Features
Common Sense Antiques

Helpful Hints for Collectors

The Antique Detective

The Antique Detective Q&A

Is This an Antique?

Antiquing in Colorado

Book Review

Editor's Notebook

LEWIS & CLARK EXPEDITION

Antique home study school partners with appraisal society

The Asheford Institute of Antiques (AIA), a distance learning program on antiques and collectibles, recently formed a partnership with the International Society of Appraisers (ISA) in a bid to expand its student services to the area of professional appraising.

Individuals from both schools will have the opportunity to avail themselves to each other’s curriculum. Both organizations voiced the need for qualified appraisers in the antiques and collectibles field.

The AIA, which has been teaching individuals about antiques through its “Profit & Pleasure” course since 1966, began the partnership with ISA as a direct result of the growth and interest in the field of antique appraisals, according to AIA spokesperson Shirley Huey.

Spokespeople from both organizations said they felt this partnership was only the beginning and could lead to other cooperative alliances down the road.

For more information call (850) 654-1585 or visit www.asheford.com.

Antique service adds eBay for members

GoAntiques recently launched a new auction tool, which allows members of their service to easily move merchandise to and from eBay auctions. If posted items do not meet reserve, they can be relisted on GoAntiques with minimal effort.

“One of a dealer’s biggest challenges with using online auctions is that a large percentage of listings don’t sell,” said Jim Kiamnikar, President and CEO of GoAntiques. “With our new tool, any items not selling at auction can be effortlessly moved into a dealer’s catalog on GoAntiques, hence preserving the work and grabbing a new retail audience.”

GoAntiques features the inventories of reputable art, antiques and collectibles dealers, and galleries worldwide. Its distribution network, including AOL Shopping, Yahoo Shopping, Netscape, and Compuserve, as well as sister sites Antique Networking (www.antiqnet.com) and Kaleden (www.kaleden.com), exposes dealers’ inventory to millions of buyers each month.

For more information visit www.goantiques.com or contact Kathy Kamnikar at (614) 481-5750.

New book is a 'travel companion' for antiquers and collectors

The third edition of Fullers’ Best Antiquing U.S.A., published earlier this year, updates a book many antiquers regard as a “bible” of the industry. Containing revised information, the book stays on top of an industry that is constantly changing as shopkeepers and show promoters come and go.

Deanne Fuller, who authored the book with her husband, Wilbert, said that keeping up with the changing landscape of antiquing is a constant challenge. “A mall can change owners and be entirely different from one year to the next,” she said. The shows are subject to the same challenges as the malls, and new faces are constantly emerging.

The new edition updates 175 markets and shows, 1,100 of the largest antique and collectible malls, plus hundreds of antique auctions. A total of 300 historic antique districts and villages also are included. There are easy-to-read maps, and a calendar of events for regularly scheduled shows throughout the year.

Published by Deebil Publishing Co. of Wichita, KS, the book retails for $19.95. It is available in many antique malls that offer price guides and other antique books.

For more information call (888) 317-7217.

New price guide on Character Toys

For 37 years, Ted Hake has sold and documented America’s most memorable 20th century character toy collectibles. He has now compiled the full breadth of his knowledge into one easy-to-use lexicon, resulting in one of the most comprehensive price guides available. The Official Hake’s Price Guide to Character Toys, 4th edition can tell you everything you’d like to know about character toys.

The book is devoted to the most collected characters, personalities and shows from the fields of comic strips, comic books, radio, movies, television, advertising, music, sports and more. This is a must-have reference for collectors. For anyone who loves nostalgia, it’s a first-class ticket down memory lane.

A virtual history of entertainment from the 1890s to the present, The Official Hake’s Price Guide to Character Toys, 4th edition is an important checklist for all toy collectors. With more than 1,000 pages, more than 39,000 prices, 13,000 photographs and 360 character categories, readers will be able to put a value on almost anything. The guide also provides the latest market report on recent toy prices, brief histories of each character, instruction on how to build and sell a toy collection, and tips on how to value damaged and restored toys.

