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36-D Maine Antique Digest, March 2017
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36-D
Rockford Toews is the proprietor of Back Creek Books, located in the old town
section of Annapolis, Maryland. His booth featured a wide range of books and
associated antiques and ephemera. The titles of the books shown here suggested that
they may have come from Back Creek’s “social consciousness” section. Included are
Thirty Years in the Harem
,
Women under Socialism
,
In the Land of Head Hunters
,
Street Arabs and Gutter Snipes
, and
Indian Hemp / A Social Menace
. Toss in a copy
of H.L. Mencken’s
The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche
, and the not-so-casual
reading list is complete. These volumes shown ranged in price from $100 to $250.
Charles and Phyllis Suhr of Suhrprise
Shop Antiques, Annapolis, are regulars at
the Annapolis show. Here they displayed
a pyramid of cast-iron doorstops. All of
the stops date from the late 19th and early
20th centuries and appear to retain their
original surfaces. The lone non-doorstop is
the sheet steel Scottie dog-form boot scraper
on the bottom shelf. These examples of early
metalware ranged in price from $100 to $250.
John and Elaine Engstrom of Newark, Delaware, call themselves the Old
Packrats. The bicorn hat and its original wooden case were once the property
of Captain O.W. Brinton of Britain’s famed 21st Lancers cavalry. As a second
lieutenant, Brinton served in the Sudan during the Mahdist War at the Battle
of Omdurman. He is mentioned by name in Winston Churchill’s book
The
River War
. Captain Brinton’s bicorn with its engraved box and his epaulettes
in their original box were offered as a group for $1195. The Civil War-era
epaulettes on the second shelf were marked $595.
Other headgear-related items offered by the Old Packrats consisted
of a judge’s metal wig box and stand, $395, and a small beaver or
sealskin top hat in a leather case, $250. The case is inscribed “British
and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.” Over time,
that firm became part of the Cunard Lines. The countertop tobacco
packet display tins are $295 and $395, left to right; and the red-vested
and top-hat-wearing fabric duck toy was marked $55.
Mike Vasilik of Dark Horse Antiques Gallery,
Annapolis, Maryland, specializes in antiques
that are “distinctive” examples of folk art and
Americana. There are few things that are more
distinctively American than weathervanes and trade
signs. The 33" long zinc locomotive weathervane
dates to 1910-20 and was tagged $1500. The 22"
long hollow-body fish-form trade sign is from New
England and dates about ten years earlier. It was
marked $850.
Rudolf Stumpf of Lambertville, New Jersey,
offered this interesting and colorful engraved
plate from William Frederic Martyn’s
A New
Dictionary of Natural History; or, Compleat
Universal Display of Animated Nature. With
Accurate Representations of the Most Curious and
Beautiful Animals
…. This hand-colored engraving
is plate XIV from that set and was published in
London 1785-87. The curious aspect of this leaf
is how the author arrived at the grouping of an
American bison with three varieties of birds of
paradise and a small bittern. A close look reveals
that the bison appears puzzled as well. The leaf
is framed and has some damp staining at the top
margin. It was marked $95.
The name of Beth Poindexter’s business tells it all. The
Greensboro, North Carolina, dealer trades as simply Beth
Poindexter Luxury. Her offerings include high-end fashion
accessories from scarves to handbags to jewelry. Here she offered
a framed scarf by Hermès of Paris. The blue, ivory, and gray
design pays homage to the firm’s roots in saddlery and leather
goods. The scarf is in the Cavalcadour pattern and was priced at
$650. Unframed examples of luxury neckware started at $350.