A Great Discovery at Bonhams

Saturday, May18, 2013

A Great Discovery at Bonhams

   When I get up every morning, I like to go on the Net and read the newspapers. I usually read The New York Times, Washington Post, The Globe and Mail (Canada)  The National Post (Canada) ,  and The BBC, to name a few.  So when I visited The Globe and Mail , I was surprised to see an article about models*. I placed the asterisk (*)  there, because I had mistakenly called those soldiers "toys", when they were in fact models! 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/success-stories/consultants-toy-soldier-collection-is-serious-business/article11969645/

(Please click on the above link to be redirected to the article)

   I immediately sent Mr. James Opie , the specialist on Toy soldiers at Bonhams, the link. I had made contact with James close to a year ago, when I wanted to expand my blog articles,and James helped me out. I wrote an article about the fine toy soldiers that Bonham's often has up at auction.  At the time though, I  was so busy writing articles, as I still am (usually 1 a day), that I did not notice a great feature that Bonham's has. This great feature is the ability to magnify their images to see detail. When I discovered this feature, I was in total amazement. The reason is that I like to see detail, and being able to see detail in toys is great, especially if you're a bidder.

   With today's global economy, even antiques have gone global. No longer are people limited to bidding on articles in their country. Now they can bid internationally. Of course, you've seen in movies how collectors have bid on $100,000,000 paintings by the French Masters. Auction house employees are photographed holding phones as the bidders in other parts of the world are busy instructing the to bid higher. But today, anyone can bid anywhere around the world on items up at auction. And that's the marvel of the Net and the adaptation of fine auction houses such as Bonham's.

    Of course, I'll now return to James Opie's realm of fine antique toy soliders and check out the fine detail on selective items, and for sure, I'll post again. As for today's post, I decided to select finely-crafted model trains.  I asked James to ask the specialist on trains (toys), if I might use Bonham's fine train items for today's post. James got back to me, and said that Mr. Leigh Gotch had given me the "go-ahead". I immediately wrote back to thank him.

     I had wanted to use an outstanding antique doll from another auction for purposes of illustrating the value of the magnification feature on Bonham's website, but I will need to ask the person in charge of these fine items. The doll would have been my intro photo to illustrate the magnification feature and it's importance to seeing detail f articles up for bid.

However, I've included the link below.The item in question is Lot # 477- "An Important George II wooden doll, English, circa 1750." When you magnify that particular item , you will see "detail" as you've never seen before on an item.  I won't say any more than that, to allow you to discover this for yourself!

Please Click on this sentence to be redirected to Bonham's fine website and trains

Click to be redirected to the Unique King George Doll

 When you click on any image at Bonham's, the image will magnify, and you will arrive at the window above. When you then click on the + or - symbols, you will correspondingly see an enlarged or reduced image.

***When you apply the magnification feature, you will need to wait a few seconds for the image to reformat too the larger dimensions.

* All of the image presented today, are large-sized, however, I couldn't fit them into the blog space. 

So if you double-click on any of the images today, you will get a large image. 

This will allow you to see the fine detail!

I included an example of the written description of the model  train below.

I don't know much about model or toy trains, but the written description certainly would be of benefit for anyone potential bidder who knows his/her train models!

Above is a trio of 3 images in succession of enlargement size. This will give you an example of the importance of the magnification feature at Bonhams website.

    In closing, I would be amiss, if I did not comment on the outstanding photography at Bonham's, especially for the train models presented today.  The images would seem to be "easy" to photograph, but I know from personal experience as a photographer that  expertise went into taking these photos by highly-qualified pros.  

   You  need to know your lighting, and be able to both capture the highlights (bright areas), as well as the shadow (dark areas).  Then there is the question of focus - not the easiest to do when the subject is close up, and at a diagonal. Lastly, there is the question of dust.  Setting up any of the above images requires skill, and by the time you are ready to take the photo, some dust will have fallen on the items. Even beforehand, I'm sure there was some dust, so the items had to be carefully handled, cleaned, and dust blown off. And of course, these items would pick up fingerprints, so cotton gloves had to be used.

  When you visit sites like Bonhams, even  as myself when I am not buying anything, you appreciate what  these excellent and wonderful companies offer not just to potential buyers, but to anyone interested in learning about a topic. And Bonham's certainly has a library of topics!

It doesn't get any better than that!

Thanks for dropping by, and please go to the links to see the magnifications fo the train images. The';re better than I could present, since I had to resize them.

And as always, 

have a great weekend,

wherever you may be,

Stacey

Liveauctioneers and Skinner Inc.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Liveauctioneers and Skinner Inc.

   During the past weekend, I noticed that Liveauctioneers had updated their fine website. For those who don't know, Liveauctioneers is a Host site for live auctions around the world. What they do is to present the auctions from many different auctioneers on their site, and of course, the photographs and information pertaining to each item.

