May Calendar - Lots of Antique Shows

Well, it's time to turn my calendar page over to MAY! I see that there are a lot of antique shows this month.

• Urbana Antique Show
  This weekend, May 3 & 4, is the monthly Urbana Antique Show -- always a fun time, with a variety of treasures at all price points. I hope it doesn't rain, so there will be lots of outside dealers set up.

• Max's Flea Market
  For my local Lima-area readers, this weekend is also Max's Flea Market on 309. Lots of animals-- if you need a chicken or a puppy, this is your place. But there are flea market dealers with treasures, too. And this event just keeps getting bigger and bigger. More good news -- the ice cream stand on the corner is already open for the season --yum!

• MOTHER'S DAY
  The 2nd Sunday of the month is MOTHER'S DAY -- don't forget her! Hey - buy her an antique treasure!

• MANSFIELD BOTTLE SHOW
  That weekend is also the much anticipated most excellent MANSFIELD BOTTLE SHOW !! This has nothing to do with the monthly flea market, but is a once-a-year major bottle collecting event put on by the OHIO BOTTLE CLUB. I really recommend going on Friday, during dealer set up. It costs more for early-bird admission, but is so worth it. Aside from the first peek at the goodies, you'll get to visit with fellow collectors at the free dinner. I'll be setting up there, in the back of the Arts & Crafts building, so be sure to stop by and say HI!
• More info:
  MAY 10 - MANSFIELD, OHIO The Ohio Bottle Club's 30th Annual Mansfield Antique Bottle & Advertising Show & Sale (8 AM - 2 PM; Early Buyers Fri. 2 - 6 PM) at the Richland County Fairgrounds, Trimble Rd. Exit, U.S. Rt. 30, Mansfield, Ohio. INFO: BILL KOSTER, PO Box 585, Barberton, OH 44203, PH: (330) 690-2794.

• SPRINGFIELD EXTRAVAGANZA
  Then the next weekend, May 16, 17, & 18th is one of my favorite big antique shows -- the SPRINGFIELD EXTRAVAGANZA !
  This is another show where I highly recommend paying for early-bird, and going early FRIDAY during dealer set-up. It is a huge show, and this one may be even bigger than usual, as the promoters, Jenkins Management has partnered with Country Home Magazine to bring us (from their press releases):
• The 2008 Country Home Antiquing Festival - an event series that celebrates antiques, style, fun and creativity! Featuring Designer Showcases, Country Home Magazine will create a branded "Country Home showcase" ON DISPLAY AT THE ANTIQUE SHOW, featuring the best in home furnishings, appliances, accessories, décor and products. A high profile decorator and antiques dealer will design the Country Home Showcase in each market.
  
• More info:
  Springfield Antique Show & Flea Market 937-325-0053Clark County Fairgrounds ∙ 4401 S. Charleston Pike ∙ Springfield, OH 45502Located just off exit 59 on Interstate I-70, 40 minutes from Dayton and Columbus
• Early Bird Admission: $10 Gets you re-admission for the duration of the show (Available only May 16, 7am – noon)
• General Admission: $5 per day -- Hours:May 16: Noon – 6pmMay 17: 8am – 5pmMay 18: 9am – 4pm

• Memorial Day
  Memorial Day is Monday the 26th, and that means another local Lima area event -- Harrod's big community garage sale, with the Flea Market in the park. I'm going to try to get my garage organized so I can have a big garage sale that weekend.

BOTTLE SHOW CALENDARS

Here are a couple of BOTTLE SHOW CALENDARS you should book mark, so you won't miss any good shows in your area.

• FEDERATION OF HISTORIC BOTTLE COLLECTORS website's show calendar.
• ANTIQUE BOTTLE & GLASS COLLECTOR MAGAZINE and GLASS WORKS AUCTIONS show calendar.

Well, that'll wrap up my month. I hope we all find some wonderful treasures at all these great shows. So stay tuned-- you never know what I'll find!

ANTIQUE FRUIT JAR COLLECTOR GEAR

Here's a picture of just a few of Jeff's jars.

Jars pictured are:
STAR & CRESCENT ~ THE ALSTON ~ SEALFAST SOLD BY - LIMA OHIO ~ THE VAN VLIET JAR OF 1881 ~ RUBY SPECIAL

I thought his photo turned out so nicely, I decided to make a T-shirt for him with the photo printed on it.

