Focus on Art Shay

The famous Chicago-based photographer, at a spry 88, collects his thoughts on collecting, collectors and how his world-class collection came to be collected

Introduction by David Chesanow

A few months ago I was purchasing a couple of books via long-distance phone call from a very nice lady named Florence who owns a bookshop in Highland Park, Ill., called Titles, Inc., which sells rare books. Never having been to the Prairie State and unfamiliar with its geography, I assume every city in Illinois is near Chicago, so I asked Florence if she had anything by one of my favorite writers, Nelson Algren, author of “A Walk on the Wild Side” (published in 1956 and set in New Orleans, but many of Algren’s stories – like “The Man with the Golden Arm” and my favorite, “Never Come Morning” – take place in the Windy City.)

Florence paused, then said, “Are you asking about Algren because my husband and I were friends of his?”

“I had no idea,” I replied, completely taken by surprise. “I don’t even know your last name.”

“It’s Shay,” Florence said. “My husband is the photographer Art Shay.”

Those who believe in coincidence – and even those who don’t, and who are sure that all good things happen for a reason because cosmic forces are at work – can imagine my rare moment of speechlessness and delight!

That’s because Art Shay – one of whose photos is on the dust jacket of the first edition of “A Walk on the Wild Side” – is one of the greatest photographers of the last century and this one as well. Even if you don’t know Art by name, you probably know photos he has taken: Jim Brosnan’s mitted hand extending from a vine-covered wall at Wrigley Field (like the Arthurian arm in the lake holding Excalibur) to make a catch; Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa blustering from a podium with his own giant image as the backdrop à la “Citizen Kane”; National Guardsmen poised in front of Chicago’s Conrad Hilton Hotel (cheerfully emblazoned with “Welcome Democrats”) before confronting angry protestors at the 1968 Democratic Convention (originally taken for Time magazine, but Art says they didn’t use it, opting instead to use a shot of a tank and soldiers in a haze of teargas as half the story's lead page, and one of youths swarming a statue in Grant Park as the full-page closer); and any number of others. Art has captured amazing images of some of the most celebrated Americans of our era – from John F. Kennedy, a young Marilyn Monroe and Hugh Hefner to Marlon Brando and Muhammad Ali – as well as taken many wonderful photos of Nelson Algren, the people of Chicago and thousands of other subjects.

Now 88, Art is originally from the Bronx and served as lead navigator aboard a B-24 Liberator flying missions over Europe in World War II (and twice helped lead the entire Eighth Army Air Force – 1,200 planes – to Berlin a week after D-Day); he also navigated the first non-combat flight from Guam to Tokyo following the Japanese surrender, bringing Gen. Douglas McArthur’s advance staff to Tokyo to organize GHQ and the occupation.

Art’s photographs – both black-and-white and color – have appeared in and/or on the covers of the America’s most popular magazines over the past six decades: from Life to Look to Esquire, from Sports Illustrated to the Saturday Evening Post, from Playboy to Boy’s Life. I absolutely love them, and I invite you to check them out at as well as see some of Art’s images at the Museum of Contemporary Photography Web site (collections.mocp.org) and to read his illustrated essay “The Democratic Convention – Chicago 1968” at www.swans.com.

Art is hugely admired by photographers, collectors and a legion of fans who just love a damn great photo. Nor is he one to sit on his laurels and play golf all day: He continues to make pure art with his camera.

For example, rock musician Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins) recently hired Art to shoot a three-year project involving Corgan’s creation of 41 new songs for some possible new albums he plans to market himself. Art explained that Corgan, “an astute businessman as well as artist who can’t believe the flurry of interest the tabloids have in his romantic life with celebrated and beautiful young performers,” got the idea of documenting the evolution of the albums after reading Art’s book “Chicago’s Nelson Algren” in one sitting. Corgan’s studio is only three miles from the Shay house in Deerfield, so Art just drops in at daylong rehearsals with digital Nikons, Canons and his trusty film Leicas whenever it’s convenient for both artists. (In fact, Leica Camera Inc. has just offered Art the use of their new M9 digital camera for the rest of the project. Art also proudly remembers being the first professional photographer to try the Canon 7 with its humongous .095 lens. He has the uncanny ability to recall each camera, lens and exposure used on most of his pictures: “I did my portrait of Liz Taylor by candlelight at the Ambassador East with that fantastic .095 lens: 1/30th of a second at .095. What a lens! What a woman!”)

