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Our archive of American Collector magazine articles. This beautiful, high quality magazine was published in the 1930s and 40s for people interested in antiques and collecting. Because of the great research that went into these articles, we've decided to put as many of them online as possible as a reference for collectors (read more about this project).
Overlay or cased glass was a product of the 19th Century. But, although different in technique, it stemmed back, artistically at least, to the colorful enameled glass of the Romans which they fi… (more »)
In any discussion regarding Masonic emblems as a decoration on old china, one immediately thinks of a Liverpool pitcher. So many are found with these symbolic signs upon them that one is apt to … (more »)
The desire to have a model of an old-time Wells Fargo coach for my own collection of the railroads and other means of transportation at Pittsford, New York, came as a swift inspiration, rather t… (more »)
There is twelve times as much fun in one-of-a-kind collecting, according to the devotees of the mixed dozen! Goblets, tumblers, sauce dishes – so many things can be collected in the one-of-a-k… (more »)
Art pottery may be defined as intentionally decorative or ornamental ware but while the term "pottery" is usually limited to clay ware with a non-vitreous opaque body, "art pottery" must include… (more »)
In the broadside political caricatures which were produced and circulated quite freely in America from the beginning of the Jackson era down to the administration of Andrew Johnson, we find refl… (more »)
The period of the French and Indian War was a map-making era. Since much of the country was not chartered, it is perfectly logical that a map should be engraved on a powder horn. For the horn wa… (more »)
Papier-mache, despite its French name, originated in China where it was made for many generations before its European advent. It became an industry in England in 1772 when Henry Clay of Birmingh… (more »)
The antique quilts which collectors admire today for their colorfulness and variety of design represent two of the oldest forms of needlecraft. They are quilting and patchwork and were known to … (more »)
There is amusement for children of nearly all ages in such elemental manifestations as quick motions, bright colors, symmetry of form, smoothness and clashing of sounds. All these are supplied b… (more »)
"I must write rudely," stated Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts Bay colony in a letter to the Countess of Lincoln in the year 1631, "having no table, or other room to write in than by the fireside … (more »)
Many qualities have gone into the making of the much discussed "American way" but one of the greatest seems to have been ingenuity. Old-fashioned terms for it were faculty, sconce, and horse sen… (more »)
The American glass collection formed by the late William T. H. Howe of Cincinnati must be counted among the most outstanding in general interest of any ever assembled in this country. When Part … (more »)
Some years ago a police commissioner in a large city offered the practical suggestion that one small electric light bulb left on while the family was out for the evening was one of the best form… (more »)
The dolphin candlestick and its various half brothers, the fluted column, the loop-and-petal and the baluster, have been popular with collectors for many years. They have been sought in all vari… (more »)
In the 19th century affluent Americans enjoyed ready access to the ceramic markets of the world. The result was the greatest known importation of various wares. Ceramic tastes of the time were i… (more »)
The scope covered by the work of Chester County, Pa., cabinetmakers was literally from the cradle to the coffin. The daybooks are filled with orders for these two articles, which with that other… (more »)
With children of early America, deference to parents and other elders and unquestioning obedience to those in authority were of prime importance. George Washington's mother kept a bundle of peac… (more »)
For over a generation there has been growing contention about Thomas Chippendale and the English and American furniture of his period. Articles by the score and books by the half dozen have been… (more »)
The start of a collection always seems surprising in retrospect. My collecting began because, over a sofa in our Connecticut farmhouse, there was a large space which clearly demanded an old pict… (more »)
In the final analysis, collecting of old locomotives is not essentially different from the collecting of early carriages, clocks, pewter cups, or Sheffield knives. The items are considerably lar… (more »)
Part I: "Deer's Foot — Lost on Tuesday last the 12 Instant at Boston, a small Guinea Deer's foot tipt with Gold." Boston News-Letter September 11, 1704. [caption id="attachment_4191" ali… (more »)
American glass of the last quarter of the 19th Century means to many nothing but pattern glass. Yet during this same period tremendous advances in the art of blown glass were made by four or fiv… (more »)
