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If Great-Granddad was a ship captain – or just an armchair adventurer with a real nice library – and you have old nautical books, logs or charts that you want to sell, Greg Gibson of Ten Pound Island Book Company (www.tenpound.com) of Gloucester, Mass., may be the man to contact: He’s looking to purchase good, rare maritime material. I recently sold a few things to Greg and found him straightforward and easy to deal with. He also has a great blog and very fine items at very reasonable prices, so you might check out his site the next time you get fed up with the rat race and, like Herman Melville’s Ishmael, “account it high time to get to sea”: If your family, your job, your mortgage and your dog prevent you from signing on for a long sea voyage, Ten Pound Island is the next best thing.

Of course, with a shop full of histories of seafaring, naval battles royal, pirates, typhoons and other exciting stuff, I couldn’t help asking Greg what he collects himself. He replied: “I have a dealer’s mind-set. By definition this mentality steers away from collecting anything, or only collecting it to ultimately sell it. Thus my two major collections of works by Melville, my world-class local history collection, my collection of works by Gloucester poet Charles Olson – all sold! In my view, you can’t be a good dealer if you are also a collector, because you will always be working against yourself. I want to work WITH myself, FOR my customers, who are, and should be, the true collectors.

“Having said that, there’s one thing I collect: reference books. I’ve been collecting references of all sorts pertaining to maritime history for 35 years. By this time I’ve accumulated an excellent working library, and I take great pride in it.”

Images courtesy of Ten Pound Books Company | www.tenpound.com  

 

Print collectors in the Denver area will be interested to know that Christopher Lane, “Antiques Roadshow” appraiser and co-owner of The Philadelphia Print Shop (www.philaprintshop.com) – located, not surprisingly, in the City of Brotherly Love – will soon be spreading the love of prints to the Denver area: “My wife got offered a great job at Denver Children’s Hospital, so off we are going to the Mile High City! My partner (Don Cresswell) and I decided this would be a great opportunity to expand our business, so I am going to open a shop in the Cherry Creek section of Denver. I am moving out in September and the shop should be open sometime in October.” Chris told me that The Philadelphia Print Shop (West) will have carry the same material as the original shop as well as share the same Web site but that the Denver shop will focus on western images. “I will also probably start to pick up some antique shows in the western part of the county and am going to be exhibiting at The San Francisco Fall Antiques Show (www.sffas.org) on Oct. 28–31. A whole new adventure!” he added.

Images courtesy of the Philadelphia Print Shop | www.philaprintshop.com

See Christopher Lane on "Antiques Roadshow" (Las Vegas) on Mon., Aug. 2, on your local PBS station! And watch for his upcoming "What the Experts Collect" profile here on AmeriCollector.com!

 

Anyone who doesn’t believe that auction catalogs can be collector’s items themselves should check out Heritage Auctions Galleries’ (www.ha.com) 2010 August Signature Sports Auction catalog with a hologram cover image of one of the auction items: a large 1932 photo of Babe Ruth whispering something to an amused Lou Gehrig and signed by both (current bid at this writing, $25,000; expected to fetch $50,000+)! This is only one of 86 primo items from the world of sports that are being auctioned off in conjunction with the National Sports Collectors Convention (www.nsccshow.com) in Baltimore Aug. 6–8.

Football fans will be drawn to 1960 Don Meredith game-worn Dallas Cowboys rookie helmet (now at $3,000; estimated to get $10,000+). “Any game worn gear from the first Cowboys season would carry tremendous collecting importance,” says Chris Ivey, director of Heritage Auction Galleries’ Sports Collectibles division. “It’s just the icing on the cake that (this helmet) happens to come from the locker of one of the greatest Cowboys of all.”

Some other choice lots that made my mouth water: a “Wahoo” Sam Crawford game-used baseball bat with a 1913 fountain-pen inscription from the Detroit Tigers outfielder to a collector (now at $15,000, estimated to get $50,000+); Ken Norton’s 1973 North American Boxing Federation heavyweight championship belt ,awarded for his victory over Muhammad Ali (now at $11,000; estimated to get $40,000+); and, speaking of The Greatest, a 1960 handwritten letter signed “Your Fighting Friend, Cassius Clay, U.S. Champ” written while the 18-year-old legend-in-the-making was training for the Rome Olympics (the return address on the mailing envelope, which is included and is also handwritten by Clay/Ali, says: “Cassius M. Clay, c/o Special Service, U.S. Olympic Boxing team, Building 5434, Fort Dix, N.J.”; now at $6,000; expected to fetch $10,000+).

The auction ends Thurs., Aug. 5.

Images courtesy of Heritage Auction Galleries | www.ha.com

Check out the newly updated AmeriCollector.com Collector’s Calendar by clicking on “Calendar” (above), where you’ll find events of interest through December 2010 in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California, Arizona and Nevada. It’s a work in progress: We’ll be adding more events to these lists as well as events in other states (we’re working our way eastward), plus a slew of online auctions. Keep watching for new listings in the weeks and months ahead!

