It’s an extraordinary moment that stamps an exclamation point on hundreds of years of shameful history. Slavery. Jim Crow laws that segregated buses, restaurants and restrooms. Separate-but-not-equal schools. Restricted civil rights and liberties. All of which served to make blacks second-class citizens.

It took decades upon decades of sacrifice and sit-ins, lawsuits and lynchings before President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And one man who championed the movement and gave his life to it was the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Collectibles and memorabilia shed light on an era

Collecting artifacts and memorabilia from the Civil Rights era helps preserve and contextualize both the facts and the emotions of this complicated time. Few commercial dealers have tackled the topic like Syl Turner, owner of the Broad Street Antique Mall in Chamblee, Ga.

Syl Turner

For two decades, Turner has maintained one of the nation’s largest commercial inventories of Black Americana collectibles. Online, Turner also operates the BlackHistoryStore.com and offers items on GoAntiques.

He has several King-related historical items on GoAntiques in the weeks leading up to the MLK holiday.

Interest in Black Americana grows

Turner said interest in King collectibles spikes around the holiday. But King collectibles—and Black Americana generally—have been steadily growing in importance and price. The holiday and the Obama inauguration draw extra attention to what’s available, but it’s a category that has transcended any particular event, he said.

“I see a little spike in activity around the King birthday, but that’s about it,” Turner said. “The additional interest actually continues through February because that’s Black History Month.”

The slain civil-rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate was born Jan. 15, 1929, but a national holiday and day of service honoring him is on the third Monday in January. It was observed for the first time on Jan. 20, 1986. Speaking of the importance of service, Dr. King said, “If you want to be important— wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But, recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of greatness.”

King collectibles are difficult to come by even though he was a prolific writer, Turner said, because his widow, Coretta Scott King, and others “exerted direct control” over most of his documents.

Most King documents in institutions

More than two years after Mrs. King’s death, most of the large collections of King documents and personal effects are in institutional collections.

In 2006, Morehouse College—King’s alma mater—acquired 10,000 items from the King family for an undisclosed sum raised with the help of a private coalition of business and civic leaders. Sotheby’s, which had announced an auction date for the collection, estimated it would command up to $30 million.

The collection includes items ranging from canceled checks, to a term paper King wrote as a student at Morehouse, to a draft of his most famous speech, “I Have a Dream,” delivered at the 1963 March on Washington.

Anti-Vietnam speech outline withdrawn from auction

In December 2008, the King Center in Atlanta prevailed upon Sotheby’s to withdraw from auction three important King documents that singer Harry Belafonte sought to sell. Valued up to $1.3 million, they included an outline of King’s first speech opposing the Vietnam War and notes found in his pocket following his assassination.

“There’s not much out there for the average collector,” Turner said. “A handwritten letter is very difficult to find because most are in the hands of institutions.”

More commonly available are collectibles related to significant events in King’s life and items related to his family. Recently, Turner sold a 12-page program of installation services of King as Pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala., on Oct. 31, 1954. The church was the headquarters of the Montgomery bus boycott that propelled King into the national spotlight. The program was in excellent condition and commanded $3,500.

Turner has acquired several other examples of King-related items, often from parishioners at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta where King was co-pastor with his father.

For example, Turner is offering a rare eight-page Ebenezer Baptist Church bulletin dated June 30, 1974. During that service, King’s mother, Mrs. Alberta King, was shot and killed at the organ console by a deranged gunman as worshippers recited the Lord’s Prayer. Her husband, Martin Luther King Sr., was the pastor. The program has handwritten eyewitness notes of the murder, including the comment, “Worship began on Earth; completed in Heaven.”

Ebenezer Baptist Church program

Inside program

Another collectible related to King’s parents is a 1984 funeral program for Martin Luther King Sr. listed in near-mint condition. “It was in a lady’s Bible and looks like it came right off the press,” Turner said.

MLK Sr.'s funeral program

One of the larger collectibles is a limited-edition poster commemorating King’s life by artist Edie B. Eisenberg. The 40-by-30-inch poster is designed as an American flag and features famous King quotes. It is listed in excellent condition. “I don’t think it was ever circulated,”

Memorial flag poster

Also rare and unusual is a 20-page program for the Coretta Scott King Freedom Concert Program on May 23, 1965. The concert was presented by the Philadelphia Beauticians’ Association at the First African Baptist Church in Philadelphia.

Freedom concert program

Turner isn’t the only GoAntiques dealer with MLK collectibles available this month.

Alan Radwill of Guaranteed Autographs is offering an autographed copy of Dr. King’s 1964 book, “Why We Can’t Wait.” He used a fountain pen with blue ink to sign the title page.

"Why We Can't Wait"

Autographed page

Antique Goodies of New Zealand has a Martin Luther King, Negro Funeral Home advertising fan. Advertising fans were often distributed at funerals as a way to stave off the heat.

Funeral fan

Lake Murray Treasures has a gold-tone, filigree-metal double picture frame. On one side is a photo of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King, on the other Robert Kennedy. Between them is an electric clock.

Clock

If you are interested in viewing Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, click here for a 17-minute video that includes it, or click here for a video with only the speech.

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

Love—and a shared passion for discovering collectibles amid life’s debris—was kindled.

“Most dumps weren’t recycling or compacting back then,” Mike recalled. “I spotted something as we drove by, and said, ‘I hope you don’t mind . . . ’ She spotted things I didn’t even notice.”