Before the Revolutionary War, New York consisted chiefly of the Hudson River Valley. The Mohawk Valley and the rest of Central and Western New York remained in the possession of the Indians. … (more »)
Fine silver, porcelain, glass, and similar household accessories lend themselves to display as well as use, and the householder of today is no different than his ancestor of seven or eight gener… (more »)
Whilst much thought and attention has been given to the purely decorative figures and objects produced by the 18th-Century English porcelain factories, little study has been given to the many an… (more »)
In a New England parlor of the 1890s a doll of the period was perched on top of a high book case, well out of the reach of grimy childish hands. From the top of its flaxen head to its neatly sli… (more »)
"Five good old-fashioned stone crocks! Not a nick or a chip on any of them. Look at this little brown one with the cover. Grandma kept her yeast in that. She never fooled around with the store k… (more »)
One of America's famed industrial designers sat at his quite modern desk (which he thinks was designed in 1936 but which was already old stuff in 1836) and, with his nose well in the air, vented… (more »)
About a quarter of a century ago habitant groups and small-scale models of historic events and places appeared in our museums and similar public places. It was considered a most modern and drama… (more »)
When around 1710 the Saxon Court alchemist, Johann Friedrich Boettger, instead of finding gold, discovered the method of making porcelain, he succeeded in his task in a way unforeseen by himself… (more »)
Tall case clocks represented two crafts; that of the clockmaker who worked in metal and that of the cabinetmaker who worked in wood. In 18th-Century England and Europe, the two were sometimes co… (more »)
Although English artists began working very early in other media, the making of portrait busts and statues in ceramics lagged far behind. But once these potter-sculptors began to "hold the mirro… (more »)
With whom you share a cup, with him share your friendship — that is in brief the tradition of the standing-cup. [caption id="attachment_4831" align="alignright" width="172" caption="1. Coco… (more »)
It was a shock to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing when a critic pointed out that the view of "Gatun Locks," which it had engraved and so titled on the design for the two cents red Panama-Pa… (more »)
In the 19th century Americans gave little thought or attention to the work of our colonial craftsmen. If considered at all it was usually thought hat the outstanding work produced in colonial ti… (more »)
It is always a matter of pleasure to collectors, who visit antiques shows, to find the commercial aspect made somewhat less obtrusive by the presence of educational exhibits. The managers of the… (more »)
Many times I have seen people ask, with a smirk and a quizzical look in their eye, "Where does all the old glass come from? Certainly you cannot claim all the pieces seen in all the antique shop… (more »)
Secret compartments for money, securities, ancestral jewelry and silver plate, a missing will, or a carefully written confession of a crime committed years before, have served fiction writers we… (more »)
American military buttons of the eighteenth century are comparatively rare, and the two recently acquired New York State Militia buttons illustrated are, for me, a noteworthy addition to an all … (more »)
It might seem that so untractable a medium as cooky dough would lend itself to few varieties of design, but among the homely articles of the old-time Pennsylvania-Dutch household, none represent… (more »)
Though slow in its beginning, John Gutenberg started the mighty force which rolls interminably on; the force that nations may browbeat but never conquer; that kings, dictators and even democraci… (more »)
The world over, at all times women have tried to be more beautiful than nature created them. They made their personality harmonize with their appearance by adding some special artistic note to t… (more »)
To be a horologist a man had to know both the science and the art of timekeeping; to be a clockmaker he had to be a skillful mechanic. From time to time a completely rounded man in science, art … (more »)
"Great rejoicing in New York on the arrival of General Washington. Previous to his coming, Uncle Walter's house in Cherry Street was taken for him and every room furnished in the most elegant ma… (more »)
On a cycle as constant as the seven-year locust, though more frequent, magazines devoted to fashions and the home have published articles on taste in interior decoration — good and bad. The il… (more »)
Just as brass handles, keyhole escutcheons and turned buttons replaced wooden knobs and wrought-iron handles on English and American furniture toward the close of the 17th Century, so glass came… (more »)
In recent years collectors of antiques, particularly American, have displayed an ever-increasing tendency toward specialization. This may be due to the fact that our collecting tempo has steadil… (more »)