Old photos: part I

Ever seen a ghost? The next time you look at a 19th-century portrait photo, look real hard: You may feel closer to the vale than you ever thought you would. Maybe it’s the moody monochromatic tones, the frozen stares – seldom a smile in those days (at least, not for the camera) – the realization that the person looking back at you was captured in one fleeting instant and is now long dead and turned to dust. Maybe it’s the fact that 120-plus years ago, most people had harder day-to-day existences, with fewer conveniences, and generally didn’t live as long as we do now … something we too often take for granted.

(If this sounds a little macabre, I note that on the rare occasion when an original Daguerreotype image of Edgar Allan Poe is unearthed, it looks LITERALLY dug up, with the actual image deteriorating – as if poor Edgar literally lived with one foot in the grave; as if the lonely lover of dead Lenore and Annabel Lee and maybe Norma Jean suddenly gave up and decayed like a real-life Dorian Gray or a dejected Gomez Addams, who he actually resembled.)

Of course, this may not seem “cool” or aesthetically pleasing or even very nice to many people. And frankly, I’m not suggesting that there’s anything pleasant or romantic or uplifting about death and dead people – certainly not people who went before their time and most especially not dead children (who, in the 19th century, were sometimes posed and photographed posthumously as if still alive before being consigned to their graves) or soldiers sent to war for spurious reasons by self-serving old men, as has happened a time or two in history.

No: Notwithstanding the recent spate of young-love vampire films and the nice Goth kids at the local Hot Topic who dress completely in black, death is not the “cool” that the title of this post refers to.

What I mean is that there is something magical and – depending on the photographer’s level of talent – wonderfully artistic and revealing about old portrait photos. They are glimpses of people from an earlier time that we in the Internet Age can relate to more intimately than paintings, which are completely interpretive. After all, the lens lies less than the brush.

To see what I mean, check out some of the really good Web sites selling vintage photos, like J. Cosmas Vintage Photography (www.JCosmas.com), A Glimpse of Americana (www.AGlimpse.com), Jeffrey Kraus Antique Photographica (www.antiquephotographics.com), Remains to Be Seen (www.RemainsToBeSeen.com) and KaufmaNelson Vintage Photographs (www.KaufmaNelson.com). Professional photograph dealers routinely sift through thousands of unexceptional photos to offer what they consider to be the most humorous, moving, artistic or important images.

Or go to eBay and type “carte de visite” or “cabinet card” in the search box. (The carte de visite – French for “calling card” – was a common 19th-century business-card-size format consisting of a photo pasted on a cardboard photographer’s mount; cabinet card photos are larger, about 4.5 by 6 inches, and there are larger formats as well.) Compare the way the various images are set up, the way the subjects (including dogs!) are posed, the depth of the tones, the way props (guns, parasols, rowboats) are used. If you’re like me, the more you look at vintage photos, the more you eager are to find one that really resonates with you. And if you collect in a particular area, like baseball or bicycles or even DOGS – or if you’re interested in a specific country or state or town (photographers generally put their names and locations on their mounts) – add that to the subject box and see what comes up.

You may find a small, very affordable work of art by an obscure photographer that really speaks to you from over a century ago.
Now THAT’S history …

All images courtesy of J. Cosmas Vintage Photography, www.JCosmas.com

Mount Rainier … Mount Saint Helens … the Space Needle … Microsoft … Costco … Amazon.com … Washington State is famous for lots of stuff, but the world never seems to get enough of D. B. Cooper.

In case you haven’t yet recharged your memory with a morning Doubleshot at that other Washington icon (the one with the, uh, mermaid), D. B. Cooper was the guy who hijacked a Boeing 727 on Nov. 24, 1971, claiming he had a bomb. In that much simpler era, D.B. demanded – and got – $200,000 in ransom money and some parachutes, then bailed out somewhere north of Portland, Ore. Little else is known, although in 1980 a kid goofing around on the northern bank of the Columbia River came across $5,880 of the ransom money in deteriorating $20 bills half buried in the mud; and in early 2008 some more kids found what turned out to be the aforementioned parachute near the little town of Amboy, Wash., which no doubt can use the tourists.

I’ve heard speculation that Dan Cooper (what he actually called himself) couldn’t have survived his escape, given the weather, his light clothing and his apparent lack of skydiving expertise, but the FBI – which ought to consider recruiting more little kids to do their fieldwork – thinks differently: In 2001, they managed to pull a DNA sample from the black necktie that Cooper left behind, enabling them to eliminate at least one suspect, and they’re still actively seeking information. Check out their Web page on Cooper by going to www.fbi.gov and typing “D. B. Cooper” in the search box. (And if you call in a hot tip to the feds, tell ’em AmeriCollector.com sent you, because we need the traffic too.)

Someone else thinks Cooper made it out of the woods alive – and even got a sex change! In their book “D. B. Cooper: Death by Natural Causes,” Western Washington residents Patricia and Ron Forman recount how they befriended a woman who claimed to be the hijacker – a disgruntled pilot in her pre-transgendered life, she said. Sounds just like a John Waters film, right? The authors thought so, too, at first – but on digging deeper into their friend’s tale, they began to believe that it might not be as cockamamie as all that. Certainly, the OTHER Washington is full of people in elected positions with weirder résumés.

We’ll report further on this, you can be sure. Meanwhile, the Formans have a Web site with plenty of food for thought, where you can order a copy of the book autographed (by the Formans, not D. B. Cooper) if an unsigned copy from Amazon won’t do: Visit www.legendofdbcooper.com.

