Features

Curated articles that explore the rich intersections of history, craftsmanship, and collecting culture. These long-form pieces are your gateway to learning something new, seeing the familiar in a fresh light, and connecting with the past meaningfully.

June 1, 2025 / Antique Marketplace News, Antique Shows, Expert Insights, Features, Vintage Living

The Summer Treasures Trail: A Cross-Country Road Trip Through Vintage America

For antique enthusiasts, summer marks the beginning of an exhilarating season packed with opportunities to uncover hidden gems. Picture the ...

May 25, 2025 / collecting instruments, Features, music memorabilia, vintage instruments

The overall size of Guadagnini’s cellos stays fairly constant, slightly undersized by modern standards but extremely effective for modern soloists. Centuries-old scratches from errant bow strokes in this cello testify to its substantial width in the center section.

Collect the Orchestra: Instruments of Renown

By Judy Gonyeau, managing editor On February 7 of this year, a 311-year-old Stradivarius violin sold for $11.25 million at ...

May 15, 2025 / Features, vogue picture records

#R714, Doodle Doo Doo shows one of the turntables especially designed so that stores could highlight Vogue records. Rather than being on a standard horizontal plane, the Vogue turntable was tilted. The disc’s picture could then be enjoyed as the record spun. $40-50.

Picture Perfect: Vogue Picture Records

Article and photos by Donald-Brian Johnson Downbeat magazine called them “the discs that sparkle with color.” Gimbel’s trumpeted their “new ...

May 10, 2025 / Antique Marketplace News, Features, Music Trading Cards, Retro Collectibles

Beatles bubble-gum in display box sold for $4,000 in 2019 at Heritage Auctions.

The Next Big Hit? Music Trading Cards & the New Wave of Collecting

By Laurence Carpenter, Music Memorabilia Expert From vintage concert posters to stage-used guitars, music memorabilia has long captured the hearts ...

March 15, 2025 / buried treasure, Features, hidden history

The crowns were buried with kings and queens of Poland, who were also grand dukes and duchesses of Lithuania. Found among the royal accessories were insignia made for these rulers’ burial chambers. As Vilnius Archbishop Gintaras Grušas said, “These crowns were not worn while the rulers were alive but were made after their deaths and were intended to be part of their tombs,” per TVP World.

Stories of Buried Treasure: History Unearthed

2,300-year-old bronze statues unearthed in Italy Archaeologists in Italy discovered more than two dozen beautifully preserved bronze statues from San ...

March 1, 2025 / Features, time capsule

Museum of Fine Arts Boston Head of Objects Conservation Pam Hatchfield, right, displays objects removed a time capsule, Jan. 6, 2015, as Mass. Secretary of State William Galvin, left, and Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick, second from left, look on at the museum, in Boston.

Time Capsules

by Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher A time capsule is a historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate ...

February 20, 2025 / Features, Militaria, Spyware

There Are Spies Among Us: 18th, 19th, and Early 20th Century Military Espionage As Told By its Hierarchy, Spies, and Gadgets

By Judy Weaver Gonyeau, managing editor The spies from the earliest days of America may not have had the level of ...

February 11, 2025 / army surplus, Features, Militaria

Woodside’s Surplus City closed after being open since 1946.

The Rise and Fall of the Army Surplus Store

By Brett and Kate McKay, artofmanliness.com You’ve probably been to an army surplus store. They all look pretty much the ...

February 1, 2025 / Antique Marketplace News, civil war enthusiasts, civil war memorabilia, Features, Retro Collectibles

An Interview with John Sexton, The Civil War Collector

by Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher When it comes to Civil War memorabilia, John Sexton is the go-to guy. His decades as ...

January 18, 2025 / Features, United States Post Office, USPS

First Continental Congress, 1774 Commemorative Stamp issued in 2024

The United States Postal Service Turns 250

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher During the Revolutionary War, instantaneous communication was non-existent, especially over great distances. News and personal correspondence ...

January 10, 2025 / Features, The Grand Ole opry

Elvis and Hank Snow Grand Ole Opry promotional flyer.

The Grand Ole Opry® at 100: The Church of Country Music

By Judy Gonyeau, managing editor Name any country music star and chances are they are a member of one of ...

January 1, 2025 / Features, Turning 100

Introduced in 1924, the Chrysler Six boasted only 201 cubic inches but its 4.7:1 compression ratio engine delivered 68 horsepower. Chrysler was one of the first to adopt 4-wheel hydraulic brakes and the Chrysler Six also had full pressure engine lubrication. No wonder Chrysler sold 32,000 of them in its first year.

