Fresh Type

We’re Going To Brimfield!

This week, a few of us from Collectors Weekly will be in Brimfield, Massachusetts, for the first of this year’s Brimfield Antiques Shows. We’ll be in the Central Park field, booth #58, from Tuesday, May 8 through Friday, May 11. Here’s a map showing the location.

If you are planning to attend Brimfield, please stop by and say hello. We’ve got limited numbers of Collectors Weekly T-shirts (two styles!), three types … (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)

Sea-Monkeys and X-Ray Spex: Collecting the Bizarre Stuff Sold in the Back of Comic Books

Amazing! Incredible! Unbelievable! Eyeglasses that let you see through clothes. The secrets to super-human strength. Scary seven-foot tall ghosts that do your bidding. All of this could be yours for a dollar or two. At least, that’s what vintage comic-book ads would have you believe. Six years ago, artist and historian Kirk Demarais, who runs the brilliant Gen X nostalgia site, Secret Fun Spot, became determined to uncover … (continue reading)

Make Me Mod! Top 10 ‘Mad Men’ Essentials

With the return of “Mad Men” to AMC this Sunday, Sterling Cooper’s attractive staff will raise the bar for contemporary cubicle-dwellers for the fifth season in a row. Along with the show’s cast, we’ll be thrown into the turbulence of 1966, when neon-colored plastic and the ubiquitous Twiggy kicked Mid-Century Modern to the curb. No doubt the characters will weather radically shifting social norms, … (continue reading)

Blueprint for the Occupy Movement? Read the Protest Manifestos of the 1960s

When I was invited into collector Rick Synchef’s home several months ago, I was drawn by the promise of signed rock posters from the San Francisco music scene, as well as first-edition copies of Beat poetry by such luminaries as Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. But it was Synchef’s collection of flyers, pamphlets, and other ephemera, distributed by groups such as … (continue reading)

Saving Vermont History, One Silver Spoon At a Time

Compared to their Colonial neighbors, Vermont silversmiths got a late start. That’s because the first permanent non-Native American settlement in Vermont (Bennington) was not established until 1761, about 140 years after Europeans settled the surrounding areas. Prior to the founding of Bennington, Vermont was the home and hunting ground of the Abenaki, as well as a buffer zone between the French in Canada … (continue reading)

Hidden Gems: Lost Hollywood Jewelry Trove Uncovered in Burbank Warehouse

Oh. My. God. I’ve just been given the location of the largest stash of Golden Age Hollywood jewelry in the world. Worn by stars like Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, and Greta Garbo, thousands of gems have apparently been gathering dust in an unmarked warehouse, unmolested for half a century. It sounds too good to be true.

What are the chances, I wonder, … (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)

Does Facebook Have a Secret Paper Fetish?

On February 1, 2012, at exactly 5:02 p.m., the day Facebook announced it was finally going public, the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, posted a photograph of his desk on his personal Facebook page. Along with a MacBook Pro, dry-erase marker, and bottle of G Series Gatorade, Zuck’s work station featured a plain white poster bearing the all-caps red message, “STAY FOCUSED & KEEP SHIPPING.”
“Posters give … (continue reading)

Reformed Gambling Swindle Becomes a Punch Board of Love

When Bay Area artist Lea Redmond, known for running the “World’s Smallest Post Service,” stumbled across Parlor Coo Coo on eBay, she knew she’d found something special. Sure enough, handheld punch-board parlor games, like Coo Coo and its companion The Fortune-Teller in Rhymes, were the icebreakers du jour at cocktail parties of the 1920s and ’30s…. (continue reading)

Everything You Know About Corsets Is False

The corset has a bad reputation. And unfairly so, according to Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, who says this undergarment of centuries past is not nearly as evil or confining as modern folks have come to believe.

With the Edwardian Balls just around the corner, we started ogling gorgeous antique corsets on Collectors Weekly Hall of Fame … (continue reading)