Art is also a great and prolific writer – the author of dozens of books on a variety of subjects, all featuring his photography: “Album for an Age: Unconventional Words and Pictures from the Twentieth Century,” “Art Shay: Chicago Accent,” “Chicago’s Nelson Algren,” “Couples,” “Animals”; children’s books (“What Happens at the Circus,” “What Happens When You Turn on the Gas,” “What It’s Like to Be a Fireman” and many more); and sports (“40 Common Errors in Tennis and How to Correct Them” and similar titles for golf and racquetball). Some of the older books are bylined “Arthur Shay,” if you want to search for them online.

Having had the great honor and pleasure of corresponding with Art, I can attest to the fact that he is as “real,” down-to-earth and captivating as the pictures he takes. I’m also OVERJOYED to say that he has graciously written a warm, often funny and very moving story for AmeriCollector.com, which appears below …

Finally, if you want to give yourself or the photography lover in your life a real gift, Florence Shay (who writes a fantastic blog that any bibliophile will enjoy: It’s at http://tr.im/florence) has copies of Art’s most recent books, “Album for an Age,” “Couples,” “Animals,” “Art Shay: Chicago Accent” and “Chicago’s Nelson Algren,” which you can purchase signed by Art. (“Couples” and “Animals” are especially popular sellers.) Contact Florence through her blog or by calling Titles, Inc., at (847) 432-3690.

And if you want to purchase prints of Art’s photos, contact Paul Berlanga at Chicago’s Stephen Daiter Gallery (www.stephendaitergallery.com, where you can see excellent examples of Art’s work): Call (312) 787-3350.

 

A photographer looks at his work – and his collectors

By Art Shay

My favorite practitioner of graphic satire before I entered the lists is, of all people, Honoré Daumier, who wandered the streets and courthouses of Paris 150 years ago as I did in Chicago in the more recent fifties and sixties: Daumier with his caricaturizing pencil, I with my caricaturizing camera – wicked instruments both. Henry James, again of all people, attributed the swelling of journalism by Daumier and George Cruikshank to the rise of pictorial satire.

“The stream of time is in this case mainly the stream of journalism …” James wrote presciently in an 1893 essay on Daumier.

My entire oeuvre rests on another James observation in the same essay: “A society has to be old before it becomes critical, and it has to become critical before it can take pleasure in the reproduction of its incongruities by an instrument as impertinent as the indefatigable crayon” – or, in my case, mutatis mutandis: my Leica.

I just got off the phone with the great Paul Berlanga, chief of staff at the Stephen Daiter Gallery (Chicago’s best) and my friend of the past 30 years. Paul has almost single-handedly guided my pictures up the money slope from the $350 I was glad to command for the vintage prints I had made for myself after shooting a story, say, for Life magazine to a median of around $1,500 for 11 x 14s. When I showed some 80 prints at the Galerie Albert Loeb (www.galerieloeb.comin Paris in 2008, it was Paul who helped convince Albert Loeb (who came from a family of Picasso and Matisse sellers) that he should charge 1,725 euros (about $2,200 per today’s exchange rate) for my Chicago pictures.

“Shall I send some of my aerial combat pictures made over Paris in World War II?” I asked. “And some lovely candids of a beautiful American girl alone with the ‘Mona Lisa’?”

“No, my dear friend,” Albert said unhesitantly. “Our Paris collectors are more interested in your views of Cheecago, not Paris. They know Paris and wonder about Cheecago.”

We sold around half of the photos, and the orders are still trickling in – especially for my famous dorsal nude candid of Simone de Beauvoir, who was my friend Nelson Algren’s Cheecago girlfriend. The French press (in the form of a cover of Le Nouvel Observateur) and a New Yorker article about the picture helped sales to no end, so to speak.