The book covers everything from the Six-Million-dollar Man lunchbox, to the Mickey Mouse watch, the Bart Simpson Pez dispenser, Marvel Comics action figures, and thousands more. For example, did you know that a Mickey Mouse doll from 1936 can be worth as much as $1200, or a boxed “Lost in Space” Battery Operated Robot from 1977 is worth $325? Your Popeye Sports Roadster Friction Car could fetch $1200 while a Flash Gordon “trip to Mars” poster could be worth $3750!
Published by House of Collectibles, the book is printed in trade paperback format, and retails for $35. For more information call (617) 787-2637.

New price guide for postage stamps released

House of Collectibles has recently released its Official� Blackbook Price Guide to U.S. Postage Stamps. The 26th edition of the full-illustrated guide features an all-new design with stamp images next to each listing. A new 16-page, full-color insert with new collectible stamps also is included.

With more than 2,000 black and white photos and 656 pages, the price guide features every stamp published from 1847 to the present. Also included are mint sheet and plate block prices.

The book, written by Mark and Tom Hudgeons, is paperback and retails for $8.99. It is available at retail book stores throughout the U.S.

‘Old West’ autograph forgeries on the rise as Internet auction traffic increases
The Internet may be the forger’s friend when it comes to selling fake autographs. Warren Anderson, historical document dealer and document examiner of America West Archives in Cedar City, Utah, said he has examined more fake “old west” autographs in the past three years than the previous 20 years combined.

“In the past,” Anderson explained, “people who sold autographs usually sold them to dealers before they were resold to collectors. So there was at least a filtration system in place to catch forgeries, although it wasn’t perfect.” Anderson said that “dealers make mistakes too, because it’s impossible to be an expert in every category of autograph collecting. However, the advent of online auctions on the Internet as given autograph forgers the opportunity to sell directly to buyers without a filtration process.”

Anderson, whose specialty is “old west” autographs, said that three years ago the FBI broke up a major forgery ring dealing in sports memorabilia. He says the crackdown may have forced other forgers out of sports autographs and into other areas of autograph collecting. “In the month of June alone I was asked to authenticate and appraise a number of old west autographs,” Anderson said. “Among them were 10 Wyatt Earp signatures, four Kit Carson signatures, two Bob Ford (who shot Jesse James) signatures, a Jesse James, a Virgil Earp, an Annie Oakley, a John Wesley Hardin, and a handwritten document related to Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith. All were forgeries. It’s like someone has opened the floodgates on this garbage.”

Anderson recently thwarted a major forgery of documents supposedly signed by William Bonney, aka “Billy the Kid,” who was shot and killed by New Mexico Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1881. A reputable Southern California auction business, Little John’s Auction Service in Orange, CA, sold two previously unknown documents, which realized $25,000 and $35,000, plus commission. The firm had received notarized letters of authenticity from an antiques dealer in Tombstone, AZ. Anderson had seen the documents two years before, and tried to help the owner recover his investment, but the owner had refused to cooperate, and now was trying to sell them again.

When Anderson advised him the signatures might be fakes, the auction firm’s owner, John Gangel, put a hold on the sale and spent nearly $1,000 of his own funds to get an additional opinion. Anderson suggested that the documents be sent to an ink dating expert to analyze the chemical makeup of the ink used in the signatures.

After examining the documents, Albert Lyter, owner of Forensic Federal Associates in Raleigh, N.C., concluded that “the commercial availability of the materials used suggests that some of the writings were not prepared until the 1960s at the earliest.” The dealer in Tombstone, AZ, who authenticated the signatures was “shocked” by the report, and protested that the “pedigree on the documents is impeccable.” Impeccable or not, the original owner of the signatures, who lives in New Mexico, got them back.

Anderson said he hopes the FBI will eventually crack down. “Forgers are committing felonies when they attempt to sell their fakes,” he said, “and can now be prosecuted under the RICO Act for racketeering.”