The t-shirt turned out great, and so I thought-- well, maybe other jar collectors would like it too... and so here you are--

TA-DA! Announcing my new line of ANTIQUE FRUIT JAR COLLECTOR GEAR!

Great stuff for antique fruit jar collectors! Hats and T-shirts to wear ~ a super big canvas bag to carry your treasures ~ a coffe mug, notecards, and more ~ great as gifts!

You can buy these fun items at my new CafePress shop, ANTIQUE FRUIT JAR COLLECTOR SHOP. I hope you'll check it out, and let me know what you think. Thanks!

Local History in Postcard Books

In a recent post on Moody's Postcards Blog, he wrote about having just read a book from Arcadia's "Postcard History Series" which features early local history of specific areas illustrated with vintage postcards.

It definitely sounded like my kinda thing, so I immmediately surfed over to the ARCADIA PUBLISHING website.

I found that they have hundreds of titles on local histories-- so many small American towns, (and some big ones), all illustrated with images from antique photographs, and real-photo-postcards. I can't wait till my order arrives!

Since I collect postcards, as well as Lima, Ohio memorabilia, and am in the Findlay Antique Bottle Club, I was pleased to find some books in Arcadia's offerings that kind of tie those subjects all together. And I get to illustrate this post with just a few of my LIMA RPPCs.

Findlay in Vintage Postcards -- a history of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio. Captured here in over 200 vintage images is the development of this quintessential Midwest town, from its origins as a rural farming region to the prosperous community it is today.

Fostoria, Ohio: Volume II -- Volume Two features the Glass Era and is released in conjunction with the Bicentennial of the State of Ohio (1803-2003) and the Sesquicentennial of the City of Fostoria (1854-2004). Both titles include over 100 vintage photographs to compliment Paul H. Krupp's popular writings.

Glass in Northwest Ohio -- The discovery of natural gas around Findlay in 1886 started an industrial rush in northwest Ohio. Within five years, over 100 glass companies had moved into the region...

Here's all the rest of their Ohio books. You can click on the map at bottom of the page to search for other U.S. states.

Check out their most excellent site -- I'm sure you'll find some titles for yourself, or as gifts for your collector friends. Mom and Dad's "Hallmark Days" are coming up fast!

Killer Antique Bottles Can Still Be Found!

The Antique Trader website just got a facelift. I always read interesting articles there.

Here's an inspiring blurb they wrote about a recent antique bottle auction. Just goes to show you, there are still some great finds to be made! Happy Hunting!!

Bitters bottles still tops at ABA Spring sale

April 17, 2008

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – American Bottle Auctions concluded its recent spring
sale of 207 antique bottles, with the market still seeing strong results and
high demand for good examples of rare American bottles.

Two lots in particular drew the attention of bidders, as well as auctioneer
Jeff Wichsel. A rare jar and an excellent bitters bottle topped
American Bottle Auctions' recent spring sale.

The first was lot 204, a bottle known as the People's Favorite Bitters.
Previous to this sale, there were only three known examples of this bottle,
and the one that crossed the block at ABA was found by a woman in Kansas while
her parents were demolishing an old house. With spirited biddings, the bottle
exceeded expectations and sold for $25,760.

Another rare and exceptional piece was a DALBEY fruit jar found by a woman
who had just moved into an old farmhouse in Naperville, Ohio. It was one of only
a handful known and the finest example know to date. She found it in a cupboard
while looking around the place. More than likely, the bottle had sat in the same
cupboard for the last 150 years. After all that time, the bottle appreciated in
value to $17,360.

The sale total brought in almost $280,000, inclusive of the 12 percent
buyer's fee.

Want to know more? And see the most awesome bottle pix? Check out American Bottle Auctions's website.

Here's my earlier blog post with the TOP 10+ list of the most-watched antique bottles currently on ebay in just the BOTTLES category.

Ebay Listing Sale 4 Power Sellers - Tuesday 4-22

Hey- if you're an Ebay Power Seller, they just announced a ONE DAY listing fee sale for Tuesday 4-22-08. You'll save 25 cents per listing, and every little bit helps these days, right?

Here's the ebay link:
***PowerSellers: Pay Only 10 Cents for Auction-Style and Fixed Price Listings on April 22nd***

OK, I'd better get back to work!

