Antiqueswest.com

A-Maze-ing California Law Enforcement Badge Rolls In

2010-10-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

This gorgeous old, heavily embellished and named badge just came in... named to Sgt. George Maze from the Martinez, Calif. police department and circa 1927.

Badge No. 4!

Beautiful black fired enamel with vine and scroll engraving. Marked to Ed Jones of Oakland and in a deeply patinated Sterling Silver. If you know anything about the man fill us in...

Antique Armor a Target For U.K. Thieves

2010-09-24T08:07:00.000-07:00

Police in the U.K. are searching for thieves who made off with an antique armor helmet from a hotel lobby.

Northumbria police said on Sept. 12, thieves stole the helmet from a display in the Derwent Manor Hotel in Allensford, located in the northeastern part of the country. The suspects then took off in a car.

Police said the helmet is valued at $1,100.

"If this was someone being silly and a prank then I'd appeal for them to return the helmet, it's a valued piece from the hotel and they want it returned as soon as possible," Insp. Kevin Oates said in a release.

Antiques As The New Retirement Portfolio

2010-08-23T09:06:00.000-07:00

Antiqueswest had the distinct pleasure of meeting a fellow collector in the Phoenix, Arizona area recently who wished to speak with us about consigning his considerable collection of militaria.

A somewhat nondescript (but lovely) home in a Phoenix suburb was the scene. Upon entering, there wasn't anything older than about 15 years to be scene and I'll confess to misgivings. The (lovely) lady of the house offered food and drink but it was some time before the man of the house made an appearance, not saying much and looking me over.

It was not the first time this has happened so I let him look. Pretty soon things got down to business and he gestured for me to follow him. We took a few twists and turns and ended up in his War Room - the place in the house most men we know make their own, sometimes called "The Boys Club," or "No Girls Allowed."

For a collector, stepping into his world and seeing walls filled with artifacts and weaponry patiently collected over decades and lovingly cared for during all that time, the moment was a lot like peering directly into the man's soul.

"Well, this is it," he said simply. "My pension."

"Beautiful," I said, and meaning it.

After years of collecting Mr. X is finally prepared to sell, hoping for enough to "see us through retirement and on into old age."

Looking at his room and doing the mental math only one answer came to mind: "No problem there," I breathed.

It's not the first room we've entered like that, won't be the last, but in this age of dodgy economics, subterranean bank rates and negligible returns, more and more people are choosing to surround themselves with the things they love with a mind to selling off when the time is right.

"I am," Mr. X said. "Sitting on my pension. The only thing is I got to have it around me to enjoy all those years."

With antique guns and other choice militaria holding steadily at about 17 percent annual return and antique car sales reaping huge rewards for owners, it's easy to see why people are turning to investment-grade antiques to use as a hedge against inflation.

Tom Hartley, a UK dealer in exotic cars, says that the market is chilli-pepper hot. "In the last three days I've sold three Ferrari 458s at £50k over list, and the phone hasn't stopped ringing.

"These are new buyers with cash to spare, who know they can own a supercar for two or three years and make £200k profit tax-free.

"Leaving their money in the bank and getting one per cent interest is plain reckless."

When leaving money in the bank is referred to as "reckless" and folks are making money on collections they have amassed and kept in their homes or garages, you'll agree there's a sea change afoot in the way people are planning for their retirement day. We're seeing more evidence of this every day.

"Ride to My Guidon," Collectors Say - Custer Swallowtail On the Block In October

2010-07-22T12:15:00.001-07:00

Collectors know provenance is key when it comes to iconic objects. They also know that in the avidly collected militaria market, there are few more iconic names than George Armstrong Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

And now, a swallowtail pennant carried 134 years ago by Custer's 7th Cavalry on that final foray into present-day Montana - and found under the body of a vanquished trooper days after the battle - comes to the auction block, and the collecting community holds its collective breath to see what it will bring.

Sold by the trooper who found it to the Detroit Institute for the Arts for $54 in 1895, the guidon has stayed in Detroit all its modern life - except for occasional exhibitions, most recently at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana.

Ragged and bloodstained, the pennant was discovered by Sgt. Ferdinand Culbertson, a member of the detail dispatched to the Bighorn - or Greasy Grass Creek as the victorious Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne referred to it - under the body of an unidentified soldier.

Another flag from the battle site was found months later in an Indian village seized by U.S. troops and is now owned by the National Park Service, but auctioneer Sotheby's - who will put the Culbertson guidon on the block in October - said it is in very poor condition.

The Detroit Institute for the Arts has decided to part with it and use the proceeds for future art acquisitions.

John Doerner, chief historian at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, said he believes the flag is stained with the blood of a fallen soldier and that the banner belongs to the American people.

"It was an act of courage and bravery," said Doerner, a 20-year veteran of the National Parks Service.

"To lose the colors was really something that a soldier would give their lives (to prevent)," he said.

Sotheby's says expectations are that the Custer flag sale price might exceed Sotheby's $2 million to $5 million estimate, but the hope is that the sale will come close to the $12.3 million paid for a Revolutionary Battle flag in 2006, a record for any military relic at auction.

Unknown Chaplin Film Turns Up At Michigan Antique Sale - How Did We Miss It?

2010-06-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

If you call yourself an "antiquer" and you live for the occasional discovery of a long-forgotten piece of history you're like us and you ask yourself: "Why didn't I find that?" when something juicy turns up out of a closet or garage.

One very nice little item emerged from its hiding place in Michigan recently, film of this silly looking little guy with a very recognizable mustache and wiggly way of walking.

Collector Paul Gierucki found the 16mm print at an antiques show. He thought it was another old Keystone comedy and didn't bother to research it until early March, when he realized he'd stumbled onto Charlie Chaplin's "A Thief Catcher," ground out in 1914.

Chaplin makes a cameo appearance in "A Thief Catcher," the 36th film he made at the outset of World War I.

The movie, released by the Mutual Film Corporation was thought to be among the half of all silent films lost to history. The short actually stars Ford Sterling, Mack Swain and Edgar Kennedy. Chaplin appears for perhaps 2 minutes of the 10-minute film.

Mon Dieu! Be On The Lookout Mes Amis! Lone Thief Makes Off With $600 MillionUS In Paintings

2010-05-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Police and prosecutors say a lone thief has stolen five paintings worth a total of EURO500 million ($613 million), including works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight theft from a Paris modern art museum.

"Pastoral," by H. Matisse, 1905

The paintings were reported missing early Thursday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower, according to Paris police. Investigators have cordoned off the museum in one of the French capital's most tourist-frequented neighborhoods.

A single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera entering the museum by a window and taking the paintings away, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

Their collective worth is estimated at EURO500 million, the prosecutor's office said.

The paintings were "Le pigeon aux petits-pois" by Pablo Picasso, "Pastoral" by Henri Matisse, "Olive Tree near Estaque" by Georges Braque, "Woman with a Fan" by Amedeo Modigliani and "Still Life with Chandeliers" by Fernand Leger.

The Associated Press

Since When Is A 1972 Impala "Antique?"

2010-05-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

Another example of the disconnect people have when it comes to old things is this story, which appeared in a Chicago area newspaper recently:

"A man driving an antique Chevrolet with custom rims crashed it into a parked car when he was shot at a Gresham neighborhood intersection Sunday night on the South Side.

"At 8:55 p.m. the 29-year-old man was driving his 1972 Chevrolet Impala with 22-inch rims south on South Justine Avenue when the incident occurred, according to Gresham District police."

Antique? Anyone actually on the copy desk these days?

Antique vs. Collectible - Anyone Know The Difference?

2010-05-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

Anyone in this hobby/business of ours has encountered people convinced that their gramma's Singer sewing machine is worth thousands - simply because it's "really old."

We get it all the time: "Well, you obviously don't know what you're talking about," they'll sniff. "This (insert one: tape deck, Power Rangers lunchbox, or Star Wars light saber) is really old."

And we moan, inwardly of course.

You have only to go to the local Internet sales forums to get an idea of the disconnect. In the antiques category, typically items 100 years old or more, we've found:

"Polaroid 360 Camera. Really OLd!!!. $100 for all 3 polaroid 360 electronic flash! One of a kind!!!"

A hint, folks. Anytime someone posts an offering for a piece of junk they want to gussie up with !!!!!! it's time to run away... fast.

"Antique Bronze Fountain..there is one of these on ebay for $5000 buy it now."

Made in China, probably about six months ago...

"Antique Time Life Books. The Old West. Set of 3 books: Pioneers, Gunfighters, and Cowboys. Fair to excellent condition. Leather-bound hard cover."

Made to look old, of course... but circa 1975.

Anyone else?

Antiqueswest "Guest Columnist" I.M. Chait - "The Internet and the World of Art"

2010-05-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

by
I.M.CHAIT

How has the Internet affected the world of art, antiques and jewelry? The real question is how has it not?

We can all agree that in the 21st Century, things move at a rate exponentially faster then they did in the past. It becomes commonplace for inventions and innovations to be so ingrained and so part of normal operating bases as to be taken for granted.

One of the most radical and progressive inventions of humankind was the printing press. It probably took one or two hundred years (or even longer) for most of the world to become "matter-of-fact" about printed books. Another such monumental invention, in more recent times, was the World Wide Web and Internet. This is an invention that has radically changed most all of our lives, most all of our businesses and has created the greatest number of opportunities as well as pitfalls for human kind since the invention of fire.

Just last night at the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles, there was an event celebrating 25 years of the Gem & Mineral Council, a membership group connected with the museum. About 150 people were in attendance who were involved in the buying, selling and collecting of minerals, gems and jewelry. At our table was a world famous jewelry designer and various mineral experts as well as an "old time" miner.

The conversation turned to how things have changed and I boldly proclaimed to all that the Internet has changed completely how gems, minerals and jewels are bought and sold or learned about. What I said literally was that "the Internet" has totally changed the playing field.

There isn't anything you can't find on the Internet. If you want to know how much a pair of 1 carat diamond studs might cost for your wife's birthday, you have hundreds to choose from online. If you want to know about the recent mining of a mineral in Tanzania, all the data is available. If your grandmother passed away and left you an Art Deco platinum and diamond bracelet, you can shop it online. Literally there is hardly anything that can’t be done online that needed to be done in the old days through personal contact in a store, through glossy photographs, and through various and sundry antique shows, etc.

If a client wants to see pictures of a piece of jewelry, your "megapixel high definition camera" will download the image and you can email it and it will arrive in moments. If you are looking to buy that pair of earrings for your wife but want to see the GIA report, it can be scanned and sent to you immediately. If you want a three-dimensional view of the mineral specimen, there are cameras and programs now that can do this rapidly and cheaply. I could go on and on but you all know what I am talking about.

Each and every day, there are millions of items related to antiques, jewelry and gems being sold online and millions and millions of viewers looking. Let’s go one step further. Where are these viewers located? Where are these sellers located? The answer is "anywhere and everywhere" on planet Earth. And even in what you might call "Third World" countries or countries with restrictive governments, there are public Internet cafes. And even where there are now high speed or Wi-Fi connections, there are still modems and on my many travels I have seen people hook their laptops up to their cell phones for dial-up connections. It truly is a World-Wide-Web.

In my own business of antique auctions, our client base has become fully international and you might say, more Web-based than the norm for auctions in the past. Inquiries come from all over the world when people view our online catalogues. With our online bidding platform, we have clients all over Asia, Europe, Canada, South America, Australia, South Africa and even one in a weather station near the North Pole who can sit and relax, with a cup of coffee, in his pajamas, watch the auction and bid just by clicking the mouse.

The most interesting part of all this is that now-a-days we all consider this "the norm."

ISADORE M.CHAIT, owner of the I.M. Chait Gallery in Beverly Hills, has been a dealer of Asian and Fine art for more than forty years, is an appraiser, and auctioneer of Asian and Fine arts.

New Record For Artwork - Picasso Sells For $106.5 Million

2010-05-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

A painting that Picasso created in a single day in March 1932, "Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur (Nude, Green Leaves and Bust)," sold for $106.5 million, a world record auction price for a work of art, at Christie's Tuesday night. Bidding for the Picasso lasted 8 minutes and 6 seconds; there were six bidders.

New York Times

Into Fresh-Baked Sourdough Bread? How 'Bout An Antique Starter?

