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.

August 23, 2016 / Art, Automobilia, Car Collections, cars, Don Weberg, Features, Gas cans, gas pumps, Motorcycles, Paraphernalia, Petroliana, Road Art, Signs, Street Signs, trucks

Road Art

By Don Weberg While motoring enthusiasts normally collect cars, motorcycles and trucks as the obvious items of choice, they also ...

August 15, 2016 / Adveritising Icons, Advertising, Advertising Age, Brandweek, Cap'n Crunch, Characters, Chronicle Books, Features, Morton Salt, Pillsbury Doughboy, Random House, The New York Times, Warren Dotz

Advertising Icons: The Warren Dotz Collection

Excerpt from an interview with Warren Dotz Warren Dotz is an author of award-winning, graphic design books published by American ...

August 6, 2016 / advertisements, Antiques Advertising, Benjamin Franklin, Features, Lithography, magazines, Michael Eckles, New Hope PA, Newspapers, Noel Barrett, Print Advertising, Showtime Auctions

Antique Advertising at Auction: When Color Became King

By Michael Eckles In the last ten years, antique advertising has become a very popular lot in auction arenas around ...

July 19, 2016 / Antique Still Banks, Board Games, Dick Friz, Doorstops, Features, Mechanical Banks, penny jar, replaced parts, restorations, retouching, Trains & Accessories, Transportation Toys

The Emergence of Toys at Auction

by Dick Friz Dr. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, published in 1755, defined "toy" as a "petty commodity, a trifle; a thing ...

July 11, 2016 / Card Art, Collectible Cards, Donald-Brian Johnson, Face cards, Features, Hobby, House of Cards, illustrated, Jacks, Jokers, Kings, Playing Cards, Queens

Deal Me In

Collectible Playing Card Art Story & Photos by Donald-Brian Johnson Mary Nastase has over five thousand playing cards. That's right, ...

July 7, 2016 / Alto Bergmann and Co., Barbie, Collectible Toys, Edward Ives, Eric Bradley, Features, Field and Francis, Francis, Hull and Stafford, James Fallows, LEGO, Merriam Manufacturing Co., Philadelphia Tin Toy Manufactory, Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, Stevens and Brown, tin toys, Toy collecting

Top Collectible Toys By Decade

by Eric Bradley The toy business and the toy collecting hobby are surviving in the midst of genre-busting trends. The ...

June 23, 2016 / bowls, ceramic, Cooking, crocks, Depression Era Glassware, Features, Glass, glassware, Kitchen Glass, Rosemary Trietsch, Stoneware

Cooking With Glass

The Rise of Kitchen Glass for Cooking By Rosemary Trietsch The term "Depression Era Glassware" usually evokes images of beautiful ...

June 19, 2016 / Features, gold, Ivory, J. E. Klopfer, Kitchen Collectible, kitchenware, Mary Earl Gould, Nutmeg, Nutmeg graters, silver, Tin & Toleware

The Nutmeg Grater: A Kitchen Collectible, And So Much More

Story and Photos by J. E. Klopfer The well known antiques writer Mary Earl Gould was the first to introduce ...

June 11, 2016 / Features, Formica, Franceen Munson, Hand-made baskets, Kitchen Storage, kitchens, Kitenchella, Storage, storage containers

Defining Your Space: Kitchen Storage

by Franceen Munson The kitchen, perhaps more than any room in a house conjures up more memories and associations than ...

May 20, 2016 / Christie's, Ed Sullivan, Elvis Presley, Features, Frank Sinatra, Kurt Cobain, Lady Gaga, Megan Mahn Miller, music memorabilia, Nirvana, Rock and Roll, Rock Memorabilia, Sotheby's, The Beatles

The State of the Rock and Roll Memorabilia Market

by Megan Mahn Miller If the art auction market is a civilized dinner party, where beautiful works of art trade ...

May 12, 2016 / Big Band, Country, Features, Gary Sohmers, movie theaters, Music, Music Posters, musical acts, posters, Punk Rock, Rhythm & Blues, Rock n Roll, touring theater

A Collector’s Take on Music Posters

by Gary Sohmers In the beginning, there was art. Then music, performance, and finally, advertising. So begins the growth of ...

May 9, 2016 / David Bowie, Elvis, Elvis Presley, Features, Graceland, Memorabilia, Memphis TN, Michael Jackson, Music, Rock & Roll, The Beatles, The Eagles, The Grammy's, The King

Finding Your Inner Music Collector and Investor

Lessons Learned from The King by Stephen Shutts, the "Indiana Jones" of Memorabilia We have been in the era quite ...