My Vintage Cookie Jar Collection

While Jeff is getting his insulators ready to list, I decided to "deaccess" some more of my vintage cookie jar collection. I don't even remember which ones I have, anymore! I'm sure I've had over 1,000 cookie jars, and have about 150-200 (give or take a few) left. I went up to my storage room, and was pleasantly surprised. They are just so darned cute! But I'm trying to down-size my treasure trove, and I can't keep everything, so I grabbed a couple dozen gems to start with.

Cookie jars are one of the very first things I collected, way back when I first got into antiquing back in California. I remember we went to a local auction, and everyone there had their cookie jar price guides with them, and they were so intense, and prices seemed so high to us novices. It was fascinating!

The next weekend we had a garage sale, and this friendly guy asked us if we had any cookie jars, which made us exclaim "You should have been at this auction!" Well, it turned out he had, as they were HIS cookie jars. Then he showed us the check he got-- and that was it, we were officially cookie jar hounds!

His name was Bud, and we will always remember him fondly. He gave us some great advice, which I still try to go by, and that is "Buy it right, so you can't get hurt." So we initiated our $5.00 rule-- buy any cookie jar that was $5.00 or less. I told you this was "back in the day". That's how we accumulated so many cookie jars.

I've had fun collecting them, but I also enjoy selling them, and knowing they are going to collectors who really appreciate them. I guess we'll see how they do on ebay this month.

Here's my recent blog post with the TOP 10 LIST of Most Watched Vintage Cookie Jars on ebay now.

Some great sites if you want to find out more about collecting cookie jars:

• The Cookie Jar Net
• Top 10 Cookie Jar Resources (on about.com)
• Cookie Jars for sale on Rubylane.com

Look at these recently sold on ebay: some whoppers!

• American Bisque Harvey Comics HERMAN KATNIP Cookie Jar
  $1,225.00 Apr-13-08
• Laurel & Hardy Cookie Jar Collector's Set
  $1,000.00 Apr-13 -08
• SWEET PEA. JAR COOKIE VERY VINTAGE AND RARE RARE
  $975.00 Apr-15-08
• USA "Smiley" Pig Cookie Jar $900.42 Apr-16-08
• Authentic 1951 Vallona Starr WINKY Cookie Jar ~RARE
  $665.00 Apr-18-08
• VINTAGE MINT HAPPY HIPPO COOKIE JAR BY BRUSH MCCOY
  $650.00
• Vintage Red Wing Cookie Jar Chef Pierre "Green"
  $545.00 Apr-15-08

Top 10 List - Antique Insulators

You may have noticed that this week I listed a few vintage glass Telephone Pole INSULATORS on ebay.

Jeff has decided to open his insulator vault, and release a few back into the wild. I'm cool with that, as they are very easy to ship, something I am always hoping for. Some of his chunky glass insulators are just the prettiest colors. But identity and rarity is his department. I'm just along for the ride, and am looking forward to seeing what these "chosen few" wind up selling for.


To get some idea of the potential value, here are some recent ebay completed insulator auctions--WOW!!! Now these were NOT ours, and I doubt if Jeff'll be parting with any of this type, but it's always great fun to see some gems that others have sold.

If you want to learn more, check out:

• NATIONAL INSULATOR ASSOCIATION

• 'The Insulators Page' ON COLLECTOR'S WEEKLY. It includes info, and many links to more sites, and their great widget list showing all the current highest priced insulator auctions on ebay that actually HAVE BIDS. You can see the full completed list, too. I can't say enough how much I am liking this site!

In addition to the links on Collectors Weekly, you might want to check out these other informative websites all about INSULATORS:

• World-Wide Insulator Collecting and ID Guide


• Tip's for buying, selling and collecting insulators


• A SHORT GUIDE TO COLLECTING INSULATORS
  

And to top it all off, here's my favorite widget, showing you the current ebay insulator auctions with the MOST WATCHERS, so you can put these gems on your radar, too.

Blast From The Past #4

Shall we stroll down "My Memory Lane", and explore another batch of interesting items I sold on ebay a few years ago. This was an "all paper" batch, with goodies dating from the Civil War to 1948. I just like everything!

Click on the photo to see a larger view.

Starting with the Civil War photo of General William Smith of Nashville, Tennessee. This was one of the small business-card sized photos called CDV's, or CARTE DE VISITE, meaning literally Visiting Card, more loosley, Calling Card. This was a very popular photograph format back then, and people would actually leave them as calling cards. It was also a popular form for souvenir photos of important people. As it is of an identified officer, I think that this photo would bring right around the same price ($100+) on ebay today, based on my search for "Civil War General CDV".