2010-05-03T10:59:00.001-07:00

Yeah, we're into food here at Antiqueswest.com and, as fourth generation Californians, we like our old San Francisco sourdough recipes and treasure them.

The Wall Street Journal food editor did some experimenting with a venerable starter, recently, and here are the results:

Now, we come from a family that makes its own vinegar, grows its own vegetables and before the sheriff closed in - used to shoot its own venison. So this time-honored approach to making bread strikes home. There's nothing like the smell of fresh-baked bread and, yeah, you have to have butter to go with it.

Anyone hungry?

Crimean War Victoria Cross - And Fateful Cannonball - Sell For $387,500 In London Auction

2010-04-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

We like history at Antiqueswest.com and see a lot of it in our search for unusual pieces and fine things. It is indeed rare, however, when something like the medal set of Major John Simpson Knox comes along.

Maj. Knox's Victoria Cross, the British Army's equivalent of our Medal of Honor sold along with his Crimean War campaign medals this week at Spinks in London. Accompanying the set was the Russian cannonball that took the good major's arm during the battle at Sebastopol.

The medal, the first ever won by a serving British soldier, was cast from the bronze of captured Russian cannon, poetic in that artillery was responsible for his horrific wound.

Knox performed the first of two acts of valor on 20 September 1854 during the Battle of the River Alma. According to his citation he "acted with conspicuous courage in reforming the ranks of the Guards at a decisive moment of the action".

In June the following year, while serving as a lieutenant with the Rifle Brigade, he volunteered for an attack on heavily defended Russian positions at Sebastopol.

According to the citation: "He remained in the field until he was twice wounded, all the time acting with great gallantry."

Knox retired from the Army in 1872 and took up residence at Cheltenham where he died in 1897. He was buried in the town's cemetery.

The understated by magnificent VC was sold along with three other medals - the Crimea Medal, the French Legion of Honor and the Turkish Crimea Medal. The cannonball, retrieved by a fellow soldier and given to the wounded Knox after the battle, was a most unusual addition.

Another Reunion Pending - We'll Keep You Posted

2010-04-14T07:34:00.001-07:00

Antiqueswest has had the considerable pleasure of reuniting fine old things with descendants and family members of their original owners or makers and we've got another one of those reunions coming up, it seems.

Really fun for us to do this and when it comes together - we wear this big, sloppy grins for a couple of days around here.

The deal is still pending but suffice to say the items are from the Civil War and may soon be returning to descendants of the man who owned them.

So cool. Thanks for reading!

The Postman Always Rings Twice - 'Cause He's A Customer

2010-04-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

In business for 15 years now Antiqueswest.com is constantly surprised by the extent of its own reach.

We've sold a lot of cool antiques in that time and managed to reunite a great many old items with the descendants of their original owners. We really like that.

But as a result of this constant interaction with folks who like the same old stuff we do, we find that that the once great circle of collectors and buyers is tightening somewhat.

This was borne out recently when a replacement mailman came to our door for a delivery and promptly said: "You're the antique guy."

He got that part right and I said so. That's when he said: "I've bought a bunch of things from you."

He gave me his card and I recognized him from his email address, of all things.

"Nice to finally meet you," he says, before climbing back into his truck and running off to complete his rounds.

And there you have it. Our customers are everywhere - and neither sleet, nor hail, nor dark of night will deter them from their collecting ways.

Antiques That Go "Boom"

2010-04-02T11:01:00.000-07:00

Since we like old "Boy Toys" and that extends to sharp, shiny objects and some things that have gone "boom" at some point in their ancient lives, we at Antiqueswest have come across some pretty interesting old junk - er, antiques in our time.

There was the rat in the old howitzer tube, the World War II ammo for a Japanese Arisaka and the Mills Bomb on the bedside table. But never, ever have we found a box full of live fragmentation grenades.

Authorities at an Iowa appraisal event called the fire department and they, in turn, called the boys down at the bomb squad after someone came in carrying a box of - live - WWII-era "pineapples."

The box of Second War memorabilia included two of the grenades with the pins still in them. The owner had no idea what they had brought in and watched in stunned amazement as authorities carried the box away for destruction.

Airman Takes On Antique Police Cars - The Law Wins

2010-03-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

An active duty airman is in custody after damaging two antique police cars outside the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Savannah early Saturday, police said.

Police officers working at the headquarters after 3 a.m. heard what sounded like breaking glass and looked out to see a man later identified as Isaiah Jacobson kicking the lovingly restored cars.

Officers charged 27-year-old Isaiah Jacobson, of Vail, Ariz., with interference of government property and criminal trespass. Officers said Jacobson was highly intoxicated, fell out of his chair after he was detained, and had to be treated for minor injury.

Turns out he was in town for training before his "night out."

Local officials not amused and antique car lovers everywhere are cringing and crying for blood.

History Is Where You Find It - Even On Burger Joint Wall

2010-03-15T10:03:00.000-07:00

Our old pal Carl Nolte is at it again, spinning a wonderful yarn about the descendant of a heroic ship's engineer - and how he rediscovered his family history on the wall of a Walnut Creek burger joint.

Not your average burger joint, to be sure, as Fuddruckers likes to decorate its walls with bits and bobs of interesting history and "stuff" its owners find interesting.

So it was that Mark De Paula was on his way out of the door after dining there that he came face to face with a 109-year-old description of a story his family had repeated a thousand times around its dinner table.

An antique copy of a San Francisco Chronicle front page recounted the whole story in fading black and white, about how the Steamer City of Rio de Janeiro was holed upon its approach to bridge-less San Francisco Bay back in 1901, killing 131 passengers and crew - among them the great-grandfather of De Paula's wife.

Turns out Tom Brady was a ship's engineer aboard the Rio when she was opened to the sea on her approach to a fogbound San Francisco Bay. Most of the crew abandoned their posts in a hellbent race to get topside but Tom stayed at his post, giving the ship power until she turtled and went down in 300 feet of water - about where the South Tower of the Golden Gate is now.

The papers of the day credited Brady with saving lives and with staying at his post while all others were abandoning theirs. De Paula asked the owners of Fuddruckers if he could buy the paper but they declined, offering to present it to his wife's mother if she would come in for dinner sometime.

Last week the De Paula's visited Fuddruckers with Dorothy Landucci, Mark's 85-year-old mother-in-law and her husband Edo. De Paula hadn't told her about the Chron front page and she was staggered when Fuddruckers owners George and Rebecca Almeida presented it to her - and picked up the check for dinner.

"We are amazed and pleased we could pass on this page to somebody who had a real connection to this event," Rebecca Almeida told Carl. Here's the whole story if you like sea stories, history, and happy endings.

Antiqueswest Fan Mail: Another Friend Made

2010-03-11T07:38:00.000-08:00

Sounds kinda corny but we don't care.

Our customers frequently become friends and Antiqueswest "Regulars" and that's precisely what we're shooting for here.

Got this note today from the proud new owner of a Lionel Hellgate bridge:

"Hello, J.D.
The Lionel #300 Hellgate Bridge has arrived!
Wow! It looks awesome! Thank you for packing it up so well. I really appreciate that. It made the trip in perfect condition.
It was a pleasure to do business with you, and I can't thank you enough for making this little gem available.
Sincerely, Marty"

Now that's what we want to hear! Thank you, Marty!

San Francisco Loses A Great Reporter: Malcolm "Scoop" Glover

2010-03-09T16:08:00.000-08:00

Malcolm Glover was a kid in McCloud, Siskiyou County, when he opened the screen door of a local grocery for a well-dressed gent who had come to town. The older man turned out to be William Randolph Hearst, then summering at the Hearst family's Wyntoon estate nearby, and after dropping out of high school Malcolm found himself in the big city with a job as a "box man," a photographer, for the San Francisco Examiner.

Of such chance encounters great careers are made.

But as a shooter "Mal," well, was not so good. He enlisted and after he was finished with Hitler and Tojo he went back to work for the Examiner - and Hearst - as a police reporter. An editor thought "the beat" would toughen the kid up, get him ready for a real assignment. He stayed "on the job" for 56 years.

Photo: Malcolm on the job at Fifth and Minna, 1949, third from the right..

Say the number again, slowly, and think about it. He was very good at his work.

There are a lot of stories out there about Mal, or "Scoop" as he was known around the Hall of Justice. Most of them are true. He kept a drawer full of Kit Kats and a jellybean jar on his desk as "cop bait," and always responded the same way when a fresh-faced dispatcher who hadn't yet met him took an early morning beat call: "Yeah, honey, that's right... Glover. 'Glove' with an 'r' or 'Lover' with a 'g.'"

They remembered him after that.

He would get surreptitious calls from sources - either cops or b-girls or someone down at City Hall - and listen, eyes shifting and mouth barely moving, looking like an alligator in a pond waiting for the gazelle to come closer. Then he would get up, slowly, so as not to tip the Chronicle ace and dean of the press room, Bob Popp, and mosie off to meet his contact while Bob and Katherine from BCN and the Tribune man and everyone else started hitting the phones - knowing he was going to come in with an exclusive that was going to make them all look very, very bad.

Cop shop stories are almost universally black. You have to work the Hall and environs awhile to appreciate them. They are filled with irony and pathos and sadness and unbelievable pain. It does something to you.

After a year there I found myself angling for the "gunfighter's seat" at a local cop hangout, a chair with a good view of the door. Malcolm saw me do it.

"What's the matter, kid?" he growled. "You wanna see it comin'?"

He loved his wife and kids and would coo to them over the old, heavy black phones we used into the 90s, then switch over and take the details of the most disturbingly grisly atrocity du jour, switching back to his wife again without missing a beat.

He had access to the Hall like no one I've ever seen, hanging around Records or Homicide until the crush of TV cameras and other reporters had gone and then quietly sidling back to pull a mugshot or arrest record. After awhile his editors stopped trying to bring him back into the "cubicle farm" at Fifth and Mission, begrudgingly admitting he was too valuable a resource.

Mal left the paper in 2002 and died last Monday at 83.

He was my rabbi, the cop shop guy who brought me into the newspaper game and taught me a helluva lot.

I'll miss him.

Oregon Toy Collector Loses $350,000 Collection To Thieves

2010-03-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

We love antiques. No, I mean we love antiques.

And we are really feeling the pain of Oregon toy collector Frank Kidd, who visited a storage site for his collection of antique toys recently and found they had been stolen by thieves.

This video by The Oregonian captures the pain he is feeling. And we feel it with him. Let's hope we can catch these people...

My Mom Threw Away All My Comic Books...

2010-02-23T11:17:00.000-08:00

AntiquesWest was big on reading back in its formative years - latching onto comic books for about a month before moving on to Melville and sea stories. Mom threw away all our comics and don't think that didn't make us wince when we learned that a cherry edition of Action Comics No. 1 - the pinnacle of comic collecting - sold yesterday for a cool $1 million.

That's $1 million - for a comic.

The 1938 copy, the first depicting Superman in action, was sold by a private seller to a private buyer. Everyone wants to remain anonymous. And, oh, the issue appears to have kept pace with inflation nicely, thank you, as we remind you that it first sold to some appreciative youngster for the princely sum of 10 cents.

AntiquesWest Says: "Antiques Market Coming Back..."

2010-02-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

After 2009 proved to be a veritable Sargasso Sea of stalled sales and picky buyers, there are new signs of life in the antiques market.

How do we know? Why, sales are up, of course, and we're getting more calls than ever - thanks in part to rebounding global financial markets and a rosier outlook at home.

For which we're grateful. People were feeling positively glum out there last year.

But recent shows in New York City and our own comparatively small business model are positive indicators. Good buys are still out there, too, especially in 18th- and 19th-century English and American furniture - where prices were hit hardest in the Depress... recession of '09.

The Winter Antiques Show in the Big Apple went well, we're hearing, with attendance up roughly 20 percent, to at least 22,000. Sales were strong throughout its 10-day run."

Okay, you don't want to hear us yammer on, you want to know where the bargains are, right? Well, try militaria, furniture, photographs, carpets, ethnographic art, beds and furniture made of exotic woods.

There you have it. Welcome back!

Undersea Wreckage Of Downed Airship Added To Historical Registry

2010-02-12T19:45:00.000-08:00

The wreck of the Naval airship USS Macon - which crashed 75 years ago today off Point Sur, 140 miles south of San Francisco - has been added to the National Register of Historical Places.

