Q: My grandmother has a dish that was her grandmother’s, and we are trying to find the pattern so we can purchase more, but we are not having any luck. Can you help?
Meito China bowl
A: Meito China was first made around 1908 by the Nagoya Seito Sho company in Japan. The company is now operating as Narumi Seito Narumi. Like other products made in Japan, Meito China was marked “Nippon” until 1921 and “Made in Occupied Japan” from 1945 to 1952.
Meito China was made in hundreds of patterns. Some are marked with the pattern name or number; others, like yours, are not. Yours appears to be a very rare pattern; we can’t even find a name for it! There are pattern-matching services like Replacements LTD (replacements.com) and Missing Pieces (missingpieces.com) that can help you find more dishes in a certain pattern. Some are listed in the Kovels.com Business Directory. You could also look on resale websites like eBay, Etsy, Poshmark, and Ruby Lane. A collector’s club for dinnerware or Japanese ceramics, like the Nippon Collector’s Club (nipponcollectorsclub.com), may also be able to help.
Rim close-up
A 1964 Beatles Poster is a Fab Find for Collector
A classic pop music remnant nearly 60 years old, the “signed” poster of
the Fab Four showcases the band at the heights of its Beatlemania power.
Q: I came upon a signed poster of the Beatles and was wondering if it was worth anything?
A: Although the Beatles were wildly popular in the U.K. at the time, it wasn’t until the band’s first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Feb. 9, 1964, that the Fab Five firmly grabbed ahold of America. An estimated 73 million people tuned in to Ed Sullivan that night. Beatlemania spread like wildfire after the show. The marketing barrage that followed was unheard of. Images of the Beatles were on everything from lunch boxes to sneakers. Your Beatles poster, featuring Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr in their famous collarless suits, is from 1964 and licensed by NEMS Enterprises. NEMS is short for North End Music, a company set up by the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, and named after the music store his family owned in Liverpool, England.
Unfortunately, the poster’s autographs are facsimiles. If the signatures were real, your poster would be worth thousands of dollars. Even so, your poster (20 1/2 in. by 24 in.) is a fan favorite. We’ve seen copies sell for $100-$125 online and at auction, depending on condition. It’s a great find and well worth keeping.
Good Dog! Internet’s Most Famous Cartoon Dog Fetches $175,000
A witty 1993 New Yorker cartoon by Peter Steiner that foresaw the power of the internet sets a record at Heritage Auction while still making us smile.
Thirty years ago, while many of us were asking, “What is the internet?,” The New Yorker ran one of its most famous cartoons: the black-and-white single-panel “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” by Peter Steiner. Featuring two chatting dogs sitting in front of a desktop computer, it became the most reproduced cartoon in the long and distinguished history of the magazine that has counted among its cartoonists James Thurber, Roz Chast, and Charles Addams.
The original drawing of the famous cartoon sold for $175,000 on Friday, Oct. 6, during Heritage Auctions “Illustration Art Signature Auction.” It is the highest price ever paid for a single-panel cartoon and a record-breaker for Steiner.
Since its publication in 1993, the cartoon has become a prescient, profound, and witty meme for the impact the internet has had on all of our lives during the digital revolution. Ironically, Steiner said the most famous cartoon about the internet was not about the fledgling worldwide web at all.
“It was about was about my sense that I’m getting away with something,” Steiner said in an interview before the auction. “I realized the cartoon is autobiographical and that it’s about being an imposter or feeling like an imposter. I’ve had several checkered careers, and in everyone, I felt like a bit of a fraud. I mean, I think many people have that syndrome, the sense that, yeah, I’ve got everybody fooled.”
Steiner drew more than 430 cartoons for The New Yorker, among them some of the magazine’s funniest, sharpest, and most resonant. He’s since become a writer of spy novels and a painter. Steiner has long joked that no matter his ever-expanding résumé, he will one day be eulogized solely as the guy who drew “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”
What is Art? Apparently Not Two Empty Frames.
Are two empty frames art? Artist Jens Haaning thought so. The courts disagreed.
When is art not really art, even if an artist says it is? That philosophical question became a legal question in Denmark, and it did not go well for the artist.
And although Haaning tried to do just that, he couldn’t outrun the long arm of the law.
The museum had loaned Haaning about $84,000 to recreate a 2007 sculpture titled “An Average Danish Annual Income” in the form of banknotes affixed to a canvas.
It wasn’t until Haaning’s “art” was unpacked that staff realized he had sent two empty frames. Nevertheless, the museum displayed the works. When the artist refused to repay the borrowed money after the show was taken down, as his contract had demanded, the museum decided to take legal action.
After a lengthy legal squabble, the court ruled in September that Haaning must refund the museum $71,000, the amount he had been given by the museum, minus the artist’s fee and cost of mounting.
Despite the legal setback, Haaning defended his artistic interpretation of the contract.
“The work is that I have taken their money,” Haaning told a Danish radio program. “It’s not theft. It is a breach of contract, and breach of contract is part of the work.”
That kind of logic might play well in art circles but in a court of law? Not so much.
Add it all up and the Denominator is a cool collectible.
Q: We have a unique payroll tally machine by the Denominator Adding Machine Co. in Brooklyn (number 1295). It was used to tally different dollar and change amounts from $20 down to 1 cent. The housing is made of metal and glass on a wooden base that is felt-covered on the base. It works and has a small shelf containing the remnants of some kind of notepad. From what we could find out, it is from the early 1920s. Considering its age and its good condition, what do you think it’s worth?
