by Dede Horan Anyone who collects vintage postcards has probably come across ones of illustrated highway maps. If these maps were from the Midwest with detailed small illustrations, they may well have been designed by Gene McConnell, an artist and photographer from North Platte, Nebraska. He received his art training at the Denver Art Institute which he attended on the […]

By Roy Nuhn   Greatly treasured by today’s collectors are the many wonderful paper dolls of the last 150 years. Of all the types available, paper dolls from magazines and newspapers rank among the favorites. Enthusiasm, however, is strongest for Christmas and Santa Claus themes from the printed pages of such popular periodicals as Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Home Companion and […]

By Anne Gilbert Theorem paintings, that became popular in the early 19th century, began with the cutting of stencils into various shapes. Usually fruit and leaves were used, however rare examples have been discovered using bird shapes. A good example of what stenciled designs look like are antique Hitchcock chairs. The first step was deciding what the main subject, such […]

By Roy Nuhn One of the wondrous things about early 20th-century advertising blotters, those miniature billboards once handed out to customers by local stores and manufacturers of all sorts of goods, is their diversity.  Many topicals can be found, including Uncle Sam, automobiles, Disney characters, presidential, political and military.  The artwork of many American artists, such as Norman Rockwell and […]