(Ironically, my wonderful archivist Erica DeGlopper recently found several frontal nude bathroom pictures I had done of Simone but planned not to release until my death. Erica and my collection were honored by the Society of American Archivists in the May/June issue of Archival Outlook.)

As it happens, the redoubtable publisher Eric Vieljeux of 13^e Note Éditions (13th Note Editions) and I have a handshake deal for a small French book next year, telling the story behind my nude picture of the great philosopher and, according to Algren, lousy novelist. He reviewed her book “The Mandarins” (purportedly telling of their great Chicago love affair) in Harper’s and noted that the lady had invaded her own privacy.

“I’ve been in whorehouses all over the world, and even in the Far East they have the decency to pull down the blinds,” Algren observed.

(When Simone phoned Algren from France to berate him for his negative review, asking him if he hadn’t enjoyed their lovemaking as much as she, he replied, “Yes, but I wasn’t reviewing the fucking, I was reviewing the fucking book.”)

One of the rarer dishes on my table at the moment is a plan by Johnny Depp to film the Algren–de Beauvoir Chicago love story. Depp is considering casting his beautiful French wife, Vanessa Paradis, as Simone, and has hired the Swede Lasse Hallström as director. This is for 2011, with the film apparently to be shot in Chicago after Depp finishes yet another pirate movie. His agent avers that “Johnny will be in touch with you.”

(Hollywood has its own clock and calendar. In this connection my wife gave me Joseph Heller’s sadly humorous book on his adventures with the mañana-mouthed movie people who kept him on a 15-month series of tenterhooks even after he got his money.)

Depp’s agent has sent him my two books on Algren and has so far bought two of my Algren–de Beauvoir pictures, framed them, and given them to Depp for his birthday, reporting that the actor likes them.

So now, among my showbiz collectors, I can add Depp to rocker Billy Corgan; actors Jennifer Aniston, John Cusack and William Petersen; and my old friend, the late Marcel Marceau. Oh – and one of my favorite collectors and the writer of the forewords for two of my books: David Mamet. David says he’s cheered up when he comes down to his desk to work in the morning “and I see your picture of Maxwell Street at dawn hanging over my desk. I used to live there.” Recently David asked me for permission to use the same picture on the cover of his upcoming autobiography. He’s likened my pictures to the bums who used to tug at his sleeve.

I perhaps made a mistake joking with master jokester Mamet. I had helped him “collect” a World War II–era Kodak Retina III, the kind of camera Mamet owned and lost long ago. Periodically he’s sent me a snap or two to critique. Of one pretty good self-portrait of David in a mirror, I wrote back: “It’s fine, but don’t give up your day job.” No riposte came back, so I guess I’ll stick to photo criticism and lay off the humor.

Another of my favorite collectors – who collects bird pictures as well as my grungy Chicago views, and whose nickname is Birdman – took me to the recent Chicago Art Institute exhibition of Henri Cartier-Bresson. I thought it a great 500-picture display, but only a very few pictures filled me with a sense of joy. (In this area I much like the picture of two human strollers compositionally repeating the two statues on the background structure.) Albert Loeb, on his recent visit from Paris, told me, “I knew Bresson and I know you. He is such a cold man. Your pictures are much warmer and have great sympathy in them.”

Of course, Loeb himself is a gracious man of the arts and a friend. He attributes the warmth in my work to my being Jewish. Perhaps. I also attribute it to my visceral love of life and my understanding of death’s insistence. I learned that from flying 52 combat missions in my B-24, Sweet Sue, in World War II. And with the heartbreak that comes with having my oldest son, Harmon Shay, murdered at 21. And not even having his body returned from the Florida swamps, where he presumably perished in 1972. Florence and I have four spirited children: Richard Shay, Steve Shay and Lauren Shay Lavin are much-published photo-journalists; and our-daughter-the-lawyer, Jane Shay Wald, an intellectual-property attorney, was recently named by Super Lawyers magazine to their 2010 “Top 100 Lawyers” list for Southern California.

