Teasers: The first few paragraphs of some select published articles.

A Collecting Primer

by Hyla Wults Fox

What do Barbra Streisand, Yehudi Minuhin, Woopi Goldberg, Donna Karan, Oprah Winfrey and Elton John have in common? Well, it's easy, really. All of them are collectors; each is passionate about their own particular vision of the Golden Age or their own ultimate golden collectible. Hey, even Freud was hooked. When he died in 1939 he had accumulated during a forty-year span, more than 3,000 artifacts which he squeezed into two small chambers—his study and consulting room. " I have sacrificed a great deal for my collection of Greek, Roman and Egyptian antiquities," he once wrote and I "have actually read more archaeology than psychology."

Decades later, another passionate collector made an equally surprising statement. "I'd rather go to a porcelain exhibit than a rock concert"...©

Kerosene Oil Lamps

by Hyla Wults Fox

Not only can antique kerosene oil lamps be the dazzling focal point of a room but they are even more spectacular when lit and used. As Mary Phillips, a Toronto collector says, "sometimes when I have one of 'those' days, I pour a glass of wine and plop myself in front of a couple of lamps. Watching the tiny flames dance somehow drains all the stress away. To me, these beautiful lamps are instant, non-medicinal tranquilizers."

Besides providing a calming effect, they lend a certain aura to the environment that candles don't ever manage to attain. Dinner parties and private summer soirees, for example, display a certain sophistication, elegance and romantic ambiance when lit by oil lamps. Others, like Phillips, enjoy the fact that they are functional and don't have to be stored away because of their fragile natures.

Whatever the reasons for collecting, pickings are still good in North America. The best part; however, is that these lamps are still almost affordable. Jerry Bloxam, Canada's leading dealer in early lighting says prices in Canada have fallen in the last seven or eight years, making this the prime time to buy...©

Victorian Love Tokens

by Hyla Wults Fox

Even sweeter than a ribbon-wrapped box of candy or a fistful of roses is a handmade gift. Just a simple note with a few appropriate sentiments or a fragment of antique lace would do beautifully . Sadly; however, most of us never seem to have the time to create a lasting, personal tribute to the people we love. But it wasn't always this way. When our ancestors wanted to say 'I love you," they made something special. It is these love tokens, as they are known, that are sought the world over. Some collectors specialize in items carved from wood, whalebone or ivory that were made into busk stays (to be inserted into corsets to hold the body stiff and straight), knitting needle sheaths, or even boxes intended to hold love letters.

Easier to find is love-token jewelry, made of regular-issue coins that were defaced, then engraved with a message, a name, initials, a scene or just a significant date. These small Victorian treasures...©

Perfume Bottles: Bottles Of Beauty

by Hyla Wults Fox

When Toronto dental hygienist Shirley Harnick purchased her first commercial perfume bottle in the late 1980s, she could not have imagined that she would soon amass more than 1000 choice examples and be considered the foremost Canadian authority on the subject. As with most passionate collectors, it started by accident. Drawn to the magnificent but expensive Art Deco glass objects of Rene Lalique, Hanick was overjoyed when she discovered a Lalique perfume bottle, tucked away in a local antique shop, bargain-priced at $65...©

Collecting Paper

by Hyla Wults Fox

While ecologists rejoice each time the slogan "reduce, recycle, reuse" is chanted, paper collectors shudder and groan. They fear that the blue boxes are encouraging many to destroy important material, especially the printed and hand-written treasures documenting our time. So worried are those involved with the study of paper artifacts that they have devised their own slogan urging us to "reserve, preserve, conserve" the bits and pieces of our everyday lives for future generations.

Although the words 'paper collectibles', 'paper Canadiana' or 'paper Americana' have been used to describe this collecting category, the proper term is 'ephemera,' which refers to the minor...©

Antique Buttons

by Hyla Wults Fox

"Plain pearls, fancy pearls, jet buttons, brass and silver buttons, linen buttons, cashmere buttons, silk-covered buttons, black mohair buttons, crochet buttons, bone buttons—in truth 'Buttons to the right of you, Buttons to the left of you.' Anything you want in Buttons," boasted Eaton's in its spring/summer 1889 catalogue.

Not much has changed over the decades. We are just as crazy about buttons today. Even more so, in fact, as antique buttons—perhaps the very ones offered in that old catalogue— are on their way to becoming a hot collectible. Prices for these little nuggets are rising dramatically. Currently they range from a few dollars to ...©

Antique Hatpins

by Hyla Wults Fox

Hatpins, once every-day fashion accessories are now hot collectibles. Hatpinology, as it is known to enthusiasts, refers to the study of the decorative knob attached to a pin. Believe it or not, they once decorated an office in the television drama, L.A. LAW. When C.J. Lamb, played by Amanda Donohoe, made her first appearance, discerning North American collectors took immediate notice. For there on the window ledge in her office, poking out of a packing carton, stood a-to-die-for hatpin collection. A few weeks later, a gentleman playing her father, started fiddling, in an absent-minded manner, with one choice example.

