as thrilling as the find.Well, almost.

“Finding something that hasn’t been touched for 150 years is really fascinating to me,” said James Fox, 52, of Ridgeland. “I’ve been collecting Civil War memorabilia since I was a kid. And I like to find stuff that a lot of people don’t think much about – a knife handle that somebody had scratched their initials in, a straight razor with a guy’s name and regiment on it.

“This stuff hasn’t seen the light of day since the last time the owners touched it. And I’ve found arrowheads that haven’t been touched for 1,000 years. Pretty neat.”

“Metal detecting is a fast-growing hobby worldwide. It has proven to be a valuable tool in criminal cases. Barnett, a logistics coordinator with Entergy, found the gun believed to have been used in the August shooting death of Jackson police officer Glen Agee in chest-high water in a rural Hinds County drainage ditch.

“There were other guys out there looking, too,” said Barnett, who worked with the Greenville Police Department in the late 1970s and early ’80s. “I just happened to be the one who walked over it.”

Barnett was equipped with a detector that can be used underwater, which is popular among many metal hunters.

Victor McGriff, 71, of Bovina has been metal detecting since 1965.

Around 1970, he stopped at a lake that had been drained.

“I found rings, some coins, a pocket knife,” he said. “I got to thinking, ‘There has to be a lot of stuff under the water. That’s where I need to go looking.'”

He took a scuba diving course in 1971, and since then ponds and lakes have been his favorite hunting areas. He stays in areas that are no more than 15 feet deep, and his wife, Mary, usually sits on the bank while he’s searching.

“I go where they have swimming areas,” he said, “and I’ve found just about anything you can think of – rings, watches, knives, guns.”

At a lake near Morton, McGriff found a Timex watch buried just beneath some sand.

“The cloth band on it had deteriorated, but when I got it out and wound it up, it started working again,” he said, laughing. “I guess what they say is true – Timex watches really can take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.”

Dan Patterson, 47, of Madison, bought his first metal detector in 1984. “Looking at relics in local museums and running into several old diggers sparked my interest,” he said.

Now, he has his own collection of “finds” that have been displayed in 35 magazines, including an Andrew Jackson button and two Confederate officer buttons, a Union officer stencil and a Bowie knife.

He’s also used his detector for those in need.

“Several years ago, a family from Carey had their house burn down. All their keepsakes from many years of marriage were in the house. I went through the rubble and ash and debris and found a box full of special family keepsakes. It’s all they have left from their marriage. It’s always good to help out.”

Metal detectors range from $150 to more than $2,000 and weigh between 2 and 5 pounds. Many models give the hunter an idea of what he or she has run across.

“It will give you a sound and a display,” Barnett said. “If you go over a nail, it’ll make a chatter sound. Solid pieces of metal give off a deep solid sound. Aluminum objects, such as a Coke can, give off a sharp, high tone. After you use them a while, you’re able to tell when it’s time to ignore it and when it’s time to stop and dig.”

One of the toughest obstacles is finding good land that hasn’t been gone over several times by previous hunters.

“Private land is the best,” Barnett said, “but it’s hard walking up to somebody you don’t know and getting permission. Two, maybe three, out of 10 will say yes.”

Metal detecting is a hobby for the curious, but don’t expect to get rich.

“If you get into it to find a stash of gold and make a lot of money, you’re going to be disappointed,” Fox said. “But if you enjoy something to get you out of the house and away from everything and are satisfied with finding some interesting things, then it can be a lot of fun.”

___

Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-11-19-10 0400EST

 

JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) – Aslam Haydar of Jonesboro is looking for a few good pen pals – more specifically, friends who share his passion for fountain pens.

To find those passionate pen pals, Haydar hosted the Jonesboro Pen Show and featured the Haydar Collection, which belonged to his late father Dr. Afak Haydar, a longtime Arkansas State University administrator.

The show’s proceeds will benefit the Haydar-Richmond Scholarship Fund.

“This is the first time his collection will be shown to anybody,” Haydar said.

