ON THE COVER -
February Issue 2006
Valentines From Our Yesterdays.....by Roy Nuhn
Beginning in the 1940s and continuing through the next decade,
Valentine's Day changed. It became more of a holiday for
youngsters than ever before. Dozens of greeting card
companies, large and small, happily churned out vast amounts
of cheaply-priced valentines especially for schoolchildren to
buy. By the time Dwight D. Eisenhower sat in the Oval office,
Valentine's Day had become not only something very special for
lovers, married folks and other adults, but also a day of fun
for kids of all ages.
THE ANTIQUE DETECTIVE
Art of the Heart Valentines
Q. Help! I have a very nice chair which I believe to be a Baltimore chair. I found a picture in an encyclopedia at a library and it said "According to local tradition, chairs of this type were brought from Norway by a Baltimorean in the diplomatic service. These chairs...were often copied in Baltimore. Chairs of this type do not seem to be known in other cities." It is dark (walnut?) all spindles and the back leans back slightly. The reason I am writing is the seat and back cushions are missing and I want to replace them but have no idea what they should look like. The picture I found had what looked like a sagging leather seat cushion but the back was removed according to the text to show the way the back slants a little. I wrote to a museum in Baltimore but got no response. Can you help?
The Wonderful World of
Pressed Glass.....by Robert Reed
As fate would have it
the 19th century ushered in a radically new process for
forming glass that would forever change the look and feel of
the finished product.
Instead of the centuries-old method of blown glass, a form of automation was at
work at last. They called it pressed glass. Essentially molten glass was dropped
into a mold. A long-handled lever or plunger or 'follower' was
then used to force liquid glass into all parts of the mold.
The plunger meanwhile had a smooth surface thus assuring
that when the plunger was abruptly pulled down the resulting
inside remained unmarked.
Weathervanes: American Folk
Art.....by Maureen Timm
In the century following the Revolution, Americans, many
anonymous and untrained, expressed a variety of attitudes,
values, and ideas through the medium of popular and folk art.
In America, in the 19th century, it was the simple pleasures
of the land, that brought delight and inspired the
imagination. Many changes were occurring during the 19th
century and the farmer clung to the images of rural life. This
resulted in the farmer's artistic expression and a market for
factory-made images of pigs, goats, bulls, cows, plows, sheep,
and horses fashioned in the forms of weathervanes mostly in
metal, but on the farm in wood. The folk artist was moved to
create something that embodied rural delight.
THE ANTIQUE DETECTIVE
Laundry Collectibles Cleaning Up
At Auction
Imagine
how surprised a 19th century housewife would be to learn that
her old washboard is being hung in today’s utility rooms and
Cracker Barrel restaurants as a work of art. They are also
used for bulletin boards or just as kitchen decorations. The
more unusual the higher the price. Washboards were made of so
many materials and sizes a collection could fill an entire
wall. Even potters like Bennington made washboards in the 19th
century, as did others using a brown or mottled Rockinham
glaze. They sell at auction for between $400 and $800.
Groundhog Day Postcards
Celebrate Ancient Tradition.....
by Roy Nuhn
While crickets can measure temperature, the only one of nature's
weather-forecasting critters to earn itself a special day of honor is the humble
groundhog. Centuries-old tradition has it that if he sees his shadow on February
2, then there will be six more weeks of winter. If not, spring is right around
the corner. Each year at this time a group of men wearing top hats
and tuxedos take a la-pound groundhog by the name of Phil from his special glass
case in the public library of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and place him into a
special burrow on the morning of February 2. Then they - and the rest of the country - hold their collective breath until Phil comes
out again and either casts his shadow or not.
