Collecting News Briefs

Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

1883 Pair of Civil war flag stands - Capt. Wallace Foster & Son - "W.R.C." - 16 bids $125 | JJ's Auction ends Wednesday

Lot of interest in these Civil War era flag stands with a makers mark reading: Capt. Wallace Foster & Son and date 1883. I think the mark also reads: Indiana Falls, Indiana

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Lifetime Collection of Everything Civil War - Firearms Auction December 2, 3 & 4, 2011 | Premiere Collectors

A Lifetime Collection of Everything Civil War:

Civil War Union swallow flag

Civil War Confederate swallow tail flag, also called the lance pennon, fork-tailed flag, and guidon

Click here to view this great collection

"December 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Premiere firearms sale at rockislandauction.com will feature the most comprehensive antique American arms to be offered at auction this year and will be spearheaded by the following incredible Civil War collection which comes from 40+ years of collecting"

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Xiaorenshu: 小人书 Collecting "little picture books" nostalgia | xinhuanet.com

Little picture books: nostalgia in palms:

一箱老旧、泛黄的连环画册开启了我的记忆之门。
A box of old, yellowed comic book opened the door to my memory.

"It is not unusual for collectors to shell out as much as 400 yuan (about 62 U.S. dollars) for a single picture-story book; the same books used to go for just 0.2 yuan over 30 years ago. The most expensive volumes fetch more than 10,000 yuan apiece.

Lin Rongqiang, a 46-year old businessman in Beijing, has more than 13,000 such books in his private collection. "In my childhood, I had few hobbies other than reading xiaorenshu," Lin recalls.

Lin's most recent purchase was a 700-yuan xiaorenshu that he bought o complete a series within his collection. When he began collecting in 1999, picture-story books could be purchased for just one yuan apiece. Speculators have driven prices up since then."

Xiaorenshu, which literally means a little picture book of scenario drawings, consists of highly detailed panels accompanied by a text of about 90 Chinese characters. The books were often adaptions from literary classics, such as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Journey to the West".

Jiang noted that xiaorenshu used to play a significant role in mobilizing the masses, shaping public attitudes and opinions, particularly during the 1950s and the 60s.

Between 1925 and 1945, picture-story books dealing with the theme of land reform, as well as China's battle against the invading Japanese, were published in areas that had been liberated by the Communist Party of China (CPC). "Xiaorenshu was then a vehicle to carry the government's policies," Jiang says.

Xiaorenshu continued to enjoy a "golden age" of sorts, thanks to the late Chairman Mao Zedong who employed it to encourage people to support the CPC's practices and policies. For this very reason, over 260 million xiaorenshu were published between 1951 and 1956, Jiang recalls.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Pacific Islands artifacts from 1890s rediscovered in Buffalo NY :: University of Rochester

Rochester Review :: University of Rochester:

"...following up on a footnote in a book, the professor of anthropology and of visual and cultural studies drove less than an hour west of Rochester to Buffalo—and found there one of the largest and oldest collections of Pacific Islands artifacts anywhere in the world."

P. G. T. Black, the collector, was a branch inspector for Burns, Philp & Co., a trading and shipping firm based in Sydney, Australia. He acquired the objects—pieces used by Pacific Islanders at the time—between 1886 and 1916, and in 1938 the Buffalo Museum of Science bought, sight unseen, the 40 crates they filled.

Related articles

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Civil War collectibles - past life as Union soldier inspired him to become a collector | stargazette.com

Horseheads optician says past life as Union soldier inspired him to become a collector | Star-Gazette | stargazette.com:

"Buchanan, who lives in Columbia Cross Roads, started collecting Civil War items in the early 1970s.

The first piece he acquired was a Union soldier's belt plate, for which he paid a collector $11.

The collection grew over the years: photographs, guns, swords, cartridge boxes, uniforms, along with letters and documents. Three of his photos were used in the Ken Burns documentary, 'The Civil War.'

A favorite item is a document written by Charles H. Crane, the U.S. surgeon general at the time, to all the prison camps in the North.

Labeled 'Instructions Concerning Prisoners of War Sick in Hospital,' it spelled out the rations they were to receive."

Related articles

Monday, June 13, 2011

'Unabomber' auction pulls in $232,246 + more murderabilia | CNN.com Blogs

'Unabomber' auction pulls in $232,246 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs:

"Bidders used technology, a thorn of 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski, to buy up his items in a two-week online bidding spree that yielded $232,246, the U.S. Marshals said in a press release Friday."

Between 1978 and 1995, the former Harvard professor killed three people and wounded 23 others in bombings. Arrested in 1996, Kaczynski is serving a life sentence in the federal “Supermax” prison located in Florence, Colorado.

The big-ticket items in the U.S. Marshals Service auction were Kaczynski's personal journals, which pulled $40,676. Twenty-one bidders put dibs on the 20 journals, which described in Kaczynski's words his anti-government world view and affection for the wilderness.

Also gone to the highest bidder were his hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses, which went for $20,025, a typewriter ($22,003) used to write his anti-corporate manifesto, and the handwritten copy of the paper, which sold for $$20,053, according to the release.

The auction, which the General Services Administration conducted, was held to compensate some of his victims.

Diaries of famous explorers like modern stock offering prospectuses | Vancouver Sun

Image via Wikipedia

Canaccord: A glimpse inside Peter Brown's world - Your Money:

"the diaries of famous explorers were like stock offering prospectuses" [See: Age of Exploration]

"These guys would go on these journeys, they’d go back to England or wherever they came from, and they’d produce these leather-bound diaries, often travelling with an artist, full of etchings. That would kind of be their prospectus, to raise money for the next trip."

Modern day equivalent: Kickstarter

Related articles

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Lincoln Memorabilia creates Mosaic #Jigsaw Puzzle + stories | Eastern Iowa Life

Eastern Iowa Life – Lincoln Memorabilia Collector Ads Mosaic Puzzle to the Mix:

"1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle with 1,000 ties to Lincoln’s life. When completed, the mosaic of 1,000 pictures became the face of our 16th President."

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Happy Rabbit: Origin of Bugs Bunny - Looney City Citizens

Happy Rabbit - Looney City Citizens:

"Happy Rabbit made his screen debut in the 1938 Looney Tunes cartoon Porky's Hare Hunt, directed by Ben Hardaway. Similar in tone and execution to the previous year's Porky's Duck Hunt, which introduced Daffy Duck, Porky's Hare Hunt involves Porky hunting a white rabbit whose wild antics drive him mad. Mel Blanc would later use his 'Happy Rabbit' voice characterization as the voice of Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker."

Actor Mel Blanc Image via Wikipedia

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Iron veterans: Collecting WWII vehicles to restore & preserve memories - Bakersfield.com

WWII buffs restore old vehicles, preserve memories - Bakersfield.com:

"'The vehicles we restore are our nation's 'iron veterans,'' explained Jeffrey 'Al' Goines, a Bakersfield private investigator and a member of the Olive Drab Drivers.

'Everyone seems to have their own personal reason for getting involved in this. But restoring these vehicles maintains the connection with the heroes who drove them during World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and those who are grateful for their sacrifices today,' said Goines, whose father and stepfather were his military heroes."

Related articles