Afak Haydar, originally from India, migrated to Pakistan and relocated to the United States in 1960, Haydar said. Because he had a Fulbright Scholarship, the Haydar family moved to Arkansas and settled in Jonesboro in 1970. He said his father was a professor of public administration and political science.

Dr. Mossie Richmond, Afak Haydar’s boss and friend, was the dean of the College of Education and vice president of University College. They worked hand in hand to make ASU an international community, Haydar said. As part of that initiative, Afak traveled to such countries as Pakistan, Malaysia and Japan to recruit students. When he was abroad, he bought fountain pens.

Many of the 1,500 fountain pens Afak Haydar collected during his travels were displayed. Collectors from the Arkansas Pen Club of Little Rock displayed pens from their collections, offered expertise on repair and collectibles and, in some cases, sold their items, Haydar said.

Afak Haydar died in 2007, and the younger Haydar inherited the collection.

“I’m still learning. That’s the fun part. I look things up on the Internet and find out more,” he said.

The earliest fountain pen in the collection dates to 1904. He’s purchased one for 99 cents and seen one sell for $1,000. He can describe the ringtops, usually a small ladies’ pen worn on a gold chain around the neck for easy access. He can discuss nibs, their size, angle and shape. He can talk about the American-made Parker and Sheaffer fountain and ballpoint pens.

Haydar can go into detail about filling the pens with ink, a lost art in today’s electronic age. Fountain pens use cartridges, pump bladders or snorkels, he said.

“Each has a different way of filling the reservoir of ink,” Haydar said.

Some of the pens are made for women, particularly slimmer models designed for smaller hands. Often, pens were sold in sets –one fountain, one ballpoint.

The sad part of Haydar’s story is that, like so many other children, they do not necessarily appreciate the things their parents do until it’s too late. He recalled that after evening meals, his father would take a box of pens out, look at a pen, study it and clean it.

“I would look at it and walk away. I’d say, ‘I don’t know why he’s doing this,’” Haydar said.

But Haydar might have gotten a bit more from his father than he thinks. He recalled a story his father told him. On a trip to Washington, D.C., Afak Haydar attended a pen show. He was looking at a showcase of pens, and the vendor said there were only 12 pens in the world like the one Afak Haydar was examining.

“Make that 13,” Afak Haydar said – he had one exactly like it. However, the younger Haydar does not know which of the pens it was, or even if it’s still in the collection.

Afak Haydar bought pens at flea markets, pen shows and wherever else he found them, but he rarely sold or traded them. On occasion, he would give one to “a dear friend,” Haydar said.

Over the past three years, Haydar said he’s learned to appreciate the elegance and the sophistication of fountain pens. Some are fine, delicate and inlaid with designs, some look marbleized, and others are plain. But, all of them are special because they make up his late father’s collection.

And what kind of a pen does Haydar use these days? A Sheaffer Targa from 1974. It’s a Barley design, and Haydar uses it regularly.

___

Information from: The Jonesboro Sun, http://www.jonesborosun.com

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-CS-10-30-10 0102EDT

 

 

Numbers and letters are hot off the press this season in decorative items, dishware and soft furnishings.

Typographic decor spans a variety of styles, from vintage – in the form of letterpress or old correspondence imagery – to clean-lined modern graphics, often using bold text or individual symbols.

Before designing dinnerware, Christopher Jagmin was a graphic designer. “I love and appreciate the art of typography,” he says. “We’re all surrounded by it every day. We type on computers, we’re aware of it on advertising, billboards, magazines and on television.”

His numbered plates are creating a lot of buzz – there’s something really artsy about these symbols on a crisp white ceramic plate. Jagmin agrees: “I think that breaking down words to the simplicity of a letter or a number, we see the true beauty and art of a font, and its basic elements.”

San Francisco designer Rae Dunn stamps clay cups and plaques with the sparest of phrases; the result is both charming and evocative. “Tres Bien” and “Oui,” say sweet little cups. “C’est la vie,” shrugs a plate. And the homespun phrase “Home Sweet Home” becomes something special when pressed into creamy clay and embellished with a little bee.