For more than a year-and-a-half, collectors waited for these hatpins to be shown again. Finally, Rick Wallace, the show's executive producer, was queried. "Were the hatpins C.J.'s secret passion in life?" I asked, and "Were they part of Donohoe's personal collection, since both her parents are antique dealers in England?" Alas, Wallace said "there is no significance to the hatpins. It was a touch added by the set decorators." While disappointing, his reply shouldn't be a surprise, since hatpins are, when arranged in a group, visually stunning, with striking sculptural qualities.

Until 1832, all pins were handmade. They were so expensive and valuable that in some countries stealing hatpins was a capital offense...©

Bakelite Jewelry

by Hyla Wults Fox

What passion do Diane Keaton, Liza Minelli and Whoopie Goldberg share? The answer is that all three wear and collect bakelite jewellery and each woman has been seen, over the years, acquiring choice examples in Toronto.

Goldberg seems to go for colourful bangle bracelets while Keaton selects hers by size, choosing pieces that are tiny. Minelli, on the other hand, recently purchased all the black bakelite jewelry that was offered by Bill Brethour, in his Harbourfront Antique Market shop. Says Brethour about Bakelite, " the stuff is hot. As soon as I get a truly rare piece, no matter the price, it just walks out the door."

But it isn't just movie stars who are the heavy buyers in the competitive collecting field. Die-hard enthusiasts include schoolteachers, secretaries and homemakers, who are as 'infected' with the collecting bug as those who could easily afford gold, platinum and diamonds. It just doesn't matter to collectors that these treasures are Depression era plastic...©

Finding Freddie's Family: The Magical Story Of An Anonymous Photo Album

by Hyla Wults Fox

Tami Jacobs Kligman has always loved antiques, especially more intimate and small-scale treasures like photographs, autographs, Victorian valentine cards and diaries. They intrigue her, particularly when specific individuals are identified.

That was why, thirty years ago, she was drawn to a brittle old photograph album she found in a downtown Toronto antique shop: there was something genuine and nostalgic about it. The binding was a warm burgundy velvet. On the thick cardboard cover was a faded likeness of a young girl wearing flowers in her curly hair. A remnant of the original brass lock still clung to its side.

The album contained many original circa-1880 family photographs, accompanied by penciled inscriptions. But Kligman found one shot particularly haunting: a grainy, black and white photo of a man and a woman wearing their finest Sunday clothes. Seated in front of them was a dignified-looking boy, four or five years old, with a round face, woolen hat, a lace collared coat and some sort of military weapon across his chest. The subjects were identified as being "Mr. and Mrs. J.W. McDonald and Freddie." It only took Kligman a few seconds to decide that she had to own it. "I sensed the book was lost," says Kligman, "and that it was my duty to help find its way back home."...©

Clarice Cliff

by Hyla Wults Fox

Ten years ago, Clarice Cliff pottery was a well-kept secret. Only a handful of people—with an eye for design and an understanding of the British ceramic industry—recognized the potential of these vibrantly coloured Art Deco wares. Today, those collectors must be shaking their heads at their good fortune. Prices are flying now. A few years ago, for instance, Christie's, the English auction house that holds specialized Clarice Cliff auctions, sold a simple 5 1/2 inch sugar sifter in a conical form, in the popular May Avenue pattern, for the equivalent of $9,775 (U.S.) setting a world record. A tea set for two fetched $11,730. and a coffee service for six, with a tall, ovoid pot in the Bon Jour shape, doubled its presale estimate, selling for $6,657...©

Auctions

by Hyla Wults Fox

"One toilet set, six pieces, as good as new, cost three dollars and a half. Sir? No, Sir, they are not broke but the man selling them is: fifty cents-half a dollar-fifty-five, fifty-five, fifty-five-thank you. Madam, seventy-five, going eighty-five, that's right. One dollar-cheap, one dollar, one-dollar and a quarter? Thank you, one and a quarter, make it half; thirty-five-yes, Madam, worth three and a half-fifty—one and a half and fifty-five, in time; fifty-five, fifty-five, fifty-five, sixty: one dollar and sixty cents, not half price. All done? Sold!" Change the prices and this quote could easily come from a recent sale, not one that happened more than a century ago.

