January 10, 2011
As co-host of History Channel’s “American Pickers” and the operator of Antique Archaeology, Mike Wolfe is known to millions of TV viewers as the guy who digs treasures out of barns, sheds, and basements. Although he began his pickin’ career buying, fixing-up, and selling vintage bicycles, he quickly graduated to machine-powered two-wheelers. In the second of several interviews (read our first one here), we spoke with Mike about his love of motorcycles, especially … (continue reading)
January 5, 2011
Today’s guest blogger is camera collector John Kratz, whose Flickr page is a thing of beauty. John has posted a number of his cameras on Show & Tell, too.
The Universal Camera Corporation found great success in the early/mid-1930s by selling very inexpensive cameras and film. By the late ’30s, however, the camera-buying public was increasingly interested in high-end imports such as the Leica and Contax … (continue reading)
December 16, 2010
Since we first launched Show & Tell in June of 2010, thousands of people have posted photographs and short stories about things in their collections. When someone has a question about an item, they label it as an Unsolved Mystery. Here’s one of our favorites.
It looks like a Vespa, but…
Mork is a recent visitor to Show & Tell, and this visitor’s first contribution reads as follows: … (continue reading)
December 3, 2010
Today’s guest blogger is Martin Howard, whose amazing collection of late-19th-century typewriters can be seen at antiquetypewriters.com.
Lucien S. Crandall, the man behind the Crandall – New Model, was born in Broome County, New York, in 1844. He would become one of the great early typewriter pioneers of the 1860s and 1870s. Crandall patented perhaps 10 typewriters, about six of which were manufactured. All of his designs were very intriguing … (continue reading)
November 30, 2010
As co-host of History Channel’s “American Pickers” and the operator of Antique Archaeology, Mike Wolfe is known to millions of TV viewers as the guy who digs crazy treasures out of barns, sheds, and basements. But he’s always been a vintage bicycle guy at heart—that’s what got him started ‘picking’ at age six. In this first of several interviews (read our second installment here), we spoke with Mike about his bike racing days, his … (continue reading)
November 10, 2010
A few months ago, our very own potrero posted a few Fada Catalin Bullet radios (the model 1000) on Show & Tell. Gotta love their shape (rounded on one end, squared off at the other), while their colors (rich burgundy, marbleized blue, butterscotch yellow) are equally glorious.
The other day, a Collectors Weekly visitor named decophobia posted a different Catalin radio on Show … (continue reading)
November 7, 2010
Every collector dreams of being the person to uncover cities of lost gold, the next Tutankhamen’s tomb, or if not that, an overgrown, abandoned railroad depot packed to the rafters with relics and surprises. That hasn’t happened to me yet, but here’s something almost as good that did happen:
Click the photo above to read how I uncovered a stash of antique telephones … (continue reading)
October 28, 2010
This optical device, unearthed by one of our visitors, Cinegraphica, and posted on our Show & Tell page, is typical of the sort of toy you’d find on a Victorian parlor table, right next to the Bible.
What’s unique about this particular device is that it can convert from a graphoscope to a stereoscope. Graphoscope, really, is nothing more than a glorified magnifying glass, which allowed users to look at photographs, drawings, and … (continue reading)
October 8, 2010
Many of the best-loved handheld, video, and arcade games are defiantly old school. Indeed, there’s something timeless about games like Pong, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong, which today have found new life on iPhones and iPads as downloadable apps. Everyone from 30-something guys with fond memories of their first Nintendo NES to kids who’ve never even heard of Nolan Bushnell (he gave Pong its start) have taken to loading these retro games of the 1970s onto a new generation … (continue reading)
October 7, 2010
If you thought Teddy Ruxpin, the 1980s animatronic talking teddy bear, was creepy, you haven’t seen anything yet. According to reports, Fujitsu is working on a line of “Social Robot” teddy bears that are not only animated, they change their behavior based their interactions with humans. This video shows the bear in action. Depending on your cues, these cute-as-a-button bears will chose an appropriate response from hundreds of programmed behaviors—from laughing to waving to wiggling … (continue reading)
September 23, 2010
Can a sport be considered as rare as an antique? Perhaps it can if the sport is ballooning, which has seen many ups and downs (pun definitely intended) due to the special nature of the sport and the scarcity of actual balloon manufacturers.
I recently attended my first Great Balloon Race, which has been filling the skies over Reno, Nevada, with balloons since 1982. In its first year … (continue reading)
July 1, 2010
A co-founder of Alembic Inc. and a maker of instruments for such artists as Lindsey Buckingham and the Grateful Dead, Rick Turner is also a collector of Howe-Orme guitars. In this interview he explains how these rare but undervalued instruments have been overlooked in the guitar collectors market, and sheds some light on the Elias Howe Company’s largely unknown history. Turner can be contacted via his website, renaissanceguitars.com.
I first started coming across Howe-Orme instruments … (continue reading)
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