What Did I Just Inherit?
Did a relative die and leave photos, papers, books, and letters? How do you value the collection? Maybe you really didn’t want the collection due to lack of space or …
STOLEN and LOOTED ART: What You Should Know
“Theft, looting, and illicit trafficking of cultural property is a crime,” states UNESCO’s Illicit Trafficking Unit. “It deprives people of their history and culture; it weakens social cohesion…and fuels organized …
Top Ten Books About Objects and Material Culture
A reader, Louise, asked about my favorite books on THINGS, so I compiled a list for her: 1. Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America by Lawrence Levine A …
Art on the Moon with Lunar Codex
A time machine to the future, the ultimate anthology, a museum on the moon, a message in a bottle: all these phrases describe the Lunar Codex, a massive contemporary art …
McKenney Preserved History of Tribal Leaders
What do these faces from the McKenney historical portfolio reveal? We see Native American Chiefs circa 1838 pictured in two wonderful lithographs. JF owns these two portraits of distinguished Native …
David Roberts Shaved his Muttonchops to Paint in the Middle East
A client owns a series of works dear to my heart. Scottish artist David Roberts (Edinburgh 1796-1864) painted these landscapes in lithographs. During graduate school at the University of Edinburgh, …
Telephone Company Commemorative Plaques
“Mr Watson, come here, I need you,” Alexander Graham Bell said to his assistant in 1876. The first words heard, and understood, through a telephone wire. Bell summoned his assistant …
Close Encounters of the Three Wheeled Kind
I received a call to appraise vintage French Bicycle advertising posters, so I headed to my client’s huge garage in Ojai. Not only did I see wonderful early 1900s lithographic …
When Real Men Wore Gloves
Walt Disney put white gloves on Mickey Mouse when he made The Opry House in 1929. Those big white gloves stop at the wrist and fasten at the back with …
Melmac: A Story of Modernity
In the 1960s in St. Ann, Missouri, my favorite aunt on Dad’s side, used plastic dinnerware made in the 1950s called Melmac in her modest home. When I visited my …