Restore MORE! Will ‘American Restoration’ launch a junkyard renaissance?

Rick Dale | American Restoration

So far, I’ve seen about 10 episodes of “American Restoration” (including the original pilot), which premiered on the History Channel last month (see “Restoration angels” on April 15), and I can’t get enough of them, for four reasons:

• The focus is on the work more than on personalities.
• The restoration process is really cool.
• The items that are restored have broad appeal.
• The possibilities are ENDLESS …

That last one is the biggie. How many times have you seen an old, rusted gas pump in front of an abandoned service station, or gone to a garage and spotted a dinged-up kid’s pedal car that was missing its wheels and most of its paint – or uncovered a flea market Frigidaire, circa 1940, that looked and smelled like it was used to store bait – and thought, “If this thing were in really great condition, it would be the coolest thing to have in my den”?

Maybe it’s the fact that so many manufactured goods these days, no matter how high-tech, seem cheap and shoddy compared to what they used to make. (Remember when cars actually had more metal than plastic on and in them?) Or maybe the depressed economy has given us a better appreciation of the virtue of thrift and the salvaging of disused items. Or maybe we just love retro and get off on the fact that we can have some really wonderful stuff if we are willing to invest in it …

Even my wife – who collects NOTHING and doesn’t “get” why other people do – enjoyed “American Restoration”: She loves the idea of taking something old and crappy and making it new again, especially if it is an object of sentimental value, like your dad’s old Radio Flyer.

I’m certain that more and more people are going to seek professional restoration services as a result of “American Restoration.” The show will surely jump-start all kinds of businesses and possibly whole academic programs at colleges and vocational schools around the country. After all, people have been restoring collector cars, antique commercial and military vehicles, vintage fire engines, old steam locomotives and rolling stock – not to mention fine furniture – for years … Why not long-abandoned machinery, kitchen appliances, commercial and recreational equipment and all the other artifacts of our culture that bring back memories?

For now, though, I’m glad that “American Restoration” seems to have gotten off to a great start – and even features visits from some of the “Pawn Stars” guys (sort of like Fonzie and Richie Cunningham showing up on “Laverne & Shirley” … well, sort of).

I’m looking forward to many more episodes …

Images courtesy of History Channel Press.

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Collector spotlight: Arthur Farrell, collector of Charles Eisenmann photos

Serious collectors of vintage circus and sideshow memorabilia know and revere photographer Charles Eisenmann, an immigrant from Germany. Not long after the Civil War, Eisenmann established himself in New York’s Bowery, that thin slice of living history in Lower Manhattan running from East Fourth Street down to Canal Street.

Up until the mid-1800s, the Bowery and Broadway were Manhattan’s two main drags, and the Bowery was home to respectable, even upscale businesses. But the area started to slide; in fact, it became a skid row about the same time Seattle was building the real skid row (from “skid road,” for shooting logs downhill into Puget Sound, now synonymous for a blighted business district): The shops and offices went away, to be replaced by whorehouses and gambling hells, saloons and seedy theaters. But vice generally doesn’t flourish in a vacuum – not in New York, anyway; demographics (i.e., migration and immigration) and poverty usually play a part, and by the 1860s and the start of the Civil War, the area took on a distinctly rough edge. After all, the Bowery was located just north of the Five Points, the slum/battlefield documented in Herbert Asbury’s 1926 book “The Gangs of New York” and dramatized in the 2002 Martin Scorsese film of the same title. In fact, the original Bowery Boys, a century before the Hollywood comedy series, were a real nativist army of thugs who would have made Daniel Day-Lewis’ Bill “the Butcher” Cutting and his on-screen badasses look about as intimidating as Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall.

When I lived in Manhattan in the early 1980s, the Bowery was a Kafkaesque urban canyon over which loomed grim factories and warehouses of sooty brick and iron, the archaeology of the Industrial Revolution; at night the area was desolate, a land of derelicts and winos. To be honest, I felt somehow drawn to that dark atmosphere but was also very wary of it, and I’d march through purposefully in the small hours on the way home from partying in the East Village, trying to look fearless but stopping for no one and nothing.

I hear that since the 1990s, like other edgy parts of Manhattan, the Bowery has been undergoing a renaissance (read gentrification, if you want to be political about it), but I’ll leave that to others to judge. Suffice to say that the neighborhood was still on the fringe at best in the 1880s when Charles Eisenmann set up shop, and if you poke around the cartes de visite and cabinet card photos on eBay, you’ll notice that there were a number of other photographers with studios there, often with ethnic names: Wendt, Ette, Feinberg, Gogler … Many of them photographed theater and circus folk as well, but not with Eisenmann’s panache, in my opinion. Other photographers also imparted nobility and class to their portraits of pinheads and parasitic twins, Borneo wild men and “Circassian” women (babes of any race with big Afros, considered risqué in Victorian times) … but Eisenmann’s rich compositions seem several cuts above the rest. In fact, his subjects seldom have that flat stare and stiff posture of most 19th-century photographic portraiture; many look like their pictures were taken yesterday, outdated clothing notwithstanding.

I collected a few Eisenmann carte de visites (business-card-size mounted photos) back in the early eighties, before the Internet, when everything was harder to find. Then I gave them away and moved abroad, but resumed collecting them when I moved back to the States in 1999 and discovered eBay. There, at any time, there are usually at least half a dozen Eisenmann examples, which vary widely in price: Non-“freak” vaudeville performer photos and often go for as little as $10, while the rarer stuff can go for hundreds, easily. Of the sideshow subjects, midgets and albino women seem to make up the lower end; hirsute people (like Jo Jo the Russian Dog-faced Boy) and bearded ladies are at the high end. Apparently, the hair fetish dies hard.

Nonetheless, great deals are to be had, and I bid on many beautiful photos, only to be outbid, usually by the same person. At that time, eBay not only still showed competing bidders’ “handles,” you could even contact them directly. This person who was gunning for the best Eisenmann photos was obviously very serious and probably very knowledgeable. I decided to “reach out” and see if I could learn something about collecting Eisenmann.

