The Aud Farewell Set by City of Buffalo

Recently I have written articles about memorabilia being sold at auction from major league sports venues including Yankee Stadium, Shea Stadium and the RCA Dome. One piece in particular mentioned the upcoming sale of memorabilia from Buffalo Memorial Auditorium affectionately known to Western New Yorkers as The Aud. Although the venue may not be as famous to outsiders as Yankee Stadium and the RCA Dome, The Aud has many wonderful memories for people from the area.

Aside from being the former home of the NHL Buffalo Sabres, The Aud was used to showcase many concerts, political rallies and many other sporting events. After the Buffalo Sabres built the HSBC Arena, The Aud became expendable and will be demolished soon. The City of Buffalo finally announced this week that memorabilia from The Aud will go on sale at a two day festival set for November 15 and 16, 2008 at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center in Buffalo, New York. Among the many items that will be auctioned off will be sets of the blue seats. Those who have moved out of the area and cannot attend in November, need not despair. More memorabilia will be available in an online auction a week after the event.


The event itself is being organized by Showcase Sports Marketing and will be called “Farewell Old Friend.” More information will be forthcoming on as site they have set up at audfarewell.com

Michael Vick Memorabilia Storage Unit Auction

Many years ago, when I owned a shop in Buffalo, New York, a friend whom I had met at an auction came by and asked me if I would deliver some things he had bought at auction. He told me that he had bought the contents of an unpaid storage unit and needed to get some big items home. In return for my help in delivering his goods, I could have whatever was left in the storage unit. I agreed after he told me that the unit contained clean used furniture. He had bought the contents of the unit at auction only because he wanted some chairs that were in there. It was a win win situation, because the cache I got out of the storage unit amounted to thousands of dollars in free furniture, which I quickly sold. When you buy the contents of a storage unit at auction, you just never know what you are going to end up with.

This week, Edward Howard purchased the contents of a storage unit at auction and ended up with a cache of former NFL football star Michael Vick memorabilia. According to wordpress.com, the storage unit in Williamsburg, Virginia went unpaid and Ironbound Road Mini Storage decided to sell off its contents. Edward Howard, although skeptical at first about it actually being Vick’s storage unit, purchased the contents and to his surprise found that it did indeed contain Vick’s property. Mostly, it was property that was given as presents to Michaels son, Mitez. Inside the storage unit were a signed football, signed pictures and books and Michael Vick flags. Unlike me however, Howard has said that he will give the contents back to Vick after he is released from prison.

When Wardrobe Resurfaces as Art

Aprons have been cooks’ companions for hundreds of years. Indeed, aprons were used by men and women for a variety of tasks long before they were seen on 1950s television. During this era, women were portrayed as homemakers and good mothers and you rarely saw them without their aprons. Some researchers point to Biblical references about aprons. They cite a passage in which Adam and Eve sewed together fig leaves to make aprons to cover themselves. We traditionally think of aprons being used for cooking, and while that is true, they have served as a cover-up for other tasks that tend to be messy. Occupations such as butchers, welders and bakers have always used aprons to protect both their clothing and bodies from their work.

For centuries, homemakers have used aprons. Even since the early 19th century, women have used aprons to keep their clothing clean. They have also used aprons to carry essential utensils such as rolling pins, for gathering and carrying eggs and for transporting kindling wood. Aprons have been an effective tool for many, many years. It was not until the 1940s and 1950s that society started to see the stereotypes of the ""perfect mother"" who always wore an apron, no matter what. Until that time, aprons were thought of as a functional piece of the wardrobe.

Today’s aprons are more stylish. Perhaps surprisingly, aprons have made a fashionable comeback, even making occasional runway appearances in the form of the apron dress. You can find aprons at Aprons Info.

NOVA-Antiques Newsletter Archive – September 28, 2006 . . .

Antique Barometers - A Brief History

It wasn’t until 1844 that the first mass marketable barometer was made in France, but the barometer has a much longer history than that. The first mercury barometer was invented by a student of Galileo named Torricelli in 1643. After much research and development by scientists and weathermen, the antique mercury barometer was used to predict changing weather patterns. During the 1700’s many stick barometers were made. These were nothing more than a glass tube with mercury inside and a scale either engraved on a piece of wood or paper scale attached to the wood. Due to the mercury that these antique barometers contain, collectors must use caution when handling them. As a matter of fact, the CDC issued a warning in June of 2007 about these types of antiques.