By the way, fellow collectors, you’ll be interested to know that those rotting twenties from Cooper’s loot were auctioned off by Heritage Auctions in Dallas in June 2008, with hammer prices going as high as $6,572. (A 1 x 1.3-inch fragment of a bill actually went for $358.50.) Talk about a high interest rate!

Photos courtesy of the FBI.

Serious collectors – actually, collectors of ANYTHING mass-produced – know that, apart from the writer’s, artist’s or maker’s signature or something that imparts association value (Herman Melville’s annotations in a natural history book on whales, for example), it’s all about getting the item in as close to its original state as possible. With books, that means as close as possible to mint, right-off-the-press condition, and complete – with the dust jacket if one was issued, and if possible without the price clipped off. That’s how particular (or anal, if you prefer) book people can get.

Dust jackets, especially the ones produced from the 1920s to the 1940s, often featured spectacular, stylized artwork; after all, they were in large part intended to tempt browsers to buy the books. The problem was, then as now, it was a pain in the neck to read a book with the jacket on, so people removed them, set their coffee cups down on them, tore them, misplaced them … The result: books with damaged, soiled or – worst of all – NO jackets!

Little did those readers of yesteryear know, but those dust jackets can add geometrically to the value of the book, because of the great artwork, certainly, but much more importantly because of their rarity. To pick one example, the first edition of Nelson Algren’s first book, “Somebody in Boots” (1935) features a really cool image of the proto–James Dean/Elvis Presley–type hero. A copy of the book in pretty rough shape lists for $180 on Bookfinder.com; there’s only one copy listed with a jacket – both book and jacket in fine condition – for $2,600!

Needless to say, not all vintage books in knockout dust jackets are high-end; what’s more, given the beauty of the artwork, small wonder that some folks collect books specifically for their dust jacket art. For those collectors – and those who are looking for specific books that happen to have great jackets – a Connecticut bookseller, Babylon Revisited (www.YesterdaysGallery.com), has a really terrific selection and has just issued a new catalog. I asked owner Michael Manz about his books:

AmeriCollector: Your Web site used to say your specialties are “photoplays, mysteries, fantasy literature, plays, romances, Westerns, Hollywood interest and business fiction” – along with children's literature and 19th-century literature. Seems like an odd mix, doesn’t it?

Michael: The common link between the genres, more or less, is the era in which they were published. We like the way books were made during the Jazz Age and the Depression era, they have an appealing solid quality, often with dust jacket art that demonstrates real contemporary artistry.

AC: How old is your business, and about how many books do you have in stock right now?

Michael: My father started the business in the late 1970s. I’ve been involved one way or another since I was about twelve. You might say I grew into the business, literally. We have tens of thousands of books, but less than ten thousand currently online for sale.

AC: What is “business fiction,” anyway? And what is a “photoplay”?

Michael: We found that the typical genres – mysteries, romances, etc., didn’t always encompass the varied subject matter that novels from the 1920s and ’30s dealt with. We’ve created a few more genres, such as business fiction – that is to say, novels dealing with businesses, companies, executives and office workers.

Photoplays were a way for publisher’s to bank on the popularity of current feature films by printing, or usually reprinting, novels that the films were based on and including plugs and stills from the film.

AC: You also concentrate on pre–World War II material – which I take to mean Depression-era works – in their original dust jackets, many of which are wonderful artwork. In fact, your catalogs feature some amazing Art Deco images. Do a lot of people collect books of that period just for the jackets?

Michael: Collecting novels not typically considered important from before World War II – when the quality of jacket artwork seems to have taken a nosedive – is appealing to some of our customers simply for the artistry of the book and not the quality of the prose. Most collectors are interested in authors, but more than one are interested in the book itself as a piece of contemporary art.

AC: Sometimes paper quality prior to and during the Second World War wasn't that great. Was the jacket art intended to compensate?

Michael: There were some reprint houses that used pretty cheap or acidic paper; many of their books are now in the junk heap. Perhaps the jacket was a way to draw people into buying a book in which the quality of the book itself was substandard. However, we have found that many publishers from this period used high standards of production and their products live on today, and possibly will outlive many of their more modern cousins.

AC: I know that a scarce dust jacket is sometimes worth much more than the book itself: for example, the jacket for Henry Roth's “Call It Sleep.” Can you explain why? What advice would you give someone who wants to collect books in their original jackets?

Michael: Like many collectibles, the value is found in the most disposable part, or the most disposable items themselves – for example, baseball cards and comic books. Many a mom disposed of their children’s comic book collections and in doing so created scarcity and desirability in the collectibles market. This is the same with book jackets: They were the first to be discarded and are now the most valuable asset to a vintage book.

I would advise collectors to look for jackets in acceptable condition, keeping in mind that they have weathered 70 or 80 years of handling, as condition is always an important point for determining value. However, if a book has a damaged jacket, but there are no other examples available, that should not deter them from buying it.

AC: You have quite a selection of prewar books that appear from the outside to be pretty risqué. Were these writings really pushing the boundaries of acceptability? Were there film versions, and did they have to be toned down?