That’s how I made the acquaintance of Arthur Farrell, a retired Long Island English teacher who had moved south. Arthur has more than 600 Eisenmann prints, including variations of photos as well as unusual subjects (of elaborate paper cutouts, animals, etc.). I don’t doubt that he is the world’s premier private Eisenmann collector at this time (the Ronald G. Becker Collection of Charles Eisenmann Photographs at Syracuse University contains more than 1,400 images).

I asked Arthur to tell me about his about his collection. Here is what he told me …

“About 12 years ago I bought a book at a local library sale entitled, ‘P. T. Barnum: America’s Greatest Showman’ by Philip B. Kunhardt Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III and Peter W. Kunhardt (New York: Knopf, 1995). The book was an illustrated biography published to accompany a special about Barnum airing on the Discovery Channel. The book was a great read giving a chronological accounting of the showman’s life and was illustrated with hundreds of photographs. This wonderful volume led me to start collecting images by Charles Eisenmann, for many of the illustrated photos were taken by him.

“Apparently many of the extraordinary people Barnum exhibited in his museum had pictures taken in Eisenmann’s studio, which they subsequently sold to museum visitors. There were bearded ladies, snake charmers, albinos, long-haired and moss-haired women, little people, fat ladies and men, tattooed men and women and numerous other human oddities.

“However, Barnum didn’t just present the unusual. He also tried to assemble native tribes, people from all corners of the world. On one single page of the book were photos of a band of Nubians, Zulu warriors, high-caste Indians and Todas Indians, all taken by Eisenmann. Reading about the various human oddities on view at the museum was an educational experience for me, as it certainly must have been for the people in the 1880s.

“I was hooked.

“As I began to collect Eisenmann cartes de visite and cabinet cards, I discovered the Michael Mitchell book ‘Monsters of the Gilded Age: The Photographs of Chas. Eisenmann” (Toronto: Gage Publishing, 1979). This original volume dedicated to Eisenmann’s work was out of print and hard to acquire. However, I eventually bought a copy on eBay and really tried to acquire copies of all the wonders depicted.

“In 2002 Michael Mitchell reissued his original volume under a new publisher and a slightly different title: ‘Monsters: Human Freaks in America’s Gilded Age; The Photographs of Chas. Eisenmann’ (Toronto: ECW Press).

“One must not get the impression that all Eisenmann photographed were ‘freaks’ of nature. In my collection I have some wonderful portraits of actors and actresses that sat for him. Just one example is a wonderful photograph of Ullie Akerstrom, whom he photographed numerous times over the course of several years. Aside from being an actress, Ullie wrote plays and poems. If you Google her, you will find lots of information.

“I still try to add new additions to my collection.”

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Images courtesy of Arthur Farrell.

Monsters: Human Freaks in America’s Gilded Age: The Photographs of Chas Eisenmann

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King of pawn: Rick Harrison of ‘Pawn Stars’ talks about the shop and collecting

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Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of “Pawn Stars” on the History Channel (or HISTORY, as they prefer to be called). It should surprise no regular visitor to this site, then, that I’ve been trying for many moons to get Rick Harrison, lead luminary in the “Pawn Stars” firmament and owner of Las Vegas’ Gold & Silver Pawn Shop (www.gspawn.com), to tell us about starting out in the pawn biz and what he himself collects.

Rick’s a real busy guy, especially now that the shop is expanding (I hear it’s a regular stop on the Sin City tourist itinerary now); nevertheless, he was gracious enough to reply to a few of our questions. Thanks, Rick!

AmeriCollector: How and when did you get the business started?

Rick Harrison: I’ve been working in the business for close to 30 years. But the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop was not exactly an overnight success. I sought out a pawn license for most of the 1980s, but there was a long-established ordinance that no pawn license would be issued in the city of Vegas until its population exceeded 250,000. The good ol’ boys, back in the ’50s, figured we’ve got our pawnshops, we don’t want any competition, so they passed a law saying that they would issue one more pawn license when there’s 250,000 people in Vegas. This was when there was only 20,000 people in Vegas and nobody ever thought it would get to 250,000. But lo and behold, in 1988, I was the first to get a license.

AC: You’ve said several times on “Pawn Stars” that you might keep for yourself something you bought on those episodes of the show. We know you are excited by unique historic items (like shipwreck salvage), rock and roll (especially The Who) and fast cars. What do you consider your serious collecting areas?

Rick: Rare/historic books, old cars, fine art, military items … really, anything unique and unusual intrigues me.

AC: How do you build your collection? (e.g., through auctions, by visiting shops/dealers – or strictly from people who come into your shop?

Rick: Customers coming into the shop to sell items … or pawn them.

AC: What do you look for when choosing a new addition to your collection?

Rick: Is it rare? Will it make me a profit when I sell it?

Image courtesy of History Channel Press.

See new episodes of “Pawn Stars” Mondays at 10 p.m. EST/9 p.m. CST on the History Channel.

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Restoration angels: The History Channel’s ‘American Restoration’ premieres April 15

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April 15: a date that always reminds me of death, taxes, and collecting … and whether money owed to the IRS will put a crimp in the latter, at least in the short term.

Sometimes I find myself lying awake at 3 a.m., wondering about this collecting impulse in general and the next hot item I’ll be sniping on eBay in particular. Is it just me, getting weirder in my own head like Ted Kaczynski in his shack in the Montana woods?

When you get down to it, collecting is a solitary journey. Sure, you can go to lots of shows and auctions and events; join clubs and chat rooms and make friends; trade information and items; but at the end of the day, it’s everyone doing their own thing within the framework of their individual lives.

Certainly, collecting is an important part of my life. Sometimes I have to restrain myself, but for the most part I collect systematically, reasonably and within my budget; it does not threaten my marriage; I do not receive hate mail from creditors; my little ones do not whimper from hunger in the wee hours because I blew my paycheck in an online auction.

Still, I can’t help wondering sometimes: Am I nuts?

