Collectors Weekly

Before Rockwell, a Gay Artist Defined the Perfect American Male

Nobody had to tell J.C. Leyendecker that sex sells. Before the conservative backlash of the mid-20th century, the American public celebrated his images of sleek muscle-men, whose glistening homo-eroticism adorned endless magazine covers. Yet Leyendecker’s name is almost forgotten, whitewashed over by Norman Rockwell’s legacy of tame, small-town Americana.
Rockwell was just an 11-year old kid when Leyendecker created the legendary “Arrow Collar Man” in 1905, used to advertise … (continue reading)

A Quiet Voice in the Noisy World of Rock

Over the past decade, a self-effacing artist named John Mavroudis has quietly become a player in the noisy world of rock posters. Mavroudis was officially made a member of the scene in 2004, when he was given his first assignment to create a Yeah Yeah Yeahs poster for San Francisco’s fabled Fillmore Auditorium. That important rite of passage was followed in 2011 by his … (continue reading)

Playing With Matches: Sexy, Silly 1930s Ads That Went Up in Smoke

Smoking is growing more taboo in the United States now, but back in the 1930s, cigarettes were sexy. And where there was smoke, there were matches. At one point, nearly every business in the country, whether it was a national chain or a local Mom ‘n’ Pop, produced logoed matchbooks to help their customers fuel their nicotine habit—now known to be a deadly addiction.
“You’d go to get medicine, … (continue reading)

The Hottest Thing at the Olympics?

On July 27, 2012, the final relay runner delivered the flame of Olympia to Olympic Stadium in London, inaugurating the 2012 Summer Games Opening Ceremony. The 8,000-plus golden metal torches used during the relay—each has 8,000 holes, representing the 8,000 torchbearers who carried the flame 8,000 miles over 70 days—have become instant collectibles.

In fact, Olympic relay torches are among the rarest and most desirable of all Olympics … (continue reading)

Real Hollywood Thriller: Who Stole Jaws?

The first pages of Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel, “Jaws,” as well as the opening minutes of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster, begin with the attack of a young, late-night skinny dipper named Chrissie Watkins, who’s dragged to her watery doom by a great white shark, feeding in the waters off the seaside vacation town of Amity. The book and film struck a chord, in no small part because … (continue reading)

The Sources of Psychedelic Art? Drugs, But Also Picasso and the Fire-Bombing of Tokyo

The multicolored, drug-soaked, psychedelic aesthetic of the mid-1960s has never been more popular, or misunderstood. In March, “Mad Men” time-traveled from the cocktail cool of Mid-Century Modern, circa 1962, to that dope-smoke-filled hothouse known as Pop, circa 1966. And in April, Donovan, whose “Mellow Yellow” was released that same year, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Not bad for a guy who was … (continue reading)

Who Killed American Kitsch?

For home-front America, World War II was a time of shared sacrifice, when people gave up simple pleasures to support those fighting overseas in the greatest struggle the civilized world had ever known. After the war, though, society breathed a collective sigh of relief and went out looking for a bit of fun.

One of the easiest things to do was to update one’s décor, … (continue reading)

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)