Contemporary Collectibles from Creators Syndicate

PL8TES: License to Collect for 07/10/2008

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you associate car license plate collecting with a garage wall having a few rusty old examples nailed on it, you might be surprised to hear that this is a very active collecting field.

It is fueled by large numbers of serious collectors who gather at conventions and support a large, popular collectors’ organization. Its more than century-long history has produced an interesting v ...

Updated: Thu Jul 10, 2008

Marbles: Don't Lose Them, Collect Them for 07/17/2008

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Most marble collectors collect marbles. Not the ordinary immies and aggies kids used to play and shoot with on the street but such rarities as early clay and porcelain specimens, others made of carnelian, onyx, tiger's-eye and other stones, distinctive handmade glass examples or amusing comics shooters with the images of characters like Little Orphan Annie, Moon Mullins and Betty Boop.

Y ...

Updated: Thu Jul 17, 2008

What's Up, Bugs? for 07/24/2008

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Most bunnies are cute and cuddly-think Peter Rabbit, Peter Cottontail and the Easter bunny-but the most famous bunny of all is anything but. The brash, wisecracking, Brooklyn-accented, carrot-chomping Bugs Bunny was the N0. 1 star in Warner Bros. pantheon of cartoon characters, which also included Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Tweety & Sylvester, the Roadrunner & Wile E. Coyote, Pepe Le Pew, S ...

Updated: Thu Jul 24, 2008

Political Convention Souvenirs Always in the Running for 07/31/2008

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

From Aug. 25-28, the Democratic National convention will be held in Denver, followed Sept. 1-4 by the Republicans' assembly in Minneapolis. Already, the collectibles of tomorrow are appearing on the radar.

A recent Wall Street Journal article reported on the rush for Obamiana and how campaign posters and other works depicting the nominee are being snapped up — some artist' ...

Updated: Thu Jul 31, 2008

The Word About Scrabble for 08/07/2008

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

So have you heard about the Scrabble squabbles, the brouhaha over Scrabulous, the popular but unauthorized version of the game played online by millions of Facebook users? It was created by a pair of brothers in India, much to the dismay of Hasbro, controllers of the game in the United States, who have their own application on Facebook launched two years after Scrabulous and considered by most ...

Updated: Thu Aug 07, 2008

Collectors Look Inside The Cigar Box for 08/14/2008

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There was a time when almost every American household contained a couple of cigar boxes. Mom stored her receipts or sewing supplies in one, Junior kept his marbles or baseball cards in another, and little Sis made hers a container for her paper dolls' clothes, all of them handed down from Dad after his last cigar had been smoked. But apart from these utilitarian uses, cigar boxes have been coll ...

Updated: Thu Aug 14, 2008

Hollywood Hunks: When Gable was King for 08/21/2008

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Being an avid student of baby name trends, I've been noticing the recent tendency by celebrities to name their children after other celebrities, particular those from the Golden Age of Hollywood — as in Ava and Audrey and Harlow. Up until now, this was a purely female phenomenon — that is, until ex-"Saturday Night Live" and current "Weeds" actor Kevin Nealon step ...

Updated: Thu Aug 21, 2008

Airline Memorabilia: From Spode China to Barf Bags for 08/28/2008

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Now that the airlines are slowly stripping away every economy-class amenity they've ever offered, down to free pillows and blankets, we can torture ourselves by looking back at the glory days of Pan Am and TWA, when real food was served to all passengers on real china and wine in wine glasses, when stewardesses wore smart little suits and hats — and so did the passengers. No wonder relics ...

Updated: Thu Aug 28, 2008

Collecting by Numbers for 09/04/2008

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Paintings by numbers: They were as much a part of the 1950s as atomic clocks and poodle skirts, barbecues, Elvis and Ed Sullivan, largely because they were such an ideal fit for the time. Post-World War II, Americans were enjoying a new affluence and an abundance of leisure time to fill, a move towards the quieter life of the suburbs, with its complexes of mass-produced houses, and these painti ...

Updated: Thu Sep 04, 2008

Autumn Brings a Bonanza of Books for 09/11/2008

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The end of summer always signals an outpouring of new books on every conceivable subject, including many that are of particular interest to the collector. This year is no exception. Here are a few outstanding early arrivals:

"The Railway: Art in the Age of Steam" by Ian Kennedy and Julian Treuherz, Yale University Press, $65.

Today we see the railway as just another, fai ...

