Antique news

• Making a Market

  15-10-2026 20:23 via Antique Trader
  
  Randolph Street Market. Image by Kaybrophoto.When a strong gust of wind swept through a Chicago antique show in 1995, event planner Sally Schwartz thought it was the end. As the windstorm billowed through the tents, all the antiques beneath became the storm’s carnage. “The tent legs were snapping like toothpicks,” Sally explains. “It was the rarest thing. There was a rug that blew onto the fence, like a flying carpet. I didn’t think I was going to plan another outdo
  
  Read more

• Collector’s Notebook: A Merry Halloween

  27-10-2026 18:02 via Antique Trader
  
  Happy Halloween from Kovels Antique Trader! Or, in the words of this postcard, “A Merry Halloween.” Despite the antiquated greeting and old-fashioned art style, this card has familiar Halloween icons you might see on today’s decorations: a child in costume, jack-o’-lanterns, an owl, black cats, and a full moon, complete with a face, of course. The art style is characteristic of the early 1900s, and the postmark on the reverse dates it to 1911. Its one-cent stamp is consistent with that d
  
  Read more

• When the Dead Come Home

  26-10-2026 21:25 via Antique Trader
  
  An altar for the Day of the Dead, known as an Altar de Muertos, stands outside a house during celebrations on November 2, 2025, in San Andrés Mixquic, Mexico. Photo by Jan Sochor-Getty ImagesLong before the rise of the Aztec Empire, death and remembrance occupied important places in Mesoamerican life. At Teōtīhuacān, the great city that flourished in central Mexico roughly a millennium before the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan, archaeological discoveries reveal deeply rooted beliefs surrounding
  
  Read more

• America at 250: North Dakota, the Roughrider State

  23-10-2026 14:47 via Antique Trader
  
  The North Dakota state flag was based on a flag used in the Spanish-American War. The Legislative Assembly added the words “North Dakota” and adopted it as the state flag in 1911. Source: State Historical Society of North DakotaNorth Dakota’s history stretches back thousands of years to the Indigenous peoples who established communities across the northern Great Plains. Its vast prairies and Missouri River valley influenced patterns of settlement and trade, while agriculture and energy pro
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• 10 Antique and Vintage Door Stops Collectors Will Love

  22-10-2026 16:54 via Antique Trader
  
  From bathing beauties to Boston Terriers, these cast-iron doorstops prove that even the most practical household objects can have plenty of personality.Before rubber wedges and spring-loaded door holders became commonplace, heavy cast-iron doorstops kept doors from swinging shut. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, manufacturers were turning these everyday objects into decorative accents, producing everything from flowers and animals to fashionable figures and charming cottages
  
  Read more

• Dealer who Sold Fake Art Gets Federal Prison Sentence

  21-10-2026 17:21 via Antique Trader
  
  Roberts was accused of selling forgeries of famous prints by Andy Warhol, including his Chanel No. 5. An authentic copy sold at Bonhams in Paris in October 2026 for €1,122 (about $1,300), including Buyer’s Premium. Image: LiveAuctioneers/BonhamsOn April 9, 2025, the FBI raided the Miami Fine Art Gallery in Coconut Grove, Florida, and arrested its owner, Leslie Roberts. The gallery specialized in modern and contemporary art; Andy Warhol was a favorite artist. But according to accusations, som
  
  Read more

• Charming Black Cats for Halloween

  21-10-2026 15:53 via Antique Trader
  
  Panetta enameled cat pin, 1890s, $45-$65.
  All images courtesy of Jay B. SiegelCat brooches are always popular collectibles, from the most valuable Trifari figurals produced in the 1930s to cutesy 1960s versions that fit in perfectly with today’s “grandmacore” fashion aesthetic. I don’t totally get that trend, but to each their own, right? When it comes to feline jewelry this time of year, we start looking at some cats a little differently, namely those with an ebony coat. They go from be
  
  Read more

• Collector’s Notebook: A Look Back at the Bicycle Delivery Trade

  20-10-2026 20:11 via Antique Trader
  
  Image: Bonhams.Home grocery delivery was already common by the late 19th century and remained popular in the early 20th century. It began to decline after World War II with the rise of suburbs and supermarkets, at least in the United States. The change wasn’t quite as drastic in Europe. This bicycle advertising Collins Chemist, which sold for £1,020 at a Bonhams auction, is one of the “trade” or “carrier” bicycles used in midcentury England. It was made by Leo
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• World’s Largest Hoosier Cabinet in Indiana

  19-10-2026 22:14 via Antique Trader
  
  The world’s largest Hoosier cabinet is now open in Nappanee at Coppes Commons. Courtesy of Coppes Commons/Experience Elkhart County Indiana Facebook page.Hoosier cabinets were a staple in American kitchens from the late 19th century to World War II. While you don’t see them as often in today’s kitchens, you can still find plenty, especially in Indiana. Last July, Coppes Napanee, a woodworking company in Nappanee, Indiana, made one you can’t miss: a 30-foot-tall replica ou
  