She’s a “divvie” spotter

He describes her as a “divvie”—a diviner, just like the nefarious Lovejoy character in the British novels and television series “My wife has a knack for spotting exceptional items right from the back of an auction hall and just say, ‘There’s a good one.’ Next thing, it’s gone through the roof.”

Today, the Wilcoxes live and work in the Toronto suburb of Belleville, Ontario. While Mike Wilcox is the Worthologist with the family history in antiques, Sherry Wilcox is not precisely a prodigy. Her grandfather owned a 2,000-acre farm in north Ontario and filled it with just about any type of parts and pieces that he came across. She learned at his side.

“If Roy didn’t have it, you couldn’t get it. If you needed an airplane propeller, there would be one in the loft,” Mike said. “So it became second nature to Sherry.”

The inspiring Ms. Bernhardt

Today, Mike and Sherry have cultivated a special interest in art-nouveau jewelry, ceramics, glassware and other decorative arts. During a London vacation, they got a nose-to-glass look at the Belle Époque collection of Sarah Bernhardt on exhibit, “and we were kind of hooked right there,” he explained.

But they collect little of it—or anything else—for themselves.

“Things I’d like to keep are out of reach, like Art Deco figurines that were $1,200 in the early ’80s and now are $18,000,” he said. “Every time I move up, they move up.”

Besides, Mike’s background demonstrates that he is too interested in sleuthing out value to be boxed in by any one style or period.

His grandfather started making Art Deco chrome furniture the 1930s. His father branched into antiques repairs in the early 1960s. As the apprentice, Mike cleaned the shop and sharpened tools, eventually selling his own restorations.

And he learned the secrets of the trade. There was an early Victorian ship captain’s lap desk—with the collapsible shot glass and old letters hidden inside.

Or the Queen Anne drop-front desk that had a loose piece of trim on the back. “I turned it and out popped a drawer holding a 1685 coin,” he recalled.

Check for treasures

“You always have to check. Some of them will have 10 or 12 secret compartments, and the owners never knew,” he said. “It’s a big expedition.”

Today, the business is known as Wilcox and Hall Appraisals. No repairs, but Mike and Sherry are listed in 288 categories of collectibles and personal property—all in an effort to keep pace with the region’s changing demographics and customer interests.

In 1997, Mike plunged into online appraisals at appraisers@sympatico.ca and since then has performed thousands. Today, he will provide a nonbinding e-mail appraisal based on digital photographs and other information for $18.95. He also offers online tutorials for general antiques, fine arts/prints and rare books.

For $4.95, his Web site offers instant appraisals and online price lists for items such as Royal Doulton figurines, Royal Doulton Toby Jugs, Royal Copenhagen figurines, Hummels, Precious Moments figurines, Normal Rockwell plates and Singer sewing machines.

Small items hold up in down times

Collecting during a recession might be an extravagance, but Wilcox says figurines and other smaller items always seem to sell.

Like others in the collectibles business, the Wilcoxes watched in astonishment as prices in the fine-art market zoomed higher this year. But they don’t appraise paintings, and Mike’s long and varied background taught him when to expect trouble.

“There’s always a peak in the fine-art market right before a recession,” he said. “And then you see the price of copper dropping. Because it’s such a basic commodity, you know that bad is on its way.”

Any other advice, Mike?

“Auction coffee is always dreadful. Bring a thermos of your own. And always have a raincoat, a folding chair and spare candy bars in the truck. Be prepared for anything.”

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

Those early celebrations followed different calendars and were oriented toward spring-planting rituals.

In the United States, public traditions of parties celebrating midnight on January 1 and parades and football games during the day began at the turn of the 20th century.

Cocktail parties’ countdown to midnight really hit their stride in postwar suburbia with the rise of the American middle class. Kitschy, mass-produced collectibles of the 1950s are widely available and affordable. For a few hundreds dollars, you can start an Atomic Age collection that will make your 2009 New Year’s Eve bash a fun retro classic.

Noisemakers

When the Waterford crystal ball drops begins to drop in Times Square at 11:59 p.m., it’s time to make noise.

Jennifer Edmonson of the online retailer FineLine Antiques is offering a really nice postwar large spinner noisemaker made of tin with a wooden handle. It was made by the Kirchhof Co. of Newark, N.J. It features a 4-inch-wide yellow and red clown face wearing a jaunty bowler hat on a blue background. The disc-shaped body is orange. It is listed in very good condition.

Beau Bergman of Down Under Antiques in Hastings, Neb., has an array of clappers and bell rattlers from the 1950s. Styles include a campy “Mexican” party theme with a suave hombre wearing a blue straw sombrero and shaking maracas. Brands include Kirchhof, U.S. Metal Toy Co., Johnson & Johnson and Dermicel Marque.

David Weller of Holly Hill Farms Antiques in Gloucester, Va., has two collections of vintage noisemakers for sale. The first includes three can shakers, three disc-shaped twisters, two rectangular grinders, a circus horn and three others.

The second collection contains eight noisemakers. The most intriguing might be the 1930s-era toy frying pan decorated with a clown.

Music

It’s not a retro New Year’s Eve without “Auld Lang Syne”—and Guy Lombardo.

It’s an international tradition. The lyrics were written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in the 1700s. It literally means “old long ago” or simply, “the good old days.”

