March 2006 Hotlines

We have collected 24 different pressed glass goblets to use at dinner parties. Guests always ask about their history. At a recent Green Valley auction there were bargains for those who wanted to set a table like ours. One group of 30 assorted pattern glass goblets, estimated at $75 to $150, sold for only $34. That’s about $1.40 a goblet. Several other groups of 30 ranged from $86 to $115.

Men, especially rappers and sports figures, are wearing a new kind of jewelry called “grills.” They’re cosmetic jewel-set dental fixtures made to fit over top or bottom teeth. When the wearer smiles, the pattern of jewels shows. Want to see a picture? Paul Wall is on the cover of his new album, The People’s Champ, showing his grilled smile. Will these grills be collectible? We doubt it. (JCK, January)

Check every single box in your attic when you’re cleaning out. A box stored in a Maine home for years was marked “Lionel trains.” Inside was another box marked “old eagle.” That box, it turned out, held a John Bellamy carved wooden eagle that later auctioned for $101,750 at Thomaston Place Auctions in Thomaston, Maine.

The largest real pearls we’ve ever seen were for sale in several booths at the back of the big Miami Beach antiques show. The booths were in a section of the show set up to sell new and reproduction jewelry. Dealers were wholesaling the pearls, each the size of a small marble. We listened while a woman bought a string of the pearls for $50,000.

Prices for top-quality folk paintings are going up. Although folk art went down in price in the first half of the 1990s, patriotic and all-American antiques have gained new respect. It may be the result of feelings aroused by the September 11 attacks. (Forbes, December 2005)

Dramatic, large necklaces made of many strands of faceted gems or of gold with many drops are the newest style. They embellish the look of dresses with a décolleté neckline. (Financial Times, January)

A Tiffany Studios stained glass window was auctioned by Red Baron’s Antiques in Atlanta for $166,750. We hope it was purchased for a library. It originally was created for Melville Dewey, the originator of the Dewey Decimal System used to catalog books in many libraries.

Cigarette ads may not be allowed on television anymore, but the Marlboro man is worth money. A 1989 photograph of a portion of the photograph of the cowboy featured in a Marlboro ad campaign sold for $1.25 million. The record-setting photo was taken by American artist Richard Prince (b. 1949).

A clever eBay seller is offering cup and saucer cell-phone holders. A hole is cut into a vintage cup so the cord can thread through to a plug. Then the cell phone is put into the cup to lean against the side while it recharges. Look for 2cool-Grammy’s Attic on eBay.

Barry Friedman, a leading dealer in contemporary furniture and decorative arts, has an apartment filled with museum-quality furnishings dating from the first half of the 20th century. We liked his front hall. Hundreds of vintage neckties dating back to the 1930s are displayed on wooden hangers covering part of a bookshelf.

New museum exhibitions are displaying 19th- and 20th-century artistic iron or brass work. The exhibits will create more interest in this type of metalwork at shows. Buyers can find beds, candlesticks, chairs, shelves, fireplace equipment, lamps, screens, tables, and more.

It has long been said by experts (including the Kovels) that you can tell the age of an old bottle by the length of the side mold seam-the longer the seam, we all said, the newer the bottle. An article in Bottles and Extras (Fall 2005) debunks this myth. Too many old bottles with indisputable dates have seams too long or too short to fit the dating myth. The automatic bottle machine, which produced bottles with the seam extending all the way to the top, was invented in 1903 but was not widely used until the 1920s.