Jack H.T. Chang, M.D  Scrimshaw is defined by E. Norman Flayderman as “…the art of carving or otherwise fashioning useful or decorative articles as practiced primarily by whalemen, sailors, or others associated with nautical pursuits. The basic materials of the artifacts are from the whale. Other materials may be taken from various forms of sea life, shells, or diverse materials […]

By Robert Reed  For centuries the method of pulling loops of colored material through a mesh of open fabric was well known but the settlers who came to America enhanced it.  The enduring hooked rug was to be sure quite specifically a home craft of this country. “Rug hooking was a craft born of necessity,” notes Jessie A. Turbayne the […]

By Tom Cotter Photos by Tom Cotter, including collections of Roberta Hankins  When I wrote an article about Mid-Century Modern Glass for the September 2020 Mountain States Collector, I feel that I scratched the surface.  I’m still doing so three years later.  The glass companies that continued into the late 20th and early 21st centuries scrambled to survive in an […]

By Robert Reed  Then hail to labor! everywhere,  Honor to those who do their share.  Labor Day poem  by Clara Denton, 1928  Long unnoticed, the collectibles of the Labor Day holiday are gradually gaining in recognition. After all it is an event that has been celebrated nationally since the latter part of the 19th century.  Some true treasures of the […]