Contemporary Collectibles from Creators Syndicate

For Love and Money: Archie, Betty and Veronica for 06/25/2009

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Word has leaked out that Archie Andrews is about to propose after dilly-dallying between blond good girl Betty and slinky brunette Veronica for over 65 years: He's about to get down on one knee and propose to Veronica. The fact that this story — to become official in the September issue of Archie Comics — has already been featured on CNN shows what a hold this comic book trio still ...

Updated: Thu Jun 25, 2009

Tide is Rising in Popularity of Surf Memorabilia for 07/02/2009

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Surf's up! And so is interest in surfing collectibles. More and more of the sport's enthusiasts are seeking out relics from the various periods of its modern history, everything from surfboards to movie and music memorabilia.

No one knows, of course, when the first person stood up on a board and rode the waves, but it has been recorded that people of the Sandwich Isles were practicing it ...

Updated: Thu Jul 02, 2009

Campbell Soup Kids -- M'm! M'm! Good! for 07/09/2009

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Back in the days when the ideal child was one whose cheeks appeared to be stuffed with big round apples, a Philadelphia commercial artist named Grace Gebbie Drayton created two such robust tots, who went on to become among the most enduring symbols in the annals of American advertising. First used in a Campbell's Soup trolley car ad in 1906, they continued to be featured in the company's print ...

Updated: Thu Jul 09, 2009

Relics of the Magic Kingdom for 07/16/2009

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Once upon a time, a little over a half-century ago, few people had heard the term "theme park." That all changed on Sunday, July 17, 1955, with the opening of Disneyland, a 160-acre complex on what had been a vista of quiet orange and avocado groves in Anaheim, Calif. It was the fulfillment of Walt Disney's long-held dream of transforming outdoor family entertainment, just as he had c ...

Updated: Thu Jul 16, 2009

Collecting Not-So-Swanky Swanky Swigs for 07/23/2009

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Swanky whats? you might ask.

Well, for one thing, they're not as swanky as the name implies. They are, in fact, the fairly humble decorated glasses made as containers for Kraft Cheese Spreads — from pineapple to pimiento, Limburger to Old English to zesty Roka —decorated with tulips and spinning wheels. You may remember drinking milk from one in your grandma's kitchen. Today, ...

Updated: Thu Jul 23, 2009

Art Deco Gems From Van Cleef & Arpels for 07/30/2009

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Art Deco pieces are very hot among contemporary jewelry collectors, valued for their innovative stylized design, strong form and fine craftsmanship. Among the finest practitioners of this art was the French firm of Van Cleef & Arpels.

Art Deco, whose name derives from the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, was a decorative art style popular from betwee ...

Updated: Thu Jul 30, 2009

Color Me Collectible for 08/06/2009

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Good-goody little girl that I was, there was nothing I enjoyed more as a child than spending alone time with my jumbo-sized box of Crayolas, carefully shading Cinderella's skirt from ultramarine to Prussian blue, of course making every effort to stay within the lines. It was a time when there was a profusion of such books, most of them focused — as were their sibling paper doll books &mda ...

Updated: Thu Aug 06, 2009

McCoy Pottery for 08/13/2009

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

McCoy pottery is one of the most recognized and appreciated names in American ceramics, known for its both decorative and functional pieces — which have evolved over a long and rather convoluted history.

The original firm of J. W. McCoy pottery was established by James W. McCoy in September of 1899, in Roseville, Ohio, the pottery center of the United States, initially making crock ...

Updated: Thu Aug 13, 2009

Boys Were Paper Dolls, Too for 08/20/2009

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Rita Hayworth stripped to her lace teddy and was provided with trunks full of accessorized outfits for every possible movie-star occasion. But there were male dolls, too, that were produced over the years, the guys who were supplied with terry cloth robes and tuxes to place over their skivvies.

They go as far back as around 1840 with Napoleon — though we never got to see him in his ...

Updated: Thu Aug 20, 2009

Bonanza of New Art Books for Collectors for 08/27/2009

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ANDY WARHOL "GIANT" SIZE: Large Format (Phaidon Press, $49.95)

Over the past few years, there has been an avalanche of Andy books, from small studies of his early advertising shoe sketches to the present volume — a 15-pound lollapalooza. "Andy Warhol 'Giant' Size" is an amazing compilation of 2,000 images and documents forming a visual biography of the seminal P ...