My wife, Florence, knows collecting better than I: She’s the proprietor of the world-renowned antiquarian bookstore Titles, Inc., in Highland Park, Ill. Florence’s collector-clients have included a Chicago Bear, a Chicago Bull, Billy Corgan, David Mamet, 11-time champion professional wrestler Bret the Hitman Hart, two unjailed Illinois governors and many others. She carried on (if that’s the phrase) a correspondence with Joseph Heller – one of her favorite authors – and so has an extensive collection of signed first editions of “Catch-22.”

One of the glories of selling to collectors is usually not having much of a clue to their likes ... This week I’m pulling up some prints of Life magazine photos of society ladies Hula Hooping on Michigan Avenue in the sixties, as well as some prints for a prominent legal firm in Chicago collecting Chicagoana. They like my picture of the first Mayor Richard Daley exultant on a grandstand in front of City Hall, celebrating the 1957 Chicago White Sox pennant with his young son, now mayor of Chicago himself. My old friend and subject, Bill Veeck, owner of the Sox, is up there with the Daleys. It was Veeck who set off baseball's first home-run fireworks. This helped light the night sky for my first Sports Illustrated cover, on July 4, 1960. (Attention baseball collectors: Someplace in Veeck’s estate my print must still exist – autographed by Minnie Miñoso, who hit the homer that precipitated the fireworks. But not, alas, by me.)

I didn't become aware that people were collecting my photos until years later when one of my first collectors, a Chicago restaurateur, bought my picture of Muhammad Ali (still Cassius Clay at that time) knocking out Alex Miteff in Louisville in 1961. The restaurateur gave it to his then-partner, Michael Jordan, for the “Celebrities Room” at their ill-fated LaSalle Street restaurant. I heard Jordan praise my picture on his wall on opening night. Michael had gotten Ali to autograph the print next to my proud signature. I’m sure it’ll turn up in some collection one far-off day – possibly in the house of one of Jordan's handsome, smart, sports-savvy children.

My royalty check from – bless ’em – Time Inc. this month includes payment for my famous picture of Ray Kroc in the sixties, eating a hamburger in front of his first McDonald’s, in Des Plaines, Ill. (My gallery has a one-off 4 x 5-foot framed copy of the Kroc photo that cost me $900 to frame. My gallery man, Paul, aims to approach McDonald’s about buying the print: better on their wall than on mine.) The same check covers photos of Arnold Palmer winning the 1960 Masters, some Teamsters picketers, the 108-year-old last survivor of the Civil War (from the Union side) and Dolly Parton.

Time Inc.’s picture choices have always been enigmatic. Now these secondary-use sales are further funneled through Getty Images. Last year a friend of mine at the photo agency Polaris Images discovered that a New York hotel chain was using my dorsal nude of Simone to illustrate their dinner menu. The chain came up with a considerable sum for an out-of-court settlement. The hotel admen apparently thought I wouldn’t care or was dead.

Hell, I’m only 88!

Incidentally, I’ve had photos on more than 1,000 covers of all kinds, from Ford Motor Company and 3M annual reports to magazines like Time, Life, Fortune, the Sunday New York Times Magazine and Sports Illustrated to all the covers on the 50+ books I’ve published. (Heck, it wasn’t a cover, but four years ago the New York Times Magazine ran six of the pictures I did of my own heart surgery- shot before I went “under” – as their back-page “Lives” feature. They even used a picture of Florence.)

Two of my plays have been produced professionally: “A Clock for Nikita” in 1963 and “Where Have You Gone, Jimmy Stewart?” four years ago. (Stewart was my Air Force squadron commander, though I didn’t fly with him. “Nikita” was about a creative Russian who designed an alarm clock that played Tchaikovsky and woke the workers up happy … and what happens to a free spirit in a closed society …)

I can’t decide whether to send Johnny Depp’s agent, the ebullient Tracey Jacobs, two of my unproduced attempts at a play about the great Nelson-Simone love affair. She might advise me not to give up my day job.

All Art Shay photographs copyright (c) Art Shay and used with the kind permission of the photographer

Autograph dealer Ed Bomsey of Edward N. Bomsey Autographs (www.bomsey-autographs.com) in Virginia has sent around an e-mail noting he’s added many new additions to the listings on his site. I made Ed’s acquaintance a couple of months ago: A former lawyer whose collecting interests I plan to feature on AmeriCollector.com’s “What the Experts Collect,” Ed is erudite and friendly; he was the president of the The Manuscript Society (www.manuscript.org) from 2008 and chairman its ethics committee; he’s a former director of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association (www.padaweb.org); and he’s a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (www.abaa.org) and a life member of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club (www.uacc.info).