Michael: There were a number of publishers and authors pushing the boundaries of what amorous pursuits were acceptable for readers to consume. I think they were reflecting in their prose a growing sensibility among the populace, and meeting a demand for more realistic literature concerning what was actually happening in society. We’ve come across a number of Jazz Age titles that delve into “the fast life”: speakeasies, alcohol consumption and noncommittal romances. These were issues that were developing in society and needed to be addressed in literature.

AC: How did the look of dust jackets change after the war?

Michael: Books got thinner, paper quality got cheaper and artwork for jackets became more secondary in importance. There are still some great works out there by Salter and others, but the art of bookmaking definitely took a turn for the worse after the Second World War.

AC: What do you consider to be the highlights among the books you have in stock at this time?

Michael: I’m a big fan of early dust jackets, ones from 1910 to 1920 or even the turn of the century. These are naturally pretty uncommon, and they have a wonderful sense of appeal based on this scarcity. We also have some interesting photoplays for important films, and novels that deal with uncommonly found subject matter for the time, such as Hollywood, homosexuality, circus life, and women’s studies.

Images courtesty of Babylon Revisited Rare Books, www.babylonrevisitedrarebooks.com.

I was saddened to read that artist Frank Frazetta passed away on May 10 at age 82. Frazetta was the guy who gave a face to Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, and his cover illustrations for horror comics like Creepy and Eerie in the late 1960s and early ’70s had a huge influence on me. I’ve heard that Frazetta was pooh-poohed by the artistic “establishment,” but if art is about stoking emotions and making people dream, then in my lowbrow estimation he was as good as any painter you can name. With his flint-faced, slab-muscled berserkers and buxom Hyborian hotties, Frazetta embodies the genre of heroic fantasy art and has many imitators – some with arguably better technical ability – but these are only anemic amateurs compared to the Brooklyn-born Caravaggio of Cimmerian carnage, our own Goya of Gothic ghastliness. Fare thee well, Frank.

The Railroad Memories auction ended last Fri., June 18. Owner Susan Knous said there were about 50 Internet bidders: “The participation was great and overall I had some record-breaking prices, so I felt it was a really good sale.” No-bid items went on sale for the price of the minimum bid; most have already sold, but there is still some nice stuff. Go to www.RailroadMemories.com, click on “AUCTION CATALOG 76 CLOSED,” then click on “NO BID ITEMS.” (By the way, I was able to win one of the Denver & Rio Grande stock certificates signed by Otto Mears!)

For Americana collectors, I highly recommend A Glimpse of Americana (www.AGlimpse.com). They have lots of great vintage photos as well as newspapers, ephemera, letters and other great stuff, in subcategories like “Native American,” “Wild West,” “Maritime,” “Circus & Sideshow,” “Wheeled Vehicles,” “Fairs & Expos,” “Police & Firefighting” and many more – and at really good prices, in my opinion. I have purchased a number of items from them over the past couple of years and have always been pleased.

Diner fans who read the post “A blast from the repast” (Sept. 21, 2009) will recall that author Richard Gutman, author of the 1979 classic “American Diners” and now curator and director of the Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., stirred folks’ nostalgia for diners and helped rescue this icon of American food culture just as it was on the verge of disappearing. Richard is the subject of a June 15 post on Smithsonian.com by Sarah Saffian.

Clay Moyle, author of “Sam Langford: Boxing's Greatest Uncrowned Champion” (profiled in “Resurrecting Sam Langford” on May 14), reports growing interest in his book about an exceptional fighter who might have been a world heavyweight champion if he hadn’t been the wrong color. I predict a major publisher will pick up and reissue this self-published work. Purchase it from Amazon.com or get a copy signed by Clay by visiting www.PrizefightingBooks.com.

The new season of “History Detectives”   (www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives) started Mon., June 21, on PBS. It’s an excellent show, and a real lesson in how far you can go in researching an item. There’s a new full-time co-host, Eduardo Pagan, a professor at Arizona State University and author of “Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riots in Wartime L.A.” (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), who specializes in the American Southwest. If you’re a new visitor to this blog, check out our interview with History Detective Elyse Luray (“What the experts collect” on Jan. 26, 2010). And keep an eye peeled for our forthcoming interview with History Detective Tukufu Zuberi here on AmeriCollector.com!

Having just entered my bids in Railroad Memories’ auction no. 76, which I wrote about on June 7 (“Trainspotters: Railroad Memories auction leaves the station on Friday, June 18”), I thought I’d remind my fellow railroad enthusiasts that a specialized auction like this is the ideal way to build a collection or get a unique gift for the collector in your life.

Why?

When you cruise antique malls and flea markets – not to mention the world’s biggest flea market, eBay – unless you are Johnny-on-the-spot, you are either picking through someone else’s rejects or competing against a slew of other people in search of the same thing you are. What’s more, you’ll spend a good long time picking through lots of junk to find anything good.

An auction like Railroad Memories’ not only features choice stuff, but there will be fewer bidders to go up against – and they’ll mostly be railroadiana collectors like yourself.

What’s more, in a Railroad Memories auction, you e-mail your bids using a simple online sheet, or you can fax or call in your bids: It’s not only relatively low-tech but refreshingly old-fashioned. This would seem to discourage the bidding wars that other auction houses foment through online live bidding and that many folks – myself included – truly hate: You have to fight the urge to overbid in the heat of the moment, and may even regret it when you actually win.