The wreck, which includes the remnants of the SparrowHawk fighter planes she carried, lies in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, where it has lain since the dirigible went down in the Pacific during a storm.

Most of her crew were able to escape. The five planes she carried were considered the most advanced of their day, taking off and landing from a trapeze-like device suspended from the Macon's belly.

Silver "Buzzers" Come Home, Press Badges Stir Memories

2010-02-09T12:28:00.000-08:00

I was young and dumb and ready for action, thought I'd seen a thing or two. My editor all those years ago sent me down to the Hall of Justice in San Francisco and told me to look up someone named "Scoop" and "The Baron."

It was a madhouse, with all the "personalities" that come with an urban city - and magnified by ten because it was San Francisco. A Disneyland for adults. There was a card game in progress when I made it to the third floor press room - a gorgeous blond, some TV people, cops. They said they were playing for candy bars.

"Siddown, kid, more the merrier."

One of the players was a Superior Court Judge. Everyone, it turned out, was armed. I began to lose.

"You're going to go far down here," the Examiner man - Malcolm "Scoop" Glover, said approvingly. He brightened when a good looking guy in a dapper suit walked in, the press room ringing with "Hey, Baron!"

Baron Muller was a legend around the city and the Hall of Justice. He'd covered everything that moved in town for years and had a string of exclusives on his belt. I tried not to look too impressed. They got around to asking for my press card, a laminated piece of junk with a sorry looking photo and some words that were supposed to get me past police lines when things were exploding.

"What's the matter with you guys?" The Baron asked the cops in attendance while looking at my press card with a look a new dad reserves for a recently soiled diaper. "You used to have a little class." And with that he threw down his police reporter's "star" the one with his number "9" in hard-fired enamel, in a leather holder and gleaming.

It sounded cool. I looked at it with envy.

"Yeah," Scoop said, throwing his lapel shield on the table. "Those were the days."

I started to drool.

I put in a few years with the paper and left, never getting anything nicer to wear than a lanyard and that crappy laminated card. A few months ago The Baron's badge and buzzer turned up on the antiques market, he's not with us any longer, and I pounced.

Had to have it. And proud to have known the man and shared time with them all.

They had class.

Antique Cars A Good Investment? Yep, If It's A Ferrari

2010-02-04T08:04:00.000-08:00

DaVinci? Or Not? Sotheby's To Auction Of "La Belle Ferronniere"

2010-01-25T09:13:00.000-08:00

Sotheby's is auctioning off "La Belle Ferronniere," a painting once rumored to be the work of Leonardo Da Vinci. Video by AFP.

Tavern On The Green Auctions Off The Tiffany Glass

2010-01-07T11:51:00.000-08:00

Beachcombers Find 18th Century Navigational Device

2010-01-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

Beachcombers are a common sight on Long Beach Island. But the occasional lost class ring or buffalo nickle can't hold a candle to what Diana Adam found in a tidal pool one October morning ten years ago.

A metallic object, obviously deposited after a blowy nor'easter, was there just begging to be picked up and added to her collection of "beach junk." So she did, labeling it a "sextant" in her mind on the way home.

Recently, however, appraisers at the Antiques Roadshow said the quadrant would sell for $1,000 at auction but belongs in a museum and is priceless because of its age and the nature of its discovery.

Antiques Roadshow Appraisal Goes High, Jade Goes For Much Less

2010-01-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

If you watched PBS' Antiques Roadshow last night, you saw one of the biggest appraisals in the show's history. But her attempt to sell them in the "real world" came in far below expectations.

The story: a woman from North Carolina brings in jade objects that her father brought home from China after World War II. The woman wasn't sure how much they were worth, but the appraiser gives her the "wait for it" high mark of between $710,000 to $1.07 million.

Nervous laughter and stunned silence. But it turns out that her imperial bowl and other items weren't as exciting to prospective bidders as they were to the appraiser, selling for a relatively unimpressive $494,615 when the nice lady brought them to Skinner's in October.

Yikes.

The sale’s top lot, a Qianlong period bowl with Imperial marks, sold to a phone bidder for $303,000. It was estimated on the Roadshow and for the Skinner catalog at $400,000/600,000.

Still the consignor and her brother did well, bringing in other items they found after the appraisal and putting them up for auction - netting around $850,000 when all was said and done.

"Cambridge Ripper" Arrested For Plundering Valuable Books

2009-12-31T08:39:00.000-08:00

A former Cambridge University student has been arrested after selectively gutting horticultural volumes worth £50,000 ($100,000US) from the Royal Horticultural Society's London library.

William Jacques, 40, who has no fixed address, will appear in custody at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court. He was arrested on Christmas Day in Selby, North Yorkshire, after more than two years on the run.

The former Cambridge University student is alleged to have stolen 13 volumes from the Royal Horticultural Society's London library. Scotland Yard said he disappeared after being released on bail by police in April 2007.

Jacques was accused of stealing Nouvelle Iconographies des Camellias by Ambroise Verschaffelt.

The volumes contained an array of colored plates of camellias by the 19th century Belgian author and explanatory text. It is alleged Jacques stole them by signing in to the library under the false name of "Mr Santoro" and then hiding them under his jacket.

Old Is Good (We Keep Saying) As Steam Train Rescues Stranded Passengers

2009-12-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

Electric trains running between Ashford and Dover came to a standstill today as cold weather in the area numbed the electric rail and left a hundred passengers stranded.

Until a Darlington-built Tornado - Britain's first mainline steam engine - announced itself with a cheery whistle and took the grateful passengers home "in style."

The weather-related disruption included three days of cancellations for Eurostar services through the Channel Tunnel.

Tornado, a £3m Peppercorn class A1 Pacific based at the National Railway Museum in York, was in the South East for one day, offering "Christmas meal" trips from London to Dover.

Its "Cathedrals Express" service, the last mainline journey in its first year of operations, was about to depart when staff heard about the stranded passengers.

About 100 people were offered free seats, according to Mark Allatt, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust - the charity which built Tornado.

"It was a nice way to finish for Christmas, though I think some of the rescued passengers didn't realise they'd even been travelling on a steam train until they got off."

Mr Allatt, who was on the service at the time, said he only saw a handful of other trains between London and Dover throughout Monday.

He added: "If any of the train operators want to modernise their services by using steam trains, I would be happy to give them a quote."

Notch one for the "old days."

"Miracle On The Hudson" Pilot's Cap Passes Under The Hammer For $5,800

2009-12-14T10:05:00.000-08:00

Whether you're tired of all the foofraw surrounding the helluva good job Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger did aboard U.S. Airways flight 1549 or can't get enough of the hero captain, it was interesting to see that Sully's flight cap was just auctioned off for $5,800 - on eBay.

The signed cap, stripped of its U.S. Airways insignia, passed this morning, with all the money from the sale promised to two local schools. The good captain is a class act and a local boy and we're glad things went well for him and his passengers that fateful day in January, but Antiqueswest thinks the least they could have done would be to throw in a bag of those airline peanuts to sweeten the deal.

Old Masters Prove Attractive Draw For New Money, Antiques Still A "Buy"

2009-12-09T07:28:00.000-08:00

"No Wonder Grandma Was Always So Happy... And Hungry"

2009-12-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

Antiqueswest has found some interesting things in old things that have come our way, including gold coins and an Imperial Russian jetton in an old desk; a very active rat in an old cannon tube, and some Confederate documents behind an old picture.

But this was an interesting find...

Hey, it happens. What are you gonna do?

Antique Pistol Used in Massachussetts Stickup

2009-11-26T06:34:00.000-08:00

Two Springfield, MA teens were charged with using what turned out to be an antique pistol during an attempted robbery of a bicyclist Wednesday.

Tyriesse J. Jackson, 17, and a 16-year-old juvenile whose name was not released were charged with armed assault with intent to rob. Jackson also had an outstanding warrant.

A bicyclist told police two teens approached him and tried to rob him, displaying a pistol in his waistband. Police recovered the gun in the home of the 16-year-old and described it as an antique, single-action handgun of unknown make and caliber.

Sorry circumstances and Antiqueswest hopes Mssr's Jackson and "unnamed juvenile" get what's coming to them but we'd also like to get a look at that pistol!

"Origin Of The Species" Found On Shelf In Oxford Loo

2009-11-22T08:18:00.000-08:00

You can pick up many things in old English lavatories, germs being one. But one recent visitor to an Oxford, England WC found something quite beguiling - an 18th Century first edition copy of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species."

Christie's said today that the book - one of a run of 1,200 first printed in 1858 - had been on a toilet bookshelf at a family home for some time. The book will be auctioned on Tuesday, the 150th anniversary of the publication of the famous work. Christie's said the book is likely to sell for 60,000 pounds ($99,000).

Darwin's "The Origin of Species" outlined his theory of natural selection, the foundation for the modern understanding of evolution.

That's pretty weighty stuff for a "loo-side" read.

EBAY Service Disrupted, Shoppers And Sellers Howl

2009-11-21T18:38:00.000-08:00

EBay Inc.'s main e-commerce sites suffered from sporadic failures on Saturday, limiting the ability of shoppers to search for products on the site in the lead-up to the crucial holiday shopping season and prompting hundreds of complaints from sellers.

Sellers say they first began noticing problems with eBay's search system on Saturday morning. At 11:17 a.m. Pacific time, the company posted a note on its announcement board stating they were aware of the problem - which intensified through the day.

More Money Than Cents At Madoff Sell-Off

2009-11-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

Call it "Just Desserts," or "Revenge Served Sweet," but victim's of Bernard Madoff's paper-thin financial scam caught a break this week as the last of the "Wizard of Wall Street's" assets were sold off to help make reparations to those he defrauded.

Gaston & Sheehan auctioned off antiques, personal items and expensive geegaws for as much as ten times behind their appraised value as the Madoff mystique - still a mystery to us, with the namesake doing life behind bars - continues to pull in the big bucks.

Saturday's government auction of items seized from Bernard and Ruth Madoff's New York residences, expected to bring in $500,000, brought in more than $1 million.

Lots of more than 200 items, from jewelry and watches to sports memorabilia and artwork, nearly sold out in four hours of brisk bidding. A pair of platinum Art Deco Cartier onyx and diamond earrings quickly sparked a bidding war on the floor, going for $70,000, more than 10 times its low estimate. Ms. Madoff's pre-Victorian era diamond dangle earrings, expected to bring in between $14,300 and $21,400, fetched $70,000 and drew a round of applause.

The money goes toward repaying the victims of Madoff's multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme, minus an undisclosed fee by the auctioneer.

Metal Thieves Pilfer Cemetary Cannon For Scap

2009-11-13T16:04:00.000-08:00

The scurrilous brand of night-prowling metal thieves known for stripping copper cable out of commercial refrigerators and selling it to black-market recyclers for scrap may have claimed a historic cannon this week.

We obviously have a love of old things and we find this sort of thing particularly reprehensible, but it seems a crew of meth tweakers - or perhaps something more than that - spent some time prying a 1,500-pound Dahlgren gun off its mounts at a Vallejo, CA cemetery and made off with it.

The Civil War-era Naval Dahlgren cannon similar to the one we have pictured was discovered missing from a battery of others in the Sunrise Memorial Cemetery this week. Cemetery operator Buck Kamphausen says the surviving examples have since been removed and stored in safe location.

We have heard of cases back east where thieves, either stealing for scrap metal content of the guns or for well-heeled buyers who like to have 12-pound Napoleons protecting their yards, have backed trucks up to "town square cannons" and made off with them.

This theft is particularly disturbing because it took some spectacular engineering to make off with their prize.

"They took an A-frame to it to take it out of the ground," Kamphausen told a local reporter. "They dug around it enough to loosen it from the ground." This is the second cannon theft Kamphausen knows of in Vallejo in recent years, he said. One was stolen about 18 months ago from another local cemetery, he said.

Sunrise's cannon memorial is believed to have been erected in 1906 in its Spanish-American War section.

"Say, Buddy, How Much Ya Want For That Mahmoud Mokhtar Garden Sculpture?"