Then I consider the popularity of “Antiques Roadshow” and note the newest collector “reality” shows – many of them spin-offs or rip-offs of “Pawn Stars” – and realize: I may be crazy, but I am not alone. There’s “American Pickers,” “Oddities,” “Storage Wars,” Auction Kings, “Auction Queens,” “Hardcore Pawn,” “Mounted in Alaska” … Some of these are bound to fizzle out, but “Antiques Roadshow” is an enduring classic, and I’m pretty sure “Pawn Stars,” a personal favorite, is here to stay as long as Rick Harrison and Company care to keep it going.

What’s next, then: a show about a pawnshop on the Jersey Shore run by “guidos” with a special interest in taxidermy?

Nope: It’s a return to basics, the logical next step after “Pawn Stars,” a show I never miss (see “Hardcore history: 6 Reasons I love ‘Pawn Stars’” in the Feb. 23 AmeriCollector). It’s called “American Restoration” (www.history.com/shows/american-restoration) and features the crew of Rick’s Restorations (www.ricksrestorations.com), a Las Vegas business headed by owner Rick Dale, one of the guys who the “Pawn Stars” folks routinely bring in to restore stuff for the shop. In that context, it means fixing up a damaged item to make it salable at a realistic price that will make the pawnshop a decent profit.

For me, this is one of the highlights of “Pawn Stars. That’s because, sooner or later, any serious collector of anything of real rarity and value or importance has to agonize over whether or not to purchase something with condition issues and have it restored (another thing I think about during bouts of insomnia). Do you pass on a one-of-a-kind item because it needs some TLC by a professional? Does the cost of repairs outweigh the rush of getting a treasure at a bargain-basement price? Is restoring the item at all going to compromise its integrity?

Rick’s Restorations specializes in “classic restoration,” which they define as “returning the classic object to its original state when it was new.” They point out the difference between “restoring” and “customizing”: “Customizing is to add or modify something that doesn’t make the object original anymore. To do a classic restoration, you must make sure that all of the parts being replaced are specific to the object you are restoring.”

I asked Rick some questions about his work. I expected some great answers, and I wasn’t disappointed …

AmeriCollector: Looking at your Web site, most stuff you routinely restore seems to be made partly or completely of metal, with or without moving parts, but not electronic: i.e., pre-1960 machines, appliances, non-wood or upholstered furniture, and toys. Is that accurate?

Rick: We restore everything that is made from metal, plastics, wood, upholstery, aluminum, fiberglass, composite, etc. We are up for any challenge! If it’s old we can restore it!

AC: How long have you been doing restoration work, and how did you get started?

Rick: I have been doing restoration since I was nine years old and I’m now 52. Ricks Restorations has been in business since 1982.

AC: What do you enjoy about restoring vintage items?

Rick: I enjoy the complexity of each piece: It feels like I was born in a different era. The smiles the customer gives me when he or she see the item when finished is pure joy and satisfaction in itself – and I make a living doing it! We are restoring history and memories all at the same time.

AC: You guys are obviously sticklers for historical accuracy: How do you get the colors and other details right when you restore items to as close to their original condition as possible?

Rick: When we tear down a project, there is always a clue in it that lets you know. If not, then the research begins on the Internet.

AC: How far do you go to fashion a part if you can’t find a usable original?

Rick: Most parts are available online somewhere or we buy a complete exact piece to replace parts. Last resort is to fabricate a part exactly.

AC: What kind of items do you especially enjoy working on?

Rick: I love restoring different mechanical items. The more complicated, the better! There is no challenge we can’t take on.

AC: What items pose the biggest challenge to you?

Rick: The biggest challenge is not breaking the item in the tear-down phase and making sure you don’t lose any parts. There is no instruction manual so reassembly can be difficult at times.

AC: What are some of the most interesting things you have restored?

Rick: The most interesting pieces we have done to date:

• a 1920s railroad train vacuum that has a mix of electrical motors and mechanics

• a 1940s coffee vending machine. There are more moving parts in this than a Swiss watch and it came from the first hotel built on the Vegas strip. You have got to see these episodes!

AC: On “Antiques Roadshow,” the Keno brothers always tell people not to restore old wooden furniture – that collectors like the “used” look – but a well-used Chippendale cabinet looks a lot better in your home than a rusted Coca-Cola vending machine. All the same, do you ever recommend NOT restoring something?

Rick: Sometimes . . . but it is truly up to the customer. We are restoring their memory. It’s not always about the money!

AC: I think I saw a “Pawn Stars” segment when you restored a soda vending machine to be used as a simple refrigerator, rather than a working dispenser. Do you often restore items to be used for somewhat different purposes than they were originally made?

Rick: Re-manufacturing something is always fun and challenging. You work with what you have because everyone has a different picture of what they want. It’s their happiness I want to provide.

AC: What do you yourself collect?

Rick: I collect nothing. With tens of thousands of pieces restored, I would need a city block to keep it all. After all, it’s a business!

“American Restoration” premieres Friday, April 15, on the History Channel: Check your local listings … and let us know what you think!

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Images and video courtesy of History Channel Press.

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Hardcore history: 6 reasons I love ‘Pawn Stars’

1. They’re current – and they’re hip. Like “Antiques Roadshow,” the hit History Channel show “Pawn Stars” appeals to the collector – as well as the profiteer – in all of us, because they both attempt to answer the most enduring philosophical question in human history: “How much?” One notable difference, though, is that PBS generally doesn’t have to bleep out anything from “Antiques Roadshow.” Another is that the “Roadshow” is a local event wherever it goes, attracting A LOT of people with lots of things to choose from, virtually all of them, well, ANTIQUES, as the show’s name indicates (although they do have some recent pop-cultural items). “Pawn Stars” often gets into newer stuff that is not antique per se but is nonetheless collectible: Super Bowl championship rings, video games, collectible athletic shoes, “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” items, etc. In short, the collector’s next frontier …