The popular feeling for men and the events they bring to pass which profoundly influence a nation's development — politically, economically, and culturally — always has found expression in t… (more »)
Under the patient probe of research, our silversmiths have emerged as definite personalities. They were men of many interests, prominent in their communities, and the number of them who played i… (more »)
Names may be merely a group of letters and as such have but little meaning. If for the sake of entertainment we turned the pages of any large directory we might discover that certain names left … (more »)
In one of those drippingly sentimental historical novels which were so numerous a generation or so ago, the woes of a little girl, unfortunate to have been born in the late 18th Century, were mo… (more »)
Lacy Sandwich glass was one of the earliest, if not the first, of the industrial arts produced in the United States. Essentially, it was highly decorated ware for the dining table produced in qu… (more »)
Among old-time lamps there are certain types that mark changes in the manner of living or that are representative of classes or occupations. Others are examples of the progressive development of… (more »)
When one considers that man is the one animal who depends on artificial light for getting about in the dark, it is surprising to learn how very slowly he developed this attribute of material civ… (more »)
If we attempt to trace marbles back to the time in history when first they were devised and employed by people for amusement and games we shall be astonished at their great antiquity. Two thousa… (more »)
Greater variety of form and decoration are to be found in salt cellars than in any other piece of tableware made by American glassworkers. Over a thousand different designs are known to collecto… (more »)
Before treating in detail of the miniature or toy pieces of Blown Molded, or as it still known, "blown three-mold" glass, it might be well to become better acquainted with the forerunner of this… (more »)
The true miniature antique clock of whatever land, is characterized by fineness of conception and skillful workmanship. Today they are among the rarities because far fewer of them were made than… (more »)
Although the gaffer and his servitor seen in these pictures wear the clothes of today, they are actually following the same steps and using the same tools that glass blowers have used for centur… (more »)
Among collectors, the blown glass which was made at the early glasshouses of Ohio and the Midwestern district has long been highly regarded. The craftsmen working there seem not only to have fol… (more »)
The silver crosses discovered in the past hundred years in old Indian graves from Georgia to Wisconsin and Ontario are all of one type and bear such makers' marks as C A and R C. Puzzled archaeo… (more »)
"A sett of large blue and white China with the badge of the Society of the Cincinnati if to be had, " wrote George Washington to his agent, Colonel Tench Tilghman, regarding the purchase of good… (more »)
When one sees a piece of Oriental Lowestoft or a China trade item, the clock turns back a century and a half or more. In the shadow of such an antique, the collector sees, mentally, a fast-saili… (more »)
Is business bad? Is unemployment increasing in your town? Don't wring your hands and cry for the good old days! Start something new! This, in the 20th Century manner, is the story of how soft pa… (more »)
Ring's Vegetable Ambrosia, a hair restorative concocted by a New Hampshire dentist, was one of the many patent medicine preparations which helped pay for the Civil War by wearing on its package … (more »)
Victor Durand, owner and operator of this Vineland plant, never owned a factory in Millville. He started in Vineland in 1895 with a tube shop, where he made electric bulbs and later X-ray tubes.… (more »)
More than one veteran collector of American glass, particularly Sandwich, will be surprised to learn that a workman at the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company made, among other things, artistic gl… (more »)
"I have a number of books which belonged to my grandfather. They are very old, and I am quite sure they are valuable. Will you be so kind as to arrange with your friend, the rare book dealer; to… (more »)
A special exhibition, "The Work and Environment of Paul Revere," has just opened at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. American Collector readers will notice the coincidence with the appearance of… (more »)
With interest focusing today on plans for world peace, it seems timely to juxtapose three remarkable versions of the Peaceable Kingdom, as interpreted by three generations of native American art… (more »)
A goal for the collector is old pin-decorated slipware. Even run-of-the-mill slipware does not grow on trees, since its value was not appreciated until about a quarter of a century ago, but pin-… (more »)
Today if a bored passenger on a Boston-bound express happens to glance out of the car window as his train thunders past South Norwalk and across the bridge which spans the harbor, he will see a … (more »)