Textual decor can add a touch of drama. John Derian was given an envelope of correspondence between two former lovers; throughout the letters, written in 1919, a young lady is trying to recover some personal items. She becomes more impatient with each missive: “Sorry to appear insistent. But I must have my trinkets back.”

Derian has decoupaged several of the letters onto beautiful glass trays for a collection he calls “Relationships.”

Samuel Ho, Nathan Tremblay and Ian Campana comprise the Calgary, Alberta, design firm Palette Industries. Their limited edition Dharma lounge chair has a seat formed of the laser-cut words “Stand, Forget, Breathe, Acknowledge and Observe,” atop sleek chrome legs. Their Camus floor lamp has a veneer shade laser-cut with Albert Camus’ quote, “You cannot create experience, you must undergo it.”

Walls can support a variety of strong graphics, and are a perfect place to play with numbers and letters. Cafe Press has the simple yet striking Helvetica wall clock. Ikea’s Olunda Typeface wall art depicts the alphabet in bold black, white and red.

Flamboyant, innovative fashion designers Chris Brooke and Bruno Basso have ventured successfully into wall coverings with “Alphabet,” a lacy, intricate pattern of Greek letters in a palette of sophisticated tone-on-tone and softly contrasting hues.

Inspired by layers of advertising on New York City billboards, Megan Meagher created collages of fonts on two canvases; find them at Crate & Barrel.

The retailer also has a kicky collection of cocktail-oriented serveware with chatty, multi-font words forming drink pitcher and martini glass shapes on slivers of white porcelain.

For the floor, consider Peacock Park Design’s wildly popular Tattoo mat, an antiquarian-style set of inky fonts printed on bamboo. CB2’s Club Red rug is a plush and punchy rendition of a London club poster.

Ikea’s Vitaminer Siffra duvet set is a peppy pop of colors and numbers.

And finally, Donna Wilson plays with the whole concept by scripting “Blah Blah” across a soft, cozy blanket. Well said, Ms. Wilson.

___

 

Sourcebook:

www.ikea.com – Vitaminer Siffra bedding set, $14.99; Olunda wall art, $39.99

www.cb2.com – Club Red rug, $229

www.crateandbarrel.com – Chill plate, $3.95; Megan Meagher’s “Neutral Type” prints I & II, $199 each

www.etsy.com – Rae Dunn’s “Home Sweet Home” plaque, $42; “Oui,” “Tres Bien” cups, $36; “C’est la Vie” plate, $42

www.christopherjagmin.com – Numbered dinner plates, some sold in sets of four, various configurations of single and multiple numbers on porcelain – check website for stocklists

www.cafepress.com – Helvetica clock, $15

www.donnawilson.com – “Blah Blah” lambswool blanket and pillow – check website for U.S. stocklists or order from her British site

www.paletteindustries.com – Dharma lounge chair, Camus floor lamp – contact for order information

www.johnderian.com – antique correspondence placemats, $55; Things I Like tray, $88; Trinkets tray, $165

www.grahambrown.com – “Alphabet” wall covering by Basso & Brown – 32.8-foot roll, $60

 

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP-ES-09-28-10 1233EDT

 

CORTE MADERA, Calif. – English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote, “There is a harmony in autumn, a luster to its sky.” This fall, that’s especially true in home decor. Rich, interesting hues, textiles and materials work in concert to welcome the season when we all move back indoors.

As Gary Friedman, CEO of Restoration Hardware, says, “We’re coming out of a very modern, minimalist moment in design into a period where people are responding to a mix of historic periods and classical references.”

Designers and retailers are offering furnishings inspired by late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe and America. You’ll find warm colors like plum, mustard, persimmon, teal and charcoal. The newest wood finishes are often hand-turned, hand-rubbed to a lustrous glow. There are details such as tufts, nail heads and evidence of artisanal handiwork.

Linens are high weave, with patterns that reflect tapestry and embroidery.