2. They feature interesting stuff with broad appeal – but it’s still a “guy” show. Loyal watchers of “Antiques Roadshow” know the drill: Each hour-long program features one or two pieces of furniture, a painting, a couple of ceramic or glass pieces (often Asian), a sports item or firearm, some jewelry, a toy or doll and something distinctly American, like an NRA or War Bonds poster, plus odd item that may not fit into any category. Personally, I’m not fascinated by jewelry, dolls or ceramics – but that’s just me. The “Pawn Stars” guys tend to focus on the stuff that I personally find more exciting, even if I don’t collect it: antique weapons and militaria, motorcycles, pinball and slot machines, old lunch boxes …

There are good reasons for this, of course: Part of it is the personality of the “Pawn Stars” folks, Rick Harrison, “Old Man” (Richard Harrison, Rick’s dad) and Big Hoss (Rick’s son Corey). These guys run Gold & Silver Pawn Shop (also called Gold & Silver Coin Shop, www.GSPawn.com), a working 24-hour pawnshop in Las Vegas, with comic relief from Chumlee (Austin Russell, Big Hoss’ boyhood buddy).The Harrisons have a much better chance of selling a Kentucky long rifle than a stack of old issues of Vanity Fair or Playgirl. And while I don’t know the demographics, I suspect the viewership of “Pawn Stars” is mostly male as well.

It also comes down to numbers. The “Roadshow” has a huge pool of folks bringing in their treasures and trash, in cities around the country, and an army of appraisers to pick out the more interesting stuff – and they aren’t shelling out their own money to buy any of it. “Pawn Stars” is set in a working pawnshop in Las Vegas: They have a much smaller staff; they feature only items that they have an interest in selling in the store; and you better believe an item has to tickle their interest or be an easy sell for them to make an offer.

That’s the business of collecting right there – the buying, the selling, the haggling – and that’s something that “Antiques Roadshow,” by its very G-rated non-commercial nature, can’t match.

3. They show the importance of doing your homework. “Antiques Roadshow” appraisers are experts in their fields: They know what things sell for and, if unsure about an item, they research it online or consult their colleagues before their segments are filmed and they give a price range. On the other hand, again, they are not there to buy what people bring in (although I don’t doubt that some people contact them after the show), and therefore they’re not supposed to be have an interest in the sale or purchase of what they appraise.

The “Pawn Stars” people do. Therefore, it’s not only prudent for them to call in experts to describe and appraise the higher-end stuff – especially things that require restoration – but it provides a little drama, a little education, some basis for negotiation. That makes for great TV. It is also a constant reminder to collectors and sellers alike that it pays to know your, well, stuff before you make an offer or accept one. DO YOUR RESEARCH!

4. They’re pretty up-front about how much an item is worth. When the “Pawn Stars” guys know something about an item, they can be pretty firm in their bargaining, especially if the item in question is not that unusual, not that expensive and/or not in great condition. That’s understandable: As the guys explain, they need to make a reasonable profit; display space is limited and they don’t want the thing sitting around; and if it needs some kind of restoration, well, that’s got to be figured in. However, sometimes they do go out on a limb a little and throw out an offer on something they aren’t sure about, either on a hunch or an impulse. God knows, I do …

(On occasion, Big Hoss has risked a bundle on, say, a Chris-Craft runabout in need of major restoration, but it usually worked out in the end, and he gets a lot shrewder with every new season of the show.)

When the guys DON’T know the value of a potentially rare, high-end or counterfeit item, they call in an expert – and this is what makes “Pawn Stars” great TV. Everything is laid on the table, once an expert prices a piece; it’s just a matter of whether Rick and company want to buy it, and if they can make a deal. That’s when Rick invariably has to explain to at least one dummy on every show that he can’t purchase an item at the retail price and sell it for a profit.

I’ve noticed that Rick generally offers somewhere between 50 and 70 percent for stuff that he wants, with the higher percentage for really cool stuff that he takes a fancy to and feels he can sell easily. Most collectibles dealers won’t settle for that percentage, let alone tell you what they expect to sell an item for: As I have said more than once in this column, even so-called respectable dealers will screw an unwitting seller to the wall in a New York nanosecond if they can, paying only a small fraction of what they will resell the item for. So I can’t help but laugh when some guy brings in an old flintlock pistol, for example, and wants $500 for it, and Rick brings in an expert who says it’s really worth $2,000, then the seller gets miffed when Rick won’t offer more than $1,200 for the gun. Talk about chutzpah!

5. The show features restoration as part of collecting. The collector’s mantra: “Condition, condition, condition!” It’s ideal to get an item in perfect or near-perfect shape; in fact, the trick is to get stuff in as close to its original, mint-new state as possible.

Unfortunately, life rarely shakes out that way. Sometimes unique or hard-to-get pieces need some professional TLC to transform them from flea-market trash or junkyard rats’ nests to highly prized collectibles, and the “Pawn Stars” guys are quick to get master restorers in on the act. In fact, one of the best “Pawn Stars” spin-offs or imitations that I’ve seen is “American Restoration,” which features one of the guys who restores the “Pawn Stars” purchases. To me, this is one of the best things about the show: seeing a rusty old clunker transformed into a Big Daddy Roth dream machine, with flaring chrome exhaust pipes and liquid-fire detailing. For these guys, restoration is a labor of love – and the results are spectacular!

6. They love history! OK, a visit (real or virtual) to a Vegas pawnshop may not be the same as a pilgrimage to the Smithsonian or the British Museum, but I’m one of the few people I know who has been to both (as well as CBGB), and I barely got past the front door in any of those places. In fact, all I can remember of the British Museum was some Egyptian statuary and the Reading Room, where Marx (Karl, not Groucho) wrote “Das Kapital.” (I also remember the open sewer that was the pissoir at CBGB – and even less about the Smithsonian.) In the case of the two museums, that is a lifelong regret: I just didn’t have the TIME to see more – another reason to be thankful for the Internet: A virtual tour is the next best thing to visiting a lot of places in person …

But I digress. My point is that “Pawn Stars” absolutely screams history, even if it’s pop cultural history. And if you manage to retain a stray fact or two from the segment on the colonial lottery ticket signed by George Washington, or the recent one about the metallurgy book owned by Isaac Newton, that’s worth more than all those hours in a junior high school history classroom from which you took away zilch.