The song was popularized by the Canadian-born band leader of Italian descent who broadcasted on radio and television. Lombardo hosted 48 consecutive New Year’s Eve programs from New York’s Roosevelt Hotel and later the Waldorf-Astoria with swells dancing cheek to jowl in tuxedos and funny hats.

James Roth of Quakertown Heirlooms in Quakertown, Pa., is offering a copy of Lombardo’s 1973 album, “New Year’s Eve with Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians.” He lists the vinyl in clean condition with the album cover in good condition. Guy is famously posed with balloons and a noisemaker.

Cocktails

The 1950s was the Golden Age of the Cocktail—especially the martini. Vintage barware will set the right party mood down in the rec room.

For a classier soiree, upgrade your barware collection with crystal. Douglas C. Gaddis of the Maryland-based online retailer, Kensington House Antiques, is selling a midcentury cut-crystal and silver-plate cocktail shaker by the Wurttembergishe Metalwarrenfabrik (”WMF”), Germany’s leading luxury-goods producer.

Dealer Betty Silon of Nostalgia Antiques & Collectibles in the AAA Antiques Mall in Laurel, Md., lists a pair of heavy glass cocktail shakers with metal tops. One is yellow. The other has a musical-themed design. Silon says the shakers were . . . frequently used.

The biggest New Year’s Eve tradition is having fun. If you want to be the life of your own retro party, slip a floating eyeball into your date’s highball! Dealer Laura Trueman of the online retailer, Rene Vintage Treasures, has this plastic gag gift in its illustrated box. Here’s looking at you, kid!

Clothing

Sandra King of Sandy’s Fancy Pants Antiques and Collectibles is showing a vintage chiffon dress in a color that is something between salmon and hot pink. The label says size 7, but vintage sizes run smaller than today’s, and Sandy thinks it will fit a petite 4-6.

Dealer Jennifer Edmonson of FineLine Antiques has a dress she says “screams of I Love Lucy!” This vintage circa 1950s shirtwaist dress by Neusteters Sports Shop has monograms on each pocket and a swishy flared skirt. Edmonson doesn’t list a specific size but provides several measurements.

Décor . . .

A few classic pieces will give your party that authentic 1950s flair.

If you’re watching the Times Square revelry in high-def on a LCD flat screen, online dealer Sheila Tuffarelli suggests displaying a vintage rabbit-ears antenna. The rabbit-ears antenna boosted weak network signals into middle-class living rooms. This classic antenna is made of metal and Bakelite. Tuffarelli says the connector wire is frayed, the base of the antenna is off, but six numbers on the front dial are readable.

Better reception the old-fashioned way

Happy New Year from everyone at WorthPoint, where you get the most from your antiques and collectibles.

Perhaps the most widely available Thanksgiving collectible is the vintage postcard. One hundred-year-old cards commemorating the holiday are widely available from online sources for as little as $3 apiece, and are ideal for scrapbooking and other family activities. They are especially interesting now because, unlike Christmas, people rarely send Thanksgiving greetings anymore.

Collecting for 56 years

One of the nation’s largest dealers in vintage postcards—including collectible Thanksgiving cards—is Joe Paolillo. He is a third-generation collectibles dealer who ran the Georgetown Flea Market in Washington, D.C., for 14 years and has been buying postcards and other collectibles since he was 12 years old. Now 68, he operates an online collectibles dealership based in Maryland with his wife, Rita, called R&J Silver and Such. They list their inventory on GoAntiques.

Paolillo maintains a personal collection of 6,000 vintage postcards and offers another 12,000 for sale. Fewer than 100 on GoAntiques feature a Thanksgiving theme. “It’s not a big card day now, but it used to be,” Paolillo said. “Because it was one of the first American holidays, the cards have patriotic themes. Uncle Sam shows up on a lot of the cards, and they have red, white and blue bunting.”

One of Paolillo’s favorites is titled “Our National Birds”. It features illustrations of the American bald eagle and the wild American turkey.

The turkey is the mainstay of the Thanksgiving menu, but few people realize that Benjamin Franklin unsuccessfully proposed it as the national bird instead of the bald eagle.

The card’s inscription is a priceless example of vintage verse. “May one give us peace for all our states; the other a piece for all our plates.”

The postcard was patented in 1861—just two years before President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving to be the fourth Thursday in November.

Popularity of postcards soars with introduction of divided backs

Postcards became wildly popular after 1907 when the “divided back” card, with space for a message on the address side, came into use. The Post Office Department (which became the U.S. Postal Service in 1971) began permitting correspondents to write on the address side of the card in 1908, and in that year alone, more than 677 million postcards were mailed—more than seven postcards per year for every man, woman and child in the country.

Postcard prices tend to be low because they were mass-produced and remain widely available. Until the outbreak of World War I, the best postcards featuring fine-art illustrations were printed in Germany—even those with American themes and English-language messages.

Today, prices for Thanksgiving and other vintage postcards are determined by condition. Stains, creases and wear marks reduce a postcard’s value. For his personal collection, Paolillo prefers pristine cards that were never stamped or mailed. He especially favors cards by some of the genre’s most famous illustrators, including Ellen Clapsaddle (1865-1934) and Frances Brundage (1854-1937).

Exceptional and hard-to-find cards may cost as much as $100—still a bargain compared to many categories of collectibles. These typically feature the work of important artists or have themes such as black Americana and vintage patriotism that may appear out of step—or even insulting—according to today’s sensibilities, but are topics of wider collecting interests.

