August 2012 Antiques Newsletter Published

The August edition of the NOVA-Antiques online Newsletter has been published.  This edition contains about vintage and antique rotary telephone dialers; what they are and how they came about as well as an article on how decorators and designers love antique fireplace screens; and the recent auction of an usual antique vampire hunter kit complete with pistol, garlic and silver bullet maker.

The August edition of the NOVA-Antiques Newsletter also contains information about upcoming antique shows including the Lucketts Fair which will be held at the end of the month near Leesburg, Virginia and the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show in Baltimore, Maryland as well as the Hillsville Flea Market and the York Antiques Show.  Lastly, the Newsletter contains information about two upcoming auctions; a Country Store Sale in North Carolina and large estate auction in Clarence, New York.

NOVA-Antiques is the Mid Atlantic website for all things antique and collectible.  If you enjoy reading the NOVA-Antiques Newsletter as much as I enjoy publishing it, please hit the recommend buttons at the top of the page so that your friends can enjoy it too.

Another Fantastic Goodwill Find

On several occasions I have walked into thrift stores and have found items that were vintage collectibles and that I thought might have some worth to someone.  My finds include a Royal Delft Bowl, Some Replogle Globes, Moon and Stars Compotes, Asian Ivory Wall Hangings and even a vintage toy Kaleidoscope.  These have all sold for a nice profit and I am always on the lookout for the next “great find.”  Unfortunately, my luck has not been as good as the lady in North Carolina this past April.

Beth Feeback is an artist who bought two large paintings at the local Goodwill.  Her intent was not to make a profit on them, but to paint over them.  You see, large blank canvases can cost quite a bit of money to an artist.  So many artist buy used paintings on canvas and then recycle the canvas by putting their own artistic creations on them.  Usually this is a very smart move because the paintings you find at thrift stores are mostly done by amateurs or recreational painters.  However, not so in this instance.

When she got home, Ms. Feeback did what I, and just about anyone else, would have done.  She “Googled” the artist’s names and to her surprise found that one of the artists was not an amateur at all, but none other than Illy Bolotowski.  To a lot of people, including Beth, the name would have probably meant nothing if she hadn’t searched it.  But as it turns out, Illy Bolotowski was a Russian born abstract painter from New York.

The painting Beth was about to paint over was titled Vertical Diamonds and it is estimated that it will bring in some $20,000 - $30,000 at auction.  In fact, the painting will be auctioned off in September.  Not a shabby find at the Goodwill Store for Beth Feeback and a nice tidy profit of probably over $20,000. 

Recent Auction of Antique Radio

A few months I wrote about radios and collecting vintage radios in both the Newsletter and on my NOVA-Antiques Blog.  It is really easy to fall in love with old vintage radios because of their beauty and also their nostalgia.  So it was no surprise to me when I saw on the news recently about an old antique radio that brought in more than $34,000 at auction.

This wasn’t just any antique radio though; this was a very rare Sparton Nocturne radio that was made in 1936 in the art deco style of the time.  These were originally made by the Sparks-Withington Company and they only made about 500 of them.  The radio that sold this past month did not even work; had it been in working condition, the radio could have brought in more than $75,000.

Antique Shows & Events July 20-22, 2012

The granddaddy of all antique shows in the Washington DC area rolls into town this weekend.  The DC Big Flea, is held at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia attracts hundreds of dealers and thousands of visitors.  This antique show features everything imaginable; antique furniture, vintage porcelain, pottery and glass as well as vintage linens, lighting and clocks.  This show is definitely one of my favorites because if you can’t find what your are looking for here, you are probably not going to find it anyware.

If you are in the upstate New York area, another great show is The Great American Antiquefest in Liverpool, New York.  This is a three day show beginning today, that attracts close to two hundred dealers and thousands of people from around the country.  It too features furniture, vintage glass and porcelain as well as ephemera, sterling, jewelry, toys and other vintage collectibles.  This is another “can’t miss” antiques show.

If you are in Delaware, Virginia, New Jersey or Pennsylvania, you may want to visit The Antiques Fair at Renninger’s this Saturday or Sunday.  They have two locations, one in Kutztown and one in Adamstown, Pennsylvania.  This antique markets are very popular with antiques and collectibles dealers and are considered prime picking grounds.  The antiques market at Kutztown is normally open on Saturdays and the one at Adamstown is normally open on Sundays.

As a disclaimer, NOVA-Antiques does not own, operate or manage any of the antique markets or events listed on our webpages or blog.  We provide information for our readers and subscribers.  Sometimes owners and operators may change times and dates of events or cancel them altogether.  Please check with them before embarking on any journey.

Trinkets and Trinket Boxes

This weekend, I did not go out of the house except to get a haircut and to go to the gym.  Most of the weekend was spent working on my website updating webpages and adding new inventory.  For those that do not have their own website, just to let you know, it can be tedious and time consuming.  The benefit is that you are not paying another site a lot of money to host your online store or kiosk.  But this story is not about my website, it is about a trinket or trinket holder that I came across while toiling away; and what exactly is a trinket?

