Restoring Heirlooms

January 31, 2012 in Miscellaneous Antiques by admin | No comments

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

Antiques of the Week: Vintage & Antique Kitchen Items

January 13, 2012 in Antiques of the Week, Kitchen & Household by admin | No comments

Quick Meal, six-burner enamel stove, manufactured by The American Stove Co., St. Louis, Mo., circa 1920 to 1925

Quick Meal, six-burner enamel stove, manufactured by The American Stove Co., St. Louis, Mo., circa 1920 to 1925

Perhaps cold weather is encouraging folks to spend more time in their kitchens, because at Prices4Antiques, we’ve seen kitchen-related searches, well, heating up! Among the thousands of items people searched for this week, we’ve seen queries for Favorite Piqua Ware skillets, an American Stove Company “Quick Meal” stove (with three ovens!), an Akron Lamp Company gas iron, a Shawnee Pottery “Smiley Pig” cookie jar, and a brass clockwork spit jack for roasting over an open fire. Suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise – after all, as they say, the hearth is the heart of a home!

19th Century Postcards

January 11, 2012 in Ephemera by admin | No comments

…a continuation of Origins of Postcards

Circa 1850 British anti-slavery envelope

Circa 1850 British anti-slavery envelope

Uniform Postal Rate
In 1840, British Postal authorities inadvertently paved the way for the widespread use of postcards with the Uniform Postal Rate. For one penny, it was now possible to contact friends and relatives anywhere within the realm. Before this time, postage was charged for the envelope as well as its contents. Envelopes became highly decorated, and included illustrations of historic events, domestic scenes, and travelscapes.

Postcards for Businesses
By 1868 or so, business began using postcards to announce their wares as well as inform store owners of upcoming salesman visits. There is serious debate as to the identity of the inventor of the first non-commercial postcard. Some say it was Dr. Heinrich von Stephan, a post office official from Germany. Others claim they were introduced by Dr. Emanuel Hermann of Vienna. Regardless of the name of the actual inventor, postcards changed the nature of domestic communication. Limited space made florid speeches impractical, and lengthy endearments and descriptions gave way to brevity.

Postcards for the Masses
The popularity of the postcard seems to have coincided with the growth of the foreign travel industry on the continent. For the first time, travel was within the reach of those of moderate means, thanks to companies like Thomas Cook & Son, who developed and organized affordable tours to exotic locations such as Egypt and the Middle East. These companies printed their own postcards, and were highly popular with tour participants.

New Year's postcard showing a floral interpretation of a camera, circa 1910

New Year's postcard showing a floral interpretation of a camera, circa 1910

One of the earliest full color postcards was a Christmas Greeting printed in 1870 in England, which lead to New Years and other holiday greetings, and comic cards.

The Postcard Craze
By 1898 the postcard trade was booming. Not only were they used by travelers and well wishers, postcards were an important means of communication in the days before widespread availability of telephones. A visitor might send his host a half-penny card informing him of plans for an upcoming visit for afternoon tea. The picture postcard was the most popular, and huge quantities have survived. People told each other to “Drop me a card” the same way that people today say “give me a call.” The Victorians brought postcard collecting to a high art, with the head Victorian, Queen Victoria herself an avid collector (as the Queen, she had people to do her actual collecting, but enjoyed perusing the albums none the less). The most beautiful and highest quality cards were still printed in Germany, but every country had their manufacturers, and were produced in every conceivable material including wood, and decorated with fabric, feathers, thread, and even real hair. Although every county had its cards, themes were universal; royalty, patriotic and holiday themes, and especially beautiful women, with or without revealing clothing.

A real photo postcard of a shackled Harry Houdini, titled "Harry Handcuff Houdini"

A real photo postcard of a shackled Harry Houdini, titled "Harry Handcuff Houdini"

Real Photo Cards
Real photo postcards appeared on the scene as early as 1900, and are still in use today. Popular subjects included current events, armies, street scenes, modes of transportation, special events, fairs and festivals, celebrities, royalty and world leaders at work or play, disasters such as floods or plane crashes, and of course, beautiful women. Especially popular with collectors were photos of stage and theater stars. Real photos, especially those produced in limited quantities command the highest prices of all collectible postcards, although sometimes their value tends to be regional. Content also affects value. A sad truth is that a real photo postcard of a Klu Klux Klan lynching would command a higher price than a real photo card of, say Hamilton Avenue in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