But for most people, part of the charm and historical fascination of postcards is how they were used —the stamp, postmark, sentiments expressed by the sender and the identity of the recipient. It’s a glimpse into the lives of people who would otherwise be forgotten today and examples of how family and friends stayed connected in a slower world long before e-mail and barely with telephone service.

Another one of Paolillo’s Thanksgiving postcards is Thanksgiving Series Number 930 by Julius Bien & Co., N.Y. The 1908 card features two giggling white children trying to eat the same piece of turkey under the smiling gaze of a black domestic servant. It was mailed November 14, 1910, to Lake Mills, Wis.

In addition to Paolillo’s collection, vintage Thanksgiving postcards from several dealers are available on GoAntiques.

John and Pamela Grabianowski of Ohio-based Great Expectations Antiques are offering a lot of 19 vintage colorful postcards, with all but two in excellent or very good condition. The cards include one undivided unused; five divided unused; two divided signed not sent; two divided mailed, no stamp; and nine divided mailed with stamps. Circa 1908-1911.

In Montgomery, Ala., dealer Linda Rosenzweig of Mama’s Treasures is offering three dozen vintage Thanksgiving postcards. One of the most interesting in her inventory is a card featuring a turkey and a Thanksgiving proclamation that bears a 1-cent stamp and a 1909 postmark from Tacoma, Wash. It is addressed to Mr. Robert Hoppe of Sagle, Idaho—no street address required, apparently, for this small lakeshore town near the Canadian border.

The proclamation Thanksgiving card

Another colorful vintage postcard offered by Rosenzweig features a girl in a yellow dress fending off a turkey with a bright red umbrella.

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

Perhaps the most widely available Thanksgiving collectible is the vintage postcard. One hundred-year-old cards commemorating the holiday are widely available from online sources for as little as $3 apiece, and are ideal for scrapbooking and other family activities. They are especially interesting now because, unlike Christmas, people rarely send Thanksgiving greetings anymore.

Collecting for 56 years

One of the nation’s largest dealers in vintage postcards—including collectible Thanksgiving cards—is Joe Paolillo. He is a third-generation collectibles dealer who ran the Georgetown Flea Market in Washington, D.C., for 14 years and has been buying postcards and other collectibles since he was 12 years old. Now 68, he operates an online collectibles dealership based in Maryland with his wife, Rita, called R&J Silver and Such. They list their inventory on GoAntiques.

Paolillo maintains a personal collection of 6,000 vintage postcards and offers another 12,000 for sale. Fewer than 100 on GoAntiques feature a Thanksgiving theme. “It’s not a big card day now, but it used to be,” Paolillo said. “Because it was one of the first American holidays, the cards have patriotic themes. Uncle Sam shows up on a lot of the cards, and they have red, white and blue bunting.”

One of Paolillo’s favorites is titled “Our National Birds”. It features illustrations of the American bald eagle and the wild American turkey.

The turkey is the mainstay of the Thanksgiving menu, but few people realize that Benjamin Franklin unsuccessfully proposed it as the national bird instead of the bald eagle.

The card’s inscription is a priceless example of vintage verse. “May one give us peace for all our states; the other a piece for all our plates.”

The postcard was patented in 1861—just two years before President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving to be the fourth Thursday in November.

Popularity of postcards soars with introduction of divided backs

Postcards became wildly popular after 1907 when the “divided back” card, with space for a message on the address side, came into use. The Post Office Department (which became the U.S. Postal Service in 1971) began permitting correspondents to write on the address side of the card in 1908 and in that year alone, more than 677 million postcards were mailed—more than seven postcards per year for every man, woman and child in the country.

Postcard prices tend to be low because they were mass-produced and remain widely available. Until the outbreak of World War I, the best postcards featuring fine-art illustrations were printed in Germany—even those with American themes and English-language messages.

Today, prices for Thanksgiving and other vintage postcards are determined by condition. Stains, creases and wear marks reduce a postcard’s value. For his personal collection, Paolillo prefers pristine cards that were never stamped or mailed. He especially favors cards by some of the genre’s most famous illustrators, including Ellen Clapsaddle (1865-1934) and Frances Brundage (1854-1937).

Exceptional and hard-to-find cards may cost as much as $100—still a bargain compared to many categories of collectibles. These typically feature the work of important artists or have themes such as black Americana and vintage patriotism that may appear out of step—or even insulting—according to today’s sensibilities, but are topics of wider collecting interests.

But for most people, part of the charm and historical fascination of postcards is how they were used —the stamp, postmark, sentiments expressed by the sender and the identity of the recipient. It’s a glimpse into lives of people who would otherwise be forgotten today and examples of how family and friends stayed connected in a slower world long before e-mail and barely with telephone service.

Another one of Paolillo’s Thanksgiving postcards is Thanksgiving Series Number 930 by Julius Bien & Co., N.Y. The 1908 card features two giggling white children trying to eat the same piece of turkey under the smiling gaze of a black domestic servant. It was mailed November 14, 1910, to Lake Mills, Wis.

In addition to Paolillo’s collection, vintage Thanksgiving postcards from several dealers are available on GoAntiques.

John and Pamela Grabianowski of Ohio-based Great Expectations Antiques are offering a lot of 19 vintage colorful postcards, with all but two in excellent or very good condition. The cards include one undivided unused; five divided unused; two divided signed not sent; two divided mailed, no stamp; and nine divided mailed with stamps. Circa 1908-1911.

