By Dave Margulius, Collectors Weekly Staff (Copyright 2009)

Michael Bruner talks about collecting vintage 20th Century porcelain advertising signs, including country store and automobile-related examples. Mike’s latest book, Signs of Our Past: Porcelain Enamel Advertising in America, is now available from Schiffer Publishing.

I liked to collect things even as a child. Things that didn’t cost anything, like different colors of stones. By the time I was 13, I had collected enough stamps and coins to say that I had a good collection for a kid that age. But at some point I lost interest in them, and …

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By Maribeth Keane, Collectors Weekly Staff (Copyright 2009)

Glen and Steve Thistlewood share their lifelong research on Carnival Glass, its manufacturers, social history, and varying shapes, patterns, and colors. Based in England, Glen and Steve have recently completed a new book, Carnival Glass: The Magic and the Mystery, for Schiffer Publishing. They can be contacted via their website, Carnival-glass.net, which is a member of our Hall of Fame.

Our newest book is actually the fully revised and expanded second edition of our first book. It came out originally in 1997, but needed a lot of updating because …

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By Dave Margulius, Collectors Weekly Staff (Copyright 2009)

In this interview, Stuart Lonsdale talks about Gouda pottery, focusing especially on the designs and the artists’ markings. Based in England, Stuart can be contacted via his website, Gouda Design, which is a member of our Hall of Fame.

I think it all started with a small pottery vase my mother obtained from the art pottery shop where she worked in the early 1920s and ‘30s. After she died in 1988, I didn’t initially didn’t take much notice of the vase, but then one day I just happened to …

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By Maribeth Keane

Vincent Fausone, Jr. discusses Chinese snuff bottles, especially focusing on their history and production. Based in San Francisco, California he is a member of the Bay Area Snuff Bottle Collectors and the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society, whose website is a member of our Hall of Fame.

In 1978, I found a snuff bottle and didn’t know what it was. It intrigued me, so I bought it. Then I found some books about snuff bottles, and learned a bit about them and began looking for them. …

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By Maribeth Keane, Collectors Weekly Staff (Copyright 2008)

Daile Kaplan talks about collecting 19th and 20th century photographs and photobooks. Daile is Vice President and Director of Photographs at Swann Auction Galleries in New York. She appears regularly as a photograph appraiser on the Antiques Roadshow, and is also featured in a series of short videos on fine photographs for Swann Galleries. Daile can be contacted at dkaplan@swanngalleries.com or via her website, www.popphotographica.com, which features items from her personal collection of pop photographica.

Swann, which is New York City’s oldest specialty auction house, was founded in the late …

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By Maribeth Keane

Ben Henry discusses baseball card collecting, the different types of baseball card collections, where to buy cards, and who collects vintage baseball cards. Located in Boston, Ben can be reached via his Baseball Card Blog, which is a member of our Hall of Fame.

I started collecting in 1986. If you’re in Boston and you’re a baseball fan, the Red Sox may take over your life. They take over your life in a way that other teams don’t. With …

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By Maribeth Keane, Collectors Weekly Staff (Copyright 2009)

In this interview, Richard More talks about collecting art glass paperweights, including the history of the Ysart family, other popular Scottish paperweight producers, and the different paperweight designs available. Located in Kansas, Richard can be contacted via his website, Richard Mores Paperweight Photo Albums, which is a member of our Hall of Fame.

In 1998, while going through my parents’ estate, my wife and I found some glassware made by Anchor Hocking between the 1940s and the 1960s as promotional items for laundry detergent and gas stations. My …

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By Maribeth Keane, Collectors Weekly Staff (Copyright 2009)

Berkeley, California-based David Lance Goines talks about what makes an effective poster, the history of poster design, the influence of Japanese woodcuts, and the importance of simplicity. He can be reached via his website, http://www.goines.net.

I don’t collect posters. I don’t collect anything. I started making posters one at a time by hand in high school just for specific events, basically got going when I was a freshman. I still make them today, but they’re printed on a printing press now. I’ve made 221 posters, not including the ones I did …

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By Maribeth Keane

Howard Coutts discusses collectible china, dinnerware, and art pottery, focusing on ceramics as a work of art, the major manufacturers, and the materials used to make various types of pottery. The Bowes Museum’s Ceramic Collection web site is a member of our Hall of Fame.

I’m the curator of the ceramics bit of the Bowes Museum. It’s a big museum with 30 galleries of which three or four are devoted to ceramics alone. Within Britain, it’s got one of the biggest and most expensive groups for people to see. We have about 5,000 or so …

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