   I've used Liveauctioneers as a valuable "stepping stone" from which to search out toy photos from the fine auction houses and auctioneers who have most graciously allowed me the permission to use their fine photos. 

  As I mentioned, on the weekend, Liveauctioneers had updated their website. It's brighter and cleaner than before, and of course still has the millions of photos of past, present, and future auctions. It will take myself some getting used to, but I'm sure, in time I will familiarize myself with this fine site. 

  I had written to Kathryn Gargolinski of Liveauctioneers to ask for permission to use photos from their site. Kathryn helped me out by suggesting that it would be easier to focus on 1 auction house, rather than the 4 whom I had mentioned. And of course, I received her permission.  Kathryn Gargolinski's title is Web Marketing Specialist. That sounds quite awesome, and must require lots of hard work to maintain their site. As well, she most likely has to be able to speak several langauges for the international auction houses located around the world.

Please click this sentence to be redirected to Liveauctioneer's fine website

Please click to be redirected to Skinner Inc.'s fine website

The "Home Page" for Skinner Inc. on Live Auctioneers

There is a description of the auction hose, the location, past auctions, and a contact address

  The above screen capture is a sample from Liveauctioneers.

1. Location

This allows the viewer to select from which country he/she would like to go to. 

As well, the many different companies will be listed.

2. Search for Item

This is where you enter what you are looking for.

3. Auctioneer

All of the auction houses and auctioneers are here. You can select just one, or do your search let's say for France,and then see which French auction houses are listed.

4. The Date

This is where the present and future auction dates are listed.

Some auctions have already been prepared months in advance, and you can actually see listied auctions for the month of June.

The screen  capture above illustrate the following:

1. Live

This is for the current listed auctions, as well as future upcoming auctions

2. Sold

This area allows you to venture back in time. Depending upon the auction house, and how long they've been with Liveauctioneers, you may be able to go back a few years or as far as 10 years!

3. The Search Entry

I entered only the single word "Zeppelin". However, that single word may have not been descriptive enough. In other words, I might get photos, paintings, parts, ticket stubs, and all other items aside from "toys".

The above search was unrestrictive for any specific auctioneer. A a result, 3,833 entries were located. However, as I only have 4 fine auctions houses that so far have allowed me to use their photos, I normally would limit the search to one of the 4 auction houses at a time.

However, it's a good idea of you're interested in a specific item, or are wishing to bid on an item, to allow the search to be non-specific. In this way, you will get to see lots and lots of the same item and be abetter able to judge such criteria as:

1. Past final winning bid prices

2. What parts the actual item should come with -e.g. pull rope, flags, spare tires etc. (for toys)

3. Original colour or repainted  

By narrowing my search just for Skinner Inc., I can now see that Skinner Inc. had sold 18 "zeppelin" items in their past auctions.

A screen capture of the 18 listed "Zeppelin" items that were sold by Skinner Inc.

Although the photos may not present an actual Zeppelin, the written description would.

However, as you can see, my search was too broad - having used only the single word "Zeppelin".

I made a decision to select the first image in the upper left corner
Coincidentally, this selection is similar to what I wrote about yesterday - the A.C.Williams cast iron banks.These banks on the Skinner Inc. website are not identified as to their manufacturer, but they might be A.C. Williams.

Please click to be redirected to Skinner Inc.'s fine website

The enlargement of the particular image

How I have been presenting the images that I find on auction house sites

What I do is:

1.Adjust the exposure, colour-balance, and shadow detail

2.Enhance the focus because I'm presenting small-sized photos

3. Add an "inner glow" in Photoshop to both enhance the image and to remove any background that I didn't isolate through the selection process in Photoshop

4. Add the text:

i. Description

ii. Copyright notification

iii. Watermark of the Auction Houses's name

    I have presented a brief explanation of  these 2 excellent websites. Liverauctioneesr allows the viewer to have an entire library, figuratively speaking of course, at the touch of a computer key. Skinner Inc. then allows the reader to focus in on his or her particular toy. Skinner Auctioneers has an outstanding staff of specialists - all experts in their respective fields. When you read about their auction listings, you can get a well-written and researched short narrative about any particular item. 

   The combination of such marvelous resources as Liveauctioneers and Skinner Inc.have certainly made writing my work of writing this blog much easier. At the same time, I have learned a lot about a topic that until several years ago, I knew very little about. 

   What else could you ask for?

Thanks for dropping by to read,

and as always,

have a great part of the day,

wherever you may be.

Stacey 

A.C.Williams Cast Iron Banks

Friday, May 17, 2013

A.C.Williams Cast Iron Banks

   I found today's topic in the "usual manner". I was searching for something else, and came across an outstanding  cast iron bank. It turned out to have been manufactured by the A.C.Williams company.