2009-11-02T07:35:00.000-08:00

A bronze sculpture of a woman carrying a water urn had rested in a Cleveland, Ohio man's garden for years. It attracted some attention, with at least one dealer offering him $3,000 for it.

The homeowner is glad he said no, apparently, as the bronze by Egyptian artist Mahmoud Mokhtar went on to sell at auction for $118,000 - not bad considering he'd inherited the artwork when he bought his house. No one knows for sure how long it has been there, at least since 1931 - when it was poured.

Ashes Of Last Known Titanic Survivor Scattered At Southampton Docks

2009-10-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

End of an era when manners and upbringing counted for something: the ashes of the last Titanic survivor have been scattered at the English port where the ship began its ill-fated maiden voyage in 1912.

Millvina Dean, who was 9 weeks old when her parents took her aboard the ship, died May 31 at age 97.

Her ashes were scattered on Saturday by her partner, Bruno Nordmanis, on the water at Southampton Docks in southern England.

About 150 people, including members of the British Titanic Society and friends of Dean, gathered for the ceremony. David Hill, of the British Titanic Society, called her a "lovely lady, and anyone who met her would say exactly the same."

Belgian Farmers Get Udderly Out Of Control During Milk Price Protest In Brussels

2009-10-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

Antiqueswest has covered more than a few full-blown riots in its day, and we know that demonstrators can get "creative" when it comes to finding something to fling at a policeman.

We've seen rocks, steel pellets, molotov cocktails and chunks of concrete hurled at riot police during these things, but we're hearing of a new tactic out there these days, something more insidious even than the bags of dog stuff anarchists hurled at coppers - and anyone else they didn't like - during protests over Operation Desert Storm.

But this, wow, this is something really terrifying... the officer on the receiving end is undoubtedly undergoing counseling as we speak.

Antique Hoaxes: Somewhere, "Jay Slaven" Is Laughing Like The Dickens

2009-10-06T08:14:00.001-07:00

There have been a number of great antique hoaxes through history, pranksters who know a certain piece will outlive them and that a story well told could send the unwitting on a merry chase long after the prankster is gone.

Chalk it up to the human need to reach out and tickle someone from beyond the grave, and antiques can be the perfect conveyance.

Take Patty Henken of Illinois. Patty thought her ship had come in when she pried off the seat of an old chair she was working on and a typewritten note fluttered alluringly to the ground.

The note, signed by a "Chauncey Wolcott," instructed the finder of the note to a hidden hoard of gold coins - stashed at a residence long ago and waiting for the person sharp enough to find it.

Patty did some quick mental calculations on the price of gold today, found a backhoe operator and rented some ground penetrating radar and went to the location, a vacant lot. She began to dig, and dig.

But an old friend of a deceased newspaper classified ad employee raised the alarm, identifying Chauncey as a fellow employee and a man without a pot to p... bury gold coins in. Patty knew she'd been had when the author of her note was further identified as John "Jay" Slaven - a local prankster known for his practical jokes.

It seemed Jay liked to leave typewritten notes in odd places around town, and Patty was not his only victim. As she calculated her out of pocket expenses from her "treasure hunt" it was revealed that the location where her pot of gold was meant to reside was actually the site of Slaven's home. He died in 1976.

Company Works To Bring "Old Fort Laramie" Back To Life In 3D

2009-10-05T11:06:00.000-07:00

An Orinda, CA firm using 3D Laser technology to scan historic sites and "bring them back to life" is currently in the field in Wyoming and capturing the physical imprint of one of the West's most significant structures - old Fort Laramie.

Founded in 1849 when the U.S. Army, then a ragtag collection of scouts, frontiersman and adventurers led by a few "regulars," bought a former fur trader's outpost called "Fort John" and began to build a military settlement along the Oregon Trail.

Contrary to popular misconception and Hollywood B-movies, the fort was never walled nor did it have turreted blockhouses for Indians to scale and set fire to. It relied on its garrison and field pieces to keep "hostiles" at bay - until 1854, at least, when a detachment of soldiers was lured out of the fort and killed by Plains Indians upset by the intrusion of emmigrants then flooding into the West.

Now, 160 years later, CyArk of Orinda, CA is tracing the footsteps of cavalry soldiers, fortune seekers, settlers, and Mormons fleeing persecution in the East and taking painstaking 3D "portraits" of the old fort and environs to digitally preserve the Fort Laramie National Historic Site.

Working in partnership with the National Park Service, CyArk hopes to provide more accurate documentation of one of the last vestiges of the Old West for future use by conservators, researchers, the NPS staff, and the public.

No Buyer For Samson The T-Rex - Yet

2009-10-03T16:42:00.000-07:00

Sampson, a fossilized Tyrannosaurus Rex with a great pedigree, failed to sell today and was brought in, though auctioneers Bonhams & Butterfields say they'll find a good home for the "Thunder Lizard" soon.

A number of institutions and individuals have expressed interest in the old bag of bones, which Bonhams hoped would bring $6 million when it went up for bid today in Las Vegas.

High bid today was $3.7 million.

Paleontologists say 170 bones discovered 17 years ago in South Dakota represent more than half the skeleton of a 40-foot-long, 7 ton dinosaur that lived 66 million years ago.

A similar fossil sold for $8.3 million in 1997.

Ultimate Home Defense Weapon - The Katana, Hopkins Student Kills Burglar With Sword

2009-09-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

Beautiful. Lethal. We love and collect them - the old ones crafted with love and honored by time.

But today a student at Hopkins University used a katana - and probably not one of those late-night Home Shopping Crappo Models - in a to-the-death fight with a burglar. He won.

Antiqueswest is reminded of a tale told by a Pacific War veteran of WWII, who talked about securing a Marine fighting position overrun the night before by Japanese forces and finding an officer's longsword cleaved neatly into the cooling jacket of a .30 caliber machine gun.

The awesome striking power of these swords came into play in the 21st Century early this morning, when a student named John P. (we won't use his last name) confronted a burglar who had just broken into his student housing for the second time in two days.

Apparently the burglar, who has a lengthy record, charged the student who struck a defensive blow that tore into the man's torso and almost completely severed his right hand. The man died of exanguanation as Baltimore Northern Police District officers responded to the scene.

It appears he had burgled the same residence a day earlier.

Antique Dealer Uses Craigslist - And Regrets It

2009-09-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

We're not big believers in the "big box" online sales components called Ebay and Craigslist.

Friends left Ebay in droves when their rates climbed and their vetting process slid and now no one we know uses it unless they want a cheap knockoff Tiffany bracelet or rebel belt buckle.

So when those same friends suggested Craigslist as a free alternative to the Ebay/Paypal money machine we thought: "What the heck..."

We posted a saddle. A nice old highback with some history, and kept the description informative and straightforward. We weren't prepared for the response - which was heavy - or the tenor of the replies, which were just this side of insane.

We can't tell you what the first reply said, it was incredibly profane and disconnected. For an instant we considered writing something like "please take your meds" but then saw little sense in that and said nothing.

That didn't stop them. Three Nigerian wire-transfer scammers tried next, promising to send a check they had "mistakenly" cut for three times the price of the saddle if I would wire the difference to them in Lagos. This is pretty much the oldest scam in the book and I was going to ignore them, too, until one guy - probably sitting in his shorts and flip-flops in an internet cafe in Lagos - pushed it and asked when the wired funds would arrive.

We told him to come by the San Francisco field office of the FBI, International Fraud Division (no such thing) and we would personally hand over the money. That resulted in the following email message:

"*uck You You Stupid American Fool."

Then there were the Craigslist "experts." These are people who feel free to weigh in on your post, telling you where you've misidentified your item and how you're a moron for posting it at the suggested price. Oh, and by the way, they'll by it for $25.

We've since heard there are some frustrated individuals out there who like to string sellers along, asking seemingly pertinent questions and attempting to draw them into a meeting to consummate the transaction - and then not show up.

Lovely people.

It Wasn't Us... We Only Fire Our Cannons At Dusk

2009-09-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

Well, and at the neighborhood rowdies, of course... but only grape and never solid shot.

It seems a Pennsylvania history buff accidentally fired a 2-pound cannonball through the wall of his neighbor's home yesterday.

William Maser, 54, fired a cannonball Wednesday evening outside his home in Georges Township that ricocheted and hit a house 400 yards away.

The cannonball, about two inches in diameter, smashed through a window and a wall before landing in a closet. Authorities say nobody was hurt.

State police charged Maser with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct.

No one answered the phone Friday at Maser's home. He tells WPXI-TV recreating 19th century cannons is a longtime hobby. He says he is sorry and he will stop shooting them on his property, about 35 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

14K Gold San Francisco Sea Captain's Pocket Watch w/14K Gold Tiger Shark Tooth Fob

2009-08-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice set for your next formal outting. A beautiful 14K Gold American Waltham Watch Co. hunter pocket watch, 17 Jewels and bearing the retail mark of "M. Farber, 954 Market Street, S.F."

Came from a maritime estate auction and it just talks nautical history with its 14K chain and Tiger Shark fob. It's a runner. Ca. 1901.

Price: $4,000.00 ($4,500 w/the clamshell watch rest that came with it)

You Can Have My Musket When You Pry It From My Wall...

2009-08-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

As someone who likes antique guns and has no need for their modern variations, I am constantly amazed how willingly people are to lump antique gun collectors in with modern gun fanciers, collectors, and dealers.

We make the distinction, pre-1898 is antique - anything after that is of no interest to us. But that has not stopped the calls, from the same people using different names and always calling for exotic modern weaponry of the type likely to end up in some nutbag's hands during a bloodbath on the evening news.

We feel these calls are, without a doubt, from government agencies charged with controlling the trafficking of modern arms. We have no problem with that, but identify yourselves and we won't have to play the usual games.

"Is this the gun store?"

"This is Antiqueswest.com, what can I do for you?"

"Do you guys sell AKs?"

"Only antique guns, my friend, sorry."

"How 'bout a Desert Eagle? Wanna buy a Desert Eagle?"

"Only antique firearms, bud. Percussion. Have anything old?"

"Oh. How 'bout an MP5?"

We get about three of these calls a week. If it's the ATF (which is fine, by the way, most of our customers are ATF or FBI folks and they're great people) they're wasting a lot of precious time on us.

For the record: "Antique only at Antiqueswest.com." M'kay?

Now, that's not to say the Feds aren't right to be checking, especially in light of the recent arrest of a Glassboro, New Jersey collector/dealer who was arrested Thursday after ramming a police cruiser in the parking lot of a Glassboro bowling alley during a sting operation. The dealer tried to sell a 37 mm projectile launcher to an undercover officer, probably one of the guys who keeps calling us.

This dealer allegedly sold six weapons to undercover state troopers that were far from antique over the last few weeks, including an Israeli military assault rifle, a Marlin "Bull Pup" 9 mm assault rifle and a Norinco SKS .556 caliber.

So, we appreciate the work of the Federal government in a lot of ways, especially in their efforts to rid our streets of modern guns built for mass killing, but we don't like these things - they don't move us like an old gun with a lot of history behind it.

Just so we're clear. And no, we don't have any 37mm anti-tank weapons. Okay?

Sheesh.

Circuitous Route For Antique San Francisco Fire Badges

2009-08-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

If you've been in this game for awhile you come to realize that the things we pursue sometimes take circuitous routes before they find their way home to us.

Here's a recent example. If you know us you know we have a special thing for California police and fire badges. We've found them in a variety of unique and interesting places, but recently had the lesson driven home again when we took a call from a gent in Pittsburgh, PA.

It seems he'd inherited a couple of old San Francisco Fire Department buzzers, one a retirement badge and the other a San Francisco Fire Association badge, presented in 1925. Gold with ruby and diamond embellishments and lovely from the look of them.

We chatted and arranged to have them shipped back to the San Francisco Bay Area for inspection and purchase. The badges belonged to Capt. William J. Kenealey, a rootin-tootin' firefighting man who went five rounds with Jim Corbett and pulled off more than one rescue in his long and storied career.

We were able to determine this because along with the badges came a rather large box filled with correspondence, clippings and other items - including his log book. Great reading, and finally home again.

Nice to have you back in the San Francisco Bay Area, Capt. Kenealey. Welcome home.

