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.

April 20, 2023 / Antique Marketplace News, Expert Insights, Features, Glass, Peter Wade

Garage Sale find. No marks, c. 1900. Not shown in the Baccarat catalog of the era. Identified as Baccarat Bambous Tors oval inkwell.

Identifying Glass In The Age of The Internet

By Glass Specialist Peter Wade It’s a beautiful, sunny day and you decide to go out for a ride and ...

April 12, 2023 / Features, Glass, Tiffany, tiffany girls

Clara Driscoll (top row, far left) and her “Tiffany Girls” were unsung heroes at Tiffany Studios. Photo: The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of Art

The Tiffany Girls: Under the Glass Ceiling

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher Glassmaking has historically been a man’s trade. This can be attributed to the ability of boys ...

April 1, 2023 / Features, Glass, Josh Simpson

Blue Megaplanet, 1993, 5.25” dia. photo: Lewis Legbreaker

Artist Josh Simpson Configuring Glass

An Interview by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor Our Earth, which seems so limitless, is really only a tiny little blue ...

March 25, 2023 / Features, Hollywood, Paul R. Williams

Paul Revere Williams was part of the team that designed the Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport.

Paul R. Williams: Designer for Iconic Hollywood

by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor Imagine being the only black child in your school who is striving to enter the ...

March 20, 2023 / Angela Lansbury, Features, Hollywood

How TV fans will always remember her: Angela Lansbury as “Jessica Fletcher.” The hit series Murder, She Wrote ran for 12 seasons, and earned Angela 12 Emmy nominations (although she never won!).

Interviewing Angela Lansbury

By Donald-Brian Johnson In 1984, on her way to the West Coast to begin filming the first season of the ...

March 10, 2023 / Antique Marketplace News, Features, film memorabilia, Hollywood, movie posters, Retro Collectibles

Dracula style F one-sheet (photo courtesy Heritage Auctions)

Movie Posters: Collecting Trends and the Current Market

By Amanda Sheriff, Gemstone Publishing Collecting movie posters is plain and simply a fun hobby that expresses the love for ...

March 5, 2023 / Features, film memorabilia, Hollywood, Movie memorabilia, movie projectors

Projector manufacturers like Richmond Research Corp. produced relatively inexpensive standard 8mm units like this model 600 during the 1950s and 1960s.

Film Memorabilia: The Reel Thing

By Douglas R. Kelly The original props. The one-sheet posters. The lobby cards. The sculptures and statues and autographed photos ...

March 1, 2023 / Costumes, Edith Head, Features, Hollywood

Edith Head: Designing A Hollywood Legend

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher “Accentuate the positive and camouflage the rest,” … words legendary designer Edith Head lived by. At ...

February 25, 2023 / American Glass, Features

Mt. Washington Glass Co. peach blow Queen’s decoration vase ca. 1886-1890 for sale at Etsy for $3,900.

What Styles of Glass Are You Passionate About?

A walk-through of American glass styles and inspiration with Peter Wade In the late 1800s, Canary glass was “all the ...

February 17, 2023 / American chairs, chairs, Features, Period American furniture

This enormous ca. 1755 armchair is ambitious in both scale and design. Its bold contours are enabled by the dense mahogany that came from the colonized West Indies. Distinct in its beautiful grain and light-reflecting sheen, mahogany became eighteenth-century Britain’s “national wood.” Thomas Chippendale’s design for this “French Chair,” published in The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (1754), specified that it “must be covered with Tapestry, or other sort of Needlework.” Here, the needlework depicts a scene of the Annunciation, the feast day when contracts for trades and craftspeople were renegotiated. photo: The Met

Chair Styles: Take a Seat … or Two … or Three …

by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor Everyone has their favorite chair, whether it is an ergonomic masterpiece or an overstuffed recliner ...

February 1, 2023 / Features, jeans

A small capsule of vintage (and pre-loved, because they’re made post-2000) jeans appropriately titled “Wrangler Reborn.”

Jeans: The Iconic American Style

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher From 19th century miners and railroad workers to the cowboys of the Old West, hippies, rock ...

January 27, 2023 / Dolls, Features, Madame Alexander Dolls

1938 Tiny Betty, a colonial with proper attire and accessories, sold with her original box for $550 online

Madame Alexander: Alexander Doll Company, Inc.: 100 Years of Doll Play

by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor One-hundred years ago, Bertha Alexander turned the porcelain doll industry on its head when she ...

January 23, 2023 / Features, Yankee Stadium

Babe Ruth at first game in New York City’s new Yankee Stadium

Yankee Stadium: East 161st and River Avenue – The home of Legends

By Douglas R. Kelly Pittsburgh Pirates fans have been through it. So have Baltimore Orioles fans and Detroit Tigers fans ...

January 15, 2023 / Features, King Tut

King Tut: 100 Years of Discovery

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher One Hundred years ago this coming February, British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter entered an undiscovered ...

January 1, 2023 / Features, Non-Sports Cards

Non-sports cards: A Tale of Two Collections at Auction

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher, in an exclusive interview with Alex Winter of Hake’s Auctions In November, Hake’s Auctions held a ...

December 29, 2022 / Disney, Disneyana, Features

Disney 100th Anniversary Boxed Set of 12 Little Golden Books, to be released December 27, 2022

Disney: 100 Years of Wonder

By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher The Walt Disney Company has a big birthday to celebrate in 2023 and they will be ...

December 15, 2022 / Features, holiday collectibles, Santa

Ceramic Santa in a sleigh by Brad Keeler. 8” h

Here Comes Santa Claus!

By Donald-Brian Johnson “Here comes Santa Claus, Here comes Santa Claus, Right down Santa Claus lane!” – Gene Autry & ...

December 1, 2022 / blow molds, Features, holiday collectibles

Ultimate Christmas Kitsch: Blow Molds

By Carrie Polales Sansing They are known by various names. Light-ups, lawn art, plastic kitsch, illuminated figures, or simply blow ...

November 21, 2022 / branding, Features, moxie

You’ve Got Moxie: America’s Longest-Lasting Soft Drink

by Judy Weaver-Gonyeau, managing editor Courage. Pluck. Perseverance. … Moxie. A little bit sweet, a little bit bitter. What some ...

November 15, 2022 / brand building, branding, Features, Frisbee

The Name of the Game: Frisbee or Frisbie, it’s an American Cultural Icon

By Douglas R. Kelly There are few product names in the games and sporting goods industries that can match “Frisbee” ...

November 2, 2022 / brand building, branding, Features

Stuckey’s: A Sweet Roadside Oasis

by Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher “You’ve got to be honest with the public. And you’ve got to work. Of course, good ...

November 2, 2022 / Features, mourning

East Sicilian polychrome ware from the 3rd or 2nd centuries, B.C.

Urns: Their History and Collectibility

by Judy Weaver Gonyeau, managing editor Cremation as a form of burial goes back to the Neolithic or Stone Age, ...

October 31, 2022 / Features, mourning, mourning warehouses, mourning wear

Cover and title page of A History of Mourning by Richard Davey, commissioned by Jay’s London Mourning Warehouse to offer rules of etiquette for mourning during the Victorian Age.

Victorian Mourning Warehouses: One-Stop Mourning

by Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher “MOURNING—Court, Family, and Complimentary—The Proprietors of the London General Mourning Warehouse, Nos. 247 and 249 Regent-street, ...

October 23, 2022 / Features, Flowers, mourning