Civil War items are highly collectible. I once sold an un-dug excellent condition Confederate Officer's uniform button, and I with Stars, for just shy of $1000.00. That was an exciting week!

Here's a link to an Infantry Button similar to mine. Sadly, I didn't saved the photo of mine. I think it was in much better condition.

Continuing on with Military Photos, I sold a group of 12 photos of some Navy Sailors and the traditional right-of-passage/hazing KING NEPTUNE LINE CROSSING CEREMONY that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the equator. Here's a current ebay listing for WWII King Neptune US Navy Ceremony Photos.

My 1920's group brought $57.00, and I'd bet that price would still hold, or do a little better, since they're older than what's on now. Here's another current listing, CROSSING THE LINE CEREMONY 1940'S PHOTO.

You've seen the cute dressed frog postcard before, in my recent FROGGY FANTASY post.
Mine had some serious condition problems, but still brought $36.00. A very-good-condition "1907 Rose Clark Brassie Frog Postcard" recently closed at $88.79.

And lastly, there was the Esquire Pin-Up Girl Calendar that brought $50.00. They're bringing about $35.00 now, as they seem to be "available", so I did well. Here's the link to ebay "Esquire Calendar" listings.

Despite all the things going on with ebay, I think it's still the place where you can sell a variety of items quickly, and get a good price. There are plenty of buyers. You just have to have something that's a little special.

Can't wait till the next "special" thing I find. Maybe it'll be from one of the antique malls in Springfield, where I'll be on Thursday. Stay tuned, cuz you never know what I'll find!

The Sandman Cometh

The FINDLAY ANTIQUE BOTTLE CLUB just had our annual Spring Dinner Meeting. Lots of good food, and lots and lots of good visiting. It's always fun to get together and catch up on what goodies everyone's found recently, and to hear about what shows or auctions they've been to. It's nice to know there are other people who are into what I'm into, whose eyes don't glaze over every time I mention bottles, auctions, or ebay (you know who you are).

And speaking of ebay, just a couple of quick tidbits, for those of you who don't subscribe (yet) to AuctionBytes, so might not have heard. One, last week Ebay announced that they will be making lots more changes in the near future, and that "within a year, we won't recognize the site". Coming on the heels of their recent "revoltin' developments", that comment makes me nervous. Especially compounded by the announcement this week that Ebay Australia is now paypal only-- no other payment forms can be used by buyer or seller. Yikes! I won't go into these things, but you can find lots of comments out in the blogosphere.

So, back to the club meeting. Jeff passed around a fruit jar that was a "smooth-lip Mason's 1858" in "Ball Blue". Even though this jar has not been documented to have been made by Ball, conventional wisdom has it that all Ball Blue color jars were made by Ball, which brought up the question "why is the glass that particular shade of blue?" Jeff's answer, "It's all in the sand, baby!" That led to the story of Ball buying sand from the once famous, now gone, Indiana landmark 'The HOOSIER SLIDE'.

I wanted to know more, so came home and googled it. Here's my report.

According to the Michigan City Public Library:

Once Indiana's most famous landmark, Hoosier Slide was a huge sand dune bordering the west side of Trail Creek where it entered Lake Michigan. At one time it was nearly 200 feet tall, mantled with trees. Cow paths marked its slopes and people picnicked upon its crest. Climbing Hoosier Slide was very popular in the late 1800's with the excursionist crowds who arrived in town by boat and train from Chicago and other cities. The summit, where weddings were sometimes held, afforded an excellent view of the vast lumberyards which then covered the Washington Park area. With the development of Michigan City, the timber was cut for building construction and the sand began to blow, sometimes blanketing the main business district of the town on Front St., which nestled near its base.When it was discovered that the clean sands of Hoosier Slide were useful for glassmaking, the huge dune began to be mined away. Dock workers loaded the sand into railroad cars with shovel and wheelbarrow to be shipped to glassmakers [and other places]. Over a period of 30 years, from about 1890 to 1920, 13 1/2 million tons of sand were shipped from Hoosier Slide until the great dune was leveled. By the 1920's, nothing remained of the giant dune.

You can see in these pix how the railroad cars were there to take all the sand away.
Here's a telling excerpt from a memoir on emichigancity.com [the man is writing about his father] --

"For twenty-five years, six days a week, he pushed an iron-wheeled wheelbarrow, moving sand from Hoosier Slide onto gondola carts headed for the manufacturing of canning jars."