To me, Ed is an autograph seller of the old school: He has really nice autograph material, has very high professional standard, genuinely loves working with collectors and – please note – takes pains to price his items reasonably: As he told me, “I believe that items I get at a reasonable cost can be marketed at a reasonable cost.” He also does appraisals.

Images courtesy of Edward M. Bomsey Autographs, Inc.,
www.bomsey-autographs.com

I was interested to read about Rick Norsigian, 64, who paints public schools in Fresno, Calif.: He picked up a hoard of glass photographic negatives 10 years ago for $45 (bargaining down from $70) that may possibly be the work of the great Ansel Adams, whose beautiful monochrome images of Yosemite National Park are a staple of Sierra Club calendars. Norsigian has been researching his find – on the Internet, no doubt – and now there’s speculation that these may be Adams plates long believed to be destroyed and lost forever. A possible value of $200 million has been blithely bandied about: That includes reproduction rights, projected print sales, yada yada yada.

Now, I can be as gullible as the next guy, but when I first heard about the airhead newscaster on “Headline News” say, with an earnest face, $200 million – more than the GNP of a lot of Third World countries – for a bunch of glass negatives, I said something that Stephanie Irwin, who designs this site, advised me not to write down in case kids are reading this. An article in the July 28 Wall Street Journal made me feel justified in reacting as I did: Photography experts pointed out that (1) about twelve gazillion visitors to Yosemite in the 1920s were photographing El Capitán and anything else in sight, so there’s no proof yet that these plates were made by Ansel Adams, and (2) even if they WERE made by Adams, the value is in the PRINTS made from the plates, not in the plates themselves. So it’s not like the happy owner just won the California State Lottery’s MEGA Millions.

This news item reminded me of an “Antiques Roadshow” appraisal in which the expert noted that Adams signed the prints he made himself – which are the most valuable – while those made by his trusted assistant he only initialed and are therefore less valuable.

Personally, I hope the plates that Norsigian picked up ARE proven to be by Ansel Adams and that he can cash them in for enough to retire very comfortably and even have a Ferrari to drive in his dotage – never having to pick up a paint roller again. I especially admire him for taking the chance and for doing the research: That’s the beauty of the Internet Age, spammers and phishers and identity thieves aside: You can do a lot of the checking yourself. This is a lesson for all of us collectors: Be cynical, but don’t give up!

 

If autographs are your thing, or you’re thinking of buying a special gift for someone for the holidays, I urge you to check out Ed’s very well organized site. For some reason, I’ve been finding that quite a few booksellers listing their stock on Advanced Book Exchange (a.k.a. ABE, www.abebooks.com) and Alibris (www.alibris.com) are incredibly sloppy or downright deceptive in their descriptions. Here are some recent experiences I’ve had:

• One bookseller in Portland described a book as having been signed TWICE by the author. I knew for a fact that the book in question has a preface with a printed signature, so I asked her to conform that the book was signed twice; she confirmed this. When I received the book – which was not in as good a condition as described – and discovered that in fact it was signed only ONCE and the other signature was printed she got huffy, saying the book was still a good deal and she wouldn’t accept the return.
• Another bookseller sold me an 1883 book whose original title page had been removed and replaced with a glued-in photocopy. The photocopy was on new, heavier stock, not the cheap-o stuff they sometimes give you for free at Office Max in return for used LaserJet cartridges. Again, this was curiously absent from the description. Was this a deliberate attempt to deceive? Did the seller think I wouldn’t NOTICE? I’m waiting for an answer to my e-mail.
• A bookseller in Falls Church, Va., sold me an 1857 map of Western Washington, describing it as “V.G–. Light browning at one fold. Nice map.” One teensy-weensy problem: A rectangular chunk – almost half the border on one of the long sides – had been cut away. The map can’t be framed and is useless as a collectible. The seller was at least nice about, noting, “The map was issued and inserted in the Serial volume as you see it. Nevertheless I should have mentioned it in the description.” He offered me a partial refund if I want to keep it or a full refund if I want to keep it. (It’s going back.)
• A bookseller in Texas listed a book as “inscribed by the author.” Because the autograph of the author in question is rare, and the book was priced cheaply at relatively at $300, I asked to see a scan: The inscription was NOT in the author’s handwriting; what’s more, it was signed with initials, and the initials were not the author’s! I pointed out this small detail: The seller insisted that the inscription was the author’s and still has it listed.