In my opinion, that takes a lot of the fun out of collecting.

By contrast, in a collecting field where steam power is romanticized, a Railroad Memories auction is, ironically, low-pressure. “Bidders may call to find out the current high bid only after they have placed their bids,” their Web site indicates. Among the other terms of their auction: “Highest winning bidder will be awarded the lot for 10% above the 2nd highest bid. EX: Winning bid is $50, second highest bid is $30. Winning bidder pays $33 for the lot. If the spread between the two top bids is less than 10% the winning bidder pays his full amount bid. If only one bid is received on any one lot the winning bidder pays the minimum bid only. We encourage you to bid the most you are willing to pay, this saves time and usually is the most successful.”

That last sentence is key: To me, “the most you are willing to pay” means you give it your best shot and then chill out. As I mentioned, I’ve submitted my best bids; now I’ll just wait to see what happens. Maybe they’re already too low, or maybe someone will go higher before the auction ends. But it’s strangely calming not to receive e-mails with “YOU HAVE BEEN OUTBID” in the subject box, or to feel compelled to stay up late to snipe the last highest bidder.

Anyway, as I wrote in the June 7 post, this auction also has lots of wonderful stuff for people who DON’T collect railroad memorabilia specifically: like collectors of glassware, tableware, silver, advertising, ceramics, tools and hardware, stock certificates and ephemera. (All you family genealogists: If you have railroad men among your ancestors, this auction’s for you too!) It may be too late to receive a catalog in time for the auction, but it’s a beauty, and great resource material, so consider subscribing (which will save you the 10 percent buyer’s premium if you win in an auction).

Meanwhile, Railroad Memories owner Susan Knous mentioned a few “stars” this time: “A Denver & Rio Grande brass top bell bottom lantern (lot 404) with clear cast globe – real treasure in great condition for this 1880s-era lantern: Not many of these have survived, so they are always desirable,” she explained. “We are also proud to be offering a St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba brass top bell-bottom lantern (lot 420), also with a clear cast globe: One of only a handful are known in collections today, so this one will be interesting to watch. Great Northern fans will find a Great Northern Express call card sign (lot 134), beautiful medallion silver serving pieces, porcelain signs and more.”

The auction closes on Fri., June 18, at 5 p.m. Mountain Time. Visit www.RailroadMemories.com to view the lots and register to bid.

Images provided courtesy of Railroad Memories.

Massachusetts congressman Thomas “Tip” O’Neill famously said, “All politics is local,” to which I’d add: “The same goes for history."

Of course, the writers of school textbooks tend to take a “macro” view of history, concentrating on wars and revolutions, sweeping social movements and worldwide economic changes, rather than how average people live their lives. That’s to be expected, given curriculum requirements and limited class time. And while it’s understandable that many collectors also focus on famous people and the events and trends they’re associated with, I think it’s good to remember that history’s “movers and shakers,” just like the rest of us, all come from someplace small – a neighborhood, a town, a city, a district – where regular folks work and play, go to school and go off to war, raise food and raise families … That’s all part of history too.

For this reason, I think “local” and “regional” collectors, like local and regional museums, perform a really important service: Because of their focus, their “micro” approach to collecting, they preserve artifacts of their areas' heritage that might otherwise be lost. Call them grassroots chroniclers or hometown Homers, to me it’s the local librarians, researchers, archivists, museum curators and, yes, collectors who do some of the most vital work in saving our history.

One such person is Marc Blau. Born and raised in Tacoma’s North End, Marc is a graduate of Stadium High School and the University of Washington (where he earned a B.A. in recreational planning and administration) who worked for Pierce County Parks & Recreation for 31 years (retiring in 2004), managed Sprinker Recreation Center and the Lakewood Community Center and is now a sales associate for Winning Seasons, a screen print and embroidery business in Lakewood.

But that’s not all: A sports enthusiast par excellence (French for “big-time”), Marc has long served on the Tacoma Athletic Commission (www.TacomaAthletic.com), which includes chairing the Tacoma–Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame; he’s co-founder and president of the Shanaman Sports Museum of Tacoma–Pierce County (www.TacomaSportsMuseum.com), located inside Tacoma Dome; he’s MC and co-chair of the Tacoma–Pierce County Baseball-Softball Oldtimers Association (www.OldtimerBaseball.com); and he’s assistant executive director of the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame (www.WashingtonSportsHOF.com).

But wait: There’s more! Marc also co-authored (with Caroline Gallacci and Doug McArthur) a FANTASTIC 512-page hardcover book, “Playground to the Pros: An Illustrated History of Sports in Tacoma–Pierce County” (University of Washington Press, 2005), an unforgettable look at some 40 different sports played in the county: football, baseball, basketball and hockey, to be sure, but also boxing, bowling and golf, auto racing, boat racing, horse racing – even horseshoes and soapbox derbies. It’s jam-packed with great photos, and I guarantee that if you leave it in place sight when your friends are around, they are going to be all over it.

As you have probably guessed, Marc is collector of Tacoma and Pierce County sports memorabilia in addition to being a bona fide historian – my favorite kind of collector. Here’s what he told me about his interests:

AmeriCollector: How did you get started?