Updated: Thu Sep 11, 2008

The Man in the Arrow Shirt Ad for 09/18/2008

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Sometimes a single artist, perhaps even with a single powerful image, can define a generation. A perfect example of this is J. C. Leyendecker, whose covers for The Saturday Evening Post covers and other magazines, along with his iconic Arrow Shirt ads, became emblematic of the young, upscale, sophisticated Gatsby-era dandy.

Alavish new book, “J.C. Leyendecker” by Laurence S. Cut ...

Updated: Thu Sep 18, 2008

'Gunsmoke' Collectors Never Left Dodge City for 09/25/2008

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In the heyday of the TV Western, "Gunsmoke" was the leader of the posse. Running for 20 years and encompassing 633 episodes, it held the record as the longest-running Western and one of the most enduring of all American prime-time TV series. After ushering in the era of adult Westerns, it succeeded in outlasting all its imitators.

Before there was the TV show, "Gunsmoke&qu ...

Updated: Thu Sep 25, 2008

New Book Tracks Vanity Through the Ages for 10/02/2008

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

As a magazine title, Vanity Fair has had several lives. There is, of course, the modern version on newsstands today, now celebrating its 25th anniversary and still a lively and influential periodical, both culturally and politically, noted for its in-depth journalism, memorable profiles and striking photography.

But as the impressive new book, "Vanity Fair Portraits: A Cent ...

Updated: Thu Oct 02, 2008

Dollhouses : A Microcosmic Collectible for 10/09/2008

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When I was about 5 or 6 years old, my Great-Uncle Harry built a simple but well-crafted dollhouse for me, just as he did for every little girl in the family when they reached that age. Mine, furnished with both store-bought beds and bureaus, and Mommy's decorative fabric touches, was something I played with for hours on end. At some point these playthings tended to be passed on to some younger ...

Updated: Thu Oct 09, 2008

Some Collectors Have Plenty Of Moxie for 10/16/2008

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If ever the name of a product became part of the language it's Moxie, which originated as a patent medicine, morphed into a carbonated soft drink, and was absorbed into the vernacular as a synonym for spunk.

A onetime favorite of celebrities as disparate as President Calvin Coolidge and author E. B. White, Moxie was created in 1878 by Dr. Augustin Thompson, an employee of the Ayer Drug C ...

Updated: Thu Oct 16, 2008

Casper: The Un-Scary Ghost for 10/23/2008

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you're looking for a scary ghost for Halloween, forget about Casper, because as the most famous ghost of all, he's also the most unthreatening and kid-friendly, being a kid himself. The cute, pudgy animated character has been around for about 70 years and is still as benign as ever.

Seen in theatrical cartoons before he was a Saturday morning TV staple and comic book character, Caspe ...

Updated: Thu Oct 23, 2008

New Books for Collectors -- From Tiffany Jewels to Romance Novels for 10/30/2008

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"Tiffany Style" by John Loring (Abrams; $50.)

As elegant as its subject, the "Tiffany Style" book by the firm's longtime design director and author of several other books on the subject presents the 170-year history of the quintessentially upscale jewelry and decorative objects purveyor told through photographs of some of its most outstanding pieces, from the seed pea ...

Updated: Thu Oct 30, 2008

Grand Ole Collectibles for 11/06/2008

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Country music is such a broad field — from bluegrass to country-and-western to cowboy to rockabilly — that most collectors narrow their searches to a specific area. One such possibility is Grand Ole Opry memorabilia.

Since the Opry's start in 1925, it has spanned so much of country music's history, its performers having included virtually a historic Who's Who of the genre &md ...

Updated: Thu Nov 06, 2008

Dr. Scholl -- Foot Soother to the World for 11/13/2008

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

You've been pounding the pavement all day and your feet are killing you. Who ya gonna call? Dr. Scholl, of course, the one-brand solution to the nation's corns, blisters and bunions since1904. Because that was a period rampant with pseudo-medical quackery, it is only fair to ask if there was an actual Dr. Scholl? And was he a real doctor?

The answer to both questions is yes.

Willi ...

Updated: Thu Nov 13, 2008

The Circus Comes to Town for 11/20/2008

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

In small-town America at the turn of the 20th century and into the succeeding decades, one of the highlights of the year was the annual arrival of the circus. The excitement was palpable as the colorful posters proclaiming its appearance were slapped up on walls and any other available space weeks before the show's arrival by advance men, wielding buckets of pungent-smelling paste and long-hand ...

Updated: Thu Nov 20, 2008