Heard it through the Grapevine

Well, That Caps it!

Return this article by Ralph Finch, and get your 5¢ deposit back … or maybe not

Selling May 23 was this item from the Signari Gallery of Las Vegas. It was estimated at $600-$800. It was described as “Dedicated to Andy Warhol by Aurelio Cesareo, 2008. Featuring one of Warhol’s famous icons, the classic ‘Pepsi’ bottle cap, 19.75 by 27.5 inches.”

I sorta like Art (as in Garfunkel), and I really like classic Roman art of, um, zaftig women, but this is art? Hmmmm. I know what I like, but $800 for a bottle cap? I’d go a quarter, a buck and a quarter if the bottle — with contents — is attached. And whatever it sold for (and I don’t care), there was a 30 percent buyer’s premium.

An Ordinary Beer Mug?

Not if you use your head; this one holds magic!

Another trick (or treat) from Ralph Finch

If you saw this ordinary beer mug on sale for, say, $5, would you pass it by? If you did, then the trick would be on you.

See, earlier this year, this mug sold for $780 (including buyer’s premium) at Potter & Potter’s three-part auction of Jim Rawlins collection of magic stuff, including a ton of gadgets owned by world-famous magician Harry Blackstone.

Now, keep your eyes on my hands as I type this story and reveal the trick. Here is how Lot 10 was described (edited):

“Harry Blackstone Beer Trick Beer Mug, circa 1940. Heavy ‘sham’ glass beer mug owned and used by Harry Blackstone Sr. in his stage show. Accompanied by an LOA from George Johnstone, Blackstone’s assistant. Johnstone’s letter explains how the glass was used by Blackstone in great detail: ‘The glass beer mug was used after Harry produced the giant beer bottles from the empty (?) box. One of the bottles contained real beer. Harry filled the mug you now own and offered it to the band leader in the orchestra pit. He refused, saying it was too much beer for him to drink on the job. One of our girls handed Harry a smaller glass, about the size of double whiskey shot glass. Harry poured the contents from the big into the small glass and gave it to the band leader. The beer glass you own is not a legit one. It is thick glass but looks like it holds a lot of beer, ’taint so!”

FYI: The auction featured “Blackstone memorabilia owned, used, and collected by the master, among them original oil paintings, show costumes, Blackstone’s famous Vanishing Birdcage (and other props), stone lithographs, photographs, correspondence and archival material, original cartoons and artwork, film footage and audio recordings of Blackstone and his troupe, and much more.”

Heard it through the Grapevine

Flush with Money? Here is what’s ‘Unique’

Notes from a wasted youth, Ralph Finch writes: OK, at 80, maybe the word “youth” is incorrect, but …

I’m sure the collecting world is sitting on the edge of its seat (toilet or non) to find out what’s new in the old toilet collecting biz. The answer? Plenty.

Now, as you can imagine, it’s a challenge to find 100-year-old toilet paper crap, as well as related material. Often I am asked, “How do you find this stuff?” (OK, actually, the question is, “WHY do you look for it?”)

As to the “how”: You search the internet each day, you go on websites like “Invaluable” and peruse a few dozen auction houses each day, And, of course, search eBay. And it helps to have friends who feed your addiction.

This time, it was a phone call from Mark McNee of Kalamazoo, one of the hardestworking antique dealers I’ve ever known, and I’ve known him for decades. You have heard about finding a needle in a haystack? If you are looking for a particular needle, let Mark know — he will find it.

Over the last many decades, if the phone rings and I see it is from Mark, my first thought is: “How much is this call going to cost me?” (Sometimes, it has been a few thousand dollars.) The other day the call was to alert me to something that he had just found on eBay. Not old paper, but an old paper holder.

It was described as (edited) “I love the look of this toilet roll holder Patented Oct. 12, 1886.” And it was painted with the most appropriate words: “The Unique.” And I said to myself, “I want it and I’m going to get it.” But, I should know better than to count my chickens before they hatch into little rolls of toilet paper.

The opening bid for this 134-year-old jewel was $9.99, and I put in my first bid with only a minute left of the auction. And the price went up. And up. I kept increasing my bids but I was having a hard time keeping up. At the close, I wasn’t even close. It went for $422 with 34 bids (11 were mine) and placed by nine different bidders.

Poop, said a sad Finch, losing out on yet another chance to spend a chunk of my son’s inheritance.

ABOVE: A rare and perhaps truly “unique” item was this tin holder of toilet paper which, when you pulled out the paper, the lid with a serrated edge would cut off the paper. (Actually, paper impressed into panels had already been patented in 1871 in Albany, N.Y. by the Albany Perforated Wrapping Co.)