That staccato, repetitive chant of the auctioneer is familiar to everyone, and although the words and style may differ from auction house to auction house and from country to country, everything else is the same—the drama, the suspense and the atmosphere. ...©

Cookie Jars

by Hyla Wults Fox

In 1988, Andy Warhol's collection of 175 cookie jars was auctioned by Sotheby's, New York, for $247,830 (U.S.)—35 times the expected price and probably 95 times more than Warhol's original flea-market investment. Since then, cookie jars have moved from obscurity to popularity. Indeed, stocking up on this funky collectible is an excellent way to use your 'dough'. ...©

A Busman's Holiday In London

by Hyla Wults Fox

With my cameras and backpack thrown over my shoulder, a ticket and passport in one hand and a book in the other, I climbed aboard a plane bound for London. The excuse was to do some research for a project that had been dancing in my head for years, but the bottom line was that I just needed to run away from home. Was there ever a better idea for a busman's holiday that spending two weeks in England?

As soon as the aircraft was flying in a horizontal line and the butterflies banished from my stomach, I opened ANTIQUE & FLEA MARKETS OF LONDON AND PARIS, grabbed a pen, found a wad of Post-It notes and got to work reading, sorting and planning my antique excursions.

First, I read the entire section that applied to London so that I could get a general feel for the markets and the book. Then on those yellow, sticky papers—carefully placed to jut outside the book so that I could find each day of the week quickly—I wrote cryptic notes in my own punctuation-less shorthand, such as "Mon Covt Gards; Wed & Sat Port; Fri Berm; Wed Cam Pa"...and so on. That done, I re-read the book, circling the addresses, Tube directions and maps that went along with each. My last step was to mark the booths I particularly wanted to see, as described in short blurbs. By the time I was finished, we were approaching Gatwick and I was beside myself with excitement... ©

Susie Cooper: Potent Pottery

by Hyla Wults Fox

"Good News! Susie Cooper Patterns, Sale Priced, Friday!' screamed the T. Eaton Co., ad in the August, 1938, Montreal Star. Customers were offered coffee sets, which consisted of an open sugar and creamer, coffee pot and six after-dinner coffee cups and saucers in the Tyrol pattern, in 11 different colour combinations, such as sepia and jade, azure blue and chestnut, citron yellow and black, amber and mahogany, for $3.59, down from $4.75.

Those who needed dinnerware might have dashed back to Eaton's a month later, when Susie Cooper's semi-porcelain dishes that were 'hand decorated—green or pink, motif shoulders, and floral with harmonizing centres, were available in the chinaware department for 12 cents to $1.75 each.

If your parents or grandparents attended these sales, they might be surprised at their value. Today, that coffee set would cost more than $800. And what about those plates that fetched 12 cents? Well, they would probably cost from $100 to $250 each. Some of Cooper's early earthenware pieces are worth in excess of $2500.

So, who was Susie Cooper anyway? To begin with, she was one of the few women in England to create, run and design ...©

Conservation, Preservation & Restoration

by Hyla Wults Fox

Art and antique collectors are the custodians of the artifacts in their possession and as such responsible for researching and recording their histories as well as preserving them for future generations. Many historically important pieces were lost in the past because of neglect, ignorance and shortsightedness. Collectors, like museum curators, have the responsibility of preserving the things in their care.

...(note: topics covered are proper framing, paper conservation, art restoration, silver, brass, copper , furniture...etc.)©

Folk Art

by Hyla Wults Fox

Some time ago, Marshall Stone, a retired newspaperman and part-time antique dealer, was reading a glossy American antique magazine when he spotted an advertisement for an exhibition of folk art at a prestigious New York city gallery. Featured in the half-page colour spread was a wooden weather vane carved in the shape of a snake. When he called the gallery, he learned that it had been sold for $7,500. Stone was furious.

He knew the weather vane was not an antique as implied in the ad. He was certain about the age of the piece because he himself had made it in 1976 to replace a vintage weather vane stolen the year before.

Although the situation was straightened out, the incident raised serious questions for collectors of folk art. Was the snake weather vane considered a piece of folk art because people thought it dated from the early 1900s? Did it cease to be folk art when its age was ascertained?

Which leads us to the most important question: What is folk art anyway? Experts can't agree on a definition, although almost everyone has taken a stab at it...©

Antiques Of The Future

by Hyla Wults Fox

What if you could climb into a time machine and return to the 1950s or even the '20s and fill a huge container with objects of your choosing? What would you pick? Elvis memorabilia? Baseball cards? A Tiffany lamp?

With hindsight, you could choose items that would make you wealthy. But since this fantasy is unlikely, let's twist the scenario slightly and say instead that your goal is to fill that same container with items from today that will become the collectibles of the future. What would you pick? ...©