April 20, 2016 / Antique Box, Dapper Dans, Donald-Brian Johnson, Features, ground tobacco, Handkerchiefs, modish maidens, snuff, Snuff Boxes, Tobacco, tobacco leaves

Up to Snuff

Collecting Antique Snuff Boxes Story and Photos by Donald-Brian Johnson Hmmmm... Just what are those elaborate little boxes intended for, ...

April 14, 2016 / cosmetics, dressing tables, Erica Lome, Features, furnishings, toile, toilette, Vanity Table, Victorian America, wigs

In the Eye of the Beholder

The Vanity Table, Then and Now by Erica Lome Almost every home has a space for "putting on one's face." ...

April 5, 2016 / botany, Deborah Washington, Features, fragrance, frankincense, god of perfume, International Perfume Bottle Association, myrrh, Nefertum, parfum, Perfume

Perfume: Egypt to the Modern Vanity Table

by Deborah Washington International Perfume Bottle Association Perfume - The origins of the "juice." What exactly is perfume? How does ...

March 27, 2016 / Clockmakers, Features, Hilary Anderson Stelling, Library, Museum, Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library

Keeping Time

"Clockmakers and Collectors" at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library by Hilary Anderson Stelling Director of Exhibitions and Audience ...

March 24, 2016 / Clocks, clockwork, Donald-Brian Johnson, Features, MasterCrafters, novelty clocks, sundials, Syracuse Ornamental Company, Syroco

Time to Start Livin': Kitsch Clocks of the Mid-20th Century

By Donald-Brian Johnson Clocks. We rely on them to bring just a bit of order into our hectic modern lives ...

March 18, 2016 / Alex Winter, Buster Brown, Celebrities, Features, Hake's Americana & Collectibles, J.C. Vaughn, Mickey Mouse, Superman, Watches

Comic Timing

by J.C. Vaughn After a period in which a number of character watches enjoyed values that we might call "overly ...

March 2, 2016 / Antique Clocks, Chinese bracket clocks, E. Howard & Company, E.N. Welch, Features, Fontaine's Auction Gallery, French industrials, John Fontaine, Pittsfield Mass, Seth Thomas, vintage clocks

State of the Clock Market

Fontaine's Auction Gallery Pittsfield, Mass. By John Fontaine It sounds like a cliche to say quality items sell for premium ...

February 29, 2016 / American Arts and Crafts, Arts and Crafts, Entrepreneur, Features, Great Britain, John Ruskin, Peter A. Copeland, William Morris

Fred Dennett and The Lakeside Craft Shops

An Entrepreneur Navigates the Arts and Crafts Movement by Peter A. Copeland The Arts and Crafts movement - roughly the ...

February 25, 2016 / Art, Avon Pottery, Bill Thornbrook, Features, New Mexico, Pottery, Rookwood, Van Briggle

Collecting Van Briggle Art Pottery

by Bill Thornbrook It is a longstanding tradition for travelers from the Northeast to vacation in places with abundant sunshine, ...

February 19, 2016 / Arts, Crafts, Craftsman, Craftsman Farms, Erica Lome, Features, Gustav Stickley, John Ruskin, Stickley Brothers Company, The Stickley Museum, William Morris

Return to Craftsman Farms: Gustav Stickley in the Twenty-First Century

By Erica Lome The year 1916 marked the final issue of Gustav Stickley's influential periodical The Craftsman, which introduced American ...

February 12, 2016 / Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts, Charles Rohlfs, Features, Frederick Hurten Rhead, Gothic, Jerry Cohen, The Blacker House

The Arts & Crafts Auction Market Today

by Jerry Cohen The Arts & Crafts market, like any collectible market, has buyers at low, middle, and upper price ...

January 28, 2016 / Africa, British Museum, China, Europe, Features, Museum of Manchester University, needles, thimbles, University College London

Thimble Collecting: A Small Passion

By Bridget McConnel It is useful to have some idea of the history and the earliest known examples of needles, ...

January 26, 2016 / cotton thread, Embroidery, Features, ground fabric, Judy Nixon Kent, ribbon flowers, ribbon work, ribbons, Silk, velvet

A Fondness for Frippery: Collecting Ribbon Work

by Judy Nixon Kent For a collector of ribbon work, nothing is more beguiling than a bevy of beautiful ribbons ...