Antiques newsletter November 2010

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Antiques & Collecting Newsletter
Volume 15, Number 5
November 1, 2010
Ron McCoy, editor
http://collectingbuzz.com

It's November already! Here in the U.S. the big holiday this month is
Thanksgiving, celebrated at the end of the harvest season to express
thanks for one's material and spiritual possessions. Even though it's
still about four weeks until Thanksgiving Day, it's never to early to
remember the reason for our seasonal celebrations. The following link is
to a good, concise video history of Thanksgiving, traveling back to
Plymouth to discover some of the humble origins of Thanksgiving
traditions and taking us from that original celebration to football and
even the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

History of Thanksgiving
http://www.history.com/videos/history-of-the-thanksgiving-holiday

We hope you continue to enjoy our free monthly newsletter covering the
latest antique/collectible news, trends, interesting tidbits and
spotlights of interesting websites, particularly unusual corners of the
collecting and pop culture world. If so, please forward it to someone
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(¯`·.¸¸.-> IN THIS ISSUE

HOLY CARD!
STROKE OF THE BRUSH
AUTOMOBILES AND ART
HEEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY
MOST EXPENSIVE BARBIE EVER
SOMETHING TO SPUR YOUR INTEREST
KOVELS IN HALL OF FAME
THE ART OF PICKING
THE COOKIE JAR DIGEST


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HOLY CARD!
http://tinyurl.com/holycard

A 1909-11 T206 Sweet Caporal Honus Wagner baseball card is currently
being auctioned at the Dallas Signature Sports Collectibles Auction. A
Roman Catholic nun at the Baltimore-based School Sisters of Notre Dame
owns the card which was left to her by her collector brother. She will
utilize the proceeds to help support charitable ministries in 35
countries around the world. Although the condition is admittedly
imperfect, it is expected to fetch between $150,000 and $200,000.
Bidding at the Heritage Auction Galleries website ends Nov. 4. You can
follow the bidding at the above link.

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STROKE OF THE BRUSH
http://www.haltadefinizione.com/galleries.jsp?lingua=en

Imagine being so close to Botticelli's Venus that you can see the
strands of her blond hair, the shades of pink in her cheeks, the cracks
in the centuries-old paint. An Italian company has put high-resolution
images online of "The Birth of Venus", "The Last Supper" and nine other
masterpieces from various galleries in Italy. By zooming in with the
click of a mouse, the smallest details can appear - even ones that
aren't ordinarily visible. The images have a resolution of up to 28
billion pixels - about 3,000 times stronger than that of an average
digital camera.

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AUTOMOBILES AND ART
http://www.blackhawkauto.org/

The fascinating thing about the website crafted by the Blackhawk
Automotive Museum of Danville, CA is the attention paid to the
connection between automobiles and the visual arts. Whereas some auto
museums, both virtual and tangible, are nothing more than a parade of
restored cars, the Blackhawk site celebrates the automobile as
inspiration for artistic interpretation. Play the short video on the
homepage and be sure to click on the Automotive Gallery.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HEEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY
http://www.johnnycarson.com

More than 22,000 guests sat down with Johnny Carson during his 30 years
on "The Tonight Show." Until 1999, Carson's archive had been stored in a
salt mine in Kansas. It was impossible to view as a whole because the
show had been recorded in three different media formats. Eighteen years
after he stepped down, digitization has saved classic Carson footage,
some of which was stuck on grainy, black and white kinescope (like Ed
McMahon's 1973 Alpo commercial where Carson crawls into position when
the dog refuses his bowl). Not all of the library is accessible online
at this time but a rotating group of historic clips can be viewed at the
above website. One clip we viewed with Betty White (1983) is hilarious.
Carson died in 2005 at the age of 79.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MOST EXPENSIVE BARBIE EVER
http://tinyurl.com/barbieandnecklace

A luxury, custom-designed Barbie doll donning a necklace featuring a
1-carat pink diamond sold Oct. 20 at Christie's auction house in New
York for $302,500. Jeweler Stefano Canturi arranged the emerald-cut,
fancy vivid diamond in a geometric pattern with smaller white diamonds.
He also designed the doll's black strapless dress, stilettos, hair and
other features. All proceeds benefit The Breast Cancer Research
Foundation in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The world
auction record for a Barbie is $17,091, set in 2006 at Christie's
London.

Related:
The world's most expensive Barbie (video)
http://tinyurl.com/ExpensiveBarbie

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SOMETHING TO SPUR YOUR INTEREST
http://www.antiquesjournal.com/Pages04/archives/spurs.html

Joice Overton has introduced us, via her Antiques Journal-based article,
to a collecting interest that is surely a rare one. Collecting cowboy
spurs isn't for everyone, but once one reads Joice's article, it's
evident that the scope of "spur art" is vast. Spurs, those sharp pieces
of equipment on the boots of horse riders through the ages, come in many
shapes, sizes, and materials. Photos on the site depict the wide range
of styles, some quite beautiful. The site also gives hints for cleaning,
preserving, and displaying collections of spurs.

Related:
Western Spur Style
http://cactuscreekdaily.com/tag/spur-collecting

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KOVELS IN HALL OF FAME
http://www.kovels.com

The Press Club of Cleveland inducted antique expert Terry Kovel and her
late husband, Ralph Kovel into the 2010 Cleveland Journalism Hall of
Fame in October. Terry and Ralph Kovel have kept collectors and dealers
up-to-date for more than four decades on trends, prices, care and
identification of antiques and other collectibles with over 95 books and
a nationally syndicated column. The Kovels’ newspaper column, “Kovels:
Antiques and Collecting,” is the longest-running U.S. syndicated column
written by the original bylined author. Terry and Ralph started writing
it for The Cleveland Press in 1953 and it went into syndication two
years later. They have written monthly columns for several national
magazines and starred in TV series on public television, Discovery
Channel, and HGTV. The Kovels are also known for their popular and
recently redesigned website offering a free antiques and collectibles
price guide, a free weekly letter from Terry Kovel, a subscription
newsletter, an extensive marks identification data base, forums and much
more. Terry continues to spearhead the Kovel enterprise along with her
daughter, Kim Kovel.

Kovels' Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide 2011
http://tinyurl.com/KovelsGuide2011

The 43rd edition of America's leading price guide on antiques and
collectibles features all new actual prices in 700 categories and with
more than 2,500 photographs.

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THE ART OF PICKING
http://tinyurl.com/artofpicking

Our friend Reyne Haines offers her latest "The Art of Picking" video on
Antiques.com and talks to stylist Suzy Smith about repurposing antiques.
Repurposing is the reinvention of an antique used for one purpose into
something used in a different way. Reyne is always on the road in search
of a new twist in collecting, decorating with antiques, meeting with
collectors, attending auctions and more. Check out her other videos on
the site.

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THE COOKIE JAR DIGEST
http://thecookiejar.net

If you are a cookie jar collector, check out our friend Barb's site
called "The Cookie Jar Net - a place for collectors to gather, learn and
share." You'll find articles, price guides and more cookie jar-related
information. You can also subscribe to her free newsletter.

The Cookie Jar Net on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cookie-Jar-Net/161346077223521