In Montgomery, Ala., dealer Linda Rosenzweig of Mama’s Treasures is offering three dozen vintage Thanksgiving postcards. One of the most interesting in her inventory is a card featuring a turkey and a Thanksgiving proclamation that bears a 1-cent stamp and a1909 postmark from Tacoma, Wash. It is addressed to Mr. Robert Hoppe of Sagle, Idaho—no street address required, apparently, for this small lakeshore town near the Canadian border.

The proclamation Thanksgiving card

Another colorful vintage postcard offered by Rosenzweig features a girl in a yellow dress fending off a turkey with a bright red umbrella.

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

The rule in Martin Howard’s house is that he must keep his antique typewriters in his office—the environment for which they were designed and where they belong.

But on the road? Howard’s wife didn’t expect that she would share her honeymoon with a century-old classic—a Williams 2. He found it at a flea market in New York City, and well . . . he just had to buy it.

“OK,” she sighed, “but we aren’t going back to the hotel.”

“It may have been the first time that a 100-year-old typewriter has visited the top of the Empire State Building,” Howard recalled. “My arms were quite stiff after having waited in line for two hours carrying a 25-pound machine.”

Howard, 49, was born in England and now lives with his wife and daughter in Toronto. He started collecting the world’s first typewriters in 1989 when he spied an 1882 Caligraph 2 on a dusty junk-shop shelf. He purchased it for $100.

There are more than 100 serious typewriter collectors in North America and Europe. Howard has dozens of the rarest and earliest typing machines, 20 of which have been exhibited by the Royal Ontario Museum and other galleries. He also maintains one of the most extensive Web sites on the subject, Antique Typewriters.

Howard didn’t set out looking specifically for typewriters. He wanted a category of 19th-century machinery that would complement his father’s interest in collecting antique mechanical objects such as butter churns, seeders and medical tools, as well as the restored carriages and sleighs that dotted their yard.

Once he spotted the Caligraph 2, he knew he had found his niche.

Now his appreciation for their mechanical artistry and ingenuity deepens as e-mailing, texting and networking expands.

American Typewriter Co., New York 1893: This example was sold by the Lyon Manufacturing Co. of Toronto. It typed from a rubber strip mounted onto the swinging sector. Inking was by two small felt rollers. This typewriter originally sold for $5.

Howard also restores antique typewriters. He has spent hundreds of hours working on a single machine, dismantling every part to remove dirt, old oil and rust.

“It takes a lot of patience,” he said, “but the pleasures of exploring the mechanisms of a hundred-year-old typewriter, and the end result — a beautiful, smoothly operating artifact — is well worth it.”

The Blickensderfer Mfg. Co. Stamford, Conn., 1893, Serial #35484. This example was sold by the Creelman Bros. Typewriter Co., Georgetown, Ontario, one of the first typewriter shops in Canada. The cylindrical type element was interchangeable, allowing for numerous font styles. Foreign language alphabets were available. Inking is done by a small roller on a spring-loaded arm positioned under the cylindrical type wheel. This typewriter sold for $40.

There were more than 300 designs that reflected experimentation by gunsmiths, watchmakers and sewing-machine engineers. Designs and nameplates were coming and going in a matter of a couple of years or even months.

Long-forgotten brands include Crandall, Densmore and Odell. Many used keyboards, but others employed an index wheel, a dial similar to a telephone and even a handle that “cut” letters.

The modern QWERTY keyboard (so named because of the position of the first six letters along the top left of the keyboard) actually appeared on the first typewriter produced by Remington in 1874. Letters were not placed alphabetically in an effort to keep adjacent type bars from hitting each other while typing.

Odell Typewriter Co., Chicago, 1890. This machine is nickel plated and has a beautiful Art Nouveau style. To type, one moves the handle (currently pointing to the letter O) to the desired character and pushes down. The carriage moves perpendicular to the handle movement. Model 2 types in both capitals and small letters. (The shift button is currently just below the letter E.) This typewriter became very popular due to its beauty and great price. Models one through five were manufactured. By around 1906, all production had ceased for the Odell. This typewriter originally sold for $20.

Howard believes their value and fascination persists because the QWERTY keyboard provides all of us with a tangible link to typewriters of the past.

“Fundamentally, the process of using our hands to pass our thoughts from our minds to the outside world has not changed,” Howard says. “If our hands are no longer used to create the written word on a machine, typewriters will lose their connection with people and become a curiosity, like so many other old objects.”

Some of Howard’s most important typewriters include:

• Hall—First index typewriter (no keyboard), the world’s first portable, 1881
• Hammonia—First European typewriter, Hamburg, Germany, 1884
• Columbia—The first “diamond” in his collection and one of the few early typewriters to use proportional spacing, 1884
• Crandall—First typewriter with a single-type element, 1886
• Victor—First typewriter to use a “Daisy Wheel,” 1889

Crandall, New Model

Crandall Machine Co., Croton, N.Y. 1886, Serial #6059. The Crandall was the first typewriter to print from a single element or “type sleeve,” well before IBM’s “Golf ball.” This type sleeve is a cylinder, about the size of your finger, that rotates and rises up one or two positions before striking the roller, achieving 84 characters with only 28 keys. The machine has a wonderful Victorian design and is decorated with hand-painted roses, accented with inlaid mother-of-pearl. This typewriter sold for $50 to $75. There’s a closeup of the flowers on the right.