  Read more

• America at 250: North Carolina, The Tar Heel State

  16-10-2026 21:07 via Antique Trader
  
  The North Carolina state flag bears the date April 12, 1776, commemorating the adoption of the Halifax Resolves, which authorized the colony’s delegates to support American independence. Image courtesy of WCNC Charlotte.North Carolina’s history stretches from the ancient communities of its Indigenous peoples to the colonial struggles that helped bring about American independence. Its mountains, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain shaped patterns of settlement and trade, while the state&rsquo
  
  Read more

• Anaprinta Textiles

  14-10-2026 19:11 via Antique Trader
  
  Anaprinta Textiles is a traditional textile and handicraft business based in Bagru, Rajasthan, India, known for authentic Bagru hand block printing, Dabu printing, and natural dyeing. We create handcrafted cotton fabrics and unique textile products.Email: [email protected] site: anaprinta.com
  The post Anaprinta Textiles appeared first on Antique Trader.
  
  Read more

• Ripley Auctions & Appraisals

  14-10-2026 19:07 via Antique Trader
  
  Ripley Auctions & Appraisals is an Indianapolis auction house serving collectors worldwide since 1991. Specialties include fine art, antiques, estate and designer jewelry, fine watches, rare books, vinyl records, sports memorabilia, and other collectibles. Our team helps individuals, families, collectors, and estate professionals evaluate collections and bring items to market through curated auctions, detailed cataloging, and comprehensive marketing. We offer auction consignment, appraisal,
  
  Read more

• Led Zeppelin Record Escapes Destruction, Appears on Antiques Roadshow

  14-10-2026 17:41 via Antique Trader
  
  A promotional image of Led Zeppelin from 1971. From left: bassist John Paul Jones, guitarist Jimmy Page, drummer John Bonham, and vocalist Robert Plant. Source: Wikimedia CommonsOld records aren’t exactly uncommon collectibles, but one recent guest on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow knew his Led Zeppelin record was something rare. The 7-inch vinyl single of “Whole Lotta Love” is so rare, in fact, that it shouldn’t exist.Appraiser Marc Allum knew (in his own words), &ldq
  
  Read more

• Fisher-Price Then and Now: 10 Childhood Favorites

  14-10-2026 17:21 via Antique Trader
  
  A colorful assortment of Fisher-Price toys fills this 1969 print advertisement, which celebrates the company’s affordable childhood favorites with the headline “These Fisher-Price toys mean so much… cost so little.” Courtesy of eBay via American_vintage_ads on Pinterest.“Let’s be kids. Play. Laugh. Grow. Fisher-Price Knows.” For parents like me who remember those familiar words, Fisher-Price toys are more than childhood playthings. They’re reminde
  
  Read more

• Collector’s Notebook: Grapes in Bohemian Glass

  13-10-2026 19:37 via Antique Trader
  
  ScreenshotFall is traditionally a time for harvest, and grapes are one of the fruits frequently picked in early October. Since they were cultivated (and used in winemaking) in the Neolithic era, grapes have been granted many symbolic meanings, from power and divinity to life and health, hospitality, sacrifice, celebration, and indulgence. No matter what they might represent, grapes are something good to eat or a source for a tasty drink, so it’s no wonder they often appear in decorative ar
  
  Read more

• Monster Smash

  12-10-2026 22:55 via Antique Trader
  
  Basil Gogos portrayed Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula from the 1931 Universal monster movie classic Dracula in this c. 2003 illustration. The original art sold for $4,320 at auction. Courtesy Heritage AuctionsIn 1958, one thing was abundantly clear: mom and dad hated the magazine. And for good reason. Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine was a parental nightmare, what with its 68 pages of disfigured beasts and bleak black-and-white images of classic horror movies featuring the dying and the undead.
  
  Read more

• America at 250: New York, The Empire State

  09-10-2026 19:32 via Antique Trader
  
  New York has played an extraordinary role in American history, from the battles that helped secure independence to the industries and immigrant communities that transformed the young nation. Its waterways opened routes into the interior, while its cities became centers of commerce and manufacturing that helped drive cultural change. Yet the Empire State’s story begins long before European settlement, with Indigenous nations whose histories and traditions remain essential to New York today.
  
