Nancy Jackson started collecting sterling silver about 18 years ago. She and her husband, an avid coin collector, went to a lot of flea markets together. “We happened to come across a stand of tarnished sterling bowls, so I bought one for $10 and I showed my husband.” He told her that it was a great buy, so she bought a few more bowls, and a collection was born.
At antique shows and flea markets, Nancy would spot new items for her collection. At the time, silver was very low in price and easy to purchase, but the value has since increased. “Most of my pieces have probably gone up at least three or four times what I originally paid for them,” she shares.
When she purchases a tarnished piece, Nancy will clean it and polish it up. “I actually like to clean silver!” she says. “You have to learn how to do it, but it’s not hard once you get the method down.”
Of her collection, Nancy has several favorite pieces. “One piece that I like quite a bit – I call it the bird bowl. It’s a fairly large bowl with birds and flowers, and it’s a very pretty bowl,” she explains. Also among her favorites is a Whiting Lily Flatware set. She also prefers silver pieces by the maker Kirk and Son. “A lot of their stuff is flowery and quite detailed.”
The most valuable items in her collection are two tea sets. One is called Old English by Poole and the other is made by Graff, Washburn, and Dunn. She also has quite a few pieces of Tiffany silver.
Overall, Nancy has 21 cabinets filled with silver and alphabetized from A to S. The cabinets are in all the rooms of her house, including the bathroom and the bedroom. Says Nancy, “I like to look at shiny things and I have plenty of them to look at. It’s rather unique because my house looks like an antique shop!”
Nancy has another collection besides her silver – she inherited a Hummel collection from her mother and grandmother. “I’m one of those people that likes to collect things!”
Tim and Jamie Saloff both share a passion for collecting that is heavily influenced by the older generation, as Tim was partially raised by his grandparents, and Jamie’s older parents declared she was a ‘do it yourself grandchild.’ “Before we were married, we started collecting some things,” shares Jamie. “My cousins taught us some basics about 20th century antiques. They had gone overboard with collecting, filling their home with amazing things. We were hooked!”
Although the Saloffs had been collecting for a while, when Tim picked up a carved, April Green art deco lamp with a “Cowan Pottery” sticker on the bottom, he wanted to know more. Shares Tim, “I went to the public library and found a reference about a fellow collector from Cleveland who had collected Cowan. Upon his death, he donated hundreds of pieces of the pottery to the Rocky River Library system. As it happened, the library’s curator was giving a talk the next morning, so I drove over. After his talk, the curator recognized my interest and took me into their meeting rooms in the bowels of the library building. Every closet was filled floor to ceiling with Cowan Pottery, and he just kept opening door after door after door. I was bugging out because of all the great pieces!”
From there, a love of collecting grew. Over time, the couple migrated to better and better designer pieces. When their sons were young, they would go out on the weekends to visit antique shops, flea markets, and antique shows to add to their burgeoning collection. The boys took an interest as well. “Gradually, our collection became more like my cousins’,” shares Jamie.
The collection may have grown from Cowan Pottery, but it quickly expanded to many other 20th century items. “We have a very eclectic and very diverse collection!” shares Tim. It’s hard to choose favorites, but Jamie mentions an art deco ‘Petipoint’ iron, designed by Clifford Brooks Stevens for the Waverly Corp. The iron has Machine Age fins on it like wings. “It looks like it could take off!” She also adores a small blue Westclox ‘Stellar’ clock. The star and moon hands circle the Earth on a deep blue, star-filled background. Tim loves his Catalin radios, which have beautiful marbleized cases that tend to glow when lit up. “I love putting them on the bookshelf and displaying them!”
Tim loves the Cowan Pottery, which includes their production pieces, but they were known for their figural nude flower frogs and many artist designer pieces, which were offered only in limited editions. He notes that after Cowan closed its doors due to the Great Depression, many of their artists and designers went on to become famous in their own right, creating some of their best works. Some of his favorites are pieces by those artists. One of them is a head that was displayed at the 1939 World Fair by Edris Eckhardt entitled ‘Sea.’ “Waves of water from which starfish and fish leap out, is her hair. Her skin is the sand,” shares Tim. “It’s just an awesome design!”
What’s unique about this collection is that everything is on display in their home. Even when their sons were young and lived at home, only two or three pieces have ever been broken over the years. Jamie and Tim’s philosophy of putting everything on display stemmed from a sad incident with a dear friend’s collection. This friend had her entire collection packed away in boxes, only to discover one day that the boxes were empty – her son had sold the collection for drug money. “It was just horrible!” shares Tim. “We decided then and there that we were going to display our stuff and enjoy it.”
