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A London Antiquing Adventure Awaits You

Make this summer one to remember. Join Kovels Antique Trader in London on a trip of a lifetime.

London

Working with professional tour operators in Europe, Kovels Antique Trader has launched Antique Adventures to create unique travel experiences centered around our hobby. The first stop: London.

From August 29 through September 5, editorial director Paul Kennedy and fellow editor Kele Johnson will play host to an unforgettable antiquing experience across the pond. The tour includes stays in four-star hotels, incredible antiques and collectibles shopping, visits to amazing museums, stops at breathtaking and historic palaces, and a lot of what makes London a true city of the world.

The London tour promises a grand yet intimate experience, with space limited.

Grays Antique Market Exterior: WikiCommons

The tour includes antique fairs, flea markets, and well-known London favorites such as Grays Antique Market, home to one of the world’s largest and most diverse collections of fine antiques and spectacular jewelry, and Leadenhall Market, one of the oldest markets in London, dating back as far back as the 14th century. Located in the historic center of London’s financial district, Leadenhall Market played a starring role in the Harry Potter films, making it a rather magical place for a bit of shopping.

London’s Leadenhall Market: WikiCommons

While hunting for bargains in merry old England is great fun, you can’t go to London without taking in the city’s fantastic landmarks.

Westminster Abbey

You’ll visit Westminster Abbey, an architectural masterpiece and one of the most important churches in the world. Westminster Abbey has been the setting for every Coronation since 1066 and for numerous other royal occasions, such as 16 royal weddings – including the 2011 marriage of Prince William to Catherine Middleton, as well as the wedding of William’s parents, Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.

You’ll walk in the footsteps of kings and queens at Kensington Palace, famously the birthplace of Queen Victoria in 1819 and a royal residence for more than 300 years. Speaking of royals, we’ll also take in Buckingham Palace, one of the few working royal palaces on earth. As a matter of fact, Buckingham Palace became the official London residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.

Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace

While the 830,000-square-foot Palace is filled with history, perhaps the most well-known bit of pomp and circumstance takes place outside: the famed Changing of Guard. The formal ceremony at the Palace’s forecourt has been around for centuries and is not to be missed.

The Tower of London from the Thames: WikiCommons

The week will also include tours of the Tower of London, an incomparable medieval fortress and home of the Crown Jewels, and the British Museum, an architectural wonder and home to some of the world’s most noted antiquities, including the Rosetta Stone.

Established in 1550, the Mayflower Pub is the oldest pub on the Thames in London: WikiCommons

London is filled with so much history that you can drink it in while sipping a pint of Guinness, which is what you’ll do one evening at the Mayflower Pub on the River Thames. The Pub’s proprietors say that from their establishment, you can see the original 1620 mooring point of the Mayflower, the ship that carried the Pilgrims from England to Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Greenwich Market

From antique shops to flea markets, palaces to museums, incredible food to new-found friends, the London tour promises an unforgettable chapter in your life’s story.

To learn more about Antique Adventures and the complete itinerary for the London Tour, click here.

Exploring the Eclectic Collections of the Sir John Soane’s Museum

Kensington Palace Unveiled: Where Royalty Roamed

The Fruit of Our Labor

From the Editor: by Paul Kennedy

The auction of a 300-year-old lemon offers a zesty roadmap for retirement planning.

Like many of you, I keep a close eye on my retirement savings. It is wise to stay vigilant.

But unlike many of you, I don’t need to go online to check my 401(k) balance, or waste time talking to my financial advisor about the status of my portfolio, or even bother with the old Ball canning jar I dump pocket change into at the end of the day to see how my finances are going.

Oh, by the way, that Ball canning jar with the metal screw-on lid? As of this morning, it’s holding a measly $37.59 in quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies—as well as two Sacagawea and one Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. I just counted it. The total is not inspiring, but who has pocket change anymore?