I mentioned these disappointments to a bookseller in Georgia who is extremely conscientious about his descriptions. He replied: “Some (booksellers) are lazy and some are just incompetent.” Word to the wise: Request scans whenever possible. In lieu of a scan, don’t be afraid to ask lots of questions: Ask for a very detailed description of the item, including condition issues, the exact wording of any inscription, the presence or lack of a dust jacket, whether it is a true first or a later book club copy (check the back cover near the spine: There’s usually a pressed-in letter or design to indicate this) and what the seller’s return policy is.

It always amazes me that people would buy some mass-produced framed print or some other tacky reproduction from a department store instead of getting a genuine old print – even an attractively designed book page or an illustration from an old newspaper – and having it framed, preferably with preservation materials (acid-free matting, conservation glass – the subject of an upcoming AmeriCollector.com story). Even though there’s a multitude of beautiful images and typographical examples available in a wide price range – with many beautiful engravings and chromolithographs costing not that much more than a print from Target – some folks would rather decorate their homes like a Motel 6 than put a little piece of history on their wall. Go figure.

An old print or poster makes a fantastic gift as well, and if skillfully framed can become the centerpiece of a room, more furniture than accouterment. Having a print (or photo or document, like a vintage stock certificate) custom framed can be pricy – and may even cost more than the print itself, especially if you have it done with the archival materials, which you should – but my motto is: If it’s worth framing, it’s worth framing right. Believe me, there’s a world of difference between a beautiful print that’s beautifully framed and one that looks like your kid framed it in arts & crafts at summer camp.

It’s also a lot of fun selecting an old print, especially if you want an image that connects to your or a loved one’s collection. Sometimes that just means riffling through old magazine ads to find one for Harley-Davidson if your boyfriend’s other passion is his hog, or an old “Police Gazette” engraving of a twelfth-round knockout if Uncle Rocky is an ex-pug. Of course, if you dream big - a long rail journey to Istanbul or a passage to India, perhaps – an old travel poster in your living room or home office will keep you focused and on course.

Prints can really make a statement: who you are, where you want to go …

However, I’m just a casual print collector: What does a bona fide print maven – a print professional – collect? I asked “Antiques Roadshow” appraiser Christopher Lane, co-owner (with Donald H. Cresswell) of The Philadelphia Print Shop (www.philaprintshop.com), who I introduced in my last post and who will open The Philadelphia Print Shop (West) in Denver in October, about his love of prints …

AmeriCollector: What do you primarily collect?

Chris Lane: I got into this field because of my interest in maps. I was a graduate student in philosophy and went looking for a map to give to my sister as a wedding gift. The dealer I bought the map from offered me a job and so I took a break from my thesis to work for a year and learn as much as I could about old maps. I got hooked and at the end of the year decided to start my own business, which I did in 1982 with my partner, Donald H. Cresswell.

I have always had a bit of the collector bug and of course had to collect antique maps. Because I didn’t want to compete with my clients – partly because it wouldn’t be fair to Don – my wife, Lindsey, and I decided to collect maps of the British Isles and Oxfordshire. I had met Lindsey when studying at Oxford (she is British) and so this was a natural thing for us to collect and a subject for which there were not a lot of American collectors.

Early on we both got interested in American ornithological prints, particularly through the wonderful prints of Mark Catesby. Our first non-map was the Catesby “Blue Heron” and now we have nice examples by almost every naturalist who made prints of American birds.

AC: What do you enjoy about collecting maps and prints?