Marc: I started collecting back in 1984 when I came across some of my Bank of Washington cards of the Tacoma Giants and thought it would be fun to track down some other items related to the Giants, such as a T-Giants bobbin’ head doll and some old programs. I started tracking down former players, batboys, announcers, front office staff and ushers and things just mushroomed. I decided to collect all Tacoma-related items from their Pacific Coast League days and then started going backwards and learning more about when the Tacoma Tigers played in the Western International League from 1937 to 1951. Pretty soon I was tracking down photos and other artifacts back to the late 1880s. And then I started progressing into just about any sport in Tacoma–Pierce County. That is what led to the Sports Museum, which is located at the Tacoma Dome. My collection includes uniforms, stadium seats, autographed baseballs, bats, caps, jackets, trophies, tickets, schedules and much more. I do enjoy occasional items related to the San Francisco Giants and Pacific Coast League teams prior to 1958.

AC: What do you enjoy about collecting Pierce County sports-related items? How do you build your collection?

Marc: I enjoy the stories behind the artifacts, so most of what I have has come from players or family members, and there is a story behind each item. I used to attend shows, but no longer, and I rarely visit shops. I do participate in auctions on an occasional basis, but most of what I find is through friends, networking relationships and dumb luck.

AC: Is there a “holy grail” that you’re trying to find?

Marc: That’s pretty easy: a 1960s grey flannel Tacoma Giants jersey with “Tacoma” emblazoned across the front.

AC: What would you say is the highlight of your collection?

Marc: When the Phoenix Giants moved to Tacoma in 1960 and the Tacoma Giants played from 1960 to 1965, I became a diehard Giants fan and Dusty Rhodes was my hero. He hit something like 26 home runs in 1961 when the Giants won the PCL pennant, and I thought Dusty was destined to make the jump the following season to the big leagues. Heck, how was I to know, as a 10-year-old, that he was on his way DOWN, not UP, and that he had already enjoyed his glory days in the major leagues and World Series?

When I starting collecting, I was bound and determined to meet Dusty and I was fortunate enough to track him down in Boca Raton, Fla. I wrote him a letter and one night at the dinner table I got a call and the guy on the other end said, with a southern drawl, “Hi, Marc, this is Dusty!” It took me a few seconds to figure out who in the heck Dusty was. We had a great conversation and continued to keep in touch.

When Dusty moved to Henderson, Nev., we made a point of going to Las Vegas so I called and asked him if we could meet up. He was more than gracious about doing so, and when he walked in the Mirage Hotel I recognized him immediately. We spent two hours talking (well, he talked and I listened), and he was a heck of a storyteller. I was in heaven and got him to sign a few things for me, and then I gave him some photos and programs to keep from when he played in Tacoma. And, of course, I had a photo taken. I have my Dusty Rhodes bat on my Polo Grounds seat with a New York Giants jersey draped over it – a reminder of his glory years with the Giants.

Not many people can say they actually got to meet their hero? I count myself as one of the lucky ones.

AC: Any advice for other collectors of sports memorabilia?

Marc: Have fun, don’t be obsessed and don’t collect for investment purposes. Not everyone will agree with that assessment, but that is my personal mantra.

Images courtesy of Marc Blau.

It’s here, and just in time for Father’s Day: Ol’ No. 76, billowing steam, boiler clanging and ticking, is waiting at the platform, doors open and waiting for railroad enthusiasts to climb aboard for one wild ride …

Actually, it’s the NEW No. 76 – as in Railroad Memories’  (www.RailroadMemories.com) auction no. 76, featuring a trainload of unique memorabilia in variety of categories – everything from advertising, china, silver and watches to badges, passes, stock certificates and equipment – for railroaders, collectors in other fields (regional, china, silver, signage, lanterns) – even decorators.

I last wrote about Denver-based Railroad Memories (“All aboard! Railroad Memories Auction ends Nov. 6”) back in October; the specialized auction, held quarterly, is a collector’s event. Also, unlike the high-profile, highly staffed corporate efforts that I usually profile on AmeriCollector.com, Railroad Memories auctions are held on a much smaller platform under the supervision of owner Susan Knous.

I first found Railroad Memories – which is an online railroad memorabilia shop as well – last year while tooling around the Web, looking for the elusive autograph material of Otto Mears, “Pathfinder of the San Juans” (the mountains in Colorado, not the islands in the Strait of Juan de Fuca) and builder of the Rio Grande Southern, Silverton and Silverton Northern railroads. I gave a call and found Susan to be genial, helpful and very knowledgeable; I also started watching for her auctions.

Railroad Memories issues four beautiful color catalogs annually for their auctions, which are excellent reference material for collectors, as are the prices-realized sheets that come afterward. The subscription cost is $45 within the U.S. and $60 outside the U.S., and subscribers are exempt from the 10 percent buyer’s premium that non-subscribing bidders pay.

“This issue features over 500 lots, including some very scarce and hard-to-find items,” Susan told me. “Everything sold through our company comes with a full money-back guarantee for authenticity and customer satisfaction. Simply view and bid on the lots from our Web site. Should you have any questions or comments please do not hesitate to contact us.”