Bass Fisherman Lands World War II Dive Bomber

2009-07-22T11:32:00.000-07:00

Bass fisherman Duane Johnson was looking for a lunker with his "fish finder" in San Diego's Lower Otay Reservoir when he caught the outline of something much bigger - an SB2C-4 Helldiver in 85 feet of water.

Duane made a phone call when he got his bass boat back on dry land and a team of historians and conservators was assembled to recover the Helldiver and land it in a local museum.

The plane was forced into a water landing in the reservoir back in 1945 during a practice bombing. The crew made it out but the Navy, faced with wartime priorities, decided to leave the aircraft in place.

Until Duane came along, that is.

Antique Cars - And Their Owners - Not Doing Well On Modern Roadways

2009-07-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

In the past, a convoy of antique cars whirring down the Interstate with their occupants waving to any and all who gave them the universal "thumbs up," was a quaint sight - a vestige of a long-gone period in our automotive history.

These days, however, as more people flood our highways in overpowered and overbuilt cars with power plants that would have left Henry Ford agape - an older car is merely an obstruction. Several have been hit in recent weeks, and their occupants killed.

A 62-year-old Bowie man and his 10-year-old daughter were killed Tuesday night in Howard County, Maryland when the antique car they were riding in was struck from behind and overturned on Interstate 70 near the Route 97 exit in Lisbon.

Witnesses told police that the man's Model A was travelling at about 50 mph when it was hit from behind and overturned. The car was in the slow lane and carried appropriate signage advising other motorists that it couldn't go as fast as they could.

It was the second fatal accident involving a vintage automobile in the area in less than a week. A week earlier, a 73-year-old Gambrills man was killed when his 1936 Ford was hit head-on on Defense Highway, police said.

It seems modern motorists may have higher expectations of older cars, expecting them to react as swiftly as their modern cousins. The disconnect is frightening. But it seems that modern society has somewhere to go and likes to get there at Warp speed.

Our condolences to the owners of these old treasures and to their families.

Father's Day Finds - Great Treasures That Have Come Our Way

2009-06-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

Not all found on Father's Day, of course, as we have to take a break sometime. But close enough.

You know that feeling you get when you walk in on something nice, perfect color and nicked in a nice way that lets you know it has been around awhile and lived an exciting life - and no one else knows what it is?

For that minute it's yours and you move to it as if you're in a dream, heart pounding, the light glinting off the surfaces in just the right way as the maker's hand begins to reveal more and more of itself the nearer you get.

Here was one of those, a nice plains Indian hatchet pipe, found in a local house one afternoon. We were just taking it easy, moving through the house and having fun, staying away from the shriekers and the shovers looking to shell out fifty cents for something they could sell at the flea market. A man ahead of us picked it up, snorted at it derisively and snorted again when he looked at the price tag.

"Reproduction," he said, moving off to the Depression Glass.

And then it was in our hand, warm and full, the haft just perfect and shaped 150 years ago, rocker engraving on the hatchet blade, everything just the way it should be. Paying at the door and looking up in time to see an Imperial German regimantal banner, hanging in a foyer wall.

"I'll take that, too," you say, heart thumping - and you know it's going to be a great day. Happy Father's Day!

"You Are About To Embark On A Great Crusade..."

2009-06-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Remembering all those who slogged ashore on this day 65 years ago - and those who still rest there.

Video of Antique Thieves In Action, Do You Know Them?

2009-06-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

Police in Boston released surveillance video of two men they say are responsible for a break-in at a South Boston condo building over the Memorial Day weekend - and helping themselves to jewelry, antiques, and artwork.

The victims said they had been away for the weekend. No signs of forced entry were detected. A $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the recovery of the stolen items.

If you know these guys, it may be time to "drop a dime" to the police.

Archeology Ace "Chip" Stanish Says Ninety Five Percent of Ebay's Antiquities Offerings Are Fake

2009-06-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

You want a KKK pocket knife or a bogus Tiffany ring - Ebay's the place for you.

Charles "Chip" Stanish, director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, says archaeologists were initially "terrified" that Ebay's arrival in the online antiquities market would send demand for ancient objects sky-high and more looters into sacred spaces in search of fodder.

But that didn't happen, not because of Ebay's self-policing (which most admit is pretty poor) but rather because most of the fraudsters selling there quickly realized they didn't need the real deal - they only needed the cheap knockoffs already proliferating on the tourist market.

In the May/June issue of Archaeology magazine Stanish goes on to say:"Now, 95 percent of the stuff you're looking at on eBay is not real."

An Ebay spokesman says that if fake antiquities were as rampant as Stanish says, buyers would complain and eBay would police the problem, but that it's not a problem they "hear about."

Hmmm.

Millvina Dean, Last Survivor of the "Titanic," Dies at 97

2009-06-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

What an amazing start to a young life. Millvina Dean, who as an infant passenger aboard the Titanic was lowered into a lifeboat in a canvas mail sack and lived to become the ship’s last survivor, died Sunday at a nursing home in Southampton, the English port from which the Titanic embarked on its fateful voyage.

She was 97 and had been in poor health for some time, followers say.

The youngest of the ship’s 705 survivors, Ms. Dean was only 9 weeks old when the Titanic hit an iceberg in waters off Newfoundland on the night of April 14, 1912, setting off what was then considered the greatest maritime disaster in history.

She survived with her mother, Georgetta, and 2-year-old brother when they, like many other survivors, were picked up by the liner Carpathia and taken to New York.

Her father, Bertram Dean, was among more than 1,500 passengers and crew members who died in the sinking. A brother survived the sinking and was later reunited with his family. He died in 1997.

Plucky and profound, Ms. Dean attributed her father's death the night of the sinking to the fact that the family had been travelling in steerage and were not given the same chances for survival as more advantaged passengers - though many of them perished, as well.

A mail sack believed to have been the one the crew of the Titanic used to lower her into a lifeboat and safety was later found to have come into the family well after the sinking and could not have come from the ship. Nevertheless, it later sold for $2,000 as Ms. Dean auctioned her possessions to pay for her care.

"Just think," she once said. "If it had been from the ship it would have been worth a hundred thousand pounds."

Actors who portrayed passengers aboard the ill-fated ship in a hit movie about the sinking later contributed to a fund created to help Ms. Dean in her later years.

Reconciliation At Mountain Meadows - Mormon Massacre Is History

2009-05-31T13:38:00.000-07:00

One of the darkest secrets of the Old West was brought into the light and examined this weekend by descendants of a California-bound wagon train which met its end at the hands of Mormon militia and Paiute Indians at a place called Mountain Meadows in 1857.

Covered up in a conspiracy which put the blame for the deaths of 120 men, women, and children on local Indians and shook the Mormon faith to its very core, the Mountain Meadows Massacre has been the subject of heated debate, accusation, and retribution for 150 years.

Descendants from both sides of the tragedy met some 30 miles north of St. George, Utah to commemorate the incident Saturday. An honor guard in period uniforms fired a salute in tribute of the victims, cut down by bayonets and bowie knives in a dark plot hatched by Mormon extremists against the Fancher Party, by all accounts an innocent band travelling through the territory in violation of martial law imposed by Mormon Leader Brigham Young.

Descendants of those who committed the massacre, only one of whom was ever successfully prosecuted and subsequently shot, also attended, as did historians with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Descendants of massacre victims (seven children from the slaughtered party were taken and "adopted" by Mormon families) were also present.

They heard about efforts to preserve the grave site through a master plan compiled by the descendant groups and LDS Church, which has been acquiring property around the site and plans to buy more.

The LDS Church and descendant groups are meeting to preserve the site for posterity.
In an interesting case of self-analysis the church has expanded its holdings from the mere 2.5 acres where the current memorial is located to 700 acres - including more than 200 acres that would have been subdivided near the meadows.

Sixteen acres recently acquired by the church is believed to be the location where the bones of men killed at the massacre were buried a year later. The church may purchase another site where children and women could be buried, if pending investigations reveal the bodies are there.

The Mormon church has opened up about Mountain Meadows since the archives of the church were opened to scholars. During the 150th anniversary at the site, apostle Henry B. Eyring was the first church leader to acknowledge the massacre was carried out by local church leaders.

Nantucket Ahab Busted For Trafficking In Sperm Whale Teeth

2009-05-30T12:33:00.000-07:00

A Nantucket antique dealer has been charged with the illegal importing and trafficking of sperm whale teeth. David Place was indicted Friday on multiple counts of conspiracy and violating federal laws prohibiting the trade of items from illegally harvested wildlife.

Investigators say that Place bought and sold sperm whale teeth from 2001 to 2004, a violation of the Endangered Species Act.

If convicted, Place faces up to five years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

From Russia, With No Love Whatsoever...

2009-05-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

Things on the slow side these last two weeks or so as people sat on the sidelines, I guess, and wait to make sure the country's financial news was really as good as people were saying.

Upticking stock market, lower jobless rates, a few good economic indicators we thought would get people feeling good about spending again but nosireee, not these last two weeks.

Sure, we sold a nice Plains Indian pipe bag (thanks, Norm) and some lower end WWII things - all to nice people, but nowhere near the high-volume, high-end sales of yore. One interesting tale involved a call we made to a house in San Francisco, the lady adamant that we appraise her antiques.

She was interesting, let's put it that way. Rather brusque and not a lot of fun to be around. I resolved to "get in, get out" as she was making rather pointed comments about our pricing and services.

Long story short she didn't have much at all until I got to an old desk, partner's type and nice enough - I put it down as English in origin. She was hovering, jabbering on about stuff and distracting me - so much so that I almost passed one of the desk drawers, which was balky and unseated.

"There's something wrong with it," she said. "But that shouldn't hurt the price, right? It's early 18th Century..."

"Twentieth," I responded, and shouldn't have... but what the hell. About 1910. Nothing spectacular. I worked on the drawer a little more and quickly realized something had fallen down behind it. Shifting drawers revealed the problem as a lovely little sterling silver czarist military jetton fell out of the carcass and landed with a lovely warm feel in the palm of my hand.

Nice marks, all Cyrillic lettering and three piece construction... I guessed it's age at about 1890 and probably from one of the higher end military academies. I didn't have as long as I'd like to study it because she snatched it from me.

"What's this?" she said. I told her. I had a sinking feeling when I did but nevertheless, I told her. The badge disappeared into her sweater pocket as she prattled on about thieves and con men and how she'd had such good luck with ebay.

I was heartsick. In my hand and gone, probably to be misidentified and raffled off at the earliest opportunity. I did my job and left her, still grooving on the way that little badge dropped right into my palm.

And that's the way it goes in the antiques biz.

"Gone With The Posse, Mama..." - Story Of A Gold Country Badge

2009-05-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

Fred Huston was a farrier and part-time gold seeker living in Jamestown, Cal. when he was asked to join a posse looking for the prolific highwayman Charles Boles - known at the time as the poetically inclined "Black Bart."

"Bart" had just held up a stage in Oroville and was reportedly just steps ahead of lawmen who'd set their caps to catch him when word spread that a wider net was needed and a posse was being formed.

Fred put down his blacksmith's hammer picked up a rifle and joined up, telling his mother he'd be gone awhile. But the fleet-footed Boles was a skilled woodsman and cross country trekker. He made good time getting out of the area with $2000 or so of Wells Fargo's money and promptly disappeared.

Fred eventually joined up with the legendary Harry Morse, who dedicated a good portion of his life to catching the elusive highwayman who, as it turned out, was living the life of a wealthy mine owner in that most sinful of cities, San Francisco.

The posse traveled near and far looking for Bart, Huston getting a badge made by Reiningers of San Francisco, a short rosewood truncheon, and a monthly purse to participate. All he ever found was a young schoolmarm, Nettie Hinch, when the posse passed through Gilroy.

It took the mountain man a while to get around to it but eventually he asked Nettie to come away with him, she acquiesced and they moved back to Jamestown, leaving Morse to eventually track and capture the fast-moving Boles in San Francisco, after he left an embroidered handkerchief behind at the scene of one of his robberies.

Fred and Nettie were married and settled down to having children, Fred still gathering his "poke sack" of beans and coffee and taking off into the mountains to fish and pan for gold while Nettie waited at home.

His badge, photo and truncheon surfaced recently at a home in Livermore, Cal. Nettie's picture was not far away.

