Miscellaneous Antiques

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A Renaissance Revival cast iron bench, probably Kramer Brothers, Dayton, Ohio, late 19th to early 20th century

A Renaissance Revival cast iron bench, probably Kramer Brothers, Dayton, Ohio, late 19th to early 20th century

As spring arrives, people are not only digging into their gardens, but also digging into Prices4Antiques.com for garden-related accessories! We’ve seen a real jump in the past few weeks of searches for objects like benches and garden lanterns, but these have risen to the top: a elaborate Kramer Brothers Gothic Revival-style bench from Dayton, Ohio; a Japanese pagoda-style lantern cover; a pair of Walbridge and Company urns from Buffalo, New York; a classic Victorian garden bench with white paint; and a charming garden figure in the form of a recumbent mastiff-like dog, who would be great company for anyone working in their yard or garden.We see plenty of beautiful things like this at auction on a regular basis, so consider saving some of your pennies for annuals AND antiques!

We’re so excited about the second Midwest Antiques Forum, to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio May 4-6, 2012! We have a great lineup of speakers, including Wes Cowan, who will be talking about the amazing sand bottles of Andrew Clemens, and Ian Simmonds, who will speak on the wonders of Midwestern glass. I can’t even begin to do the slate of speakers justice here, so visit www.midwestantiquesforum.com and see what we have planned. You can also find our complete schedule there with speakers and panelists, along with information about accommodations at Cincinnati’s Airport Marriott, which is the forum’s home base this year. More importantly, you’ll find registration forms and you’ll want to register now to save – $245 for early registration!

Also, if you’re an appraiser, remember that we’re offering continuing education credits to members of ISA, ASA, and AAA. It will be a great time to connect and learn along with your colleagues.

If you’ve got questions send an e-mail to info@midwestantiquesforum.com or give us a call at the Prices4Antiques office at 937.426.7573. Can’t wait to have so many wonderful scholars in the same room discussing Midwestern decorative arts, so please make sure you join us!

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com

Chances are your favorite possessions are those that evoke memories of a beloved person, place or event, and now rest proudly on your mantle or end table. What do you do when the kids or the dog knock the treasured heirloom off its perch? Wiebold Studios is a Cincinnati, Ohio company that specializes in solving exactly this sort of problem. In this article, Wiebold Studios Conservator Jennifer Burt answers frequently asked questions about her company’s work.

What is the difference between repair, restoration and conservation?

Repair is simply putting something broken back together. The damaged areas will be visible, but all the pieces will be back in their proper places. We frequently do this sort of work on objects with great sentimental value and little monetary worth.

Restoration is defined as returning the item to its original condition; however, sometimes a better choice is returning an object to its aged condition. The best approach really depends on the object and its owners expectations for it.

Conservation is about preserving and protecting, but not necessarily changing the appearance. For example, a collector who drops a piece of rare and valuable porcelain might require a full restoration. The piece would be returned to its original condition without any evidence of the damage. If that same broken piece were purchased by a museum because it was such a fine example of its type, they would require conservation. The piece would be cleaned, and an acid free tack would be used that was just enough to hold it together for display purposes.

How do you determine whether a piece is worth restoring, and how does restoration affect value?

We have no company criteria used to make this decision. We don’t appraise antiques or research value. The reason for this is that the dollar value of the piece has no bearing on the cost of the restoration work. It takes the same amount of time and energy to restore a $10 Kmart vase as a $10,000 Meissen vase. Sometimes our customers find this frustrating, but we urge them to do their own research either with an appraiser or on-line. We restore plaster of Paris casts of children’s hands made in kindergarten as frequently as high priced pottery. Much of our work is done for sentimental reasons, not for investment purposes, although we do that, too. As far as the value of a piece after restoration, again, it depends on the piece. A silver candlestick you can use is worth more than a broken one, but we find that for most of our customers, if the broken candlestick used to belong to Grannie, than the monetary value is less important than the sentimental value. Still, to answer the question of value, I would say that a restored piece might be worth approximately 60% of the value of a piece in original condition.

