Recent Articles

There are lots of great museums in the world, and if there were a museum Olympics every four years, it would be extremely competitive. The games would be dominated by powerhouses like the Victoria and Albert, The Metropolitan Museum, and the Smithsonian. In furniture and Americana, you’d have specialized contenders like Winterthur. And, of course, in railroads, the California State Railroad Museum.

But here’s another way of looking at this: what if you were stranded on a desert island for a year, and could only take five museums with you?

For me, The Shelburne Museum in Burlington, Vermont, would be tops on that list.

This northern New England gem should be on every collectors must-see list. I have family in Burlington and so have visited Shelburne several times, most recently last week. I’ve seen world-class exhibits on subjects …

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By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

In this interview, author and scholar Dr. Linda Arthur talks about the evolution and history of the aloha shirt. She discusses such important designers as Alfred Shaheen and explains when and how the shirt became a fad on the U.S. mainland. Arthur’s numerous books include “The Art of the Aloha Shirt” and “Aloha Attire: Hawaiian Dress in the Twentieth …

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By Daniel Bohm (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

In this article, we consider what Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress is really worth.

I recently had the pleasure of updating our Audrey Hepburn overview, which probably took me longer than most, mainly because every time I saw a picture of her I would inevitably have to wipe my drool off the keyboard. Once I was able to get past her everlasting beauty (who …

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By Lisa Hix (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

A writer explains the reasons behind her love-hate relationship with high heels.

Behold the power of the stiletto heel. Despite all the advances women have made, it’s one fetish we can’t seem to escape, a paradox epitomized by “Sex and the City.” The characters embodied a late-’90s vision of independent women, enjoying the spoils of feminism: They had the financial power to support themselves, and …

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By Dean Schaffer (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

You may not have noticed, but Collectors Weekly just turned 100!

Okay, that was a lie. We’re old, but we’re not that old. But we do have some news that’s just as exciting. One of our visitors, Savoychina1, just became the first to reach 100 posts on Show & Tell, a new interactive feature we launched a little over a month ago. In …

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By Daniel Bohm (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

Our sports writer, a New Yorker through and through, tries to makes sense of the popularity of vintage baseball memorabilia from the city’s most populous borough.

I’ve long been fascinated with the popularity of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Growing up in New York, I often saw Brooklyn Dodgers gear around the city. I had friends whose parents swore by the long-gone Dodgers. There was such …

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By Lisa Hix (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

Remembering a Cleveland file clerk who bridged generations of comic-book artists and changed the art form forever.

Harvey Pekar carried himself with a slouch. He had a disheveled comb-over and dark, haunted eyes. A file clerk at the Veterans Administration hospital in Cleveland, he spoke with a cantankerous rasp. If you sat next to him on the bus, you might not even notice him.

…

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By Maribeth Keane and Bonnie Monte (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

In this interview, author and collector Mark Bahti shares his lifelong appreciation for the artistry of Southwest Native American jewelry. Bahti has written numerous books on Native American culture and crafts, and he’s the proprietor of Bahti Indian Arts based in Arizona and New Mexico.

Thanks to my father, I basically grew up involved with Indian arts and culture. He was …

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By Dean Schaffer (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

Why some people insist on collecting and playing vinyl in the digital-audio age.

I know I’m going to date myself when I say this, but the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” is my favorite album of all time. Yes, I know it was released in 1995. Yes, I know that there are “better” albums out there (like the Beatles‘ “Sgt. Pepper’s,” of course), …

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By Daniel Bohm (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

A tribute to the The Boss.

You and I may consider ourselves baseball collectors, but we will never reach the level of George Steinbrenner, the longtime owner of the New York Yankees, who passed away today at the age of 80 at his home in Tampa, Florida.

I am not suggesting that “The Boss,” as he …

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By Maribeth Keane and Brad Quinn (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

In this interview, “Vintage Slot Cars” author Philippe de Lespinay talks about his collection of Japanese tinplate automobile toys. He discusses manufacturers such as Marusan, Bandai, and Alps, and explains how the export of these tinplate toys gave a major boost to Japan’s post-World War II economy. De Lespinay can be reached via his website, tsrfcars.com/toys.html.

I used to have …

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By Maribeth Keane and Bonnie Monte (Copyright Collectors Weekly 2010)

In this interview, Linda Eaton discusses her role as the textiles curator of Winterthur, the Delaware museum that was once the estate of Henry Francis du Pont and now showcases American antiques. The author of “Quilts in a Material World: Selections From the Winterthur Collection,” Eaton recently curated a traveling exhibition of Winterthur’s quilts. She can be reached via winterthur.org.

I …

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