The Harrisons LOVE history: These guys have a certain amount of charisma, but they are not actors; yet, you can see enthusiasm pouring off them – even the normally saturnine Old Man – whenever they talk about an item’s place in history and its possible importance. They may not offer much for the piece, but that fascination with the past – priceless!

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History Channel: Wheels of Fortune

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Images and video courtesy of History Channel Press.

Coming soon! 6 ideas for improving Pawn Stars

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‘Greetings from AmeriCollector’:
The art of linen postcards

I just went to eBay’s “Collectibles” category and clicked on “Postcards”: 1,788,849 results were noted, in categories ranging from “Advertising” and “Amusement Parks” to “U.S. States, Cities & Towns” and “International Cities & Towns” (along with “Supplies & Reference” – i.e., postcard sleeves, album pages, etc., for collectors – and “Other,” some 100,000 miscellaneous cards).

That’s a lot of postcards! And yet, almost all of the categories concern the subject matter of the images on the cards; only one, “Real Photo,” relates to the artwork, the production process or the texture of the cards.

This is interesting, because postcards have changed a lot over the past 125 years or so that they have been in regular use – since before most people had telephones, and in some places the mail was delivered twice a day. Most very early postcards that I’ve seen were plain-Jane functional – basically, index cards with printed postage on them, a design that the U.S. Postal Service was still selling up until fairly recently, if they aren’t still. As lithographic processes advanced, postcards got more artistic and more colorful and were generally printed on better card stock to hold the ink.

In the early 1930s – when art deco style was the look – “linen” postcards (printed on paper card stock with a linen-like appearance) went into large-scale production. They are easily recognizable, the “Greetings from [fill in the place]” kind (known as large-letter cards, which were actually depicted on a series of U.S. postage stamps) being the most famous examples: printed in striking pastels, with a matte cross-hatched textured finish that, if you hold the cards up to the light, actually looks like a linen weave.

Rare, striking and unusual linen cards are highly sought after by collectors, not simply for their graphics but because they absolutely scream post-Depression, World War II and postwar America. There are 1939–40 New York World’s Fair cards, “Keep ’Em Flying” wartime cards, direct-mail product adverting cards, Route 66 cards and diner cards and a gazillion other roadside cards from the early baby boom, when many American households bought their cars and started to hit the road to see the country they had defended against fascism.

To me, an avid although sporadic collector of linen cards, these are windows to an era, a time when people actually WROTE messages to one another, stuck stamps on and popped them in a mailbox. Some linen cards are just so cool, they are models for advertising artists even today – and just light-years ahead of e-cards in terms of design sense. (Again, if art deco is your thing, then linen postcards may be just the collecting area for you: Check out the many Miami Beach hotel cards and the ones featuring streamline diners and locomotives and Greyhound bus stations.)

The guy who “wrote the book” (the first real book, as far as I’m concerned) on linen cards – as well as a price list for the clueless – is Mark Werther, a Pennsylvania architect and orchid grower who collects a lot of different things (porcelain, flamingos, Mexican sombreros) who not only hits all the postcard shows he can but has also written many articles for Barr’s Postcard News (www.BarrsPCN.com), the Time magazine of postcard collecting. Mark’s volume, co-authored with Lorenzo Mott, is titled “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream” (published in hardcover 2002 and available for $39.95 on Amazon.com) is both art book and reference work, as is his paperback “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream Price Guide 2004” ($11.95 on Amazon); in fact, considering that many sellers of postcards on eBay don’t really know a linen card when they see one (and beware the difference between “linen” and “linen era” cards: Read on …), I think these are a must. (Note: Mark is working on a new price guide, hopefully available this summer.)

I first read about Mark in 2002, when “Linen Postcards” was just published, in an article about linen cards written by Bart Ripp, one of the best writers the Tacoma News Tribune has had in recent years. (They got me hooked on linen cards – as if I needed another hobby.) I have asked Mark his advice many times over the years and am much impressed not only with his experience but his artistic sensibilities (again, he’s an architect): You may not be lucky enough to find a Rembrandt etching at your local Goodwill thrift shop, but Mark may help you spot a great and possibly valuable linen card among a box of postcards the next time you go to a garage sale or flea market.

Recently I asked Mark for some basic information on linen postcards:

AmeriCollector: When were linen postcards produced?

Mark Werther: There were forms of linens produced in the United States as early as 1906 or 1907. What is considered a classical linen postcard was first issued in 1931 by Curteich of Chicago. Linen cards were produced until about 1959.

AC: What’s the difference between a linen card and a “linen era” postcard? How can you identify a linen card?

Mark: A linen card has a raised pattern of fine lines usually perpendicular to each other, similar to linen fabric. All the linen cards required intensive rendering work from craftsman. The number of lines, depth and pattern vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer. There were other cards produced during the 1931–59 linen era using matte paper with no raised line patterning. I believe that these matte cards are as valuable as the linens. Other types of cards, like chromes (shiny picture-type cards), also started during the linen era but are in totally different category

AC: Why did postcard makers stop making linens, and what were they replaced by?

Mark: Linens were produced for close to 30 years. That is a long run. When the chrome-type cards were perfected by the mid-1940s, they caught the interest of the public and were far less labor-intensive to produce than the linens, thus the start of the demise of linens. The popularity of the chromes, combined with the availability of inexpensive cameras in the mid-1950s, like Brownies and Anscomatics, allowed the masses to take their own color pictures of the sites, so the linens were less desirable.

AC: What is the price range for linens? Are they going up in price? What are the rarest cards?

Mark: Linens have steadily risen in price, but they can still be found in 25-cent boxes. Usually, individual linens are in the $2 to $6 range. As the artistic quality, scarcity, and interest in the subject increases, so do the prices of the cards. Better-quality cards in categories like diners, drive-ins, great restaurants and advertising are commonly priced from $10 to $75. Great advertising cards that are scarce can command prices up to hundreds of dollars.