Now why do Ball Jar collectors care about the Hoosier Slide? An ingredient in the sand caused glass made with it to be a certain shade of blue... the famous BALL BLUE, to be exact.
Greg Spurgeon mention's the sand/color factoid on his great web page about FRUIT JAR COLORS. This page will resolve many a question as to what color is your jar, anyway?!
Speaking of fruit jars and Greg, he has started a new website, NORTH AMERICAN GLASS, and is having specialized FRUIT JAR AUCTIONS. Here's the link to his just-closed Fruit jar auction results with the final prices.
And speaking of great new-to-me websites, I recently got turned on to a really fun site, called The Collectors Weekly. It's got info and links on all kinds of collectibles, and they show the current highest ebay auctions, and completed ebay auctions, on each categories page -- excellent!
Here's what they say about their site:

Welcome to The Collectors Weekly, a resource for collectors and people who love antiques. Our goal is to build a great place to explore and learn about collecting, and a showcase for the passion and knowledge of collectors everywhere. What you'll find here:
Category pages: Information on hundreds of collecting categories.
Hall-of-Fame: A showcase of the best collector websites.
Basics: Reference information on collecting topics.

You should check it out. Just be sure you have some time to spend-- it's addicting-- oh just one more page, oh wait, one more... you'll see!
To start you off, here's their FRUIT JAR page.
Have fun!

Auction Preview and Gonder Goodies

Oh, I haven't been to an auction or done any antiquing in almost 2 weeks, and I'm really starting to feel the itch.

The last time I was out and about, I went to my mall to stock my booth, and did some shopping afterwards. I picked up was this wonderful Gonder Pottery Bali Woman figure. The deep burgundy glaze is just yummy, and is the same color as my beloved Gonder Shell Vase. She looks like she would have matched this BALI MAN FIGURINE currently on ebay. I'll be watching for him in burgundy! Since Gonder doesn't have it's own ebay category I can't use my "watching widget", so here's a link to the newest Gonder Ebay Listings.

I was reviewing the calendar, and there are a lot of interesting antique activities coming up in May. Just a few are: the Mansfield Bottle Show, the Springfield Extravaganza, and the big start to garage sale season, Memorial Day weekend. I'll give you more details on these and some other interesting events soon.

Note for my local readers: There is what sounds like a good big antique estate auction this Saturday, at the fairgrounds in Wapak, so I'll be attending that. Hope I find some treasures. You never know!!

Here are some preview pix of this auction:

Froggy Fantasy

April is National Frog Month. Who decided that, and why, I don't know. But I do enjoy the fantasy dressed frog images of yore. So did the Victorians, and they used the humorous froggy a lot on antique trade cards, cigar box labels, and postcards. So here are but a few for your enjoyment.

Blast From the Past #3

Here's another collage pic of the highlights of my ebay sales way back in March 2004. Click on it to see a larger view.
The market has certainly cooled down since then. I am happy I sold these gems when I did. Imagine, that tiny plastic Cap'n Crunch cereal premium bringing $134! Now the Hedi Schoop piece might still make that. I did a quick check, and there wasn't one like it on now or recently.

The darling Boy at the Beach (Sunday's Child by Royal Worcester) is being reproduced (poorly), and that must have killed this figurine-- one recently brought $11, and there are several going without bids.
Cigar labels have also softened, into a puddle unless it's a better themed-sample -- sports, Indians, patriotic, political . These particular labels might do as well this time around, but I am glad that I sold most of my cigar box label collection when I did. I loved the "pretty ladies", and they are not moving as well as they once did.
And of course cookie jars have also puddled, with the rare exception. I still have a lot of my cookie jar collection, and will have to figure out where/when to sell them. So I guess it's time to start tracking cookie jars-- here's the TOP 10 LIST of the Most Watched Cookie jars on Ebay Now...

National Postcard Week

National Postcard Week is the first week in May. Here's a great postcard magazine, POSTCARD COLLECTOR. They keep you well-informed on the postcard hobby (DELTIOLOGY), incuding a calendar of POSTCARD SHOWS.

I really enjoyed their article on ads advertising postcards from publishers to retailers. Here are some pix from the article, ADVERTISING POSTCARDS, showing ads from a 1906 trade publication sent to encourage businesses to sell postcards.