COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Royal Ontario Museum Publishes “Cloth That Changed The World: The Art And Fashion Of Indian Chintz” FRIDAY DECEMBER 20, 2019 • VOL. 50, NO. 51
Plenty Of Fireworks At Dave Rowe’s Annual Black Friday Sale Cowden & Wilcox Jar With Bird On A Tree Decoration Sells For $23,000 By Karl Pass Dave Rowe of Rowe’s Auction Service held his annual Black Friday auction on Nov. 29. The company’s auction barn along Route 11 near Plainfield is about six miles west of Carlisle, Pa. This was a single-owner sale on behalf of the late Barbara Kibler of Mechanicsburg. Her name was not used in advertising the sale, yet anyone in the small fraternity of collectors and dealers knew Rowe’s was selling her collection. Kibler (1935-2019) collected Americana for many years, primarily buying in the Cumberland Valley region. She had a reserved seat in the front row at every antiques sale at Rowe’s, which was reserved in her honor at this sale. She also bought at some highpowered catalog auctions, such as the first Elgin sale. The late Dorothy and Eugene Elgin of East Berlin were well-known collectors who never missed a good farm sale in southcentral Pennsylvania. Their first auction at Conestoga Auction Co., held in 2004, was a barn burner. Price fluctuation is nothing unusual for any market, and plenty of things have changed in those 15 years since 2004. For example, a rare and unusual group of 11 wooden and painted “stone” fruit, illustrated in Dick and Rosemarie Machmer’s “Just for Nice,” from 1991, and also “Folk Art of the Hanover Area (1783-1883),” published in 1983, that the Elgins found in York Springs, Adams County, sold for $340 to a collector. They brought $6,050 at the Elgin sale in
A two-gallon Cowden & Wilcox stoneware jar with unusual bird on tree decoration sold for $23,000 to a dealer. It came from a Haar’s auction in the early 1980s.
The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is pleased to announce the publication of “Cloth that Changed the World: The Art and Fashion of Indian Chintz.” The collection of essays explores the farreaching influence this vividly printed and painted cotton cloth has had on the world, from its origins 5,000 years ago to its place in fashion and home décor today. The volume is the official companion to the ROM-original exhibition, “The Cloth that Changed the World: India’s Painted and Printed Cottons,” which will run from April 4 to Sept. 27, 2020, at the museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The scholarly and beautifully illustrated publication draws from the Royal Ontario Museum’s own Indian chintz collection, which
Christmas Greetings Inside
AAN Current News
Rare Antebellum Image Of Slavery Sells For $324,500 In Cowan’s American History Auction on page 4
ranks as one of the best in the world. Featuring extensive new Continued on page 2
Marvel Comics No. 1 Sells For $1.26 Million At Heritage Auctions, Now Most Expensive Marvel Comic Ever Sold
Winterthur Garden Commemorated On Postage Stamp on page 7
1939 Copy Is Finest Professionally Graded Example
Continued on page 2
The Pennsylvania paint-decorated eight-drawer hanging wall boxes, likely seed cabinets, were sold by choice. The one on the left sold first for $4,750 to the trade. It brought $19,800 on April 3, 2004, at the Dorothy and Eugene Elgin sale held by Conestoga Auction Co.The one on the right sold next for $4,600, going to a different member of the trade.
New Book Explores The Story Of India’s Richly Colored Textiles With Exhibition Forthcoming
A rare vertical format printed house blessing (haus-segen) decorated by fraktur artist Arnold Hoevelman, likely in the Shiremanstown area of Cumberland County, Pa., late 18th century, surviving in very good condition with vibrant coloration, sold to Russell Earnest for $4,800, underbid by a collector. Stylistically European, it was printed at the Ephrata Cloister. Notice the large hand-drawn “K” on the left side. The letter “K” beginning the secord stanza was left off so it could be hand done or wood-block printed. The second stanza is a 17th century hymn. The very top line translates to “God Bless This House.”
The finest known copy of Marvel Comics No. 1, the 1939 comic book considered the “Big Bang” of the Marvel Comics Superhero Universe, sold for $1,260,000 on Nov. 21 at a public auction of vintage comic books and comic art held by Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas. The sale set a world record for the most expensive Marvel comic ever sold at public auction and an auction house record as the most expensive comic book ever sold. “This is a historic copy of a historic comic book,” said Ed Jaster, senior vice president at Heritage Auctions. “Without question, this is the granddaddy of all Marvel Comics, without which we would not have the characters and stories we enjoy in today’s comics and feature films.” It was first purchased off a newsstand rack by a mailman in Uniontown, Pa., who purchased every No. 1 issue he could of both comic books and magazines, beginning in the 1940s. Published by Timely Comics, the first edition features the first appearances of characters such as the Human Torch, Ka-Zar and Angel, as well as a character called the Sub-Mariner. The yet-unmatched comic book is graded 9.4 on a scale of 1 to 10, making it the best condition ever
Hake’s Shatters World Auction Record For “Star Wars” Toy At Nov. 6 And 7 Sale That Totaled $2 Million on page 10
This Marvel Comics No. 1 (1939), considered the “Big Bang” of the Marvel Comics Superhero Universe, sold for $1,260,000. found, according to Certified Guaranty Company, the world’s largest and most accepted comic book grading service. The famous cover art is by the noted science fiction artist Frank R. Paul, and the interior art featured the work of illustrators such as Bill Everett, Carl Burgos and Paul Gustavson. To learn more, visit www.HA.com.
Gathering Of The Green Conference Returns To Davenport In 2020 on page 15
In This Issue SHOPS, SHOWS & MARKETS . . . . . . . . . . starting on page 3 SHOPS DIRECTORY . . . . . . . . . on page 5 EVENT & AUCTION CALENDAR . on page 8 AUCTION SALE BILLS . . . starting on page 8
FEATURED AUCTION RESULTS: Hake’s Auction - November 6 and 7 in York, Pennsylvania - Page 10
AUCTIONEER DIRECTORY . . . . . on page 9 CLASSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . on page 15