Tim and Jamie have very high standards for quality when it comes to collecting. “We’ve seen people buy damaged items,” shares Tim, “and you always have to compromise if you want to trade or sell it later. If we desire an item, we look until we find one in great shape.” They also believe it’s very important that anyone selling online learns to properly pack the pieces to help them survive shipping. “It’s heartbreaking when a piece survived 100-120 years, and it arrives in a thousand pieces after 3-4 days of transit!” shares Tim. “This happens far too often. This is avoidable with care and understanding.”
They believe in the importance of knowledge when it comes to collecting. Shares Jamie, “Knowledge is key! So often I see individuals who throw out or give away valuable items. For example, they don’t know something like a Bakelite [plastic] bracelet might be worth more than grandma’s favorite necklace. I recommend finding a reputable appraiser before tossing vintage items.” Shares Tim, “The research is what I love! Invest in books, print or online. I probably have 750 research books I’ve bought over the years and read cover to cover and refer to often. Learn about what you are buying. There’s a myriad of material online now that didn’t exist when we began collecting. You can now do so within your own level of comfort.
Tim tries to look at the collection as an investment. “I have always tried to pay less than half of the market value when I collect. If they go up in value, then great, but if they go down, then I’m still ahead.” Over the course of 40 years, Tim has typically succeeded in his goal of paying less than half the value. “I once paid $1 for a piece of TECO Pottery – even though at the time I didn’t know it had value, I just liked it. Today it’s worth $2,000! Everyone wants that kind of find, but they don’t come around often. I bought my first rare, red Catalin radio for $12. Only later did I learn of its value.”
This collection of 3569 carefully catalogued pieces has afforded Jamie and Tim many opportunities, including compiling a book entitled, The Collector’s Encyclopedia of Cowan Pottery, speaking at events,and writing price guide sections for a variety of sources. Jamie realized how incredible their personal collection was on a trip to a London museum. “They had items on display that we had on our book shelves,” Jamie explains. “I realized that we had some really good items!”
Tim says “Above all, enjoy collecting! It doesn’t matter what you have available to spend; it’s about the search and journey along the way. We started when we didn’t have much money, but it was fun and a family affair. Educate yourself on what you like, buy things that bring you joy, and you’ll never go wrong!”
Conor Dullaghan considers himself to have been a collector his entire life. What started with things like Coca Cola and stamps eventually evolved into arguably one of the largest privately held collections of Irish Militaria – which includes medals, badges, uniforms, and other ephemera. “I started collecting in earnest around 15 years ago,” shares Conor. He had recently relocated to Ohio and found that his evenings were quiet, so he started collecting to fill his time. He looked for both online and physical auctions where he could add to his growing collection.
Conor’s collection focuses on a very specific time period in Ireland: 1916-1946. On a global scale, this period encompasses World War I and II. However, the island of Ireland had its own experience during these years. In April 1916, there was an Irish rebellion, primarily centered in Dublin, where the rebels were looking to gain their independence from Great Britain. World War II was known as The Emergency in Ireland. “It’s a very interesting period in Irish history,” shares Conor.
One of Conor’s favorite items is a group of medals awarded to a husband and wife. The female recipient of two of these medals was a lady named Winifred Carney. “She was a fierce woman,” explains Conor. “She was the confidant of one of the major leaders during the rebellion in 1916.” Interestingly, Conor also owns a WWI trio of medals that were awarded to her husband – British medals. Her husband was a founding member of a group called the Ulster Volunteer Force, which was founded in opposition against the notion of Irish freedom. “What I love about their story is that the two couldn’t come from more divergent backgrounds, but socialism and love brought them together.” Conor loaned these medals to the city of Belfast for the Centenary celebrations in 2016. The medals were displayed in Belfast City Hall and seen by over 20,000 visitors during that exhibition.
Another item that’s important to Conor is a lot that he purchased from Sotheby’s in England. This lot included an album and a very special wooden object. The album contains papers that were taken by a British officer who was put in charge of a key location after the 1916 rebellion was quelled. He brought this paper back to England before going off to fight in France. He was killed in action in France in September of that year. The paper that survived is an archive of important printed matter from that period. It includes a document – a half proclamation signed by seven brave men who were part of the rebellion. “The US equivalent would be our Declaration of Independence,” Conor explains. This document was used as evidence against these men, who were all executed as a result. The piece of wood is a printer’s mallet that was, most likely, used to typeset this important document. “It’s an amazing surviving relic from that time period.”
