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Seeing Stars: Collecting the Stars and Stripes

September 16, 2009 in Holiday & Patriotic, Textiles/Clothing/Accessories by admin | No comments

A 36-star glazed cotton American National Parade Flag; image courtesy of Cowans Auctions, Inc.

A 36-star glazed cotton American National Parade Flag; image courtesy of Cowan's Auctions, Inc.

Interested in becoming a vexillologist?  (That’s your word for the day – use it three times in a sentence.)  A vexillologist, just in case someone doesn’t know, is a student or a collector of flags.  And the p4A database has flags out the ears – hundreds of them, so look no further!

From political flags dating from the campaigns of Clay, Lincoln, Grant and McKinley to American flags from 13 stars to 52 (yes, 52), flags often draw big crowds and big bucks.  Determining what makes a flag rare and valuable is a little tricky, but early handsewn examples with unusual patterns are often popular.  Flags made from unusual materials, such as a crocheted flag, a Navajo woven one or a crib quilt flag, can also cross over and appeal to the folk art market.  And condition isn’t everything – the bedraggled example pictured above still sold for over $1000!

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com

Nothing to Sneeze At: Collecting Snuff Boxes

September 16, 2009 in Boxes by admin | No comments

A round horn snuff box with Italian mosaic of dog in lid

A round horn snuff box with Italian mosaic of dog in lid; image courtesy of Skinner, Inc.

Europeans found luxuries galore in the New World.  Gold may have been what brought them here, but the advantages of warmer, temperate climates friendly to agriculture offered a wealth of products like sugar, cotton, and tobacco.  Tobacco, long popular with Native Americans for spiritual ceremonies and pain relieving properties, traveled back to Europe, where it soon became all the rage.

Of course, then, as now, tobacco was not an inexpensive vice.  (The phrase “up to snuff” is thought to have originated as a way to say someone was worldly and affluent, or in other words, able to afford snuff tobacco.)  And snuff then was very different from snuff products today; American snuff is moist and placed in the mouth, but historically, European snuff was dry and sniffed like cocaine.  Keeping this powdery substance dry and making it neatly portable resulted in the development of snuff boxes, and as with most accessories, the range of materials, colors, and styles quickly became staggering!

19th century German silver snuff box with cameo on lid; image courtesy of Pook & Pook, Inc.

19th century German silver snuff box with cameo on lid; image courtesy of Pook & Pook, Inc.

There are, of course, the normal run of beautiful boxes made from precious metals, with delicate engravings and cameos, but there are also detailed enamel and mosaic examples, like the one pictured above.  Burl also makes pretty boxes with a warm glow, but some of the more modest ones, the papier-mache examples, are my favorites, because they often have printed paper scenes of classic buildings, early American landscapes, and views of cities like New York and Baltimore.  They make nifty pill boxes, and even a huge collection is easy to store.  Take a look around – might find some right under your nose!

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com

In the Can: Canning Jar Collecting

September 16, 2009 in Kitchen & Household by admin | No comments

A quart cobalt Masons glass fruit or canning jar with embossed Patent Nov 30th 1858

A quart cobalt Mason's glass fruit or canning jar with embossed Patent Nov 30th 1858

Canning jars are one of those technological advances that have become so ubiquitous we’ve forgotten just how revolutionary the development of food preservation really was!  One could argue that canning made modern Europe possible.  Food supplies were, of course, of the greatest importance to sustaining large armies on the move, so important in fact that the French government offered a 12,000 franc prize in 1795 (about $17,000 in today’s Euros) for a food preservation method to serve the military’s needs.  The winner, Chef Nicholas Appert, offered a way to heat food in glass jars and seal them with pitch (yum?) among other things, paving the way for all sorts of food preservation developments in the 19th century.

Early methods of sealing often destroyed the jar’s rim, so when tinsmith John Mason figured out how to cut threads into a tin lid and paired the lid with a jar with a threaded glass top, home canning became dramatically more practical and affordable.  It’s common to see Mason jars with a patent date of 1858 (like the cobalt one pictured above), but these jars are not early; early Mason jars had no marks, and this design appeared in the 1880s.  In reality, sales were slow until this point, largely because clearer forms of glass were still expensive, and dark glass had the unappealing trait of obscuring the color and quality of the canned materials.  Still, Mason’s development has almost become a generic substitute for canning jar, and Lightning jars (the ones with the built-in wire clamp) and Ball jars soon followed.  In 1915, Alexander Kerr developed the system of separate rings and lids that is still in use today.

The variety of shapes is astounding, and colors range from blues and aquamarines to ambers and yellows; of course, the rarer the color, the higher the price which explains this beautiful example‘s price.  Also, while there are certain rarities from the well-known makers already mentioned, collectors seeking completion will pay high prices for lesser-known companies, like Ladies’ Favorite and Hero.  With canning jars as common as they are, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with what’s valuable – you may be surprised by what’s in your own basement!

-Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com

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