Antique news

• Madame Zita Knows Your Future

  07-10-2026 18:38 via antiquetrader.com
  
  For one penny, Madame Zita would tell you your future.Drop a coin into the machine, and the elaborately dressed female automaton would turn her head to retrieve a fortune before turning again to drop it down a chute for the waiting customer. With her other hand, she pulled the lever that dispensed the fortune card.More than a century later, Madame Zita is still telling fortunes and working for her keep. The original Roover Brothers machine, Lot 2281 in Morphy Auctions’ Oct. 16–17 Coi
  
  Read more

• The Force Is Strong With Star Wars Collectibles

  07-10-2026 16:27 via antiquetrader.com
  
  Tom Jung’s original half-sheet key poster artwork for the 1977 film Star Wars. The artwork sold for $3.875 million at Heritage Auctions in December 2025. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions.On May 25, 1977, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2 became household names.That’s the monumental day the first Star Wars movie was released; the film’s riveting plotline and fictitious, loveable characters — well, maybe not so much the in
  
  Read more

• Lost Baroque Sculpture Found at Salvage Yard

  07-10-2026 15:23 via antiquetrader.com
  
  A carved marble portrait of Pope Clement XII seated on a throne, newly attributed to Pietro Bracci, c.1736, as a maquette for a life-size bronze sculpture that was destroyed in 1798. The maquette measures 68 cm (about 26 3/4 in.) tall. Images courtesy: Woolley & Wallis.The heavy statue, just over two feet tall, was for sale at a salvage yard in Wiltshire, England, where, according to People magazine, it was a concrete garden figure. One customer, suspecting it was something more, bought it f
  
  Read more

• Dust off the Lederhosen and Dirndls

  07-10-2026 09:01 via antiquetrader.com
  
  The ceremonial Tapping of the Golden Keg officially opens Oktoberfest USA in La Crosse, Wisconsin. (Courtesy of Oktoberfest USA)Beer, bratwurst, brass bands, and lederhosen may be the hallmarks of Oktoberfest today, but the celebration began with a wedding. In 1810, Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria married Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen, and Munich marked the occasion with days of festivities culminating in a horse race on October 17. The celebration proved so popular that it returned, ev
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

Follow @antique_newsloc on Twitter!