Archive for April, 2020

What Is It? April 2020

What Is It? April 2020

   We had several guesses for April’s What Is It but only one person correctly identified the objects pictured to the right. Kate Loyle of Wichita, Kansas tells us these are antique tape measures. Congratulations, you have won a year’s subscription to the Mountain States Collector.    All three of these items are miniature sculpture cases for measuring tapes which are rewound […]

by · April 1, 2020 · 0 comments · What Is It?
From our Archives: The Easter Lily Brings Peace and Happiness

From our Archives: The Easter Lily Brings Peace and Happiness

By Mary Helen Crain, April 1980    “Spring is the sound through an open window, of children playing, laughing, of roller skates and bikes. Spring is baby animals in the fields, mother birds building nests and a sun that grows warm. Spring is pussy willows and bumble bees, robins and daffodils. Spring is sudden rain and a fresh green haze in […]

by · April 1, 2020 · 0 comments · Feature Article
May Postcard Show Moved to September: Hold-to-the-Light Postcards

May Postcard Show Moved to September: Hold-to-the-Light Postcards

By Carol Mobley    Have you heard of hold-to-the-light postcards and wondered just what is that? You wouldn’t be the first person to ask. A hold-to-the-light postcard is a postcard with 3 layers a front with a pattern cut out of it, a lighter color layer, and the back so when you hold it up you can see the light through […]

by · April 1, 2020 · 0 comments · Feature Article
Antique Detective: Chinese Painted Enamel Objects Colorful and Costly

Antique Detective: Chinese Painted Enamel Objects Colorful and Costly

By Anne Gilbert    The first thing that catches your eye are the vivid colors. Next, that even though the object appears to be porcelain it is entirely something else. A tap of your finger tells you it is metal with a painted enamel glaze. You are looking at an example of Chinese painted enamels. Back in the 1970s, 80s it […]

by · April 1, 2020 · 0 comments · Antique Detective
Antique Detective: Too Many Chinese Porcelains Coming to Auction

Antique Detective: Too Many Chinese Porcelains Coming to Auction

By Anne Gilbert    When you see hundreds of items in the same category coming to auction you know something funny is going on. A case in point are Chinese porcelain objects, some supposedly antiquities. Many labeled as “vintage.”    For the last three years the Chinese porcelain market was “hot.” The Chinese were spending big Yen, buying back old porcelains. American […]

by · April 1, 2020 · 0 comments · Antique Detective