A-Maze-ing California Law Enforcement Badge Rolls In

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

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

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

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?

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

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?"

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?

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"

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

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?

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

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

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

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"

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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..."

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

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

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

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

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

Beachcombers Find 18th Century Navigational Device

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

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.