Updated: Thu Aug 27, 2009

Looking into Vintage Eyeglasses for 09/17/2009

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Early spectacles. Monocles and lorgnettes. Outlandishly shaped sunglasses of the 1950s and '60s. John Lennon granny glasses. These are just some of the areas a collector of vintage eyeglasses can explore.

Although optical lenses were used to improve vision as far back as the 13th century, the oldest examples a collector could hope to find today — and these are of course quite rare ...

Updated: Thu Sep 17, 2009

Collectors Sign Up for Fountain Pens for 09/24/2009

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

It's not always necessity that's the mother — or father — of invention. It can be any of a number of other factors, and in the case of the modern fountain pen, it seems to have been a unique combination of frustration and embarrassment.

The story goes that one day in 1883, an insurance salesman named Louis Edson Waterman lost a client because his pen flooded ink all over the ...

Updated: Thu Sep 24, 2009

Collectors Face the Music for 10/01/2009

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Even though they often have great graphics and sometimes the extra added attraction of a historic or celebrity connection, vintage sheet music remains one of the most accessible and affordable collectibles around. For $5 or $10 or even less (with some notable exceptions), you can find examples that are rich in nostalgia, conjuring up a communal, pre-tech era, when a pleasant evening's entertain ...

Updated: Thu Oct 01, 2009

Nodders: The Yes Men of the Doll World for 10/08/2009

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

They're sometimes called nodding dolls, or, more formally, pagods, or, less formally, bobbin' heads or bobbleheads, but the one thing they have in common is a mechanism to make their heads move up and down.

The first examples originated in China, where they were used in religious temple rites to represent deities. The earliest examples were made of brass and were in the form of bells: wh ...

Updated: Thu Oct 08, 2009

The Wright Stuff for 10/15/2009

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In the field of modern design, there are two outstanding Wrights. The first to come to mind is the seminal architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright. But there was another of considerable significance, and that was the industrial designer Russel Wright.

This Wright's career blossomed during the dark days of the Depression, a time when the clean, curved shapes that came to be called strea ...

Updated: Thu Oct 15, 2009

Kodak Cameras: Brownies, Bullet Boxes and Bull's-Eyes for 10/22/2009

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

If you think it was the digital camera revolution that turned virtually every American into a photographer, think again. This actually was accomplished back in 1888, with George Eastman's introduction of roll film in a simple box camera that any amateur could simply point and press a button.

This first model could be the keystone of any Kodak collection. Small (3 by 3 by 6 inches) and po ...

Updated: Thu Oct 22, 2009

New Recommendations for the Collector's Bookshelf for 10/29/2009

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

STAR WARS: 1,000 COLLECTIBLES, MEMORABILIA AND STORIES FROM A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY by Stephen J. Sansweet with Anne Neumann (Abrams, $35.)

A must have for any "Star Wars" fan and certainly any "Star Wars" collector. From the moment the first film opened in 1977, there was unleashed an almost unprecedented tsunami of merchandise celebrating the epic space fantasy&mdash ...

Updated: Thu Oct 29, 2009

Baby Boomer Books for 11/05/2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

With childhood favorites like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" now starring on the silver screen, thoughts of baby boomers — and their successors — turn to these and other well-remembered books of their mid-century childhoods.

One of the first that many people might remember is a favorite Little Golden Book, be it "T ...

Updated: Thu Nov 05, 2009

Dinky Toys Are Not That Dinky for 11/12/2009

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

In case you might wonder why a manufacturer would call his toy line Dinky, there is a simple etymological explanation. They originated in England, where the word has quite a different connotation. Whereas the American Webster's New World College Dictionary defines the word as "small and unimportant; of no consequence," the British Concise Oxford Dictionary characterizes it as "pr ...

Updated: Thu Nov 12, 2009

Dead-Eye Dick Tracy for 11/19/2009

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

At the ripe old age of 78, Dick Tracy remains the most fearless, dauntless, baddest crime fighter of all time. Trench-coated, hawk-nosed and lantern-jawed, Tracy was the quintessential '30s gangbuster. In addition, he holds the dubious distinction of having introduced violence to the Sunday funny papers.

The creation of Chester Gould, Dick Tracy made his debut Oct. 4, 1931 in the Sunday ...

Updated: Thu Nov 19, 2009