"Jobless, Illiterate Irishman" Loots English Castles

2009-05-13T11:44:00.001-07:00

A man described in the British press as a "jobless, illiterate Irishman" has been arrested in Britain for a series of robberies at stately manor homes and national landmarks.

Andrew Shannon, 44, of Dublin is accused of travelling to England for a "weekend crime spree" with an accomplice, the two men using GPS locators and wireless communications devices to locate target homes and to communicated with each other during their robberies - almost always conducted while the homes were open for public enjoyment.

Apparently Mr. Shannon considered six homes, including Blenheim Palace, a "soft target," walking away with porcelain, paintings, silver and a walking stick from Belvoir Castle.

He was found out when he was approached by a security man who saw two oil paintings stuffed into Shannon's laptop case.

Police found out that Shannon had pilfered items from Castle Howard, Blenheim, Belvoir and other landmark homes, customarily open to the public to display their historic contents.

Shannon was sentenced to three years "in the nick."

A Salty Old Dog Goes Home

2009-05-13T11:12:00.000-07:00

I love this antiques game.

Interesting people, interesting objects. Take last night. I get a call from a couple living near us in the San Francisco Bay Area. They're interested in a sterling silver Merchant Marine pin we have from World War II.

We meet on this one 'cause they want to see it and it turns out the pin is for their father, a former merchant mariner who served in the Pacific, was shipwrecked, and passed recently. My buyer is his grandson, himself a just discharged Coast Guard corpsman.

He handled the pin like I'd just dropped a gold nugget in his palm and took it on the spot.

"It's for a shadow box we're doing on his grandfather," his girlfriend explained. "He led a very colorful life."

I'll say. Action in the Pacific, a shipwreck, back home to the East Bay and family who followed in his footsteps and went to sea. It's cool when these things "go home."

To my buyers: enjoyed meeting you very much...

"Cool As Steve McQueen" - His Bikes Sell For Big Bucks

2009-05-11T12:59:00.000-07:00

What recession?

A sale of various old motorcycles - everything from a 1950 Vincent White Shadow to the crotch rockets actor Steve McQueen liked to tool around on - went under the hammer over the weekend in our famed Carmel Valley.

Next time you look at the old rusting, leaking hunk of iron you have left sitting in your garage since 1972 consider this - the sale brought in nearly a million in proceeds for those lucky enough to have owned some of the fastest metal around.

The Series C. White Shadow fell under the hammer at $111,150. And someone shelled out $166,000 for two of the perpetually cool actor's bikes as well as his driver's licenese. Hey, I got an old California license right here I'll sell ya...

A bidder paid $84,240 for McQueen's 1963 Triumph Bonneville "desert sled," a bike built by Bud Ekins, a motorcycle racer and friend of the actor best remembered for his iconic barbed wire jump in "The Great Escape."

Another Triumph, not for sale on Saturday, was gussied up to look like a World War II vintage motor and used in the chase and jump sequence... which Ekins made while McQueen did the closeup work.

Minding The Curators - When Museums Go Bad

2009-05-10T15:51:00.000-07:00

Our customers are always so surprised when they learn we buy a lot of things from museums around the country. Many labor under the impression that museums are just these great big warehouses where cool old things come in, are cared for, and displayed in a way to benefit the former owner's tax status.

Sometimes. But those warehouses cost money, have limited space, and cannot accomodate the flow of incoming items. So the museum "deaccessions" - a fancy word for sells off duplicate items or things they cannnot build a display around.

And we buy it. We've purchased items from the Smithsonian and small local museums around the country, and loved the items we've gotten. We often receive a phone call from people trying to get it back, thinking they'd donated it to the museum in perpituity.

Nope. Not the way it works.

And sometimes, things go way wrong, with the curator taking the items that come in to the museum and "deaccessioning" them for himself.

This happened recently in the Northern California town of Fortuna, when a former curator of the Fortuna Depot Museum was arrested for skimming off some cool - fishing items - and selling them on E-Fraud, we mean, Ebay.

The accused has been charged with stealing museum items, some of which he later sold on eBay for $826.18.

Investigators said the items consisted of around 40 pieces of antique fishing equipment dating from the 1920s through the 1940s. All were later found at the man's home.

"I guess there's a collector's market on that stuff," an investigator remarked. Well, yeah, copper - there is.

The curator was booked on charges of grand theft and possession of stolen property and later released on his own recognizance.

So, consider this a cautionary tale about museums - they don't always do what they're supposed to do, and sometimes the things we all love so much are reduced to the status of mere commodities. It's a fact of life, if somewhat sordid.

Know who you're donating to and get the details in writing. It's the best advice we can give you.

Auction of Antique Torture Devices To Benefit Amnesty International

2009-05-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

We've been around long enough to know that there's a collector out there for just about everything - and not to get too much into the psychology behind a person's collecting habits.

That said, a pretty unusual collection by any one's standards is coming up to auction in New York - with the collector wishing that proceeds from the sale be used to benefit people who could use the help.

The New York house is handling the sale of a broad collection of medieval torture devices - everything from the infamous "rack" to even more heinous devices used over the years to inflict harm.

The auctioneer says the 252 devices may comprise the most complete collection in existence of historical torture devices. All proceeds will go to Amnesty International and other organizations committed to preventing torture at the request of the seller - who requested anonymity.

The collection was last on public display in 1893.

Dodge Guns Go Big

2009-04-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

Proving yet again that they can be one of the most sound investment opportunities in a dicey economic landscape, several antique guns fetched six figure sums during today's sale at Cowans.

An anonymous phone bidder paid $440,000 for a never-fired 1886 Winchester rifle made for auto magnate John F. Dodge while a Savage Model 1889 Takedown Rifle, which also features Dodge’s initials in raised gold, went for $230,000.

"Mr. Jobs - Don't Tear Down This House!"

2009-04-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

Our headline should be read with the best Reagan intonation you can muster.

Sigh, well, here we go again. Today's a big day for Apple chieftain Steve Jobs who has been fighting a long drawn out battle to tear down a house he owns in posh Woodside, California.

It's a beaten up, 17,250 square foot Spanish colonial mansion built by a San Francisco copper king and now in deep disrepair as Mr. Jobs, who favors the new and streamlined over the old and leaking, seeks to replace the structure with a fresh one of his own - presumable one you can blow into and play like a flute (you have to have an iPhone to understand that one).

He bought the rancho in 1984 and wants to level it but preservationists say hey, what about the antique organ, lavish fittings, and other stuff only antique people know about and love that are still inside.

Jobs said "come and get 'em" - just take the house with you when you leave. Today the Woodside town council will reconsider Jobs' longstanding request to level the 84-year-old structure, which many say was left to rot in place.

Antiqueswest.com doesn't have room for the organ, but we'll take the sinks and other fittings, Steve - huh? Pretty please?

Face To Face With History In Egypt

2009-04-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

I've always been interested in Egyptology, not so much for the study of successive Egytpian Dynasties through the ages, but what archeologists have to go through to unearth the past there.

It seems they've unearthed a significant find recently southwest of Cairo.

Egyptian archaeologists on Sunday unveiled mummies, brightly painted sarcophagi and dozens of ancient tombs carved into a rocky hill in a desert oasis south of Cairo.

More than fifty tombs — some as old as 4,000 years — were discovered recently on a plateau overlooking farming fields in the village Illahun, located in the Fayoum oasis about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of the Egyptian capital.

Archaeologists gave journalists a rare tour of the ancient burial site Sunday, which is next to the nearly four millennia old pyramid of Pharaoh Sesostris II.

Three slim wooden sarcophagi believed to be holding female mummies were laid out in one of the tombs. The innermost coffins were painted to resemble the deceased using blue, yellow, rust and black dyes.

In another tomb, workers slowly removed the lid of one inscribed with hieroglyphic prayers to reveal a colorful mummy case that el-Ayedi said belonged to a woman named Isis Her Ib, the daughter of one of Illahun's mayors nearly 4,000 years ago.

Not much was known about who used the ancient necropolis. El-Ayedi said some of the tombs were just 2,800 years old, while others were from the Middle Kingdom, which dates back 2061-1786 B.C.

Maltese Boilermaker - A Riddle For You Engineers

2009-04-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

We all know how old things can sometimes take on a life of their own, taking on a provenance - a history - all their own after they are recovered from someone's garden or, in this case, a Maltese dockyard.

It seems the Maltese government recovered what the Maltese Times is billing as a 130-year-old steam locomotive under "layers of dirt" at the much-bombed and historic dockyards recently, restoring the engine to its former splendor.

But as we have often seen when old things are ressurected, this one's past is open to discussion, with you engineering types wading in about its origin, use, and age.

Check out the Malta Times video article HERE and let me know what you think. Looks like a WWI-era backup boiler to me but I know better than to question you guys when it comes to push rods, lifters, and armatures.

Anyway, a fun little puzzle from Antiqueswest.com

Rip, A Dickins of a Heroic Dog

2009-04-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

A medal awarded to possibly the earliest version of today's rescue dogs was sold at auction today for the U.S. equivalent of $36,000 - more than $15,000 over estimate.

The Dickin Medal, Britain's highest honor for animals and known as "the animals' VC, was awarded to a mongrel dog named Rip who was credited with finding more than 100 people trapped in bombed out buildings during World War II.

Rip had been found abandoned in an air raid shelter and was adopted by E. King, an Air Raid Precaution Warden. He went to work with no formal rescue training and proved quite effective at the job.

Maria Dickin, who established the medal program, decorated Rip in 1945. Among the 62 animals awarded the Dickin Medal are dogs, pigeons, horses and a cat.

World War II Dive Bomber Comes Up Off the Bottom of Lake Michigan Today

2009-04-24T08:21:00.001-07:00

We've been watching this one for awhile and will bring you whatever we can get of attempts to lift a war-era Douglas SBD Dauntless out of frosty Lake Michigan.

Our understanding is that the beautifully preserved veteran has actually reached the surface of the lake, has been boomed off to prevent oil discharge and is being allowed to drain a bit before she is lifted onto a recovery barge.

Incredible work by preservationists. The airplane will replace an SBD currently on display at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans after restoration. Early indicators are that some wing crumpling and nose damage is apparent but that the fuselage is intact and still bearing its WWII markings.

It's a relic of a time when young pilots practiced takeoffs and landings from a pair of coal-burning paddlewheel ships converted into freshwater aircraft carriers, so seagoing carriers could stay at war. There are dozens of such wrecks in the lake.

This one, when restored, should be worth a cool $2 million.

Matisse, Monet, Turner... Hitler?

2009-04-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

A set of paintings and sketches purportedly done by a young Adolf Hitler sold at auction Thursday for 97,672 pounds ($143,358).

Among the 15 pictures is a portrait of solitary figure dressed in brown peering into wine-colored waters. The date is 1910, the signature reads "A. Hitler" and scribbled just over the mysterious figure are the letters: "A.H."

Mullocks, the auction house that conducted the sale, vouched for the authenticity and said they were acquired at the end of WWII by a British soldier serving in Germany.

The "mystery" portrait sold for about 10,000 pounds ($14,600). Buyer John Ratledge, 46, said he planned to hang it at home or in his office.

"Cannon Ball" Unearthed by Gardener Turns Out To Be Old Fence Post Finial

2009-04-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

Police in Fort Smith, Arkansas say a man puttering in his garden was surprised to find a Civil War era cannonball in his garden. Only the "cannonball" turned out to the top of an old fencepost.

Proving that even experts can be fooled when it comes to dirty, crusty old things the four-inch round chunk of metal was "touched off" by sympathetic detonation later today and later x-rayed - when it was determined to be decorative and not combative.

There were a number of Civil War engagements in and around Fort Smith, including the Battle of Massard Prairie.

Dumb and Dumber Destroy Fifteen Antique Vehicles

2009-04-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

You hear about this from time to time, a couple of miscreants get together and pool what limited mental resources they have and set out to destroy something nice.

In Mountainboro, AL, two kids ages 11 and 13 admitted to setting a fire at a local storage facility that gutted fifteen antique cars and motorcycles.

The "children" told an investigator they smashed windows on all the vehicles and set one on fire. The flames gutted the building and the vehicles that included cars, a truck and a motorcycle.

Each boy was also charged with criminal mischief and burglary.

