The Arcade Manufacturing Company

The Arcade Manufacturing Company started as Novelty Iron Works in 1868. It made iron store fronts, windmills and coffee mills. It became Arcade Manufacturing Company in 1885 and the first product was a cork puller. In 1893, they started to make toys to make use of the scrap metal. Animal banks were made after 1908, […]

The Paper Cutting Art Form Scherenschnitte

Scherenschnitte is a paper cutting art form. It was known to the ancient Chinese and others, and it became popular again in the early 1800s, especially in the Pennsylvania area. A group of the pictures were sold at folk art auctions in New England about 2011 to 2019. They often pictured a spread-wing eagle with […]

Company Logos

Company logos are a quick message to customers that identify a product on a store shelf or in an ad on TV explaining quality or improvements. Very few have been changed but many have been updated for a more modern look. The clothing, hair-dos and changes in the style of the letters have made the […]

Paris Porcelain

Paris porcelain is often a mystery to collectors. Sometimes it is sold as Vieux Paris or Old Paris. It was made in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Most pieces are not marked, but the porcelain is very white and the decorations are usually elaborate with many colors and gold trim. It was made by […]

Antique Wicker Carriage for “Baby New Year”

The “New Year” is celebrated in many ways, but in the United States, there are always midnight celebrations with pictures of an old man representing the past, and a baby, the new year. The other popular symbol is a clock of almost any style with the hands at midnight. The early Greek idea of Baby […]

Antique Christmas Decorations

The most popular holiday collectibles are related to Christmas. Most families who decorate a tree buy a few ornaments each year and save them along with decorations from earlier years. There are even special boxes to store the fragile, round ornaments. The first decorated Christmas tree in America was put up in Pennsylvania in 1747, […]

Identifying Spatterware

It is easy to guess what this is—a rainbow spatterware water pitcher. But how old is it? Spatterware was first made in the late 1700s in England, but most found today dates from about 1800 to 1850 in Staffordshire, England, made to sell in the United States. Unfortunately, the word “spatterware” now has several meanings, […]

Bonzo Bank

This vintage bank is easy to date. It is a type of tin bank that is no longer popular and the dog decorating the front was a comic cartoon star from the 1920s to the 1940s. This is the first famous Bonzo. A live dog by that name became famous in the movies years later. […]

Toy Tourist Bus

Buses were used for transportation as early as the 1820s, long before the modern motor was invented. They had horse-power—live horses pulled the bus. By the 1830s buses were powered by steam, and in 1882 the first electric bus was introduced. But the toy bus made after 1895 often resembled tourist buses used in a […]

Alexander Calder Art

Alexander Calder (1898-1976) is best known for his sculpture “mobiles” although he also did important “stabiles,” paintings, jewelry and large outdoor statues. He was the first artist to make a new type of statue of wire and large pieces of metal that was assembled so it moved with each gust of wind. His creations sell […]