Fresh Type

Goodbye Steuben Glass

Today the Steuben glass factory in Corning, New York, closed its doors (see local news report below). Although the name was sold for an undisclosed sum to Corning Incorporated, which once owned Steuben, it’s unclear if crystal objects such as the Gazelle Bowl (the 1935 example above is from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) will ever be produced again…. (continue reading)

At Home with the Maharajas

If you collect or admire Indian art and antiques, you owe it to yourself to see “Maharaja: The Splendor of India’s Royal Courts,” now through April 8, 2012, at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the almost 200-piece exhibition features fashions and furniture, paintings and fine jewelry, and plenty of weaponry, … (continue reading)

How Judith Miller Became the Martha Stewart of Costume Jewelry and Antiques

For antiques lovers, Judith Miller is practically a patron saint. Over 30-plus years, she has published 105 Miller’s Antiques Guides in the United States and the United Kingdom, covering every topic under the sun—from motorcycles and porcelain to costume jewelry and furniture—and including identification tips, prices, and all the other details collectors really want. … (continue reading)

Taxidermy Comes Alive! On the Web, the Silver Screen, and in Your Living Room

“Taxidermy is never a mundane science,” Rachel Poliquin wrote in her 2009 essay, “Immortal Beauties,” on photographer Mary Frey’s ongoing taxidermy ambrotype project “Imagining Fauna.” “It is the queasy art of seeing what would not, should not, be seen. It is the art of extending animal form beyond its natural lifespan.”

Poliquin, a life-long taxidermy connoisseur and scholar from Vancouver, taps … (continue reading)

Psychedelic Poster Pioneer Wes Wilson on The Beatles, Doors, and Bill Graham

Between 1966 and 1967, San Francisco rock poster artist Wes Wilson designed posters and handbills for the first Trips Festival, the last show by The Beatles, and dozens of concerts at the Avalon Ballroom and Fillmore Auditorium featuring everyone from The Association to Frank Zappa. Along the way, he defined the psychedelic poster, in which blocks of letters were used to create shapes, which seemed to bend … (continue reading)

‘Roadshow’ Trumpets $1 Million Rhino Horn Cups, Despite Role in Species’ Decline

The Internet is abuzz with news that during a recent taping in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an appraiser for “Antiques Roadshow” was asked to place a value on five 17th- or 18th-century Chinese cups made out of rhinoceros horn. According to Tulsa’s NBC affiliate, KJRH, the cups were valued by Asian art expert Lark Mason at somewhere between $1 and $1.5 million, making them … (continue reading)

The Beautiful Chaos of Improvisational Quilts

What would jazz look like if it had a physical presence? According to Sherry Ann Byrd, a celebrated quilt maker who posts on Show & Tell, it might look something like the hand-made “M-provisational” quilts produced by six generations of her family, who descended from a former slave named Edward “Ned” Titus in Freestone County, Texas.

Her family’s creations—like the improvisational quilts of so … (continue reading)

Mondo: The Monster of Modern Movie Posters

Most serious movie-poster collectors search for that perfect copy of “The Bride of Frankenstein” from 1934, “Casablanca” from 1942, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” from 1951, or Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” from 1958. But for the last half-dozen or so years, a new type of collector has appeared, one whose sights are set on contemporary, limited-edition, signed-and-numbered, screenprinted posters designed not by the marketing departments of … (continue reading)

Disneyland Posters Heat Up Hollywood Auction

On May 14 and 15, 2011, Profiles in History held its latest auction of Hollywood memorabilia in Beverly Hills. The pre-auction buzz was all about the Dude’s sweater, which was worn by Jeff Bridges in “The Big Lebowski” and had a pre-sale estimate of $4,000 to $6,000. As it turned out, the sweater was withdrawn, so Lebowski fans will have to content themselves with the Dude tribute sweater … (continue reading)

Happy Easter from Collectors Weekly!

Happy Easter Sunday to our wonderful Collectors Weekly community! If you haven’t had enough baby chicks and colored eggs, check out this adorable 1911 “squeaker” postcard, posted by Show & Teller mark.

Where did the Easter bunny and his basket of eggs come from anyway? According to this ArtFix Daily article, German immigrants brought the tradition to America in the 1700s. The evidence can be found at … (continue reading)

Great Works of Literature Gone Chick-Lit

If you’re a serious collector of literature, you’d probably think it horrifying to alter Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” so that the soldiers are fighting with pillows instead of guns (although adding zombies to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” struck many as a fine idea). So you can imagine how serious female writers must feel when editors tell them, “You need to make this more chick-lit.”… (continue reading)