By Tom Cotter This article continues my exploration into the grand era of color in the U.S. glass industry between 1920 and 1940 (see Mountain States Collector, September, 2018, The Colorful 20s).  What could possibly happen to the U.S. glass industry during the Great Depression?  Disaster?  Lack of creativity and color?  Hardly.  While many companies within the industry declined, went […]

By Robert Reed The beautiful brooch traditionally had been one of the most enduring types of jewelry as well as one of the most varied.  Women have affixed these large and decorative ornamental pins on their clothing for centuries. Some brooches could be fashioned from cardboard or human hair and be fairly plain, or they could be adorned with gold […]

By Anne Gilbert Items related to ships and sailor craftsmanship have never lost their appeal to collectors. This is especially true when items have been made by men at sea from whales teeth and bone into what is known as scrimshaw. The same holds true with ships parts and decorative objects made by 18th and 19th century American craftsmen. Among the rarest […]

By Anne Gilbert To a generation used to sterile cubby hole office spaces for them and their computers, the Wooton desks may seem an oddity. Strangely enough they are finding their way into many home offices. There is room for that lap top and spaces for all kinds of office supplies. They were a popular and useful antique collectible in the late […]

By Henry J. Pratt More than 180 years ago in Cincinnati, Ohio, the publishing firm of Truman and Winthrop B. Smith signed a textbook contract with William Holmes Mc-Guffey, a dour disciplinarian and relatively unknown homespun philosophy professor. The contract obligated McGuffey to prepare six school books—a primer, a speller and four readers. When the now-famous contract was approved in […]