Chris: The thing I enjoy most about collecting – other than the thrill of the chase – is that in building a collection one builds a graphic history of the topic you collect. My background is not at all in art; it is in history. While I primarily studied philosophy, history was always a “minor” in my studies. I found that I was able to envision history, and remember it, much better when I had contemporary images, prints and maps, of the subject I was studying. When you put together a collection of prints or maps of a particular place, you can visually see the history of the place: the changes in society, the physical structure, the economy and pretty much everything else. Then when you read about a period of history, you have an image in your mind that you can hang the text on and that really broadens your appreciation and understanding of that history.

AC: How do you build your collection?

Chris: Probably the thing that Don and I spend most of our time on here at the shop is buying inventory. It is relatively easy to sell when you have good items – the problem is finding those good things. So in our constant hunt for good inventory we regularly come across things that fit my collecting interest. We do most of our buying privately, but we also buy from other dealers and a little (probably about 5 percent of our inventory) at auction.

AC: What do you look for when choosing a new map or bird print to your collection?

Chris: I look for items that will fill in “gaps,” mostly by date, but also in trying to have items by all the major print or mapmakers who made items that fit our area of collecting. Also major items, even if I have other things that are similar, and those items that are “special” in some other way – such as a map that was particularly well colored at the time. Sometimes, though, we’ll buy something simply because we like it, mostly when it makes us smile to look at it, whether it is important or not. We are always concerned about condition, but if the item is rare enough, we’ll add it to our collection, hoping that maybe someday we’ll be able to upgrade.

Price is rarely a consideration. Now, of course I do have an advantage at usually being able to buy at “wholesale,” but it still costs me money when I add something to our collection, as I have to make good with my partner. If there is a map or print that fits our criteria and is something that should be added, unless the price is totally out of line, I’ll go for it, even if I think the price is too high. In the long run, I will be far unhappier if I pass it up than that I paid a bit too much. I have seen that many times with collectors I have worked with, and while I usually warn them (of course, they think I’m just trying to make a sale), usually a collector doesn’t learn that lesson until they pass something up that was “too expensive,” only to regret it the rest of their collecting days.

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

Chris: I would love a nice example of the George Lily map of the British Isles, first drawn in 1546. The “holy grail” for maps of Oxfordshire is the map from Christopher Saxton’s atlas of 1579. I have a wonderful example of that with original color which I found at an auction in Ohio and was able to buy for $200! I heard about the auction — that it had some British maps — and got a list, which included an unidentified map of Oxfordshire. From the description I recognized it as the Saxton map and after talking to the auctioneer on the phone I became convinced it was an original with original color, though it was laid to a backing. I didn’t want anyone to realize what it was, so I just asked the auctioneer if I could bid on the phone for a number of the British maps. I had decided I would pay as much as $5,000 for the Saxton, but bidding started at $50. When it got up to $200 I didn’t hear anything more. I was terrified the person on the phone might have missed a bid, so I kept saying, “Am I still high bidder?” Finally, I was assured not only was I high bidder but that I had won the map. As a business, The Philadelphia Print Shop has had a few great buys like that, but it was particularly fun that this time it was for me personally!

AC: Any advice for collectors of prints and/or maps?

Chris: The most important thing to me is for a collector to focus on a theme for the collection. Without a theme, it will just be a “group” of prints or maps, not a collection. The theme is what gives form and coherence to the group, making it a collection. The theme can be anything you are interested in: a time period, a style; prints showing canoes, maps of a particular place, presidential prints or whatever. Make it something you like and the collection will have meaning.

The next most important thing is to educate yourself. Learn how prints and maps were made and in what form they were issued so that you can recognize an original (we still find reproductions being sold as originals in some of the major auction houses!). Also, learn about the history of whatever theme you have chosen; this will help you appreciate those items you have and also to learn which items are important to your collection and which aren’t. Also, learn what is out there within the scope of your collection and how rare or important things are. That will help you decide whether to get something, even if you have to pay a premium or it isn’t in great condition.

All images courtesy of The Philadelphia Print Shop, www.philaprintshop.com

 

The Philadelphia Print Shop on facebook

Many thanks to Christopher Lane for the great interview.

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.