A: The Denominator Adding Machine Co. opened in 1914 in Brooklyn, but the patent for its payroll tally machine wasn’t granted until 1923. In the 1930s, the company changed its name to The Denominator Company and moved to Woodbury, Conn., where it is still making manual counters today. In the 1950s, they started making their counters with plastic cases instead of metal. The National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution has a Denominator payroll tally machine like yours in its collection. Counters and adding machines from the early to mid-20th century tend to sell for about $20 to $100 at auctions. Pieces in excellent condition that can do more complex operations (such as multiplication and division) tend to get the highest prices.
The Denominator Company payroll tally machine
Do you have a question for Collectors’ Concerns? Send your question and attached photos via e-mail to ATNews@aimmedia.com. Photographs must be 300 dpi. Please include as much information about your item as possible: size, condition, where it came from, or anything else helpful. The values given are estimates and are not intended for legal or personal dealings.
Iconic Style: Freddie Mercury’s Mustache Comb Goes Under the Hammer
By Kele Johnson
Because my parents were utterly awesome and understood their teenage daughter’s obsession with 70s rock, they gave me tickets to Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls” tour for my 19th birthday. But these were not just any tickets. They were fourth-row center. From my up-close and personal viewpoint, I watched Queen make rock and roll history. I was captivated by the music and the powerful vocal range, showmanship, and electrifying stage presence that was Freddie Mercury.
Even today, in music and fashion, few figures are as legendary and flamboyant as the iconic Freddie Mercury. With his wild, outrageous personal style and nearly four-octave vocal range, he left an indelible mark on the world of entertainment. Beyond his mesmerizing performances and Queen’s timeless hits, there is an element of Freddie’s persona that has become nearly as iconic as his music—his fastidiously groomed mustache.
In a unique event that will captivate music enthusiasts and collectors alike, Freddie Mercury’s estate is set to be auctioned by Sotheby’s, offering fans a chance to own a tangible piece of the rock legend’s legacy. His relatively unassuming grooming tool, a Tiffany’s sterling silver mustache comb, has already surpassed its initial auction estimate of $500 to $600 and is currently sitting at £26,000 or roughly $33,000 USD.
There are a total of six auctions: The Evening Sale, closing at 5 PM BST, September 6th, On Stage, closing at 10:00 AM BST, September 7th, At Home, closing at 10:00 AM BST, September 8th, In Love with Japan, closing 10:00 AM BST, September 11th, Crazy Little Things 1, closing at 10:00 AM BST, September 12th, and Crazy Little Things 2, closing at 10:00 AM BST, September 13th (which is where the mustache comb can be found).
If the sterling silver mustache comb doesn’t stir your soul, perhaps this kaleidoscopic collection of cats is more your style. Apparently, Freddie Mercury was a cat person. Who knew?
The more traditional rock memorabilia collectors will find gold records, photographs, lyrics, and stage wear. For everyone else, gorgeous antique furniture, stunning artwork, ceramics, and a plethora of 18th-century Edo-period Japanese prints are also available.
In addition to the auction, Sotheby’s is hosting a London exhibition, “Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own,” at their New Bond Street galleries. It began on August 4th and runs through September 5th.
More information about this spectacular auction event, its offerings, and the London exhibition can be found on the Sotheby’s website.
Freddie Mercury’s mustache comb is currently up for auction at Sotheby’s. Estimated at $500-$600, the current bid is approximately $33,000. Image courtesy of Sothebys.com.
Freddie Mercury performing live with Queen onstage at Wembley in 1986. Photo courtesy of FG/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images
Thrifters Now Just a Click Away from Goodwill Bargains (and Treasures?)
Collectors who love hunting for treasure at their area Goodwill stores no longer have to drive to find bargains. Goodwill launched an online shopping site this month named www.GoodwillFinds.com. (Goodwill already had an online auction site Home – shopgoodwill.com which will still operate.) The e-commerce site has more than 100,000 items already online. While shopping online is not the experience many thrifters love — it’s fun rummaging through old pictures, vases, and under tables for bargains — it is an opportunity to find treasure located maybe far away from home.
Goodwill treasures are not uncommon! Just this year, a thrifter find in a Goodwill store for $34.99 turned out to be a priceless Roman bust from the late first century B.C. or early first century A.D. The bust, found under a table at an Austin, Texas, store, had probably been part of a Bavarian king’s art collection. It is theorized it was looted and brought to Texas at the end of World War II. It is going to a museum, so the buyer won’t be cashing in, but she said that is fine with her.
Goodwill has been providing treasures and much needed items to people for more than 100 years. There are about 3,300 stores in the U.S. and Canada.
Goodwill’s mission is to provide professional training, job placement, youth mentorship and more to local communities.
Have a Good Labor Day!
We honor and celebrate the contributions of America’s working people! Happy Labor Day!
Postcard picturing textile workers and the Amoskeag great flag, Amoskeag Manufacturing Co. mill, Manchester, New Hampshire, c.1916, photographer unidentified.
Newspaper Clippings
A quick way to keep newspaper clippings is to photocopy them on acid-free paper.
Noritake Wall Pocket
Q: This Japanese wall vase was given to my mother as a wedding gift in 1926. It’s 9 inches high. I’ll be giving it to my daughter and would like her to know the history. Can you give me any information?
A: This is a Noritake wall pocket. Noritake was made after 1904 by Nippon Toki Kaisha, a company in Japan. This mark was registered in 1918 and used until about 1940. The “M” stands for Morimura Brothers, a distributing company in New York City. Noritake’s porcelain vases, dresser sets, smoke sets, figurines and other “fancyware” with Art Deco designs and luster glazes were made from about 1925 to 1931. They are very collectible and large vases with elaborate decoration sell for hundreds of dollars.