AC: What are the hallmarks of a great linen card? What are the most popular categories?

Mark: Lorenzo Mott, my friend and co-author of the “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream,” used the term “stunner.” A great linen card usually falls under the “stunner” category and is a card that is superior based on better graphics, color, contrast, sharpness, composition and display of subject. These cards stand out from the average cards. Luckily, the “stunners” can often be lesser-priced cards. The popularity of linens is in the eye of the beholder/collector.

AC: How important is condition in general? What condition issues make a card unacceptable for a collector?

Mark: I have always believed that unused, near mint to mint linens are the most valuable cards. (Note: “Mint” means no rounded corners, edge wear, creases, stray marks, stains or fading. – DC)

AC: How important is condition if a card is really rare?

Mark: I rarely purchase a less-than-near-perfect card, even if very rare. If it is extremely rare, I might make an exception, but not often.

AC: Should collectors avoid postally used cards?

Mark: There are collectors who like cancels and messages. It is a matter of setting one’s own standard. I have avoided the used cards, as they most often do not meet my requirement of near mint to mint condition. I do make an exception with those with special advertising, salutations and commemorative cancels and with important addresses and messages on the backs.

AC: What advice would you give a new collector? Where are the best places for collectors to find great cards?

Mark: I avoided postcards for nearly 30 years of collecting. There needs to be a catalyst that lights the collecting fire: a special subject, color, a time period, historical references. When I started, I relied on postcard dealers at paper and postcard shows. Unfortunately, they were not providing all of the answers. There was no one book on linens that covered the subject. My friend Lorenzo and I then decided, since we were doing the extra research, we might as well condense it into a book and published “Linen Postcards: Images of the American Dream” in 2001. This was followed by the price guide in 2004. So this sounds like a self-advertisement, but the book is still the only all-encompassing reference guide. It is a short course in one location and gives the new collector a great advantage in appreciation and identification of linens. For further information, there are individual references to diners, “large letters” and hotels, and specialty books on cartoons and some locations.

AC: When will your new price guide due to be published? How many price entries and photos will be in the book?

Mark: I plan on about 40 pages with updates on prices on the 500 images in the book: 100 images in the 2004 price guide plus another 200 images and prices. Hopefully it will be out by mid-2011.

AC: Are you discovering anything new about linen cards?

Mark: I am discovering new linens all the time and am amazed at the wealth of historic information contained in the images and descriptions. Especially rewarding is to find “stunners” that represent the best of the linens.

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All images courtesy Mark Werther

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‘Collector’s items’: Catalogs received

Schubertiade Music LLC

(Winter 2011 catalog; received by e-mail)

I admit it: I’m tone-deaf, can’t carry a tune, couldn’t even master playing a kazoo, and don’t collect anything music-related, but I always look forward to getting catalogs from Schubertiade Music (www.SchubertiadeMusic.com) because, frankly, I LOVE music, in spite of my lack of aptitude, and Schubertiade Music always has an interesting mix of autographs, photos, books, prints and ephemera. The newest catalog, just received, is no exception.

There are handwritten book reports by an adolescent Leonard Bernstein ($3,600); a business card of Gustav Mahler’s inscribed by him (“Would you please return my songs, which I need for a performance abroad. With friendly greetings”; $3,000); a testy Richard Strauss letter in which he declares, “I am not a factory of musical notes that works with guaranteed delivery” ($1,000); and lots more. If classical music isn’t your thing, there’s a great unsigned photo of Josephine Baker in one of her risqué outfits (or out of it) for $500 and one of her in casual attire, inscribed, for $375; three original photos of John Lennon and Yoko Ono ranging from $500 to $4,000 (the latter by Annie Leibovitz); and, for guitar mavens, a re-issue left-handed Höfner semi-acoustic bass guitar like the one used by Paul McCartney when the Beatles appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” … and this one is actually autographed by Paul in black felt tip on the mother-of-pearl pick guard ($6,500, hard-shell carrying case included).

The multitalented Gabriel Boyers, owner of Allston (Cambridge), Mass.–based Schubertiade Music, is an accomplished violinist and concertmaster with a very impressive musical resume; he’s also a poet who has been published in The Paris Review and Midstream. He’s also a member of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association and the Music Library Association. If you’re a serious music collector and you aren’t on Boyers’ mailing list, you’re missing the beat.

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All images courtesy of Schubertiade Music LLC, www.SchubertiadeMusic.com.

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Christophe Stickel Autographs

(Auction 180, closes Thurs., Feb. 24, at 9 p.m. PST; received by e-mail)

I’ve bid in several Christophe Stickel Autographs auctions and come away with some real prizes each time. Christophe runs a smaller operation than most auction houses, which and he usually has rare items mixed in with low-rent stuff (think of a Baron Manfred von Richthofen signed portrait alongside one of Larry the Cable Guy). Go figure. This month’s auction features an 8 x 10 black-and-white photo of the Japanese surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri at the end of World War II, signed by – get this! – Winston Churchill, Chester Nimitz, Douglas MacArthur and Admiral “Bull” Halsey (est. $5,500); a signed copy of Albert Einstein’s “The World as I see It” (est. $1,850); an inscribed copy of L. Frank Baum’s “The Master Key” (est. $5,000); and a 7 x 10 “Green Hornet” pin-up removed from a booklet and signed by Bruce Lee as Kato and Van Williams as the eponymous insect (est. $2,500) . . . along with a signed cast photo of “Boston Legal” (est. $150) and an autographed 8 x 10 of Ryan Seacrest (est. $45). Needless to say, there’s more: The fun is in the searching.

Christophe Stickel Autographs is based in Pacific Grove, Calif., and is a member of the Professional Autograph Dealers Association. Check out the offerings at www.StickelAutographs.com.