-by p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer.

Reference & Further Recommended Reading:


To search the Prices4Antiques antiques reference database for valuation information on hundreds of thousands of antiques and fine art visit our homepage www.prices4antiques.com


Civil War Trepanning Set by H. Hernstein, New York

Civil War trepanning set by H. Hernstein, New York

I try to subscribe to a “could be worse” philosophy of life.  If you have a modicum of imagination, you realize that almost any situation could be worse.  For instance, I hate going to the doctor.  Hate it.  But a quick review of the medical collectibles in the database (just added material from a big sale) makes it very clear that going to the doctor could be a lot worse.  You can come to this conclusion without even using your imagination.  In fact, I recommend it.  Just take one look at a trepanning set (like the one pictured above) and you’ll never complain about a headache again!

Medical collectibles are one of those very specialized areas of antiques.  Doctors are, of course, some of the likeliest collectors, and they often gravitate toward early instruments from their specialties.  A surgeon might want an Civil War-era surgical kit or an optometrist might appreciate an early eye chart.  I can’t tell you what a dentist or an obstetrician might want because those things are too scary to look at – why anyone ever thought I needed a vivid imagination is beyond me….

Then of course, there are people who are just interested in the progression of technology or, in some delightfully zany cases, the lack of said progression.  “Quackery” is a great subset of medical collecting, filled with all sorts of relics of strange treatments and ideas gone (mercifully) by the wayside.  For instance, vampire-killing kits are always big sellers.  These neatly packed little boxes include everything you might need when confronted with a vampire that needs killing – vials for holy water, silver bullets, crucifix, etc.  And then there are all sorts of strange devices designed to deliver electric shocks in one manner or another or water coolers like this one that were designed to give your drinking water a healthy boost of radon.  Some of my favorites, though, are the fancy apothecary jars, especially the ones clearly labeled in elegant lettering, “Leeches” – I so want to get some of these to use as kitchen canisters, just to see the look on people’s faces!

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com

Reference & Further Recommended Reading:


To search the Prices4Antiques antiques reference database for valuation information on hundreds of thousands of antiques and fine art visit our homepage www.prices4antiques.com


Wedgwood solid pink Jasper push button telephone

Wedgwood solid pink Jasper push button telephone

My husband just got a new smartphone.  It’s nicer than my laptop.  And, as if that’s not bad enough, it is about 30 times more powerful than the brand-new computer I started college with 18 years ago.  We’ll not even talk about the phone I had 18 years ago.  It had a cord….

Phones have evolved in incredible ways!  (And they’ve done so quickly, getting smaller and smaller as they get faster and faster – we love to play “Date this episode of X-Files” based on the size of Mulder and Scully’s cell phones.)  I don’t believe we can fully comprehend how much they changed the world – how they caused the miles between farms and towns and cities to shrink.  Fortunately, this wasn’t lost on at least one collector, whose collection sold recently at Morphy Auctions, a Pennsylvania auction house. This circa 1925 Western Electric dial candlestick telephone was among the phones sold at that auction.

So many models!  Doughnuts, candlesticks, wall phones, payphones, cradle sets and more.  You might be surprised by the prices some models bring as well.  Obviously, the classic wall-mounted model or one from a company like Roycroft is unique enough and “antique” enough to generate some interest, but the classic Western Electric desk phones can actually bring some good money as well.  Some of the vintage desk phones are lots of fun!  I love the Wedgwood example pictured above (a very reasonable buy), but you could also have something Art Deco – or something Snoopy and Woodstock….   While all old phones aren’t valuable, of course, you might be surprised to find that examples that come up at auction often bring between $100-300, so if you’re nostalgic for a long conversation spent playing with the phone cord, you can probably find a nice, affordable example that will allow you to “reach out and touch someone”!

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com

Reference & Further Recommended Reading:


To search the Prices4Antiques antiques reference database for valuation information on hundreds of thousands of antiques and fine art visit our homepage www.prices4antiques.com


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