Bertoia’s Toy Auction in Vineland, New Jersey

When I was a kid, after living in New York City, my parents moved to Vineland, New Jersey for a few years so that my father could be closer to his family and because my uncle had secured him a job with the public school system there. We lived on Elmer Street, a quiet little street, with a branch of the local library at the corner and Newberry’s five and dime down the street. I attended, Maurice Fels Elementary School, a small four classroom school that housed kindergarten thru third grade.

I still get to Vineland once in awhile to visit my aunts who still live there and I am always amazed at the change of the little town into a bigger city with bustling stores, shops and neighborhoods. When I visit, one of my aunts insists that I take her to our old haunts, the Berlin Flea Market and the Cowtown Flea Market. Even back then as youngster, I couldn’t get enough of the old things.

Vineland will swell with even more people next weekend. Bertoia Auctions, which is based in Vineland, is having a three day Toys for All Seasons auction on Friday thru Sunday, November 7 – 9, 2008. This auction promises to have everything from cast iron toys to board games and Halloween figures. The star of this auction will be a 27” tall Santa mechanical toy store display, which is expected to bring in more than $10,000. Bertoia, which specializes in antique and collectible toys holds auctions in New Jersey a few times a year.

Brief History of the Tea Caddy

Ahhh . . . a refreshing cup of tea. The same tea that the patriots dumped into the Boston Harbor was introduced to the English from China in the mid 1600’s. Believed to be a healing drink by its early connoisseurs, tea was originally for the well to do because of its extremely high price. Tea was packaged and imported in large quantities and the tax man then levied heavy taxes on the shipments. Tea remained very expensive for about 100 years, until many people started buying the tea illegally from the black market. Because tea was associated with the mighty and powerful, it had to be stored in only the best boxes or what was known as the tea caddy.

The word caddy is from Malaysia and was a unit of measure equal to about 3/5 of a kilo. In the early 1700’s a lot of tea caddies were made of wood in very intricate design, many featuring tortoiseshell and ivory. These boxes were shaped like small chests and some were even carved in the Chippendale style. These antique early boxes are very rare and collectible today. In the 1800’s the tea caddies began to take different shapes, with influences coming from both China and Egypt. Many of the tea caddies from this era featured pagoda tops and tapered sides as well a concave and other linear combinations.

NOVA-Antiques Newsletter Archives - August 3, 2007 . . . .

Ruffino Tamayo Mural at Sotheby’s

Ruffino Tamayo was born in 1899 in Oaxaca, Mexico and was a Zapotecan Indian. After the death of his parents in 1911, he moved to Mexico City. He studied at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas. He went on to work at the National Archeological Museum where he was first exposed to folk art. After a one man show in Mexico City in 1926, he moved to New York where he thought his art would be better received. Tamayo became a widely recognized painter and artist during his time in New York and exhibited his works at many galleries and museums. In 1955 he returned to Mexico City where he painted a huge mural titled America.

America, which measures a whopping 13 feet by 14 feet, will be sold at the Fall Latin American Artists Sale Sotheby’s Auctions. The painted mural is expected to bring in between $7 and $9 million. Originally painted by Tamayo for the Bank of Southwest Houston, this work of art has been on loan to the Dallas Museum of Art for the past fifteen years. The Sotheby’s Latin American Artist sale will take place on November 18 and 19, 2008. Besides America, other Tamayo works will be offered for sale as well as works by Carlos Cruz-Diez, Antonio Asis, Sandra Cinto and Marta Boto.

Tiffin Collectors Club Sponsors Antique Show & Sale

One of the longest operating elegant glass companies in America, Tiffin Glass Company, went through major changes in management throughout their history. Originally, A.J. Beatty & Sons Glass Factory in Steubenville, Ohio, the company changed its name to Tiffin when it moved to Tiffin, Ohio in 1888. Most glass producing plants were susceptible to fire because of the furnaces needed to produce the glass and Tiffin was no exception. In 1893, the plant burned down to the ground and had to be rebuilt. The plant did survive the great depression but trouble arose later in the late 50’s and early 60’s and in just the span of a few years the Tiffin changed hands several times.