WorthPoint—Get the Most from Your Antiques & Collectibles

On Tuesday, Steve Cannaby’s careful re-creation of Air Force One was just a short taxiway from the gates of Denver’s INVESCO Field at Mike High where Barack Obama will accept the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. But like many journeys, there were a few unexpected twists and turns at the end.

The full-scale Air Force One replica is part of the American Presidential Experience, the largest traveling exhibit of presidential memorabilia. The exhibit will be at INVESCO Field from August 22 through August 29. WorthPoint is a sponsor of the event.

Visitors to the exhibit also can bring campaign buttons and other political collectibles to be evaluated by Worthologists Thom Pattie, Tom Carrier, Jim Warlick and Christopher Kent and even sell their collections in daily auctions.

But first, Cannaby had to get his airplane in place. He and his driver, Donald Snare, jumped out to assess the obvious problem. After cruising 540 miles of prairie, when they arrived at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, the long truck loaded with half of a commercial airplane could not negotiate three tight corners into the stadium’s Parking Lot D.

It didn’t help that the twisty access ramp was landscaped with several trees. Stadium crews also left an obstacle course of a forklift, mobile generator and hydraulic lift in their only path.

Oh, and then there were the half-dozen television networks and papers, such as The Denver Post, there to record the aircraft’s arrival under a broiling August sun.

But no pressure . . .

Cannaby and Snare rummaged in their truck and did a quick reconnaissance of the neighborhood. Within minutes, they had scavenged an assortment of lumber scraps and assembled a trio of small ramps over traffic islands and concrete curbs. Snare revved his diesel and rocked the flatbed back and forth. Soon he had executed an effective—if not exactly textbook—25-point turn into the parking lot that is designed to handle the vehicles of 76,125 Broncos fans who cram the stadium.

But, apparently, not a jetliner.

The replica of Air Force One after it arrived Tuesday at Denver’s INVESCO Field’s Parking Lot D.

It was a sweaty conclusion to an otherwise agreeable ride across the Great Plains. Cannaby loves seeing the faces of other drivers when they glance over and realize they are passing something that looks like . . . but can’t be . . . but must be . . . a famous aircraft like Air Force One.

And then, they wonder, “Why is it on a truck? And, why is it cut in half?”

“They’re stunned. They just do a double take,” Cannaby said.

“You can see families in their cars. Everybody looks. Somebody dives into the backseat, and things start flying. You know they are trying to find their camera.”

Cannaby is president of Nu-Tek, which repairs gyros and other aircraft instruments. But he also creates aircraft replicas and simulators as a commercial hobby. His firm completed the Air Force One replica in a month.

The Denver journey started from his factory in Augusta, Kan., a rural town east of Wichita. On Sunday, Cannaby hosted a party themed like a state dinner at the White House for his friends and supporters. They didn’t leave until 11:30 am on Monday. The truck followed Interstate 35 north to Salina, Kan., where it turned west on I-70 toward Denver. Their route was limited to just a few miles of local streets in Denver because the oversized load straddles two lanes.

The convoy rolled at speeds up to 65 mph. But they stopped frequently for promotional events, video opportunities and rest stops.

In Salina, the local chamber of commerce held a reception to mark the aircraft’s passage. They parked at the local Wal-Mart where a gawker caused a fender-bender accident.

“The guy kept looking back at the airplane,” Cannaby said. “It was like bumper cars.”

Steve Cannaby, president of Nu-Tek, speaks to the media at Denver’s INVESCO Field moments after his replica of Air Force One arrived by truck from his factory in Augusta, Kan.

The aircraft simulates the Boeing 707 that was used as Air Force One starting with Richard Nixon. George W. Bush was the last president to ride on it as it was flown to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California to be decommissioned.

In reality, it is a Boeing 727 that was used by the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign. Cannaby said the aircraft has the same interior dimensions and cockpit features as a 707, so the replica is accurate.

The aircraft was in service until May as a charter jet for the Los Angeles Lakers and other NBA teams. Cannaby acquired it, sliced it just in front of the wingspan and gutted the interior. With the help of curators at the Reagan Library, his team re-created interior elements of Air Force One, including the cockpit, staterooms and communications center.

Besides the aircraft, the American Presidential Experience is displaying one of 25 original copies of the Declaration of Independence, Harry Truman’s Lincoln limousine, a full-sized replica of the Oval Office and a variety of memorabilia ranging from shoes, chairs and other personal effects of several presidents, including those of Jefferson, Lincoln and Wilson.

WorthPoint CEO and founder, Will Seippel, will join the Worthologists at the event.

Please visit our American Presidential Experience special feature page for more information and stories about this exciting event.

Joe Verrengia is a WorthPoint writer writer who lives in Denver.

On Tuesday, Steve Cannaby’s careful re-creation of Air Force One was just a short taxiway from the gates of Denver’s INVESCO Field at Mike High where Barack Obama will accept the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. But like many journeys, there were a few unexpected twists and turns at the end.

The full-scale Air Force One replica is part of the American Presidential Experience, the largest traveling exhibit of presidential memorabilia. The exhibit will be at INVESCO Field from August 22 through August 29. WorthPoint is a sponsor of the event.