I digress …

My point is that I no longer worry about the state of the economy, inflation, or even world events when it comes to my future finances. Instead, my laser-like focus has shifted to fruit futures. More specifically, I am keeping a keen eye on how the bunch of bananas on the small kitchen counter next to our refrigerator is faring. And, by the brown patina and rich past-their-prime fragrance, I would say my retirement plan is promising. Or, as we like to say in the banana futures game, my growth potential is “a-peeling.”

A British auction shows the future of financial security could very well be antique fruit. (Getty Images)

Confusing? Sure, but so is cryptocurrency, and that hasn’t stopped folks from making a fortune with Bitcoin (see Bankman-Fried, Sam) or going to prison (see Bankman-Fried, Sam).

Let me explain.

Earlier this year, Brettells Auctioneers & Valuers, an auction house in Newport, England, discovered a nearly 300-year-old lemon in a piece of antique furniture. Typically, finding a nearly 300-year-old lemon in a piece of antique furniture would leave a sour taste in your mouth, not to mention a rather disgusting mess.

The lemon was deep brown and well past its “best-used-by” date, but it was intact and, overall, an amazingly well-preserved piece of fruit. The forward-thinking folks at Brettells decided to turn the lemon into lemonade, so to speak, selling the citrusy treasure for – pucker up! – $1,800 at auction in January.

“We thought we’d have a bit of fun and put [the lemon] in the auction with an estimate of 40-60 pounds [$50-$75],” auctioneer David Brettell said. “You’ll never see an object like this at auction again.”

Of course, you won’t see it again, at least not in the U.S., because the Food and Drug Administration has laws against selling 300-year-old food. Even so, focusing on legal technicalities and outdated regulations of some bureaucratic agency in Washington is missing the point.

At auction, the centuries-old lemon attracted 35 bidders from as far off as Maine to Moldova. Clearly, the potential for a financial windfall in the “antique fruit” market exists. If a single lemon can garner $1,800 at auction, just imagine what my bunch of bananas can do. Staggering, I know.

Yet, questions remain. For starters, how did the auction house know how old the lemon was? After all, forgeries and fakes run rampant in the antiques world.

Well, it turns out the lemon was carved with the words: “Given by Mr P Lu Franchini Nov 4 1739 to Miss E Baxter.” Such labeling suggested to Brettell that the lemon was a token of affection, perhaps presented by an Italian suitor to an English woman on a Grand Tour of Europe. Lemons, the fruit of lovers. Who knew?

Along with a date, the lemon had provenance, which is critical in authenticating any antique. That’s why I’m keeping the Chiquita label on all my bananas and have filed the grocery receipt dating the purchase.

My wife, although skeptical of my antique fruit investment plan, bought the bananas because she knows how much I enjoy them. In my notes, I play up that “love” angle to further the fruit’s provenance. As the lemon proved, a good love story can arouse bidders at auction.

Antique fruit is, of course, a relatively new investment opportunity, and as such, there are details still to be ironed out. Somehow, I need to quicken the aging process. It is, to say the least, unusual for food to survive three centuries. It is even less likely that I will survive three centuries.

So you can see my dilemma. Even if my now-quite-fragrant antique bananas somehow survive without being thrown out by less enthusiastic investors (see wife, doubtful), there’s a good chance I just might get tossed (see wife, seriously unamused).

Risk, of course, is inherent to all investments. The future favors the bold, as they say, and I refuse to drag my feet on this new and exciting venture.

Time, after all, flies like an arrow, and fruit flies like a banana.

Does This Reader Have a Belter Bedroom Set?

Left to right: chest of drawers, marble top dressing table, and bedside commode. Q: I am the owner of an antique bedroom set that I would like to know more about. It looks like a Belter and may be original (see pictures). The three pieces are a vanity with a mirror, a dresser with a […]

#Whatsitwednesday

Be the first to guess the pictured item by leaving a comment below. If you have your own whatsit, our editors may include it in a future post. Please send an email to editor@kovels.com and attach a clear picture, the size, and any markings. Hopefully, we will be able to identify it for our readers!

It measures approximately 3.5 in h x 37 in l x 3.5 in d.