An insurance broker picks up his telephone, and recognizes the voice of one of his clients, a woman who is a collector of old glass paperweights. She says that on Thursday of this week she will … (more »)
Paintings and sculpture galore have been reproduced on postage stamps, sort of an Everyman's art gallery. But this, of course, does not mean that any old work of art makes a good stamp subject. … (more »)
Many times I had read the name "Pottersville" over the door of the little Post Office, but it was not until the hurricane and "tidal wave" of September 21, 1938, deposited a pottery jug in my do… (more »)
Various articles on what and how to collect have stressed the importance of broadening one's interest. "Remember," says one writer, "that the neglected antique of today may become the sought-aft… (more »)
This is a most unorthodox treatise on dolls as we are neither collectors nor authorities on their histories, but for the past three years we have been literally up to our ears in dolls at Christ… (more »)
Stiegel – Wistar – Amelung – are all names associated with romance and glamour in the early development of glassmaking in America. Many others, whose achievements were just as outstanding … (more »)
The Rookwood Pottery has gone to war. This pioneer among American art potteries, founded by Maria Longworth Storer of Cincinnati, Ohio, in the last quarter of the 19th Century, has turned over t… (more »)
Whether or not Sandwich produced lacy glass goblets during its early period is a subject that interests collector and dealer alike. Excavations at the factory site have unearthed lacy goblet fra… (more »)
The following piece tells the story of how Santa Claus came to be, from his debut in 1844 to his evolution from New Year’s icon to beloved symbol of Christmas. It originally appeared in the Decem… (more »)
In every branch of Sandwich collectibles, there are exceptional pieces which are interesting to collectors, either from a standpoint of rarity or historical association. Among the Lacy Sandwich … (more »)
Although the variety of sideboards made by American craftsmen working in the Hepplewhite, Sheraton, and American Empire styles are well known to everyone, relatively little attention has been pa… (more »)
Signs have always furnished a vivid means of advertising wares and attracting the attention of prospective buyers. Pictorial designs on early taverns, and commercial ones, not only made them mor… (more »)
In 1800 when Washington Irving, son of a Scottish born New York merchant, made his first trip up the Hudson he found that fertile river valley a land teeming with twilight superstitions, old Dut… (more »)
For the average collector of old English silver the period of greatest interest lies between the years 1714 and 1830. During this Georgian period, so called because of the successive reigns of G… (more »)
From the Middle Ages down, the silver spoon has been a symbol of a certain standard of living. "Born with a silver spoon in his mouth" indicated a person who began life well shielded against the… (more »)
A winter or two ago Connecticut basket-maker made a set of six three-slat side chairs from basket stock of ash and oak which he had on hand. Although his shop was less than a hundred miles from … (more »)
Part I: “Stole at Flatbush on Long-Island, One Silver Tankerd, a piece of Money in the Led of King Charles II, and the Led all engraved, a Coat of Arms, before (in it Man on a Waggon with t… (more »)
Many years before his death in 1943, Grenville L. Winthrop decided to leave his art collection to his university, Harvard. His steadfast belief in the training that the Harvard Fine Arts Departm… (more »)
American advertising has always told a rousing story. What people had and what they could acquire. From the first issue of the Boston News Letter to 1942, this advertising has been an accurate, … (more »)
It was the late R. T. Haynes Halsey who first noted that as early as 1775 there was a project in Philadelphia to publish working designs for furniture makers, a Gentlemen and Cabinet-Makers' Ass… (more »)
The Staffordshire potters, always eager for new designs, were quick to incorporate the locomotive, as it appeared first in England and later in America, in their scenic china patterns. The Balti… (more »)
During the latter half of the 17th Century and the whole of the 18th, a period often referred to as the golden age of letter writing and diary keeping, penmanship reached a perfection never befo… (more »)
One thing suggests another in antique collecting, as with anything else. The person who buys a piece of antique furniture is apt to follow it up with others and eventually be attracted to relate… (more »)
The ancestor of the modern button was a crude object, carved by prehistoric man from one of the bones of his kill and probably used as the fastening for his garment of animal skin. With the disc… (more »)
According to present-day standards, 18th-Century Boston was never more than a good-sized village. In 1700, it had an estimated population of 7,000; by 1800 it had multiplied only a little over t… (more »)
About a hundred and seventy-five years marks the span when the chest of drawers was being made by American cabinetmakers. During this time, step-by-step, the transition was accomplished from its… (more »)
