Table of contents for December 1, 2023 in Kovels Antique Trader

Costume Jewelry As I ponder all the jewelry I've admired and worn since I avidly started collecting in the late 1980s, my thoughts often turn to people I've had the pleasure of meeting during that time. I can't think about my favorite holiday jewelry pieces without remembering Bettina von Walhof and her daughter Michelle. I met them in the late 1990s when they displayed a collection of Bettina's designs at a jewelry collectors convention we were attending. It took about two minutes until I was awestruck by the imagination held in every single one of those creations. That weekend I walked away with a von Walhof Santa brooch with a fringy dangling rhinestone beard measuring more than five inches long. That was the beginning of a collection of Santa brooches…

Since 1973, Hallmark Keepsake ornaments have provided visual representation of the things we treasure in life, immortalized each Christmas season on a tree or tabletop. It all started with the release of six decorated glass ball ornaments and 12 yarn ornaments. “We actually began testing the marketplace the year prior,” Hallmark historian and archivist Samantha Bradbeer Stephens explains. “In December of 1972, we placed four glass ball ornaments with decorative bands featuring original illustrations from Hallmark artists into select stores. They flew off the shelves. So, by 1973, we officially were in the ornament business and launched a line featuring 12 yarn ornaments and six glass ball ornaments, including those four original designs that we tested in the marketplace.” Today, Hallmark releases approximately 450 new ornaments each year honoring life's…

CALIFORNIA Every first Sunday of the month, Alameda. Alameda Point Antiques Faire, 3900 Maine St., Alameda, CA. The Alameda Point Antiques Faire is the largest antiques show in Northern California, boasting 800 dealer booths. All items 20 years old or older. For more info, visit alamedapointantiquesfaire.com. Every first Sunday of the month through May, Palm Springs. Palm Springs Vintage Market, PS Cultural Center at the Camelot Theater, 2300 E Baristo Rd, Palm Springs. For more info, visit palmspringsvintagemarket.com. Every second Sunday of the month, Pasadena. World's largest flea market at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena. More than over 2 million items offered for sale by more than 2,500 vendors. Shop for rare and unusual, vintage collectibles, antiques, new items, arts and crafts and second-hand items. SH: early birds, 5-9am; regular admission:…

Good things come in small packages, especially if you're a Star Wars fan. Recently, a miniature X-wing Starfighter, a movie prop used in the climactic battle scene in 1977's “Star Wars: A New Hope,” sold for $3,135,000 at Heritage Auctions. The 22-inch prop was part of the fabled collection of Oscar- and Emmy-nominated visual effects artist Greg Jein, who died last year at age 76. The October auction, featuring 550 iconic models, props, costumes and art belonging to Jein, realized $13,611,406.…

Break out the eggnog, hang the mistletoe, put on those Christmas songs and settle down in your favorite armchair with This is Christmas, Song By Song (Running Press, $27) by Annie Zaleski, an award-winning music writer and contributing editor with Kovels Antique Trader. This beautifully illustrated book explores well-known and lesser-known, behind-the-scenes stories of the 100 most cherished holiday songs of all time. From artists such as Bing Crosby and Ella Fitzgerald all the way up to Michael Bublé and Kelly Clarkson, this allencompassing collection of holiday favorites is sure to warm your heart and have you humming along during the merriest season of the year. “Some of these songs have straightforward origin stories; others have convoluted (or even exaggerated) histories,” Zaleski writes in the book's Introduction. “Oddly, many of…

The Barbie doll was introduced in 1959 and has long been the most popular doll in the world. But despite her fanfare, Barbie is hardly the oldest doll. Archaeologists have found toy dolls, with movable limbs and removable clothing, that date to at least 200 B.C. Doll forms used for ritual purposes date to well before that time. Simply put, children, and plenty of adults, have loved dolls for a very long time. That likely will never change, but the the companies that make them certainly do. Here's a brief guide to some of the best-known doll companies of the 19th and 20th centuries. Dates show are when the companies were in operation. Some companies used diff erent marks over time. The Acorn Doll Company made character dolls with composition…

Some believe the true magic of the holiday season is found in the family Christmas tree, which can create as many memories as the gifts found underneath it. Ornaments that decorated yesterday's trees continue to create holiday traditions today, and for many, this tradition includes glass orbs hanging from branches in bright, shiny colors and sparkly patterns. Chances are, the ones used in your family for years are by Shiny Brite, a brand created by GermanAmerican immigrant Max Eckardt in 1937 A market long dominated by German companies, Shiny Brite produced the most popular Christmas tree ornaments in the United States throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Eckardt established Shiny Brite ornaments in New York City, working with Corning Glass Works to mass-produce glass Christmas ornaments. By 1940, Corning was producing…

from the editor Christmas morning mass. A packed house. The seventhgrade choir center stage in the choir loft above the congregation is, to be kind, struggling. Now typically, I wouldn't care. Christmas morning church services have always been a bit of a blur for me. Too many distractions. Physically, I was there, sure. It was the law. But mentally, I was still back home reveling in Christmas presents. How Santa managed to nail it year after year was the real miracle of the season. Other than the constant barrage of socks(!), the Big Guy knew my needs better than my own parents. But this Christmas morning is different because I'm part of the show. That's me in the choir, second row, third from the left, sandwiched between Laurie Zell and…

Thirty years ago, while many were asking, “What is the Internet?,” The New Yorker ran one of its most famous cartoons: the black-and-white single-panel “On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog” by Peter Steiner. Featuring two chatting dogs sitting in front of a desktop computer, it became the most reproduced cartoon in the long and distinguished history of the magazine. The original drawing of the famous cartoon sold for $175,000 on Friday, Oct. 6 during Heritage Auctions “Illustration Art Signature Auction.” It is the highest price ever paid for a single-panel cartoon. Since its publication in 1993, the cartoon became a prescient, profound and witty meme for the impact of the Internet. Ironically, Steiner said his cartoon was not about the worldwide web but more about his own sense…

Q: Could you please tell me the origin and value of these Lenox plates inherited from my grandmother and mother. The plates measure approximately 7 1/2 inches in diameter and the center hand painted scenes are approximately 4 inches wide. They are in excellent condition although “well-traveled.” Above the Lenox wreath marking each dish has handwritten X6/E4-0 or 41. A: Although contemporary pieces of Lenox have taken a hit in the marketplace in terms of value, the older pieces, especially the hand-painted pieces, have retained their value. Walter Scott Lenox founded the Ceramic Art Company in 1889 in Trenton, N.J. Initially, Lenox had just 18 employees and was structured not as a factory, but as an art studio that produced distinctive, one-of-a-kind artware; they produced hundreds of unnamed patterns during…

Missouri muralist and painter Thomas Hart Benton (18891975) was known for his distinctive, flowing style and for avidly rejecting abstraction and Modernism. The influential artist is credited as one of the founders of American Regionalism alongside John Steuart Curry of Kansas and Grant Wood of Iowa. Regionalist style was at its height from 1930 to 1935, and these three gentlemen were known as the “Regionalist Triumvirate.” All three were well-represented in Soulis Auctions’ Fall Gallery Auction of Fine & Decorative Art on Oct. 14. Benton is also well-known for his lithographs, a type of printmaking using oil and water to create a unique work of art, and of the more than 20 offered, nearly all of them sold above their high estimates. The top seller was The Race (Homeward Bound)…