Tag archives: appraisals

In a little Midwestern red brick two-bedroom house in 1960s Deerfield, Illinois, there came a burly gentleman who didn’t speak English. He had a four-foot-long walrus under his massive ruddy arm with a blue bow around its neck. That stranger was my mom’s cousin from Germany, and the walrus was a Steiff, a famous German […]

This is an etching that captures the American spirit of the modern, growing metropolis that was New York City in 1926. The work, which shows the city from the shores of Governor’s Island, is by Anton Friedrich Josef Schütz, an artist and founder of the New York Graphic Society in 1925. He was born in […]

Forty years ago, in an antique shop, NH was intrigued by the somewhat sad face of the Prince of Wales engraved on a bullock’s horn, a pair of mated horns engraved with iconography of Australia in the scrimshaw technique. Engravings on horn, bone, or ivory, usually from a marine mammal, are classic material for scrimshaw, […]

The audience waiting on the steps of the Lobero Theatre on the Sunday night of December 9, 1957, were hip jazz lovers, some from the College Jazz Club, sponsors of the concert, all eager for the night’s concert. The legendary master of the vibes and the bongos, Cal Tjader, would be performing “hot numbers” (as […]

TG sends me a lovely etching of Scarborough Harbor in England circa 1920 at 13”x5” and asks if I know the artist. I do; the artist is a maritime painter of Britain’s ships, ports, and rivers in the late 19th early 20th century, William Lionel Wyllie (1851-1931), who was known for his oils, etchings, and watercolors. […]

SB has a red and white American quilt, created in the late 19th century, which belonged to her great-grandmother. The motif features the star pattern known as the shooting star, the lucky star, or the falling stars. SB doesn’t say if her great-grandmother made the quilt, but having been born 150 years ago – in […]

BL sends me a fabulous yellow Steuben glass set, a barware service designed and created in the late 1920s by Frederick Carder (born England 1863, died Corning, NY, 1963) who was head of Steuben glass from 1903 – 1930. BL wonders about the color of his glassware set – and the history. The pattern is […]

SB sends me photos of a 19th c. ceramic figure; a relief-painted scullery maid holding a gold-gilded metal cookpot, and seated on a gold-gilded metal chair. Such an interesting combination of materials here: a pottery figure, glazed and painted, seated on a gilded metal chair. To produce such a piece in the 19th c. took […]

JS has a small painting on canvas purchased from a booth at the Earl Warren Flea Market. Those two figures are saints, but what else can I say about the work? She writes she has never before seen such an unfortunate looking canine and had to have this work!! First, congratulations JS; you scored. This […]

Years ago, RR inherited a tall pottery umbrella stand which was shattered in a recent wildfire; she had discovered two shards that, when put together like pieces of a puzzle, read RN 288102 and RN 284106. A trace of a word is above these marks, “Melbou-” possibly for Melbourne, more than likely the pattern name. […]

OS asked for a dollar estimate for her Barnaby Conrad signed lithograph. When an artist is a huge personality with a legendary past, “comparable sales” (prices paid of past works) will NOT accurately reflect the stature of the artist’s oeuvre. Artist, author, portraitist, cabaret owner, bar room pianist, bullfighter, friend to writers, one-time Vice Consul […]

PP has a weakness for vintage hats; for the past 10 years she has paid $300 a month to store her collection of 1950s hats. She sent me a picture of hat which is a cross between lime green and avocado, a cloche hat with a gold silk band. The interior is marked for Mousse […]

GG sends me a beautiful leather-bound book, The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400), The William Caxton Facsimile Edition; of which only 500 were published by Cambridge University Press in 1973. She has #248, signed by Cambridge University scholar Walter Hamilton of Magdelene College. On the last page of this huge volume is a wonderful […]

LM sends me a photo of a terra cotta bust (at 30” tall) of a gorgeous young French female of the late 18th century. Her beauty is classic even today: flowing hair, effortless smile, full cheeks, upturned almond shaped eyes, a heart-shaped face. Madame Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) was not only one of […]

In 1960, the MET held its famous museum show of industrial design called “Ideas for Living.” A designer’s showcase of streamlined ways to simplify life, repercussions are still being felt today in post-post modernism.  TT owns a stove and range combination that was built into a Santa Barbara condominium in 1962 and has stayed in […]

“Mr. Watson, come here, I need you!” So said Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant in 1876, and those were the first words understood – and heard – through a telephone wire. Bell had spilled battery acid on his pant leg, and he needed help before the acid burned through the fabric. Thus began the […]

I have clever readers who connect material objects with present day symbolism: FR asks, “What do I really see when I see a mask on a face?” Apropos to our past three years, she was compelled to rethink her huge three-foot Venetian papier-mâché mask of the face of Michelangelo’s David. She mentions seeing her attractively […]

Mickey Mouse is trending in memes; as of January 1, 2024, he entered the public domain. Disney fought for years to block this day, but to no avail. Now the mouse can be made to say or do any number of scandalous and snarky things: social media is awash with creepy Mickeys such as the […]

HG scored this flea market book: Daisetz Suzuki’s Zen and Japanese Culture – a classic printed in hundreds of languages. This 1959 edition was published by the Bollingen Foundation, known for publishing books of significant impact since 1940. This title has always been of value in the market since its first printing in 1938. In […]

DD sends me a seafront shot of what she thinks is a view of a church and a bathhouse (note both sections of the photo). I searched for a similar vintage photo, so that I could identify the seaside church with two spires and a Roman-style boathouse close to the shore. Come to find out, […]