Defining a trinket is really simple.  According to the dictionary, a trinket is an inexpensive piece of jewelry that is also not valuable.  Some would argue that an inexpensive piece of jewelry is not jewelry at all; and so therefore the name trinket.  And of course, where would one keep such items of non-value?  A trinket holder or box of course.  One wouldn’t want to mix trinkets with real jewelry, which of course should be kept in jewelry case or box.  So the story goes that trinket boxes go back to the 1600s and of course France.

The first trinket boxes were actually commissioned by nobles and were nothing if not very fancy and adorned with gold and silver.  In fact, one of the first trinket boxes was produced was in Limoge, France.  Made of porcelain and enamels and adorned in gold and silver, the trinket box was probably worth more than the trinkets it held.  And of course if you were to get your hands on one today, it would probably be worth a few million dollars.  The good news for those of us that don’t have millions to spend on a trinket holder is that there are far less expensive ones on the market that can be just as eye catching.

Trinket holders or boxes, also shortened to just trinkets by some folks, come in a variety of shapes, colors and made of many different materials.  There are inexpensive vintage glass trinkets made by glass manufacturers such as Fenton, Westmoreland and Jefferson.  And there are those made of porcelain from Limoges, Capodimonte, and Sorelle.  Then there are others that are made of wood, metal or enamels and come in interesting shapes, including animals and some that are appropriately named, casket trinket boxes because of course they look like a casket. 

Antique Shows and Flea Markets This Weekend

The weatherman this morning said that the weekend temperatures will be normal for this time of year in the Mid Atlantic states.  In Virginia, that means about a sunny and pleasant mid-80s weekend.  This makes it perfect weather to get out and visit some of the area antique flea markets. 

In Washington DC the granddaddy of them all is the Georgetown Flea Market.  This antique market attracts some 50-60 dealers and thousands of people from the Mid Atlantic area.  This outdoor market is held outdoors and features everything from antique furniture and vintage collectibles to retro art glass and old advertising prints and artwork as well as linens and antique lighting and rugs.

If you are in the New York area, ArtHampton takes place this weekend, July 13-14, 2012.  ArtHamptons takes place once a year and is a fine arts fair in Bridgehampton, New York.  It attracts hundreds of art galleries from around the country and around the world and features art from among other locations, Spain, Korea, Russia and England.

If you are further south such as in Southern Virginia or the Carolinas, you might want to visit Smiley’s Flea Market and Antique Mall.  Located near Fletcher, North Carolina, this antique market is open Friday thru Sundays and has over 100,000 square feet of vintage collectibles, furniture, vintage toys and glass as well as porcelain, china and of course North Carolina pottery. 

Hurricane Lamps are Collectible but Functional

A few weeks ago, a storm rolled through the Mid Atlantic states, and pretty much the whole midsection of the United States.  After a stretch of hot and humid days with temperatures reaching the 95 – 100 degree range, we were hit with what some folks are now calling a “Derecho” or in my estimation one of the freakiest weather events that I have ever lived through.  I watched out my back doors as the neighbor’s large trampoline flew across, took two sections of my fence and landed in our yard.  A few minutes later, the winds picked it up again, sailed it across the opening in the fence and put it right back where it had come from, minus a few pieces.

The thunderstorms, lightning and winds combined to take out not only a portion of my fence with the help of the trampoline, but it took down large sized tree limbs and of course power lines, cable lines and telephone lines.  Hundreds of thousands of people were left without utilities.  This then reminded me of the hurricane of 2004 that hit us while we lived in Mclean, Virginia.  This time we were one of the lucky ones because we didn’t lose power, the last time we lost power for three and a half days; no Internet, no TV, no air conditioning  . . . like our forefathers before us, we played cards and read by candlelight. Some people might think that fun, but being an Internet junkie, for me it was a torturous.  But there was a bright side to all of this, as people started thinking of alternatives to candles and ways to “light up their life.”

The weekend after the hurricane, I was set up at the Clarendon AntiqueMarket in Arlington, Virginia and wouldn’t you know that I sold every single oil lamp that I had in inventory.  It didn’t matter if they were pretty, or ugly, vintage glass or retro ceramic, every single one of our hurricane lamps flew off our tables and shelving.  It was amazing, because all the while, I had had those in my inventory and had never thought to bring them out during the power outage for my own family to use.  It wasn’t until they were flying off the shelves that I realized I didn’t really have to use candles.  Not that it would have made my situation any better, life without power and for me the Internet would have been unbearable regardless.

Which then leads me back to a previous article that I had written; more folks are buying functional antiques and collectibles.  Vintage oil lamps or hurricane lamps are not only collectible, but functional during a storm.  And the nice thing about vintage oil lamps is that they are available in so many colors, styles and shapes; they fit in with any décor in any home.  Sure, you can go to Walmart or Target and get a brand new oil lamp, but they just don’t have the character and the beauty of the old lamps.  Additionally, without power you don’t have Internet, so sit back gaze at the flame in old oil lamp and you can make up stories in your head about where it has been in the past, and the stories it could tell.