Visitors to the exhibit also can bring campaign buttons and other political collectibles to be evaluated by Worthologists Thom Pattie, Tom Carrier, Jim Warlick and Christopher Kent and even sell their collections in daily auctions.

But first, Cannaby had to get his airplane in place. He and his driver, Donald Snare, jumped out to assess the obvious problem. After cruising 540 miles of prairie, when they arrived at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, the long truck loaded with half of a commercial airplane could not negotiate three tight corners into the stadium’s Parking Lot D.

It didn’t help that the twisty access ramp was landscaped with several trees. Stadium crews also left an obstacle course of a forklift, mobile generator and hydraulic lift in their only path.

Oh, and then there were the half-dozen television networks and papers, such as The Denver Post, there to record the aircraft’s arrival under a broiling August sun.

But no pressure . . .

Cannaby and Snare rummaged in their truck and did a quick reconnaissance of the neighborhood. Within minutes, they had scavenged an assortment of lumber scraps and assembled a trio of small ramps over traffic islands and concrete curbs. Snare revved his diesel and rocked the flatbed back and forth. Soon he had executed an effective—if not exactly textbook—25-point turn into the parking lot that is designed to handle the vehicles of 76,125 Broncos fans who cram the stadium.

But, apparently, not a jetliner.

The replica of Air Force One after it arrived Tuesday at Denver’s INVESCO Field’s Parking Lot D.

It was a sweaty conclusion to an otherwise agreeable ride across the Great Plains. Cannaby loves seeing the faces of other drivers when they glance over and realize they are passing something that looks like . . . but can’t be . . . but must be . . . a famous aircraft like Air Force One.

And then, they wonder, “Why is it on a truck? And, why is it cut in half?”

“They’re stunned. They just do a double take,” Cannaby said.

“You can see families in their cars. Everybody looks. Somebody dives into the backseat, and things start flying. You know they are trying to find their camera.”

Cannaby is president of Nu-Tek, which repairs gyros and other aircraft instruments. But he also creates aircraft replicas and simulators as a commercial hobby. His firm completed the Air Force One replica in a month.

The Denver journey started from his factory in Augusta, Kan., a rural town east of Wichita. On Sunday, Cannaby hosted a party themed like a state dinner at the White House for his friends and supporters. They didn’t leave until 11:30 am on Monday. The truck followed Interstate 35 north to Salina, Kan., where it turned west on I-70 toward Denver. Their route was limited to just a few miles of local streets in Denver because the oversized load straddles two lanes.

The convoy rolled at speeds up to 65 mph. But they stopped frequently for promotional events, video opportunities and rest stops.

In Salina, the local chamber of commerce held a reception to mark the aircraft’s passage. They parked at the local Wal-Mart where a gawker caused a fender-bender accident.

“The guy kept looking back at the airplane,” Cannaby said. “It was like bumper cars.”

Steve Cannaby, president of Nu-Tek, speaks to the media at Denver’s INVESCO Field moments after his replica of Air Force One arrived by truck from his factory in Augusta, Kan.

The aircraft simulates the Boeing 707 that was used as Air Force One starting with Richard Nixon. George W. Bush was the last president to ride on it as it was flown to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California to be decommissioned.

In reality, it is a Boeing 727 that was used by the 2004 Kerry-Edwards campaign. Cannaby said the aircraft has the same interior dimensions and cockpit features as a 707, so the replica is accurate.

The aircraft was in service until May as a charter jet for the Los Angeles Lakers and other NBA teams. Cannaby acquired it, sliced it just in front of the wingspan and gutted the interior. With the help of curators at the Reagan Library, his team re-created interior elements of Air Force One, including the cockpit, staterooms and communications center.

Besides the aircraft, the American Presidential Experience is displaying one of 25 original copies of the Declaration of Independence, Harry Truman’s Lincoln limousine, a full-sized replica of the Oval Office and a variety of memorabilia ranging from shoes, chairs and other personal effects of several presidents, including those of Jefferson, Lincoln and Wilson.

WorthPoint CEO and founder, Will Seippel, will join the Worthologists at the event.

Please visit our American Presidential Experience special feature page for more information and stories about this exciting event.

Joe Verrengia is a WorthPoint writer writer who lives in Denver.

A painting stored in the closet of a Boulder home and brokered by WorthPoint has sold at Sotheby’s prestigious spring sale of Impressionist and Modern Art for nearly 50 percent above its low estimate.

The painting, “Coin De Paris, Rue de Meaux,” by Takanori Oguiss sold in the second day of the two-day auction for $103,000. Its pre-sale estimate was $70,000-$90,000.

Tammy Bullock, the painting’s owner, had a hunch the painting might be valuable. She almost threw it out twice, but she kept it in the back of a closet while she tried unsuccessfully to research its value.

Last December Tammy turned to WorthPoint for help. She asked a free question about her painting on the WorthPoint web site. Worthologist Thom Pattie quickly recognized the artist and arranged a deal with Sotheby’s to include it in the spring sale.

Pattie, who guided Tammy through the process, said he is thrilled with the auction’s results. “I enjoy using my expertise to help people,” Pattie said. “Many people don’t know what treasures they have in their own home, and even if they do, they aren’t familiar with the selling process. That’s what Tammy needed and that’s how we were able to help.”

Tammy is still trying to keep her excitement in check, but now that the auction is over, she is allowing herself to think about what she’ll do with the money. She plans to spend part of it on special contact lenses that her son needs and some of it on her children’s education.