-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

Snow and Ice, Sinew and Ivory: Culture and Crafts of the Arctic

January 2, 2012 in Crafts & Folk Art by admin | No comments

Eskimo baleen basket with diving whale finial of walrus ivory

Eskimo baleen basket with diving whale finial of walrus ivory

The winter landscape always seems so sparse – just trees and snow in every direction. It’s hard to imagine creating a life or a culture in such an environment, but that’s exactly what the Inuit and Yupik peoples of the Arctic regions have done. With very little wood, actually, and in fact with very few materials of any sort that aren’t derived from the creatures they hunt, these groups have created an amazingly rich culture. Just imagine that: creating a whole way of life complete with clothing, tools, and transportation, with little more than small bits of wood and the bones, fur and hides of the creatures around you.

At this point, it’s worth mentioning that while we often hear the word “Eskimo” used to describe these cultures, the term is not universally accepted. There is some debate over the origin and original meaning of Eskimo, and while most linguists don’t ascribe any pejorative meaning to it, since it is not how the people refer to themselves it is considered by some Inuits to be a pejorative. The cultures are actually very distinct, especially by region, and whenever possible, we attempt to identify with the appropriate tribal name. Sadly, with little variation in materials and techniques, once these objects are removed from their context, they are not always easily identified as Yupik or Inuit, the two largest cultures of the Arctic. Thus, Eskimo remains the most common all-inclusive term, so we use it when we don’t have another option.

Anyway, perhaps objects like seal gut parkas and walrus skin pouches aren’t particularly amazing, but it’s hard not to be impressed by baleen sleds. Yes, baleen – a whole sled made from plates from a whale’s mouth! (Baleen really is an amazing thing; you can read our reference note about it here.) Some of my favorite objects are snow goggles, eye coverings of bone or wood with small slits to help protect the eyes from blowing snow and ice and to cut down on the glare. There are utilitarian objects like adzes, moccasins, and bowls, as well as more creative objects like ceremonial masks and cribbage boards. In later years, as tourism opened up in the region, handcrafts, like beautiful soapstone carvings, and, my favorite, baleen baskets with ivory finials, like the one pictured above, became popular. They’re all the more amazing when you place them in the context of an Arctic landscape!

-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

Managing a Manger: Collecting Antique Nativity Sets

December 22, 2011 in Crafts & Folk Art, Holiday & Patriotic by admin | No comments

Carved and painted wood Creche

Carved and painted wood Creche

My favorite part about Christmas when I was small was the nativity set my grandmother had.  It sat on a telephone table, that outdated invention for when phones were stuck in one place, in the hall at just my level, and I remember staring and staring at it.  It took two of my favorite things from my small world – animals and barns – and elevated them to an artistic, idyllic state.  Of course, it was much less idyllic when the sheep all had chipped noses from kissing baby Jesus and the humble little donkey had lost both his ears….  But somewhere out there, there are nativity sets that were not infiltrated by small people, nativity sets intact and complete, that are sought after by collectors.

It makes sense that some of the finest modern crèche (from the Old French word for manger or trough) or nativity scenes come from Italy, as that’s where they’re believed to have originated.  Actually, it was St. Francis of Assisi who set up the first live nativity display in a cave near Greecio, Italy in 1223 (evidently the conflict between the celebration of Christ’s birth and the celebration of secular materialism has been brewing a long time) and the idea quickly caught on with public displays being enacted with human actors and live animals.  By the 1700s, small-scale nativity scenes were in the homes of wealthier Italian families, although “small” isn’t exactly accurate – they were large and elaborate, often including a whole village.  These precepi (the Italian name for a three-dimensional scene of the birth of Jesus) probably looked a great deal like this, only on a larger scale.

A number of figures have survived from this era and appear individually or in small groups at auction on occasion.  Larger figures are typically around 8″ to 14″ high, often carved and painted and then dressed in clothing.  And of course, no one embraced the modern version of Christmas like the Germans, so there are also the beautiful traditional sets that we all remember from childhood (like this one or the one pictured above).  Many of these are very affordable, relative to what you’d pay for a modern set assembled from Lenox or Precious Moments, so perhaps building an antique nativity could become a new holiday tradition!

-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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