During the Victorian period, many cabinet makers and clock designers started making elaborate wooden cases for barometers. The wooden cases are often works of art themselves and can bring in thousands of dollars at auction. Many of the antique barometers that we see from this period are in the familiar banjo shape and made of different woods including rosewood and mahogany. After 1844, aneroid (without liquid) barometers were made by many manufacturers and sold on the open market. These barometers are considered safer because they contained no mercury and better because they were smaller, accurate and were more portable. By the late 1800’s mercury barometers were a thing of the past.

Charles Rohlfs – Arts & Crafts Movement

I was reading an old article the other day about a chair that was sold by Cottone Auctions, near Rochester, New York. According to the article the chair which was expected to bring in about $30,000 at auction was actually sold for close to $200,000. Normally, this would not have been unusual if it had been a chair made by Stickley, Wright or Morris, but the maker of the chair was Charles Rohlfs. What intrigued me more was that the article said that Rohlfs was originally from the west side of Buffalo, in the same area where I grew up. I had never heard of him, so I started doing a little research and found an interesting story.

Charles Rohlfs (1853-1936) was born in Brooklyn and studied at Cooper Union and after graduation did some acting. According to some published reports, his acting was awful and he received horrifying reviews from the press. However as a result he met Anna Katherine Green, at the time a best selling crime novelist who was seven years his senior. Before his father in law agreed to their marriage, Rohlfs first had to give up acting. We don’t know how true that may be, but they married in 1884, moved to Buffalo, New York and soon thereafter Rohlfs began designing furniture.

Being one of the most creative craftsmen of the Art & Crafts movement, Rohlfs designs were a bit off when compared to the works of other famous makers of that movement. While others were using simple lines, Rohlfs was using simple lines ornamented with carvings and a mix of styles that set him apart from the rest. Working in the attic of his home at 26 Highland Avenue, Rohlfs created some of the most sophisticated yet creative furniture of the time. Rohlfs then built a mission style home at 156 Park Street in Buffalo, opened a furniture design studio and became world renowned for his abilities. In the early 1900’s, Rohlfs was made a member of the Royal Society of the Arts in London, and later commissioned to provide chairs for Buckingham Palace.

Charles Rohlfs artistic flair and individualistic design can be seen at his mission style home in Buffalo as well as an upcoming 2009 exhibition that will be traveling around the country.

Nippon China and Porcelain

The McKinley Tariff Act of 1891 required that all merchandise manufactured outside of the United States be marked or labeled with the country of manufacture. From 1891 to 1921 many items that were manufactured in Japan were branded with the word Nippon. However, in 1921 the United States government decided that merchandise coming from Japan had to be marked as such, even though Nippon means the source of the rising and son and it is what the Japanese call their country. Merchandise labeled or branded Nippon from that era however has become increasingly collectible and valuable depending on it design.

Although Japan had a long history of producing porcelain, the porcelain marked Nippon was strictly produced for import into the United States and the west. Because Japan did not have counterfeit or copyright laws and they were trained by westerners from other countries, they were able to produce items that were very close in quality and likeness to many other manufacturers of the time, including Beleek and Limoges. Antique Nippon china and porcelain is usually hand painted and very ornately decorated and designed. While elaborate pieces of Nippon are bringing in top dollar, pieces with less design and a lot of white space are bringing in less money.

People also are being cautious because of the amount of fake and reproduction Nippon china available on the open market. According to reports, the fakes first started appearing in the 1980’s with fake stamps bearing a familiar wreath known to Nippon collectors. The more savvy collectors can tell the difference between the fake and the real stamp, but many people cannot and they purchased the fakes. Other companies started reproducing merchandise using actual molds. Most collectors however can tell the difference by the way the porcelain looks and feels and most of these newer reproductions do not bear the proper stamp or label.

Goofus Glass – Not My Favorite

In case you haven’t noticed, I love glass, especially art glass. My favorite is probably Murano Art Glass because it is not only colorful but it comes in so many shapes and sizes and the lines on this art glass are just beautiful. I have never found a piece of Murano Art Glass that I didn’t like. On the other hand, my least favorite is Goofus glass, even the name sounds, well goofy.

Goofus glass is pressed glass that was painted while the glass was cold. When you find this type of glass, in a lot of cases, you will find that the paint flakes or chips off and makes it look cheap. The old saying, “If you buy quality now, it will still be quality in the future,” is definitely true in this case. In the early 20th Century, when Goofus glass was produced, it was made very cheaply and it was used as premiums or give-away with soap or at carnivals, it is sort of the predecessor for Carnival glass. Companies that produced this type of glass included Indiana Glass, Dugan Diamond and Northwood. Although it is not my favorite glass, Goofus glass is still highly sought after by some collectors, especially those items made by Northwood.