Overall, Sotheby’s spring sale realized a total of $233.3 million, meeting pre-sale estimates. The average lot value was $5.7 million, up from $3.5 million six months ago. Sotheby’s officials attributed the strong results to global economic strength, particularly in the oil industry, and a slice of super-rich collectors in the Middle East, China and Russia. Yet nearly 70 percent of the bidders in New York were American clients, they said.

Spring auctions by the major houses through early June will offer art valued at a total of more than $1 billion, reflecting the continuing art boom. Yet there are unsettling trends. Sotheby’s stock price is roughly half what it was last October and it is giving buyers more time to pay for their successful bids.

In the May 7-8 sale, the superstar works were Ferdinand Leger’s Cubist masterpiece “Study of a Woman in Blue, which had never been offered at public auction. It sold for $39.2 million, a record for the 20th-century French artist. The painting’s pre-auction estimate was $35 million to $45 million. The abstract geometric painting shows a woman in a blue dress seated at a table with her hands in her lap.

Edvard Munch’s 1902 “Girls on a Bridge” was auctioned for $30.8 million, nearly $3 million above its pre-sale estimate and also an artist record.

The buyers for both works went unnamed by Sotheby’s.

The Oguiss work was sold on the auction’s second day, which is devoted to larger lots of smaller works. Still, the auction’s second day contained works by many important artists, including Picasso, Leger, Degas, Chagall and Miro.

By comparison, Oguiss may not be such a household name, but he is known to fine art experts.

The Japanese painter moved to Paris as a young man in the 1920s. His oil paintings of deserted street scenes in his adopted city have a quiet, austere simplicity. His works rely on energetic brush strokes and thick textures to keep the buildings from appearing dull. He left people out of his paintings, preferring their absence as part of the aesthetic appeal of his work.

WorthPoint’s video “Tammy Saves $90,000 Painting from the Trash”

Denver Television Station’s Report KUSA-TV (9News)

WorthPoint’s CEO Will Seippel’s article “Where Do I Sell My Item”

At WorthPoint, we call Dan Borsey “The Traveling Man” because he’s on the road more than he is anywhere else. Dan and the new WorthPoint van will be traveling to antique shows up and down the East Coast until November, beginning with the Brimfield Antiques Festival in Massachusetts.

Dan started collecting baseball cards when he was five. He enjoys spending his free time at antique shows and flea markets. Now he gets paid to do what he’s been doing every weekend for the past decade.

“Sometimes I really do pinch myself,” he said. “I’ve got the best job in the company – just don’t tell the boss. The hardest thing I do is pack up the big 42″ wide-screen TV (for presentations) by myself. But most of the time I’m just talking to people about what I love.”

For WorthPoint, Dan and his van offer an opportunity to keep our WorthPoint ear to the ground and to learn what collectors, buyers, sellers and dealers want from us. Fortunately, for WorthPoint, Dan doesn’t just like to talk about antiques – he likes to listen.

“I’m learning a lot. After all these people know their business. So it’s a fair exchange,” Dan said. “A dealer might show me a couple of special error coins, and I can show him how to use the WorthPoint site to increase his business.

“I show people how easy it is to post items, photos and blogs on the site,” he said. “I also have about 40 WorthPoint videos that we’ve produced on subjects as varied as the lady who saved a painting from the dumpster and sold it for $103,000, to a video about a civil war gun.”

“It’s never boring,” he smiled.

You can find Dan and the WorthPoint van at the following events.

MAY
5/13-5/18: Brimfield Antiques Festival, Brimfield MA
Click here for Brimfield information

5/23-5/25: DC Big Flea Market Virginia Beach VA
Click here for Big Flea Market information

JUNE
6/5-6/7: Whitman Coin & Currency Show, Baltimore MD
Click here for Whitman information

JULY
7/14-7/19: Brimfield Antiques Festival, Brimfield MA
Click here for Brimfield information

7/26-7/27: Pittsburgh Toy & Comic Show, Pittsburgh, PA
Click here for Pittsburgh Toy & Comic information

AUGUST
8/2-8/3: DC Big Flea, Richmond VA
Click here for Big Flea Market information

8/6-8/7: Mid-Week Manchester Antiques Festival, Manchester NH
Click here for Manchester festival information

8/8-8/10: Maine Antiques Festival, Union ME
Click here for Maine Antiques Festival information

8/21-8/23: Whitman Coin & Currency Show, Atlanta GA
Click here for Whitman information

8/28-8/31: Baltimore Antiques Show, Baltimore MD
Click here for Baltimore Antiques information

SEPTEMBER
9/8-9/13: Brimfield Antiques Festival, Brimfield MA
Click here for Brimfield information

9/20-9/21: Fall Hartford Antiques Show, Hartford CT
Click here for Hartford antiques information

9/20-9/27: Antiques & Collector’s Extravaganza, Kutztown, PA
Click here for Kutztown Extravaganza information

OCTOBER
10/4-10/5: Champlain Valley Antiques Festival, Essex Junction VT
Click here for Champlain Valley information

10/18-10/19: DC Big Flea, Richmond VA
Click here for Big Flea information

10/30-11/1: Tailgate Antique Show, Nashville TN
Click here for Nashville Tailgate information

NOVEMBER
11/14-11/16: DC Big Flea, Virginia Beach VA
Click here for Big Flea information