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What makes our Globe-Wernicke bookcase (item 112) extra special?  It is as easy as counting to five...

1) Original labels: These are in the middle at the back of each individual glassfront bookcase section, and can be seen by looking in the bookcase.  Labels can also be useful for dating the units. The labels are made of paper and glued to the lower inside center of the backs of the bookcase units and attached to the bottom or top (non-exposed) surfaces of the top and base sections. Ours is one of the older paper labels.

299 – quarter sawed figured oak, deep rich golden finish, highly polished, brass oxidized hardware

2) Metal side bands, are they there and are they original.  Yes.

3) Finish, is it original finish or has it been refinished.  Original.

4) Original wavy glass: Old bookcases like these had the older glass in it. You can see the ripples or waves by standing to the side of the glass pane and looking for them.  Original Glass.

5) Get the history: Ours have been in a single family, treasured for years and rarely moved. We have the top and base!

The value of a Globe Wernicke bookcase is determined by those factors and ours is very special indeed!  

The bookcases produced by Globe-Wernicke are usually called “barrister” bookcases because of their popularity with lawyers.

However, the preferred term used by the company was “elastic” bookcase and later “sectional” bookcases. The reason was to call attention to the flexible nature of the bookcases, homeowners could purchase a small bookcase set, and then at a later time, purchase additional sections to expand the case as their libraries grew. Perfection!

Prices on Ebay and other auction sites range from $500 to $1400.

Happy Bidding!                              

Liz

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We are fortunate to have a wonderful pins, buttons and signs from Whitehead & Hoag Co. that have been collected over a lifetime. Some of the highlights of this auction offer you a unique view of history though the political lens of campaign buttons and pins.

Can you tell which political party these Roosevelt pins represent?

These pins represent a movement started by a Pennsylvania woman.

Can you tell Hoover was a Republican?

We also have 1976 campaign pins that were made by A.G. Trimble Co. in Pittsburgh.

          Do you think President Ford was happy to be running for President?

Happy Bidding!

Liz

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Antique Horn Boxes. Please see items 141-153 for the entire collection.

We believe these are from Indonesia. Our collection includes antique Batak container carved entirely from genuine buffalo horn, each is adorned with a different animal or mythical Batak creatures with carved floral patterns and other designs.

They are hollow for storing medicine, tobacco, jewelry or treasures. Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of ethnic groups found in the highlands of North Sumatra Indonesia.Their heartland lies to the west of Medan.

In fact the Batak include several groups with distinct, albeit related, languages and customs. Toba Batak are known traditionally for their weaving, carving and constructing especially ornate stone tombs.

We are especially lucky to have a pair of Selig Z chairs.

Founded in 1931, the Selig furniture company epitomised the simple, elegant  

forms typical of post-war Danish furniture design. The Selig Z chair is perhaps the company’s most well-known model.

The design of the Selig Z chair is often attributed to designer Poul Jensen. The Selig Z chairs were typified by their sweeping lines and were built of very high quality wood. As a result, Selig Z chairs are very collectible!

As you can see, there is lots in this auction to love!

Happy Bidding!                              

Doug Graham

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The collectibles featured in the current auction are exclusively the exceptional work of the Whitehead & Hoag Company, formed in 1892 by Benjamin S Whitehead (1858-1940) and Chester R Hoag (1860-1935).  The company made hard vitreous celluloid pin backed buttons, (they held the patents on these from 1896),enamel nametags, badges, watch fobs, calendars, key chains, medals and nameplates. They also invented Crystaloid  Indoor Signs. They even did the medals for the 1932 Summer Xth Olympics in San Francisco. We have two featured in this auction

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When they began, there were no machines at the time to place the pin and paper in the back of the buttons.  The company offered extra spending money to the area’s children who would walk over to the factory and pick up a box full of buttons, pins and back papers.

Baseball is a passion and the colorful 1910 Morton's Pennant Winner Bread Detroit Tigers Baseball pins, we have in this auction, have always been appreciated both for its rarity and its striking design. These features the same players' portraits which were used on the Morton's Buster Brown Bread series. Morton's Buster Brown and Pennant Winner bread pins have long been recognized as two of the rarest and most desirable advertising pin sets of the era.

The phenomenal growth of American fraternal orders at the tail end of the 19th and early 20th Century created a fantastic badge market for Whitehead & Hoag Company. They created a vast range of fraternal and celebration badges for various groups and events as well as political and presidential campaign buttons. Jugate buttons (having two candidates on one button) became desirable. Pioneers in badge design and construction, the company used a range of artists for button badge designs,medals and novelties including, at various stages, Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and Harrison Fisher.

After dominating the badge market for over 60 years, Whitehead & Hoag Co. was sold to its major rival Bastian Brothers of Rochester N.Y. This took place in 1959 although the Whitehead & Hoag name was used by Bastian Brothers until the mid 1960s. Some believe this was due to the fact they never advertised beyond the products they were promoting. Perhaps people just forgot to read the fine print. Tragically all of the records, dies and machinery were destroyed. All that remains are the items themselves.

Stored in cabinets for years by a family member who had worked as a salesman for the Whitehead & Hoag Co., this wonderful collection is now offered.  