Turning 100 in 2025: 5 Origin Stories

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher Behind every major company and brand launched in the early decades of the 20th century was ...

December 16, 2024 / Features, Holiday Traditions, The White House

George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River, which occurred on the night of December 25-26, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, was the first move in a complex and surprise military maneuver organized by George Washington, the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, which culminated in their attack on Hessian forces garrisoned at Trenton.

White House Christmas Traditions

from www.whitehousechristmascards.com This website offers a treasure trove of information on the White House Christmas Cards and how the presidents ...

December 6, 2024 / Features, Holiday Traditions, Snow Globes

Saluting one of the first snow globes: the Eiffel Tower, recreated in a souvenir snow globe from the Paris resort, Las Vegas.

Let it Snow! Those Sensational Snow Globes

by Donald-Brian Johnson “Rosebud …” And with that muttered word, the classic movie Citizen Kane opens. As publisher Charles Foster ...

December 1, 2024 / Department 56, Dept. 56, Features, Holiday Traditions

The Original 1976 Department 56 Snow Village. In 1976, Department 56 introduced a series of six hand-painted, ceramic buildings.

Department 56 Collectible Villages

by Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher “One Christmas evening, a group of friends set off to enjoy a dinner of celebration at ...

November 21, 2024 / Antiquing Online, Features, online price guides

Your Tools For Better Online Searching: What’s In Your Toolbox?

by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor When scrambling online to search for information on your antique/vintage/collectible item, the key to success ...

November 12, 2024 / Antiquing Online, antiquing websites, Features, online antiquing

Online Resources To Turn To When Antiquing

by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor You’re at a vintage or antique show/shop/sale/auction and you just came across something you want ...

November 1, 2024 / Antiquing Online, Features, online Platforms

Online Platforms that are Transforming The Antiques Marketplace

By Maxine Carter-Lome, Publisher While most of us are familiar with or accustomed to sites such as eBay, which pioneered ...

October 27, 2024 / Americana, Features, George Washington

American artist Joseph Wright painted this likeness of Washington after the Commander in Chief had finally secured American independence. General Washington sat for the portrait at his headquarters in Rocky Hill, New Jersey, in the fall of 1783, just before he traveled south to resign his command.

The National Images of George Washington, a Reluctant Portrait Sitter

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher In his day, and even today thanks to portraits painted while he was alive along with ...

October 15, 2024 / Americana, Black Americana, black memorabilia, Features

In the throes of the Rodney King riots in 1992, Nehemiah Cisneros’ family store for Black collectibles in Inglewood was razed. Black illustrated books and Golliwog dolls salvaged from the ashes wound up on the shelves and in the closets of Cisneros’ childhood bedroom, ambivalent and uncanny reminders of both violence and resistance. “As the lifeless doll eyes of racially exploitative faces stared back at me while [I was] trying to fall asleep, I formed an atypical relationship with trauma; trauma became my guardian angel,” the artist said. photo: Control Gallery in Los Angeles

Black Americana

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher When we use the word “Americana” to identify an item associated with the culture and history of ...

October 1, 2024 / American Eagles, Americana, Features

Eagle, pine carving by William Rush, c. 1810. Note the white color of the bird. photo: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art

Carved American Eagles: America’s First Americana

by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor Many Americana objects in collections and museums incorporate the one symbol that the first Congress ...

September 23, 2024 / counterculture vibes, Features, Peter Max

Peter Max 1960s & 1970s: All-American Art

by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor The 1960s and ’70s were all about color. Peter Max Color. Bright, fluid, fantastical, and ...

September 17, 2024 / counterculture vibes, Features, music memorabilia

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon with Ed Sullivan giving him a “guitar lesson” before appearing onstage at The Ed Sullivan Show, 1964.

The British Invasion: A Revolution in Music Memorabilia

By Laurence Carpenter The British Invasion of the 1960s was a seismic cultural shift, where a wave of British bands ...

September 15, 2024 / comics, counterculture vibes, Features

Comics in the 1960s: Groundbreaking Silver Age

By Amanda Sheriff The Silver Age of comics, which ran from approximately the mid-1950s to 1970, is noted as a transitional ...

September 1, 2024 / 1960s, counterculture vibes, Features, Mary Quant, Swinging Sixties

Color and comfort are shown in several Mary Quant designs.

Mary Quant: Designing the Look of the Swinging Sixties

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher “The whole 1960s thing was a ten-year running party, which was lovely. It started at the ...