Just a few of what I consider to be highlights of the current auction: not one but TWO Rio Grande Southern stock certificates signed by Otto Mears (including one issued to Mears himself!); a great silver-foil-backed poster for the streamlined Burlington Zephyrs; a beautiful circular porcelain Great Northern Railway sign with mountain goat silhouette measuring two feet in diameter; a porcelain spittoon from the Pennsylvania Railroad; plenty of really nice china (including several from the Wabash Railroad); lots of some 50 pieces of dining car silver (sugar bowls, toothpick holders, teapots, you name it); lots of locks, keys and lanterns; office and rail yard equipment; books; passes; and more.

If you are or know a railroad buff – especially if you’re shopping for one this Father’s Day (an annual catalog/auction subscription makes a great gift!) – don’t miss this auction, which closes Fri., June 18, at 5 p.m. Mountain Time. Visit www.RailroadMemories.com to see the goods and register to bid.

Images courtesy of Railroad Memories.

If you had a chance to read “Got Ink?” on April 15 (about the 2010 National Tattoo Convention in Seattle) or “Tattoo you: 8 tips for first-timers”, you’ll understand why I’m about to recommend a Seattle tattoo shop, Slave to the Needle (www.SlavetotheNeedle.com), to tattoo aficionados.

While writing National Tattoo Convention post, I took a good look at the work of Aaron Bell, convention organizer and owner of Slave to the Needle. I had spoken with Aaron a few years ago, when I wrote about the 2007 convention, and he was personable and fun to talk to – one more reason I wanted to cover this year’s event. When I looked at the Slave to the Needle web site, I was wowed by Aaron’s fantastic work as well as that of the artists in his studio.

Slave to the Needle has two shop locations, in Wallingford (six artists) and Ballard (nine artists). If you’ve been searching for the right tattooist to emblazon you for all eternity, then go to the Web site and check out the artists’ gallery. These are all accomplished creative people with individual talents, so take a real good look, compare their work, get your friends’ opinions: I’m certain you will find at least one artist whose distinctive style and flare grab you – someone who can do the tattoo design you have in mind or help you work out a design you’re still having trouble envisioning.

(For my part, having seen Aaron’s own work on the Web site, I am feeling drawn to the needle yet again. After getting a Japanese-style back piece in 1984, I spent the next 14 years living in Japan – hiding my tattoos because of their negative yakuza associations and falling out of the tattoo “habit.” It’s taken me another 10 years back in the States to find a working tattooist who can do Japanese designs that meet my picky, picky expectations. Aaron, let’s talk …)

Incidentally, I’m a little shocked to note how few tattoo shops give a representative online sampling of their artists’ abilities. Certainly, some solo artists have all the business they need, but in other cases, maybe it’s calculated: If a tattooist has nothing much to show, a discriminating online visitor won’t bother to stop by in person. Slave to the Needle showcases the talent of its artists publicly, on the Internet, and the Web site indicates that they work mostly by appointment and can’t always accommodate walk-ins. Obviously, they’re in high demand.

But there’s another reason I like Slave to the Needle: They have a whole tattoo FAQ on their Web site (scroll down to the very bottom of the home page to click on it), as well as a section on their sterilization procedures and other safety measures. I think this upfront effort to assure and educate prospective customers – especially first-timers, many of whom are too nervous or clueless to ask a lot of questions – is to be commended. To quote Emil Faber, founder of Faber College in the film “Animal House”: “Knowledge is good.”

 

Images courtesty of Aaron Bell and tattoo artists, Slave to the Needle

Tattooing knows no season, but with the warm weather fast approaching and people showing more skin, you can bet that tattoo shops everywhere are looking forward to more business as people decide to adorn themselves.

I wish I could say that tattooing has undergone a renaissance, but that would suggest the REBIRTH of a golden age of tattooing. In fact, that golden age is RIGHT NOW, thanks to people like Ed Hardy and lesser-known pioneers going back to Sailor Jerry Collins in the 1940s. Before then, there were some legendary artists in the early 1900s through the ’30s – George Burchett in England, Charlie Wagner and Lew Alberts in the Bowery in Manhattan, to name just a piddling few Westerners, not to mention a legion of anonymous Japanese and other Asian masters – but it’s Hardy and others who took what many considered a lowbrow art form at best (a symbol of moral bankruptcy and criminality at worst) and applied their prodigious artistic abilities – drawing (no pun intended) on other artistic traditions ranging from Japanese ukiyo-e prints to hot rod detailing – to create a cultural phenomenon that has exploded in the past 20 years. Much as I enjoy “L.A. Ink” on the Discovery Channel and love Kat Von D (a seriously talented artist, and a serious fox besides: Her shop Web site is www.highvoltagetattoo.com), she and Ami James (a REALLY great artist but not my idea of foxy: Check out his work at www.lovehatetattoos.com) from “Miami Ink” will no doubt be the first to acknowledge that their series’ popularity owe a debt to the efforts of long-laboring tattooists over the decades who wouldn’t be caught dead on a reality show. (After being the outlaws of the art world for most of their lives, many old-timers hate the idea of being socially acceptable.)

All of which is to say, never before have there been as many good tattooists, and never has it been easier as in this Internet Age to locate them and see their work – although it shocks me that so many artists have such a meager online presence. (Show your stuff already!)