   A.C.Williams was founded in 1886 by, Mr. Adam Clark Williams in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, USA. However there was a big fire at the company, and a  decision was made to move to  Ravenna. Ohio. Actual production started there in 1893. Like the other famous  cast iron companies  of the time (Hubley, Dent, Kilgore, Arcade, Kenton), A.C.Williams manufactured cast iron cars and trucks.  THey even produced some tin cars towards the end of the companies relatively long history. However, they closed  their toy production in 1938. 

   The A.C.Williams company is still in business, and their website presents a much better history of the company that I have. I contacted the company, but haven't  yet heard from them.

Their history can be found at:

Please click this sentence to be redirected to the A.C.Williams history page

Please click on this sentence to be redirected to Bertoia's fine website

   What's I found interesting about the banks was their small sizes! Of course, way back then, most people did not earn high salaries, and correspondingly were not able to give their children "discretionary income" to save. At the same time, a penny could buy you a lot. Today, I have to pay 25 cents for 1 gumball!

   Another interesting observation is that these beautiful banks, like other manufacturers of the time, did not have to be produced to micrometer standards (very fine measurements such as 1/16" or 2mm. If you look closely, you'll see that the 2 halves of some banks do not even close tightly! Yet that's  part  of the "charm" of these antiques. The parts don't fit 100%. Even cars, trucks and airplanes of that era also were made with looser fittings, and that's part of what I like about them. When I recently write about cast iron doorstop, you could see the paint in the back of some of these items. It had been applied very fast, and there was "drippings and runoff down the backs of the toys!

Types of Banks

A.C.Willams and the other cast iron companies of the time, manufactured  thousands of different types of banks. THe banks presented today are called "still banks" that are different from "mechanical banks". A still bank is simple, and you just add the money into a slot. A mechanical bank is "cocked" like the action of a gun, and a movement will occur to the coin. Actions could include magic, tossing a penny from a cannon and so forth. 

1. People

I decided to classify the banks, and so the first division is people. This classification could include specific types of people or children, as well as comic characters.You'll also notice that the banks could simply be painted gold or have multiple colours on them. All of the banks were handpainted!

 Notice the expression of the face, the hands in the pockets, and 1 foot that I assume was not shod, as the toes are showing - simply marvellous! 

Umm, umm, good!

This pair og young childen were modelled after the original cartoon characters from the famous Campbells Soup Company!

This pair of cartoon characters were 1 of the original comics from the newspapers.

THey're called "Mutt and Jeff", and of course, they'd get into all kinds of funny situations and small arguments.

This fine lady is called "Mamie" or more familiarly "aunt Jemima". If you ever ate pancakes in your house, you would have eaten the famous brand named after this most famous lady!

 

2. Animals

The second category of banks is animals. Many of the animals that I selected are from the circus. 

Once upon a time, there were at least 3-4 famous circuses that would travel across Europe and the USA. Initially they travelled by truck caravans, and then by trains. THese circuses would travel both to the larger cities, and even to the smaller towns.  If you're older than 40, you've most likely seen the movie "The greatest Show on earth". and if you're under 25, you most liletysaw the Reese Witherspoon movie "Water for Elephants". Both movies are great viewing!

 3. Buildings and Outdoor Items

My third category is buildings and outdoor items. Buildings such as houses and "banks were common. I was surprised to find several nicely -designed mosques. AS well you can even see an outdoor clock, as well as the Washington monument.

The design of this small mosque is great.  The dome, the different window shapes, and the design on the side below the roof are great characteristics of a mosque.

Look at that space between the 2 halves. Of course, the money fell to the bottom, and I'm sure with the random positioning of the coins as they piled up, the coins did not fall out of the bank!

2 small but nice-looking banks. 

I wonder if bank companies sold or gave away banks at the time. I remember in the 1950's, I had a small bank from 1 bank, and my wife has one as well. Of course, these are plain rectangular banks that are nickel-plated, and have a key to lock the money in!

And last but not least - a standing clock. If you ever look at old movies circa 1920's1940's you'd see these large standing "real" clocks" on the streets. You's also see just the clocks outside large buildings all over the place.

  Of course, "time does not stand still", and today, you'd have to walk a lot to actually find one such item anywhere in Montreal! I've never seen a standing one here, but I saw several over the entranceways of building a long time ago. Of course, there were always a few in the old train stations! I've only "touched the surface" so to speak about banks. If you do a search for cast iron banks, you'll find thousands of different banks from all of the different companies at the time.

  I was going to combine several similar banks and present them side-by-side. However the size of 2 images would have had to been reduced, and you would not have seen the detail as well. So that's why I have so many photos today - each toy deserves it's "fair share" of space and viewing!

Thanks for dropping by for a visit,

and have a great weekend,

Stacey