Undoubtedly the name of Samuel Drowne is as well known as that of any of the early silversmiths of Portsmouth, N. H., but locally, at least, it is more generally remembered because of the promin… (more »)
Possession of silver articles has always been considered as a step up on the social ladder; something to be proud of and something to bolster self-respect. Even today we see people, making more … (more »)
Whole books, and many of them, have been written about American furniture of various periods and special localities but one of the most charming styles has had scant attention. This bears the na… (more »)
To those countries that afford asylum to the victims, national persecutions frequently reward the befrienders to a far greater degree than was anticipated. America was largely colonized by peopl… (more »)
Decoration for the simple farmhouse or the village-dwelling artisan's cottage in all countries began and generally remained within the realm of the folk arts. A man might be a potter or a countr… (more »)
I have long since become familiar with the query: "How did you start collecting historical Staffordshire china?" I was casually introduced to the subject 27 years ago but at the time it did not … (more »)
When I was a boy in my teens, I well remember the first time I went hunting. Along with a breech loading gun I carried a leather flask for shot and a copper powder flask. The latter was embossed… (more »)
The first American postmaster to take his cue from Great Britain's "Penny Black" of 1840 and issue an adhesive postage stamp for interurban mail was Robert H. Morris of New York. The year was 18… (more »)
The spontaneous upsurge of Blue and Gray patriotism generated by the Civil War is amazingly well caught and preserved in the colorful, heroic, flag-waving and caricaturing envelope designs with … (more »)
Once again the tureen, after a long period of rest on the top shelf of the china closet, is making its appearance – not only as a convenient adjunct to the buffet supper, but also at its prope… (more »)
Part I: For at least thirty years students of American craftsmanship have realized that a large quantity of fine Hepplewhite and Sheraton furniture with distinct characteristics of design was… (more »)
It is a matter of general observation that in this country family possessions tend to become scattered in the course of a few generations. Division through inheritance and the normal rate of dis… (more »)
At this moment of writing Egypt's most recent plague, under General Rommel, threatens Alexandria. The strategic value of his immediate objective, as a stepping stone to the East and as the sole ad… (more »)
Through sheer longevity and persistence, the term Oriental Lowestoft has become the designation for all Chinese porcelain made expressly for export. It covers a broad field and extends over two … (more »)
The name Simon Willard has always stood for superior materials, whether metal or wood; superior workmanship, whether of the movements he made himself or the cases that were made on order for him… (more »)
If the Windsor chair had been invented in the 20th Century it would have been classified as functional furniture and rightly so. Perfectly adjusted to the human body, using no excess of material… (more »)
Until fairly recently, England was a man's country and women as a class enjoyed few rights that their husbands and male relatives could not invade. Only a queen occupying the throne in her own r… (more »)
The early sideboard was more than a decorative piece of dining-room furniture. Functionally, it was the 18th-Century version of the modern serving pantry. In an era when course dinners were unhe… (more »)
When Mrs. Gabriel Ludlow and her sister, Mrs. Abraham Walton, entered the ballroom about 1780 they must have created quite a sensation in the sophisticated little town of New York. Their brocade… (more »)
(American Collector Editor’s Note: Some three years ago Mr. Millar, a general collector of American antiques, became especially interested in the roundabout chair. Since then, one at a time, h… (more »)
"Why do writers on antique furniture leave off right where my interest begins," protests a man who has acquired an attractively situated house of good lines, built about the middle of the 19th C… (more »)
The exhibition of silver owned by families of Virginia, made prior to 1800, recently held at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, throws factual light on the silver owned by these familie… (more »)
The fashion for personal adornment with memorials of recently deceased relatives or of persons held in particular esteem reached its height in the decade between 1795 and 1805. It was an age of … (more »)
Although the work of the early American silversmith William Cairo had been well and favorably known to collectors for over half a century, nothing was known of the gentleman himself until compar… (more »)
When Gerrit Cosine, or Cozyn as the name was spelled on the old Dutch records, died in 1769, he bequeathed to his daughter Catherine "his Mahogany Dining Table, his Mahogany Card Table, his Look… (more »)