But I digress …

There’s a famous Norman Rockwell painting of a tattooist inscribing “Betty” on a sailor’s arm – seventh in a list of other girls’ names, with the first six crossed out. If laser tattoo removal is the growth industry it’s said to be, it’s because people don't think deeply enough about the designs they’re getting.

Here are some tips on getting artwork you’ll want to show off to your bingo buddies at the nursing home in 30 or 50 years …

1. Be sure you really want one. If you’re vacillating even a little, you’re not ready. Don’t waste a tattooist’s time by making an appointment, having him or her draw up a design, then hesitating because you’re not 100 percent sure you want a tattoo at all. Don’t do it on a dare or get pushed into it by a boy- or girlfriend seeking proof of your love. Don’t do it to show support for your friend because SHE wants a tattoo and doesn’t want to do it alone.
2. Choose a design you’re going to be happy with for the rest of your life. A tattoo makes a statement: Be sure yours is not one you will feel embarrassed by 10 years down the road. Fashions change, and what may seem hip in 2010 may be the height of nerdiness by 2020 (think of the barbed wire armbands of the 1990s).
3. Don’t be afraid to “experiment” before you get the real thing. Don’t know how big a tattoo you want, or where on your body you want to have it done? Buy a tattoo decal or get a friend to draw a temporary tattoo on you and wear it around for a while. It won’t be the design you really want, but it will help you get an idea of how a real tattoo will look on your body. And if you are very sensitive to other people’s reactions, either to a particular design or to tattoos in general, it’s a good way to test the strength of your commitment to getting a tattoo (and maybe reconsider).
4. Select your tattooist carefully! In order to make a living, most tattooists have to work in a range of styles – Japanese imagery, tribal designs, classic pinup babes, rockabilly, punk, you name it – but every good tattooist has at least one specialty. Some are great at typography – an art in itself. If you want a tattoo that’s a photo likeness of your child, you better find an artist who excels at portraiture. If it’s a Japanese design you want, there are tattooists who are exceptionally skilled at it. How do you find out what an artist is good at? A lot of tattoo shops have Web sites with galleries of their artists’ work, or the artists put photos of their happy clients’ designs on Facebook or MySpace. Also, they all have portfolios in their shops: Don’t hesitate to go and look, and don’t feel compelled to get a tattoo until you feel sure you've found an artist you’re comfortable with.
5. Concerned about infection? You’re nuts if you’re not. Licensed tattooists have to pass health department requirements in order to do business – that means strict sterilization of equipment, the wearing of gloves, etc. – and tattoo conventions always have educational programs to keep artists apprised on the latest health considerations. (The majority of tattoo shops are probably more hygienic than my dentist’s office back in Japan.) However, don’t be afraid to ask about this: Any reputable artist will be happy to tell you the measures they take to ensure the safety of clients as well as themselves. If you still don’t feel comfortable with that person or the shop, then don’t get tattooed there. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has some information on health risks and advice on taking care of your new tattoo.
6. Be ready to spend more for the best work. I once saw a sign in a tattoo shop that read: “Good tattoos are not cheap. Cheap tattoos are not good.” Getting a tattoo is not like getting a haircut: You might be able to make some minor adjustments, but you don’t get to start over in a month and a half if you’re not 100 percent happy with the result. If you really like a particular artist’s work, be ready to pay for his or her talent. Therefore …
7. Be prepared to travel if necessary. I got my first tattoo from Bob Roberts in New York in 1981 (he since became firmly entrenched in L.A.: www.spotlighttattoo.com). When Bob decided to pick up stakes and head west, but didn’t know where he’d end up, I asked, “Well, who should I go to?” He replied, “What about Ed Hardy in San Francisco?” Duh. Why didn’t I think of that? Of course, Ed wasn’t the household name he is today (more on that in an upcoming blog), but I knew his work from grainy tattoo newsletters (there weren’t even any magazines devoted to tattooing in 1981, unless you counted “Easyriders,” which was more about motorcycles and the biker lifestyle), and Bob had introduced me to him once when Ed was visiting Bob in Manhattan (they had shared a shop in San Francisco previously). So I called Ed at his old shop, Realistic Tattoo, on Van Ness (he now owns Tattoo City on Lombard: www.tattoocitysf.com) and flew out to California on three occasions, which became a kind of pilgrimage. Long story short: If you care enough about art to wear it, consider making the trip to get work you’ll really be happy with.
8. Work with your artist! Shows like “L.A. Ink” give a false impression of the amount of work that goes into doing a custom tattoo: Kat or Corey Miller (Is he really leaving??? Stay tuned!) or Dan Smith – or the other artists who don’t get any real airtime – may listen to what a client wants, or even have a photo or sketch to work from, then say “OK, I’ll draw something up: Come back in half an hour. But those 30 minutes are crucial in the artistic process: It’s the time when all the artist’s energies and experiences are focused on designing a picture that a person will wear for the rest of his or her life. If you’re getting custom work – and especially if you have some time to work with – then collect some good reference material for your artist to work from. You may get charged for some extra hours, but the result will be well worth it.

We welcome your comments and additional tips! Click on “Comments” at the beginning of this story.