  Read more

• Ah, Teapots! The Remarkable Weinstock Collection Heads to Bonhams

  08-10-2026 19:41 via Antique Trader
  
  “Ah…teapots!”That was pottery dealer Garry Atkins’ reaction when Anna Burnside, Specialist and Head of Sale, British Ceramics and Glass at Bonhams, told him the auction house would be selling the Bennett and Judie Weinstock Collection.We can hardly blame him.Among the treasures assembled by the celebrated Philadelphia interior designers are more than 150 18th-century teapots, including vessels shaped like squirrels, camels, and ripening fruit. Others bear royal portraits
  
  Read more

• Madame Zita Knows Your Future

  07-10-2026 18:38 via Antique Trader
  
  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 Antique Trader
  
  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 Antique Trader
  
  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 Antique Trader
  
  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

• Relics & Roots: Telling Jewish History with Judaica

  06-10-2026 21:46 via Antique Trader
  
  1880 Torah finials from the Surami community on view at Identity, Culture, and Community. Courtesy of The Jewish Museum.How do you tell a community’s story through objects? Particularly one that spans centuries, lands, and languages?An attempt to answer this is found at The Jewish Museum in Manhattan in the permanent exhibition, Identity, Culture, and Community: Stories from the Collection of the Jewish Museum. On view are more than 200 items from the museum’s collection that signify
  
  Read more

• Collector’s Notebook: A Royal Dux Beauty Brings the Seaside Home

  06-10-2026 16:42 via Antique Trader
  
  Image courtesy of Morphy Auctions.When we reach the Autumn Equinox, summer is officially over. That doesn’t mean you have to put sunshine and vacation fun entirely out of your mind. Isn’t that what mementos and souvenirs are for? Take this shell-shaped porcelain vase, which sold for $2,460 in 2023 at Morphy Auctions. Even though it’s not a real shell, it can evoke beach trips and the serenity that comes with them. It was made by Royal Dux, the collector’s nickname for Dux
  
  Read more

• From the Editor: And Then I Was There

  05-10-2026 20:08 via Antique Trader
  
  Skeletal-faced Cihuateteo, deified women who died in childbirth, are among the monumental artifacts in the Mexica Hall of the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, reflecting pre-Columbian beliefs surrounding death, fertility, and cosmic balance. Photo: Kele Johnson.I went to Mexico to visit my sister Tracie and brother-in-law, who have spent the past year on an adventure of their own in Mexico, settling for the last several months in San Miguel de Allende. It didn’t take long fo
  
  Read more

• America at 250: New Mexico, The Land of Enchantment

  02-10-2026 18:17 via Antique Trader
  
  Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness. Erosion has sculpted the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness in northwestern New Mexico into a striking landscape of badlands, hoodoos, and unusual rock formations. The approximately 45,000-acre wilderness preserves fossil-bearing formations dating to the Late Cretaceous. Courtesy of GeologyScience.com.New Mexico’s history spans thousands of years, shaped by people who adapted to one of North America’s most dramatic landscapes and left an extraordinary cultural leg
  
  Read more

• Popcorn Culture

  01-10-2026 22:58 via Antique Trader
  
  The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) popcorn bucket shaped like the head of supervillain Galactus set a record as the largest commercial popcorn container. One sold on eBay for $85. Courtesy ikingjesse on eBayPromotional popcorn containers have been part of movie merchandise for a long time, but they have taken on more elaborate designs in the last few years—and have become a hit with collectors. The most popular pieces are figural, often shaped like a character’s head, an importan
  
  Read more

• First Edition of To Kill A Mockingbird Found in Donation Box

  30-09-2026 16:41 via Antique Trader
  
  You never know what you will find in a box of donations. When staff at the Oxfam bookshop on Portobello Road in London were looking through a box of donated books, a worn copy of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird immediately stood out to Deputy Manager Gurpreet Karlcut. Research by shop manager Olivia Haysman-Walker determined it was a first US edition.In a press release published September 22, Haysman-Walker said, “It could so easily have been missed,” but “We rea
  
  Read more

• A Look Inside the October 2026 Issue of Kovels Antique Trader

  30-09-2026 16:10 via Antique Trader
  
  October has arrived, and the latest issue of Kovels Antique Trader is getting into the spirit of the season with a little “Monster Mash.” From vintage Halloween decorations and classic movie monsters to Oktoberfest celebrations and the traditions of Día de los Muertos, this month’s stories explore the history behind some familiar autumn favorites.Our feature, “Monster Smash,” celebrates the unforgettable artwork of Basil Gogos, whose colorful portraits for Fa
  
  Read more

• Collector’s Notebook: Old-World Style Meets Contemporary Furniture

  29-09-2026 19:24 via Antique Trader
  
  Furniture can take unexpected forms, especially in contemporary design. From the late twentieth century onward, advances in technology created a wealth of new materials and construction techniques for designers to use, while social and cultural changes encouraged experimental approaches with new shapes and styles.Philippe Starck, born in Paris in 1949, is responsible for some of the most famous and creative furniture and industrial designs of the 1980s and 1990s, and he is still working today. O
  
  Read more

Follow @antique_newsloc on Twitter!