Happy Bidding!

Liz

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We have three wonderful mid-century modern pieces

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     We have three wonderful mid-century modern pieces; a coffee table and two end tables

Two designer Vladimier Kagan and Adrian Piersall have both designed similar pieces. Adrian Mount Pearsall (1925-2011) was an innovative designer who founded Craft Associates, who became one of the country’s most prominent furniture designers during the mid-century “Atomic Age.” He founded Craft Associates in the early 1950s with his brother Richard. Craft Associates continued to operate out of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania but was later sold to Lane in the late 1960’s. Following this transition, Pearsall went on to launch the company Comfort Designs in the 1970s. He went on to be included in the American Furniture Hall of Fame in 2008. His coffee table and end table design are called “Jax” or in some places “Jacks”

The coffe table is featured on his memo.

Vladimir Kagan was born in 1927 and is an American furniture designer. He was inducted in the Interior Designer Hall of Fame in 2009, 62 years after he started designing and producing furniture. He was married to the late embroidery designer Erica Wilson. Together they had three children. His Midcentury modern furniture with "Sinuous wooden frame characteristics has a modern feel making it relevant for times to come. His style, inspired by everything from antiques and nature to the Bauhaus, emphasizes comfort and functionality. His similar coffee table and end tables are called “Tri-symetric”  Very sought after mid century designed by the famous furniture designer Vladimir Kagan.Because of its idiosyncrasy, Kagan’s work did not lend itself to mass-production. Kagan never signed on with any of the major furniture-making corporations, and examples of his designs are relatively rare. Take a look at his work that we orginally used in our search for writing our description.

The market for vintage furniture is strong! Each auction sets new records in pricing.

Vladimir Kagan's designs are in two categories. Those actually built in the Kagan factory are identified as original CLASSIC designs and those built under license by authorized manufacturers. The CLASSIC designs were never mass produced. Fabrication in the Kagan workshop was limited. Finding an original is difficult, as poor imitations exist. Even auction houses are often deceived. That makes us feel somewhat better. The branding of Mr. Kagan's early pieces was sporadic. Due to his profound recollection of his work, together with sketches and photographs in his extensive archives, he, alone, is uniquely qualified to identify originals. He knows the joinery, the woods, the curves and the "handwriting" of his designs. To sort this out difinitively here is new information the lucky new owner should take advantage of at least for insurance reasons.

You can now receive positive identification with a provenance to differentiate these design. http://www.vladimirkagan.com/provenance-certificate

Happy Bidding!                              

Liz

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John A. Ruthven - A National Treasure

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We first met John at his 90th Birthday party at his studio in Georgetown, Ohio. He is such a gracious man and tells wonderful stories. He was telling about painting his “Martha” tribute on the side of a building on Vine Street in Cincinnati, Ohio. He painted Martha in two weeks while other artists painted the rest of a copy of his original work.  It is quite impressive to see. He had us all laughing and you can hear him yourself on Youtube. https://youtu.be/CR6vdTjx9fY

John’s hero is John James Audubon. As a child, John became interested and studied Audubon at the Cincinnati Library and even took a class in Taxidermy to understand as Audubon did, the inner working and finest details of the animals he would draw and paint. John has had quite an adventurous life full of travel, painting and finding friendships everywhere.

John has been involved in so many causes including the Cincinnati Zoo and Kindervelt helping us raise money for the Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center. Never one to boast, he has done this quietly his entire life, always ready to help a worthy cause.

John A. Ruthven painted The American Bald Eagle and presented the original to then President Gerald Ford to commemorate the Bicentennial of Independence. 776 individually numbered, signed lithographs signed by Gerald Ford and double signed by John, were given away in 1977 to Republican donors who gave $10,000 or more to President Ford's election campaign.

The Eagle we have, Item number 132, is especially fine.  It is number 89/776 and has been valued by his own web site www.Ruthven.com  in December 2012 at over $1300.00 for insurance purposes only. This is your chance to own a National Treasure.

Happy Bidding!                              

Liz

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        We are so fortunate to have a signed and numbered work of

Daniel Joshua Goldstein, an amazing art activist.

We have two of his earlier works from 1982 which reflect a lighter calmer time. His gradation of color and light reflect a simplicity and reflective meditative quality. The two pieces could stand alone but together they resonate and elevate the works in a symmetrical synergistic way.

Goldstein’s color gradations in this work and in his later work were inspired by Japanese prints of the Edo period. He is fascinated, as are we, by the “mysterious space between the inside and outside, dream and reality... through the use of doorways, empty rooms, luminous surfaces and soft shadows.”

His own Studio bio describes him as a San Francisco based artist originally from New York. His woodblock prints, collages and sculptures have been exhibited in leading galleries and museums throughout the world. Some of his most famous AIDS/HIV awareness sculptures include “Invisible Man” and “Medicine Mother”

http://danielgoldsteinstudio.com/videos/page/3/

“Medicine Man for South Africa” – Interview with Daniel Goldstein

                                                

Daniel Goldstein's life and art have proven to be an effective voice in an effort to Make Art Stop AIDs. We invite you to watch the installation of his work on YouTube.

Happy Bidding!                              

Liz

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