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The Fred Oldfield Western Heritage & Art Center presents: A Robert Walton oil painting workshop

If Americans are fixated on a special time and place in their history, it’s the Old West, that boundless vista so full of variety and extremes: the looming mountains and grassy plains, the brooding forests and parched deserts; the thundering herds and shy, solitary creatures; the native peoples and the immigrants, the noble and the nefarious, exploiters and exploited; the realities, the legends and the purely conjectural.

Small wonder that the art of the West is so highly prized – it’s a stagecoach ride right into the national psyche – with the most accomplished artists revered for their skill in transporting the viewer to breathtakingly unique, almost mystical landscapes – even if they are, like Mount Rainier, ones that you can see from the freeway when you commute to work each morning.

Fred Oldfield is such an artist. Robert Walton, who will be teaching a three-day palette knife oil painting workshop at The Fred Oldfield Western Heritage & Art Center in Puyallup later this month, is another.

A recipient of numerous awards, recent inductee into the venerable Oil Painters of America (www.OilPaintersofAmerica.com) and an avid mountain climber, Bob Walton is represented by six galleries in six Western states. He has also painted absolutely spectacular murals – but don’t take MY word for it: See for yourself at www.RobertWalton.com.

This is a great opportunity for local artists to build up their skill sets in advance of the warm weather and all the outdoor painting opportunities that will come with it. But space is limited, so don’t delay! And let us here at AmeriCollector.com know how it goes!

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All images copyright © Robert Walton. Used with the artist’s permission.

For more information and to register: Call (253) 445-9175 or e-mail foldfield@comcast.net.
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‘Collector’s items’: Catalogs received

Babylon Revisited Rare Books

(Catalog 72, received by snail mail)

Babylon Revisited, of East Woodstock, Conn., specializes in books with dust jackets published in the 1920s to 1940s – from modern classics and mysteries to “business fiction” and “sexposés” (see “You CAN judge a book by its cover – or, rather, its dust jacket” in AmeriCollector, July 8, 2010). Many of the books and authors are long forgotten, but oh, those jackets: pure period packaging, especially the ones featuring art deco designs. Cinema buffs will find some great early photoplays as well. Personal faves: the first American edition of Graham Greene’s “Brighton Rock” (1938), priced at $2,000; “Banzai” (1926, $225) by John Paris, about “a young Japanese boy seething with unrest and discontent, who comes to free himself from the shackles that the rigid conventions of Japan forced upon him”; and “Chinatown Inside Out” (1936, $165) by reformer Leong Gor Yun, a Chinese Jacob Riis writing about the seamy side of the city that few non-Asians knew of. Visit www.YesterdaysGallery.com.

Download catalog > We’ve provided a pdf version of the Babylon Revisited Rare Books catalog for your convenience.

Image and catalog courtesy of Babylon Revisited Rare Books.

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Ten Pound Island Book Company

(Maritime List 197, received by e-mail)

There are precious few booksellers who really specialize in maritime material; fewer still who have a varied and ever-changing stock, publish a dynamic and informative blog, issue frequent e-mail catalogs AND – of no small interest – offer great material at prices to match (I know: I’ve compared them). Greg Gibson of Ten Pound Island Book Company in Gloucester, Mass., is such a one; I briefly profiled Greg in “Collector’s items” on July 27, 2010, and want to remind nautical collectors, voyager-wannabes and the holiday gift-givers who shop for them to visit www.TenPound.com for books, documents, broadsides, photographs, trade cards and other paper seafaring memorabilia.

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Mike Brackin Americana & Militaria

(2010 Holiday Mail Catalog 143, received by snail mail)

I had never heard of Mike Brackin American & Militaria until his holiday catalog arrived in the mail earlier this week, probably because he got my name from another dealer’s mailing list. No problem: I love discovering new sources – especially when THEY come to ME. Mike offers a large and diverse selection of Americana – books, documents, photography and relics – from the antebellum period, the Civil War, the Indian Wars and subsequent eras. The price range is broad, with many interesting and affordable items – especially for those with Civil War collectors on their gift lists. (Keep in mind that next year, 2011, marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War!) Personal favorites: a regimentally marked 1868 Springfield trapdoor rifle with “19 CO D” on the stock ($750); a matching knife and fork set from a Civil War mess kit with two-piece bone grips and stamped “Passaic Cutlery Co” ($45); and an unmarried Connecticut woman’s 1771 request for court-ordered financial support for a “child begotten of her body in Fornication by one NW of Groton” ($125). (Note to self: There is nothing new under the sun.) Visit www.MikeBrackin.com.
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Chicago and beyond: Art Shay photo exhibition features 60 years of unforgettable moments

~ An AmeriCollector.com Exclusive ~

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A buff and smiling yet self-conscious-looking Marlon Brando, age 26, relaxes on his Libertyville, Ill., farm in the company of his spaniel, that steadiest of companions, sporting its own canine grin … A sea of mourners courses through the streets of Memphis to see off the plane carrying Martin Luther King Jr.’s body to Atlanta; the parallel to Moses dying en route to the Promised Land – King’s own prescient analogy – is striking … A welding crew on a GATX railcar assembly line, blowtorches alight, works as feverishly as a cavern full of dwarfish metalsmiths in a Tolkien fantasy … Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan holds a tambourine halo-like above his shaved head as girlfriend and fellow musician Jessica Origliasso smiles up at him beatifically like a Giotto Apostle.

There’s nothing bland, trite or contrived about the photography of Art Shay, who we had the pleasure of profiling on AmeriCollector last summer (“Focus on Art Shay,” Aug. 24, 2010): If you want fluff, check out the dog and cat calendars at your local Barnes & Noble. Art Shay is all about the real, the unprepped and the unexpected: the crazy angle, the partially obscured figure, the dropped pretense, the suddenly revealed view so ironic as to be, pardon the cliché, iconic.

Thirty-two of Art’s images, both black-and-white and color, are currently on display in an exhibit titled “That Was Then” at Chicago’s Thomas Masters Gallery through Thurs., Dec. 23.

John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, Nelson Algren and Saul Bellow, James Baldwin, Hugh Hefner and Oprah Winfrey are among the show’s subjects.