No motive was given, but criminal stupidity comes to mind. We harken back several years ago when a couple of real low-life graffiti scribblers jumped the fences of a storage yard in San Francisco and proceeded to deface some antique and historic railcars. Damage: $100,000. Penalty: Slap on the wrist.

These stories hurt in several ways, but mainly because we love these things and don't like to see them destroyed or damaged.

A Day Draped In Black Crepe and Tinged by Mourning

2009-04-17T16:14:00.001-07:00

News of President Lincoln's death swept through Washington and touched every resident, every business. The town was draped in black as storefronts turned into impromptu monuments and tributes to the nation's fallen leader.

Someone, possibly a man but no one knows for sure, walked the streets with pen and paper and captured the messages at each address - not to mention the nation's grief.

The age-toned pages, each bearing hand-drawn images of one of the most important days in our national story line, were revealed recently by caretakers at Brown University.

They document the fury of the nation, as well as its sadness.

"Let Them Eat (Urp)... Cake"

2009-04-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

Those who know us know we have had a longstanding love affair with things British for many years - the architecture, the people, the antiques.

And every so often an item ends up on a dealer's table or under the auctioneer's hammer that makes us smile and say: "That's just so... so British."

Take the case of the royal wedding cake. A piece of one, that is... from the 1871 wedding of Queen Victoria's fourth daughter, Princess Louise, to the Marquis of Lorne.

Not the decoration, an actual piece of very old cake. Asking price: 145 pounds, or $215US. Would you shell out your hard-earned pound notes for this slightly crumbly tidbit?

We'll find out - it goes up for sale today in Birmingham.

The slice, which is one-inch thick and protected by parchment, is a tiny portion of the towering 5-foot (1.5 meter) cake served at Princess Louise's wedding. The entire cake originally weighed over 225 pounds (102 kilograms) and took three months to create.

The wedding caused an uproar when Princess Louise angered the Prince of Wales by becoming the first British princess to marry a commoner. She was determined not to be burdened by the ritual of marrying another royal.

The cake slice is still wrapped in its original parchment, and it was kept for generations in a gentlemen's "cabinet of curiosity" where men kept treasures to show off, such as fossils and pieces of Egyptian art.

"Never Been Kissed" Scottish Diva Rocks the UK - Treat Yourself, Folks, Treat Yourself

2009-04-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

Click HERE and prepare to be overwhelmed. You'll thank us...

The embed link has been disabled I'm sure because this woman has just been signed to a rather significant recording contract but she walked out onto a stage in the UK last week and brought the house down.

I'm not big on these shows, but this was an incredible moment, made even more significant by the fact that she described herself as "looking like a garage," "never been kissed," and "live alone with me cat, Pebbles."

Gentle readers, if you want to see the triumph of the human spirit incarnate, watch this - and treat yourself to the smarmy, "know everything" look of the teenager who knew before this woman opened her mouth that she was "daff."

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Watch it.

Hearst Castle Paintings Return Home - To Holocaust Survivors

2009-04-08T09:42:00.001-07:00

We never cease to be amazed by the circuitous, often tortured routes items that come to us and other collectors often take. This came home to us again this week after three distinctive paintings, mainstays of the art collection on display at William Randolph Hearst's famed "Castle," turned out to have been acquired during a coerced sale of Jewish assets by Nazi "buyers."

The paintings are being returned to the family of two Holocaust survivors and, oh, what they have seen in their lives.

Investigators determined the paintings belong to the heirs of Jacob and Rosa Oppenheimer. They were deeded to the state of California by the Hearst Corporation in 1972 as part of the transfer of the Castle to the state park system.

William Randolph Hearst, who didn't know the ownership history, acquired the paintings from a Berlin gallery in 1935.

A Very Pretty Kite Indeed...

2009-04-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

A rare two-seat version of the beloved Spitfire fighter, the plane that earned a nation's gratitude for its part in the Battle of Britain, may fetch a record price when it goes before the hammer at Bonhams in the next few weeks.

Purists may malign it for its "double bubble" or "two hump" configuration, but this is the real thing, a one-seat World War II-era fighter that became a two-seat trainer in the 21st century.

Bonhams, which is offering the meticulously restored plane at a sale on April 20, estimates it will sell for 1.5 million pounds ($2.2 million). Retrieved from a junkyard in South Africa 30 years ago, the plane is now certified to fly.

Bonhams' Austria unit, Bonhams & Goodman, sold a 1945 Spitfire Mark XVI for NZ$3.2million ($1.8 million) in September, reportedly the record auction price for a Spitfire. That plane had been on display at the U.S. Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio until 1997.

The one now for sale is a Mark IX model delivered on Oct. 23, 1944, one of 23,000 Spitfires built through the war.

Da Vinci Emerges from a Collection in Basilicata

2009-04-03T12:58:00.000-07:00

Some beautiful things coming out of the weeds these days as historians expand their reach for interesting bits of history.

One such item was a lovingly rendered portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, discovered the in the art collection of a family in Italy's southern Basilicata region. The artist is unknown and there is damage, but the initial consensus among experts is that the wood supporting the canvas dates to the late 15th or early 16th century - when Leonardo was known to be among us.

The newly discovered portrait, partially damaged by scratches and measuring some 60 by 45 centimeters (24 by 18 inches), shows Leonardo wearing dark robes and a black, feathered hat.

Early View of New York Goes Big

2009-03-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

An early daguereotype of a country road, fence line and home - along with a telling handwritten note - sold at auction this week for $62,500 in, where else? - New York.

The proud new owners are Billy and Jennifer Frist of Nashville. “It’s a very unique, historically significant daguerreotype,” Mr. Frist, who has been collecting photos since 1993 and is a nephew of Bill Frist, the Tennessee Republican and former Senate majority leader, told the New York Times.

The picture, believed to date from October 1848 or earlier, shows a white house on a hill with a white picket fence, next to what is believed to be the old Bloomingdale Road, the continuation of Broadway, in what is now the Upper West Side.

The New York Times "Discovers" Sgt. Humiston

2009-03-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

Those of us who have steeped ourselves in Civil War lore and pivotal battles of the conflict in particular, are constantly amazed when battlefield legends that have lingered through the decades are "discovered," told in a new way, and mulled as if they are artifacts first seeing the light of day.

One of those tales made it into one of our favorite newspapers today. The New York Times is carrying a serialized (five parts, no less) account of Sgt. Amos Humiston - Gettysburg's so-called "Unknown Soldier."

Sgt. Humiston was felled by a Confederate bullet shortly after his 154th New York Volunteers were overrun by superior forces and hurled back toward Cemetery Hill during the battle of Gettysburg.

That would not be counted as unusual, given the number of good men who died during those three days in Pennsylvania, and his story may have gone untold forever were it not for the small ambrotype of his three children a battlefield forager found clutched in his hand.

Like a good many of the men killed during the battle, Sgt. Humiston wore no corps badge, pinned no note to the back of his battle dress, and was not carrying the letters his wife, Philinda, had sent him and he had read in camp until they tattered.

As did many similar stories created by the fickle travails of war, Sgt. Humiston's story was not revealed for many years after his death, when a concerted - some say opportunistic - search to find his identity and locate the children in the ambrotype, turned up his family.

We won't ruin the ending. Suffice to say it was not a happy one. That this tale has been resurrected for public viewing by so widespread an audience is both confusing and reassuring, as it is our heartfelt belief that this tale - and so many others born out of the War Between the States - should have been given more emphasis in our nation's schools and perhaps not left to individuals, amateur historians, and buffs to ferret out for themselves.

But then, that's just our opinion, an opinion Sgt. Humiston, and several hundred thousand just like him - either knowingly or unintentionally sought to protect through his service to the Union.

Old Guns and Buffalo Bill!

2009-03-21T11:44:00.000-07:00

More items coming in via consignment as everyone still seems very much on the hunt for neat old things.

We've got some interesting American Indian items in as well as some antique guns and other neat old things, including a sally port reportedly from Yuma Prison and a bandsman's costume from the Buffalo Bill Wild West Shows.

Drop me a line if you're buying or selling, we're doing plenty of both at the moment and we're always looking for new friends.

Good hunting!

Ute Wearing Blanket... A Beauty

2009-03-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

"Pocket Time Capsule" Opened, Lincoln's Watchsmith Was Grateful

2009-03-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

For nearly 150 years, a story has circulated about a hidden Civil War message engraved inside one of Abraham Lincoln's pocket watches.

On Tuesday at the National Museum of American History, a watchmaker opened the case and found watchmaker Jonathan Dillon's thoughts scratched neatly inside:

The first line says: "April 13 - 1861. Fort (sic) Sumpter was attacked by the rebels on the above date. J. Dillon." A second line reads, in part: "Thank God we have a government."

The story circulated around Dillon's family and friends, eventually reaching a New York Times reporter. In a 1906 article in the paper, Dillon said he was moved to engrave a message after the first shots of the Civil War were fired in South Carolina.

One hundred and fifty years later, his reaction again saw the light of day.

Of Cons and Coins

2009-03-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

If you get into this game you are reminded every so often that many people covet what you have, and some are willing to try and take what they want.

It’s the not-so-gentile side of antique collecting. We don’t talk about it much, but it’s there. There are a lot of unsavory types in the world, particularly in these tough financial times, who are looking for “soft” targets.

Antique dealers are considered “soft targets.”

That’s why a colleague here in Northern California left his home one day to find a man waiting for him outside. There was an altercation, a stun gun was produced (not by our colleague) and the man was pushed back into his apartment, bound with duct tape and forced to stand by while this miscreant pillaged the dealer’s coin collection.

This appears to be happening more and more frequently as dealers advertise to meet buyers are lured to remote locations and are robbed, usually of money (why doesn’t that hurt as much as when they take our antiques?).

So, we’re getting cautious and taking steps to protect ourselves, our homes looking like armed camps even though we don’t keep anything of any real value there. I have a small safe in my place. I like it for its California feel and keep my scotch in it, and that’s all.

Many of us are loners, single men or women who like old things and perhaps don’t relate well to the modern world. It can be a problem.

We buy the cameras and the safes and all the rest, and try not to think about what can go wrong – until it does. Until then we share our love for old things with others we hope are likeminded.

It’s all we can do.

Scotch, a Good (Antique) Book and Firelight

2009-03-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

Rainy in Northern California this past week and the sales have been dampened a bit, to say the least. I hate cliches but we do need the rain and being a city boy, I love it and say, "Keep it Coming."

So far, the Big Guy In the Sky With His Hand on the Spigot is obliging so maybe we'll be able to avoid a drought this summer.

When it gets like this the wife and I like to head inside for a change, she to her murder mysteries and me to my Civil War regimental histories. Hot chocolate or a good scotch (for me, she won't touch the stuff) and passing a little time reading and listening to the fire and tick-tock of the mantle clock.

Nothing better.

The rain killed a big outdoor show this past weekend that has been good to me in the past, but the phone calls are picking up again as people look to sell their wares. Call or write if you have a story to share, and if you have some good Scotch to share... even better.

Cheers.

Strange Estates... Part II

2009-02-25T15:40:00.000-08:00

We talked last week about my experiences with the nouveau riche, let's talk a little about the other class. The real people, beset by real problems but a whole lot more interesting than their "monied" cousins.

We responded to a couple of other estate calls last week. After we had settled down from our lecture by the trophy wife with the priceless silver collection we arrived at a low-key tract home in the East Bay area. Although it had none of the pretense of the "gated" household, this place too was a total wreck.

At least half of it was.

Throughout the home's six rooms a line had been painted. At some times imaginary, in some parts of the house - an actual white line. On one side of the room, the mess I mentioned and a decidedly male collection of guns, deer heads, tools and other items. The other side had a distinctly feminine feeling to it.

My host was in his early 40s. He was watching me take it all in.

"My parent's house," he said with a shrug. "They were divorced for the last 15 years of their marriage but continued to live together anyway. Probably didn't know any other way."

It was a strange feeling being inside that house, but it had a quirky sensibility to it I liked.

"Dad stayed on his side of the place, mom on hers," the son told me. "The strange thing of it was they both seemed happier that way."

It was a cool story and a great housecall. I ended up buying several things. But I can't seem to shake the memories of those two people, and wonder if they have a line drawn between them up in heaven.