Note: For those of you who signed up to get notified of each response (by checking the “Notify me of follow-up comments” box in the “Add Comments” section) and find it’s generating too much email, you can unsubscribe to the “Whatsitwednesday” comments by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in the “Whatsitwednesday” email you receive.

How does a tiny scrap of paper with a simple shape scribbled on it sell for over $200,000?

When it belongs to the Italian Renaissance Master, Michelangelo, the sky is the limit.

Michelangelo’s sketch of a marble block reads “simile.”
Photos courtesy of Christie’s.

A sketch by Michelangelo, one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance, perhaps of all time, recently sold for $201,600. It was offered by Christie’s New York in its A Park Avenue Collection auction on April 17 with a presale estimate of $6,000 – $8,000. In this case, the lot selling at over 30 times its estimate is remarkable, not because it sold for so much, but because its estimate was so low. On rare occasions when Michelangelo’s drawings come to auction, they sell for extremely high prices; the auction record for Michelangelo’s works is over $21 million for a sketch, believed to be his first nude, sold at Christie’s in Paris in 2022.

One look at the sketch that sold on April 17 shows why its estimate was relatively low: it’s not a study for one of Michelangelo’s great works, displaying his skill at depicting human forms. Instead, it is a diagram of a rectangular block of marble etched ‘simile’ mounted on a bifolium inscribed by Cosimo Buonarroti and by John Bowring, which states, “The enclosed writing and outline of Michael Angelo was given on this day by his descendant Cosimo Buonarroti to John Bowring.” Michelangelo is known to have made sheets full of drawings like these. They are sketches of marble blocks he needed for his sculptures and architectural designs, providing instructions for quarrying and transportation. Because this one is marked “Simile” (“similar”), experts believe it was drawn on a sheet with a similar block with its dimensions labeled.

Michelangelo’s block sketch is attached to a handwritten note
from Cosimo Buonarroti to John Bowring. Photos courtesy of Christie’s.

Cosimo was known to gift small fragments of paper with Michelangelo’s sketches. These were often authenticated by inscriptions of friendship or esteem. Like this sketch, many featured block designs. Ultimately, they were either auctioned off or found their way into various foreign collections.

Any drawing by Michelangelo is rare; he famously destroyed most of his sketches before his death. According to his contemporary and biographer Giorgio Vasari, an artist, he didn’t want anyone to see the processes behind his work, only his perfected finished products. He may also have been afraid others would try to steal his designs. Today, however, his drawings are valued for their rarity and for the historical information they provide. The sale of the simple sketch of a marble block on a two-inch square sheet for over $200,000 proves that even the most mundane inscription belonging to Michelangelo is a work of art.

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Made in Mexico

Colima-style terracotta armadillo effigy vessel, pre-Columbian, Classic period A.D. 300-900; Western Mexico, $950. John Moran Auctioneers’ “Made in Mexico” online auction on Feb. 7 lured collectors to the more than 270 lots of fine Mexican-crafted or inspired art, jewelry, and silver, including iconic pieces from Hector Aguilar, Los Castillo, Margot de Taxco, Antonio Pineda, and […]

Longtime Art Forger Sentenced to More Than Four Years in Prison

Earl Marshawn E.M. Washington (b.1962),
woodcut after Hale Woodruff, a WPA artist, signed 1937.

Woodblock forgery is probably as old as woodblock printing itself, and it is still going on. On April 2, Earl M. Washington, artist, and seller of woodblock prints, received a prison sentence of more than four years for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. His former wife, Zsanett Nagy, who assisted him, was sentenced last January for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering.

Between 2018 and 2021, Washington and Nagy sold woodblock prints they claimed were made in the 15th and 16th centuries to buyers in France, who in turn sold them to a collector in Germany. Nagy received the payments for the prints through PayPal, moved the money to her bank account, and withdrew the cash before the buyers found out they had bought counterfeit prints created by Washington himself. The French buyers paid nearly $85,000 for the prints.

