July 2006 Hotlines

The Super Bowl ring that belonged to Green Bay Packer Jerry Kramer has been recovered. It was offered for sale at a Mastro auction and bids had reached $20,000 when it was determined that the ring had been stolen from an airplane restroom 25 years ago. The auction house stopped the sale. The consignor of the ring has not agreed to give it back, so Kramer plans to fight.

The Hitchcock Chair Company ceased production on May 12 this year. The New Hartford, Connecticut, company plans to auction its Farmington River factory and hopes to sell the brand name. Nineteenth-century Hitchcock chairs are high-priced. Newer ones can be identified by the symbol &#174, first used in 1946, or the label “L. Hitchcock, Conn.” with the N’s backward, a version of the mark not used in earlier years.

Japanese “art toys” for adults, an idea that originated in the 1990s, is not yet mainstream in the United States. These strange creatures, most of them vinyl, are in imaginative humanlike shapes that look like robots, animals, vegetables, or machines. They’re weird toys-not meant for children-but are very collectible. Watch for the trend in the States (and look for the book, Toys: New Designs from the Art Toy Revolution, published by Universe, a division of Rizzoli, c2005).

Charm bracelet sales have slowed. The trend at major shows is for big stones, especially diamonds.

1950s purses by Stylecraft of Miami are selling well in the United States and England. (Collect It, March)