Conor recently acquired a military uniform that belonged to a specific lady – a rare find. “It was one of only a handful of surviving examples of a “Cumann na mBan” uniform from the earliest days of the group – the Irish words for the Women’s Council,” explains Conor. “They were the female military branch of the revolutionaries back in 1916.” The uniform is comprised of her skirt, tunic and hat. Conor also has a photograph of the woman wearing this uniform in 1922, which a friend helped him to colorize.
Overall, Conor’s collection has at least 10,000 items, and they range in value from tens of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. He tracks everything with an online system called Airtable. Airtable allows him to track the date of acquisition, category, who he acquired the pieces from, the value, how much he paid, and other notes. Everything is on display in his home. He has several rooms full of items, which are set up like a mini museum.
Conor likes to share his collection with as many people as possible, so he has been building an online presence since 2015. His Facebook group of over 12,000 members is very active. He has had the opportunity to exhibit the collection as far away as Colorado. He has also loaned some of his items to various institutions in Ireland.
Conor finds that his policy with Collectibles Insurance Services has given him great piece of mind when it comes to his collection. “It’s a painless process to onboard and get insured. I would encourage anyone with high value collections to contact Collectible Insurance Services and get that coverage!”
If you haven’t already heard of it, Webtoon is an online platform for mobile comics that has seen monumental growth in the past several years. Originating from South Korea and owned by the tech giant, Naver, Webtoon has paid English-language creators around $27 million since 2020 – that’s an average of $1 million per month.
Webtoon provides a lucrative storytelling opportunity for aspiring comic creators, and it allows comic fans the opportunity to read and follow comics online. It uses advanced analytics to connect their audience to creators that they might enjoy. This allows creators to build a fan base on the platform and monetize their work.
The world of digital comics is an interesting space, and a growing community of people are following along. Do you prefer digital or physical comics?
Scott got his start dealing in antiques about 45 years ago. His interest began in the 1970s when his parents were cleaning out their basement and had a lot of items to get rid of. There were Indian baskets and other items that his great-aunt had picked up from her years teaching on an Indian reservation in Wisconsin.
After this experience, Scott started going to flea markets and shopping around to see what other people were selling. “Collecting can be an expensive hobby if you are into high-end stuff,” shares Scott. “Although I’ve been dealing for 45 years, I started collecting about 20 years ago, but it has taken me a while to acquire what I wanted.”
Scott’s interests mainly include French cameo glass by makers such as Galle & Daum Nancy, art glass, Tiffany glass, and antique French dolls. “Even non-collectors are attracted to Tiffany art glass,” shares Scott. There is a specific kind, favrile glass, that really stands out. It comes in different colors, with the most common being gold and the more desirable colors being blue or even red. “It has a rich, iridescent finish; even those not into antiques can appreciate its beauty.”
When it comes to antique dolls, Scott mentions that there is a special doll maker, Leon Casimir Bru. A specific doll, known as a Bru Jne doll, is a pricey doll for which prices have recently skyrocketed. “Some of these dolls can command north of $30,000,” he explains. “The dolls are a piece of art!” Also popular are dolls made by the prolific French doll maker, Jumeau, who began making dolls in the mid-19th century. “Some of their bisque bebes can command a high price.”
Scott’s personal collection of about 60 dolls and 60 pieces of glass is on display in curio cabinets in his home, but not organized in any particular way. “It’s a curated collection of items that are special to me, because I like them.” Of collecting, Scott’s mantra is to always, “buy what you like.” The value of collectible items, especially antiques, is always fluctuating. If you curate a collection of items that you love, then if the value changes, at least you are left with something you enjoy.
A recent collaboration between two unexpected parties may just prove that comics may deserve elite recognition alongside of classic novels and the like. Penguin Classics, according to their website, is the “leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world.” The company prints classic literature from the likes of John Steinbeck, Shirley Jackson, William Golding, Ken Kesey, and more.
Recently, Penguin classics partnered with Marvel Comics to start printing – of all things – comic books. Dubbed the “Penguin Classics Marvel Collection,” this series will feature stories from the early life of three classic superheroes: Spider-Man, Captain America, and Black Panther. These are being presented as colorful paperbacks and beautifully bound hardcover books with gilded pages.
What do you think? Do comics deserve their place in the world of classic literature?