Strange Estate Sites I Have Seen... Part I

2009-02-22T16:41:00.000-08:00

Definitely quieter out there these last two weeks as folks appear to be waiting for someone to write a more optimistic headline about the economy. I've had a few strange estate calls in recent weeks, with people feeling the effects of this meltdown and civility in short supply.

It's always dicey, going into someone's home to look at their things. We try to do it with respect, returning things they may have overlooked and of no obvious value but to their family, but sometimes there's just no pleasing people.

We were at one of the so-called "gated" communities in our area recently, to look at "some really good silver" and other "antiques" the lady of the house had called about. We've been to this development before, but this one stood out for some reason, not for the "his and her" Range Rover and Lexus (Lexi, plural?) in the driveway, but for the hubris exhibited by the owner.

Now, the house was probably $1.7 million by last year's realtor's listing and was certainly built to impress, as was the lady of the house. She motioned me inside, cell phone plastered to one ear, and made me take my shoes off - which was fine, as the whole house was white as a snowstorm.

But then I noticed something else.

"Sorry about the mess," she said. "The kids have been playing." I took a good look and saw that the walls bore an unfamiliar scrawl - crayon. The floors were marble but uncomfortably - tacky - from some spilled substance. There was a hole next to the mega-TV that looked like someone, probably upset over the Super Bowl results, put there with a fist.

"Uh..." I started.

"The silver's in here," Mrs. Maven says, waving me into the kitchen. There's more granite in there than in Half Dome, the refrigerater big as some morgues. Her kids, mercifully, blow past my ankles on their way outside to torture the family dog.

"Uh..."

"This was my mother's," she starts. "We've had it all looked at and we know what it's worth. We're not looking for lowball offers...and we'll only take cash."

It was all plate, nothing older than the kitten back at our house. Not only that but it was in abysmal condition. If it was indeed her mother's, the poor woman must have had a palsy because she dropped everything she owned.

"Is there anything else you want me to look at?" asks I. Her face falls.

"You don't want to make a bid for the silver?"

"It's not for me," I say. "Anything else?"

She couldn't have gotten me out of there any faster, pausing to lecture me at the door: "You could have let us know before we made the appointment that you're not serious."

"Sorry," I says. And sometimes that's all that's left to say to some people.

Fakes and Finds: More Coming in Every Day

2009-02-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

Well, the economy is having a strange effect on the antiques world. More people are finding themselves in situations where they have to sell things, prices are soft in some areas and stronger than ever in others.

It's really hard to get a handle on what is happening to us. "Book Prices" are out the window, which is okay especially since Antiqueswest.com has always relied on comparative valuations when determining value.

We've been on the road a little these past few weeks, travelling to established collections and meeting with people who have contacted us in recent weeks to see what's out there and, also, to buy when possible.

As I've said, there are still plenty of nice things out there (watch our pages for more on this later), but there is also an increasing number of fantasy items and outright forgeries in the marketplace.

Initial impressions: Furniture is soft, particularly here in the West, with good pieces available for a relative song; paintings are also selling at about a half of what they were doing a year ago. We're seeing some very good copies of English pottery out there, and more facts are beginning to intrude on the historical arms and accoutrements sectors. Paper is, as it has been for some time now, very dodgy as several accomplished copyists are producing Civil War letters, commissions and even some diaries. This is disconcerting to say the least.

Like most of the country we're hoping the stimulus package has some positive effect on the national malaise, but we're not holding out hope as sentiment appears to be running deep and many old buyers are sitting on their wallets right now.

That said, whenever we get a nice piece in - check out our badge collection - they continue to sell briskly. The "best" continues to sell - and not just to semi-retired bankers and financial advisers on the lam from the SEC.

So, hang in there with us and give us a shout if you're buying and selling. We'll help when we can (some of the stories out there are horrendous) and try to get us all through this thing and back on track.

Thanks for visiting... and reading!

Antiqueswest.com

Dr. Carr's Car: A REAL Barn Burner

2009-02-08T15:10:00.000-08:00

Just got a call from "The Brigadier," my London pal and resident U.K. antiques expert, and he says the automotive world is buzzing with news about that Bugatti they just found - and sold - for a record number this week.

Dr. Harold Carr died childless in 2007 at the age of 89 and no one knew what he had stored away in his dusty garage. Estate agents found a 1937 Bugatti 57S Atalante, one of 17 in existence, along with the rat and bat droppings and, as soon as word got out, the antique car dealers started lining up.

The Bugatti, a black two-seater, was delivered to Earl Howe, the first president of the British Racing Drivers’ Club and a winner of the 24 Hour Le Mans race, soon after it was completed on May 5, 1937. He kept the car for eight years, adding personal touches including a luggage rack, after which it changed hands a couple of times before Dr. Carr bought it from Lord Ridley, a member of the Northumberland gentry, in 1955.

He drove the car for a few years, but he parked it in the 60s. The Brigadier says it has exceptional originality, retaining original chassis, engine and drivetrain. Even the odometer gives a mileage of only 26,284, although the vehicle is almost 72 years old.

"It's an amazing piece of machinery," The General says. "When it was built most cars were doing only 50 mph or so - with tailwind. This beauty could do 120."

It could also do a million, $4.4 million to be precise, when the car went on the block at Bonhams Friday.

Now THAT'S A Gun...

2009-02-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

You may have read recently that some intrepid and well-equipped undersea treasure hunters recently came across the HMS "Victory," a storied warship as familiar to English schoolboys as George Washington is to students in this country.

The Victory was armed with as many as 110 bronze cannons, making her one of the deadliest vessels of the age. Her largest "big gun" weighed four tons and could fire cannonballs of 42 pounds — the most powerful gun then used in naval warfare.

Lost after skirmishing with the French in 1744, Victory was separated from the British fleet shortly after it entered the English Channel on Oct. 5, 1744 and was believed somewhere off the Channel Islands when she went down with all hands. The flagship was the only vessel of the returning British fleet lost at sea, and was only recently found - almost by accident - by a team from Odyssey Marine Explorations.

After some momentary confusion about the wreck's identity, her cannon - particularly her distinctive 42-pounder, gave her away. Home to Blighty at last.

$25 Consignments: Sell Your Antiques!

2009-01-30T10:36:00.000-08:00

Folks:

It has been great hearing from so many of you in recent weeks as economic conditions turn many of us "collectors" into "sellers." As usual, quality, early wares sell well and briskly - especially antique arms, early California pieces, photographs and militaria.

You can look at this "downturn" in a couple of different ways, I suppose, and I don't want to present too rosy a spin to it as people are, of course, suffering in many ways - but it also present opportunity for those who have saved wisely, want to invest, and have the means to acquire nice things as they "come out of the weeds."

This, we have seen at Antiqueswest, has been the case. So if you have something you wish to place with us, hit the "Consign" button and send us pictures of your item. A one-time $25 fee gets you hosting for three months on our site - though many things are not lasting for days! One caller recently told us a competing site offered to host his items for a considerable up-front fee and 50% off the sale price.

Again, Antiqueswest charges you just 10% of the final sale value when we move your item for us. An unlike other sites, you KEEP your item.

Check us out, you'll be glad you did!

Wanted: U.S.S. Arizona Model

2009-01-24T16:47:00.001-08:00

Wanted: A museum grade model of the U.S.S. Arizona, around 30" in length and correctly rigged and presented.

If you have one, please contact us with photos and price.

Thank you.

A Cannon Shot Comes Home... 150 Years Later

2009-01-10T16:18:00.000-08:00

One of the really nice things about we do is the fact that we get to reunite pieces with their original owners from time to time.

This happened again this week.

We've had this nice lantern slide image of a battle-torn tree on the Sherfey Farm property on the Gettysburg, Pa. site for a little while. It has a handwritten description of the image and depicts several cannon shot lodged in the tree, obviously sent their by counter-battery fire.

A couple of days ago a descendant of the family inquired about the slide and then bought it, identifying the slide as a family favorite of the tree in the family's yard but unusual in that someone has placed protective chickenwire over the battle scars to keep scavengers from digging the shot out.

And then, to add to the "small world" aspect of this whole thing, we find out in talking with the very nice man who bought the slide that he used to live within a mile and half of our home, during a stay in the Bay Area.

So there you have it. Not quite "the cannon shot heard 'round the world," but close.

Glad it's "going home."

Antiqueswest.com

One Man's Art May Be Another Man's Loot...

2009-01-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

We've been pretty lucky.

Perhaps because we're cautious by nature and perhaps because our business model greatly reduces the chances of theft from us or from one of our customers, we've escaped the sort of large-scale looting that does go on in some areas of the antiques world today.

We've seen it happen, and seen the effect it has on collectors. And we understand completely the devastating impact it leaves on a collector's psyche, being collectors ourselves. That some yobbo in a pickup truck could invade your home or off-site lockers and help himself to what it took you years to put together is not something we like to think about.

But we do. So, we take the usual preventative steps, install the usual safeguards and a few others to make thievery more difficult, try to live our lives, and help others who find themselves victimized by these no-necked, knuckle-dragging vermin pick up and, hopefully, get their precious items back.

Again knocking on that lucky nearby wood, we've never handled a stolen item or felt the bite when someone claims the piece you found under a dusty horseblanket in a Vermont barn is theirs, stolen from sweet aunt Maude in 1932. But we know folks who have.

As collectors of California art we were struck by the tale of Mr. Jim McCarty, who lost most of his beloved early California works to thieves many years ago. Jim took all the precautionary steps and still ended up losing his paintings, many by artists we collect ourselves. So we thought we'd post a picture of one of his paintings in hope you may recognize it and be able to return it to him.

We operate under the principle that if we all watch out for one another we come out stronger for it.

What A Year! Thank You From Antiqueswest...

2009-01-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

It has been a nutty year on many fronts, with great change happening on the broader front of national and world news. We're hoping for better things in 2009, with our people back from foreign lands, some resolution to the attack on our country and a return to the value set that made this land great but which many seem to have lost sight of in recent years.

On the antique front, it was a good year, with many new things coming up out of the weeds - partly due to the "new economics" which changed the fortunes of many. We were pleased to handle many new items and move them along to happy new caretakers, helping out their former owners in the process.

What was moving? Antique arms did well, with concentration on flinters and muzzle-loading arms from the Civil War, and edged weapons selling briskly, especially the presentation-grade models.

With our Western focus, Gold Rush and Early California items did well this year, with buyers exhibiting interest from all over the world and not just the Golden State. As we have in years past, we were pleased to re-unite family pieces sold off and forgotten long ago with descendants eager to re-connect with their ancestors.

This was done on an almost regular basis and always added a sense of joy to what we do. We may be a business, but we like the idea of old things going back to the people who made or originally owned them. Antiqueswest was also pleased to find its photographica collection eagerly sought out by researchers, scholars, and writers looking for ways to illustrate their research. We were pleased to help with this where we could, as we appreciate the effort to study and learn from our past.

We rung in the New Year quietly, with an appropriate bottle of bubbly and time spent with family. A check of the computer this morning shows more people lining up to have their antiques hosted on the site so look for more fine things in the days to come and keep in touch when you can... we like to hear from you.

All best, and best wishes for our collective success in 2009!

J.D.

"No, really, business is booming..."

2008-12-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

We had the pleasure of attending a Holiday cocktail party with friends over the weekend (okay, it was more than one party, I admit it) and I could not help but notice how our friends would peer at me, place a consoling hand on my shoulder and say: "So, how is business?"

The answer, I'm pleased to report, is that business is quite good.

It seems that the current downturn, while serious and certainly worthy of investigation at certain levels (ahem) has had only a limited effect on our sales and, in fact, is driving consignments as some people look to sell things they may not have under ordinary circumstances.

We've had some nice, early Gold Rush-era documents come in, as well as some other items which didn't last long, and seem to be enjoying a spate of contact with authors and researchers hoping to make use of our photos. We do help scholarly endeavors when we can.

But all this has had little impact on those who feel the market downturn has completely closed us down. That would explain why my answer of "you know, things are still pretty good" drew such disbelieving looks.

Well, that's the way it is. More things coming online soon, as well as a new dog in the family my wife promises will be hers and taken care of by her and the kids. It's okay, as unrepentant animal lovers more life in the house the better, but the resident cats will undoubtedly have some adjustments to make.

Stay in touch, thanks for all your calls and letters and emails. And good hunting!

J.D. O'Connor