Washington also sold fraudulent prints to buyers in Pennsylvania. One bought 130 woodblocks, believing they were hundreds of years old, for a total of over $118,000. Another bought prints that Washington claimed were made in the 1920s and 1930s by his great-grandfather, E.M. Washington. Again, the prints were his own work.

Earl Mershawn Washington (1962- ) Josephine Baker linocut, signed and bears
the date 1927 in pencil. Although he likely attributed it to his “great-grandfather,”
this work was created sometime in the 1980-90’s.

Washington and Nagy were tried in the U.S. Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia division of the FBI’s Art Crime Team conducted the investigation with assistance from the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, the French Ministry of Justice, and the French National Gendarmerie. Washington was ordered to pay $203,240.90 in restitution and serve 52 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Nagy, who is Hungarian, was ordered to pay $107,159.25 in restitution and serve time plus two years of supervised release. She may also face deportation.

This isn’t the first time Washington has allegedly run such a scheme. An article published in Forbes magazine in September 2004, called “Catch Me If You Can,” tells how Washington sold woodcut prints to dealers through auction houses and on eBay, attributing them to his great-grandfather, Earl Mack Washington. Customers had begun to suspect that Washington had made the prints himself. There was no evidence other than his own claims that his great-grandfather was a printmaker or even existed. Former romantic partners alleged that Washington cut and printed the woodblocks himself or with the help of apprentices. One claimed to have bought his supplies and sold his work. Collectors suspected him of copying or counterfeiting the works of other printmakers like M.C. Escher and Rockwell Kent or forging signatures on prints he sold.

Washington’s prints still sell at galleries and auction houses, although listings make it clear the artist was born in 1962, even if the prints are dated to the 1930s. The Forbes article described his style as “reminiscent of German expressionist work, but often reflecting black American themes.” Brier Hill Gallery of Boston, Massachusetts, believes in the artistic merit of Washington’s prints, as long as you know what you’re getting and “don’t take them too seriously.”

You may also like: Famous Fakes, Finds, and Forgeries

$25 Antique Market Find Goes Under the Hammer, Bringing a Whopping $14,000 USD

Last January, Flora Steel learned, with an assist from Antiques Roadshow, that the brooch she had bought decades ago for under $25 was a long-lost 19th-century piece by celebrated Victorian architect William Burges. The brooch went to Gildings auction house in Market Harborough, England, UK, to sell in an upcoming Jewellery & Watches auction. On March 19, the brooch sold for more than £11,000, or about $14,000 in US currency.

This is a familiar story for Gildings. The Antiques Roadshow episode where jewelry specialist Geoffrey Munn showed a sketch of Burges’ brooch designs originally aired in 2011. Munn also discussed how valuable the brooches would be if any were found: about £10,000 ($12,500). That year, two viewers independently realized that they owned brooches that matched the designs. Both sold their brooches through Gildings. One was sold to the Victoria and Albert Museum in a private sale. The other sold for £31,000 ($40,000) at auction.

William Burges (1827-1881) was an architect and designer in the Gothic Revival style. His admiration for medieval art and his travels throughout Europe and Turkey were major influences on his career. His first major commission was Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral in Cork, Ireland. Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch, both in Cardiff, Wales, are his best-known buildings. Like many architects, he also designed metalwork and decorative arts.

While it wasn’t as dramatically high a price, Steel’s brooch also sold higher than Munn’s original estimate, but not as dramatically high as the one that sold in 2011. $14,000 is still plenty of money, which Steel plans to divide among donations to a breast cancer research fund, giving to her son and travel for herself.

A London Antiquing Adventure Awaits You

The Fruit of Our Labor

Does This Reader Have a Belter Bedroom Set?

#Whatsitwednesday

How does a tiny scrap of paper with a simple shape scribbled on it sell for over $200,000?

Made in Mexico

Longtime Art Forger Sentenced to More Than Four Years in Prison

$25 Antique Market Find Goes Under the Hammer, Bringing a Whopping $14,000 USD

#Whatsitwednesday

Princess Diana’s Royal Blue and Black Dress Stuns with Record Setting Auction Price

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