In the late 1950’s, Tiffin began having financial difficulties and was sold to an investment firm in New York and then later in 1962 to Brihart Plastics of Mineola, New York. In 1963, Tiffin again was sold and purchased by a group of former employees. They re-named the company Tiffin Art Glass Company and the company took off with millions in sales. In 1966 the company was sold yet again to the Continental Glass Company and was re-named Tiffin Glass Company and in 1968 it was sold to Interpace the parent company of many pottery and china companies including Shenango and Mayer China. The company was sold for the last time in 1979 to Towle Silversmiths and the name changed to Tiffin Crystal. One thing is for certain about this company, no matter the changes in management or the subtle changes in name, they always managed to produce quality elegant glass.

The Tiffin Glass Collectors Club will be sponsoring the 14th Annual Fall Glass and Antiques Show & Sale in where else but Tiffin, Ohio. The show which will be held this coming Saturday Sunday, November 1 & 2, 2008, will not only feature the most beautiful of Tiffin glass products, but will also have antique furniture, china and vintage collectibles. The Tiffin Glass Club Collectors Club will also be offering a new ornament with the Tiffin logo made by Mosser Glass in Cambridge, Ohio for $25 each. Held at the Seneca School of Opportunity, this indoor show has plenty of free parking and food is available.

NOVA-Antiques Newsletter Edition Updates on Upcoming Events

The October 24, 2008 edition of the NOVA-Antiques Newsletter has been published and contains information about How to tell a First Edition Book; the Fabulous Finds Annual Barn Sale; a Bob Hope Memorabilia Auction and information about upcoming antiques and collectibles auctions, estate sales, flea markets and antique shows.

NOVA-Antiques Newsletter is published twice per month by NOVA-Antiques and currently has a subscriber base of about 2500 subscribers. NOVA-Antiques is the Mid-Atlantic website for all things antique and collectible.

Antique & Vintage Bicycles Bring Flood of Memories

Like many people, I remember my very first bike. We were living in Vineland, New Jersey and I was in first grade at the time. My brother in law, who was a wiz at all things mechanical, purchased a used Schwinn bike for me. He made it look very nice by spray painting it black and white and the wheels were those thick knobby type with the white walls. Thinking about it brought back some awesome memories of my younger days flying down the street in front of little house on Elmer Street, with my brother in law and sister looking on. But what actually spurned these memories was an article that I read online the other day about a vintage bike shop.

Landmark Vintage Bicycles in New York City has a wide array of restored vintage bicycles made by the legendary Schwinn and Raleigh companies. According to a company profile, Landmark is owned by Chung Pai who is a bicycle enthusiast himself. Most of his clientele are not professional cyclists, but people like me, with nostalgia on their mind; People drawn to all things old and antique and to bicycles that remind us of our youth, with curvy lines, big whitewall tires and the little bell on the handlebars. I don’t remember whatever happened to the old bike, but I sure wish I would have kept it.

Prices for an antique or vintage bike can range from a few dollars for one that is not restored, to thousands of dollars for bikes that have been fully restored to their original condition. At Landmark Vintage Bicycles, old bikes are going for anywhere from $175 to over $1000 for an antique, 1930, Bridgestone bicycle. Each of the bikes in the shop is restored to their original condition and they also sell a wide array of accessories consistent with the time periods. The Schwinn Stingray bike pictured on the right recently sold on eBay for more than $700.

Vintage Sex Goes Up in Smoke

This past Sunday in Jacksonville, Florida a church congregation gathered to set fire to a cache of vintage sex films from the 1970’s -1980’s. It turns out, that the collection of more than 100 reels of the vintage sex were found in an old drive in movie theater building that the church had recently purchased. The church paid close to $1.4 million for the drive in and found the cache of X-rated movies when they were cleaning up . . . imagine their surprise. The most amusing part to me however is not that they found a cache of porn, but that they thought it best to bless the water in the fire trucks that were used to keep the fire under control.

Isn’t there something in our constitution about separation of church and state? We can’t have our children pray in schools, but we can let our fire trucks spew out holy water? There is something wrong with this picture. Got to give the padre of the church credit though, some Catholic priests or other ministers would have hid the cache for themselves. Others would have found a way to sell it; in case you all in Jacksonville hadn’t heard, sex sells and aren’t the churches always looking for donations? I guess they don’t really need to ask for any more donations though if they can afford to buy a drive in for $1.4 million and set fire to vintage collectibles that would have brought in thousands of dollars for the church.