“In my opinion, Art is a genius artist,” his archivist, Erica DeGlopper, told me. “His power to observe and brilliantly communicate makes him a master storyteller. He is brave, hilarious, serious and direct in his approach …

“He doesn’t come with an approach to find a prefigured story: He finds the story,” Erica added.

Art has taken thousands of photos on assignment for Life, Time, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times and other publications. His work is in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and many other institutions, public and private. He’s also the author of more than 50 books, many for children.

The Thomas Masters Gallery is located at 245 W. North Ave., Chicago; for more information, visit www.thomasmastersgallery.com or call (312) 440-2322.

Signed copies of Shay’s most recent books (“Album for an Age,” “Couples,” “Animals,” “Art Shay: Chicago Accent” and “Chicago’s Nelson Algren”) are available from Titles, Inc., in Highland Park, Ill.; call (847) 432-3690.

I asked Art some questions about photography and, as always, got a kick out of his replies:

AmeriCollector: Which of your photos are your favorites?

Art: I have several favorites. One is of an Ashland Ave. (Chicago) all-night beauty salon in a low-rent area. Looking through the window, you see a forest of bubble- headed mannequins. Just beyond them, under one of those old spaceship-helmet-type hair dryers, sits a 65-year-old lady. To me, the bubble-headed mannequins are what we want to look like; the aging lady is what we really look like.

In another, we’re looking at a window in which two bridal dummies are modeling their gowns. Passing them is a pregnant Hispanic woman about four or five months pregnant. While I was shooting this in kind of an alley, some glaziers set down a big glass window behind me. Reflected in the glass is an old lady – a crone, really – enjoying the sunshine. My title is “The Three, Possibly Four Ages of Woman.” Marcel Marceau had a copy of it in his Paris home. He said it reminded him of his tableaux, called “Youth, Maturity and Old Age.”

I especially like it because one of the world’s great collectors, Henry Rasmussen (then the editor-publisher of the prestigious Black and White Magazine, or B&W) bought it from me! (He gave me more pages – 14 – than any photographer had received in B&W until that time, about four years ago.)

A picture I made of Hugh Hefner sitting at his bedroom desk, surrounded by five languorously sprawling Bunnies – is one of my favorites. It is also one of the favorites of the National Portrait Gallery, which bought it to hang in Washington. My daughter Jane, on a speaker’s visit to DC, stumbled on the picture with some of her colleagues and was able to boast, “One of my dad’s …” She now has her own copy in her collection of my works hanging in her palatial LA home.

AC: Who was your most enjoyable subject?

Art: Liz Taylor was great: cooperative and into the event I was covering for Life – Smell-O-Vision, promulgated by her late husband (film producer Mike Todd). Life didn’t use the story, holding its nose despite Liz’s beauty and cooperation.

AC: Do you usually use one camera or more than one? Do you still use a Leica?

Art: I still have my Leicas and a little-known improvement on the Leica – a Konica Hexar that uses Leica lenses but also shoots four frames a second and is fairly silent. Incidentally, a rep of the Leica company has offered to lend me the $8,000 new Leica M9 to use on a project I’m doing with rocker Billy Corgan. I’ve been using high-end small digitals now including a Canon G11 and the newer Samsung EX1, which has a fast F1.8 lens. I also use a Nikon F90.

AC: Who are your own favorite photographers and why?

Art: I like the work of Cartier-Bresson for its eclectic view of the world, albeit without the great humor I find in wandering. I loved my old friend Alfred Eisenstaedt’s work – and he loved mine … He knew I had done more than 50 hidden-camera crime and Mafia stories for Time, Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated, and said, “I can’t imagine going out to shoot a portrait without an appointment … and the camera under your jacket.”

I also liked the imaginative work of Life’s Philippe Halsman, with whom I worked on a book for Ford in 1953. Halsman, former Life editor Joe Thorndike and I were having Chinese one day in Dearborn, Mich. The subject of how Life would cover the Second Coming came up. (I was 30 at the time, Philippe in his 50s.) Joe said shrewdly, “Who would you send, Philippe?” Unhesitating, Halsman said, “Why, me, of course. I would get a portrait of Jesus that would last for the ages.” Joe shook his head. “I’d send young Art,” he said. “While you were setting up your tripod, Shay would get 36 pictures and a release.”

AC: What are your favorite photos by other photographers?

Art: I like Halsman’s picture of Dalí with cats flying through the air. I like Leonard McCombe’s Life shot for his cowboy essay: desolate prairie, only shade coming from a telephone pole, and a slim cowboy using this shade to get out of sun …

My photographer-writer son made a fantastic picture of an old lady sitting at a house sale, trying to sell an old blue phonograph. Her face and dress set off the instrument perfectly.

AC: What do you think of the manipulation of colors, shadows, for example, using Photoshop – that some photographers seem to do routinely AFTER they take a photo?

Art: Photoshop is great as a retouching tool. It has yet to prove itself as an artistic medium. I think it will …

AC: Do you prefer your own and others’ black-and-white work?

Art: Most of my collectors don’t realize I’ve shot almost as much color as black-and-white. My primary gallery thinks I’m so well-known as a black-and-white photographer, hanging color would confuse buyers. As it happens, earlier this year I had a successful color exhibition – my first at the Thomas Masters Gallery in Chicago. The first three pictures sold were to my black-and-white collectors!

I’ll also weigh in on the photo-paper-versus-digital-paper controversy: Some digital prints do more justice to black-and-white or color negatives than traditional wet printing. Digital printing keeps the price down, and digitals last 200 years.

AC: If someone wanted to collect photographic prints, what advice would you give?

Art: My advice to collectors: Buy the prints that you enjoy looking at more than cursorily on a quick round of a gallery. I love one collector who blames me for sending her back four times to see what I had in mind in a single picture …

To me the picture’s the thing. I feel new collectors should just buy pictures they like.

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Photos copyright Art Shay. Used with the photographer’s permission.

• Focus on Art Shay,” Aug. 24, 2010

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