And in tabletop, we’re seeing lots of painted ceramics, vintage industrial objets d’art and basketry.

New wall art includes reproduction antique merchant signage, folk art and bracketed shelves for collectibles. This trend is all about feathering the autumnal nest with more traditional things, which evoke the past and spark conversation.

Restoration Hardware’s collection draws from elegant salons, old factories and the rustic countryside. From Belgian brick palettes to architectural elements to distillery floorboards, the pieces have an authentic look.

Along with wood corbels and reproduction archival city maps, there’s a copy of a 19th century Italian gas streetlight, and a glass orb pendant inspired by one found in a Victorian hotel.

Look too for tables and mirrors crafted of salvaged wood from 100-year-old British mills and distilleries; pieces like the muscular Balustrade coffee table and ornate Entablature mirror make strong statements. Bow-and-arrow shelf brackets resemble ironwork in the grand old European train stations.

A French Empire bed is a regal piece; with toned-down accoutrements in the rest of the room – perhaps some simple linen drapery, softly hued bedding and a few well-loved mementos – this would be a most inviting sanctuary.

Rowe Furniture’s new Robin Bruce sofa group features several tufted, voluptuous pieces that suggest a luxe Paris apartment, circa 1920s.

Crate & Barrel’s Scarlet chaise is a show-stopping swoop of luxe velvet comfort, and the Dylan wing chair in buttery, pewter-toned leather just needs a book and a blanket to be the perfect curl-up spot.

If the notion of a farmhouse in Tuscany or the Loire appeals to your inner decorator, you’ll find lots to work with this season. At Pottery Barn, painted linen pillowcases look like plump Van Goghs. Wrought iron candelabra, lamps and horse-head hooks have a rustic charm, as does a roughhewn dining table and bench. Hammered copper vessels have great texture. And a collection of heirloom quilts from the crafters at Gee’s Bend, Ala., among other artisans, brings America into this relaxed, rural style mix. Crewelwork lampshades and pillows have a nice folk art look; find more at Homegoods, too.

Boston-based Nikki Dalrymple’s Acquire design studio and store has a great industrial lamp made of shesham, glass and nickel that holds a vintage style Edison bulb. It hits the antiquarian chic trend square on, and would complement any of fall’s new decor.

To achieve the ultimate Old World look, mix new with old. Your best source for authentic antiques, fine art and original decorative accessories is LiveAuctioneers.com, which connects the online visitor with auction catalogs posted by more than 960 auction houses worldwide. The free Search function in an invaluable aid in tracking down remarkable treasures to mix into any home décor, all of which are available through Internet live bidding.

“What is most surprising about purchasing the genuine article through LiveAuctioneers’ online catalogs is that often the old and authentic pieces can be purchased less expensively than the newer copies,” said Catherine Saunders-Watson, editor-in-chief of Auction Central News.

___

Sourcebook:

www.LiveAuctioneers.com – Antiques, fine art, decorative accessories and vintage collectibles in addition to the best in contemporary and Modern art and design.

www.restorationhardware.com – Balustrade salvaged wood coffee table, $1,495-$1,795; French Empire bed, $2,495 plus; wood corbel, $115; antiqued book bundles, $29; bow and arrow brackets, $49-$69; vintage Paris map, $1,795; Italian streetlight, $2,495; Victorian-era glass pendant, $1,295 plus; neoclassical mirror, $2,695-$3,295;

www.potterybarn.com painted linen pillow covers, $35; Sienna wrought iron lamps, $80-$170; horse-head hook, $19; heirloom style quilts, $159-$599; Toscana dining table/bench, $399-$1,299; copperware, $49-$99;

www.acquireboutique.com – industrial lamp, $150, and Edison bulb, $15;

www.rowefurniture.com – 92-inch Fleetwood sofa, $1,499;

www.crateandbarrel.com – Dylan wing chair in Tiburon Stone leather, $1,999; Scarlet velvet chaise, $1,999

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-08-04-10 0942EDT

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