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Archive for November, 2010

Tribute to world famous English contralto Constance

Posted by admin on November 30th, 2010

Tribute to world famous English contralto ConstanceA vast archive of personal documents surfaced in a Midlands property, the documents once belonged to the world famous English contralto Constance Shacklock.

Constance Shacklock OBE (1913-1999), the Opera singer, joined the New Coven Garden Opera Company in 1946 and was awarded an OBE in 1971.

From Worldcollectorsnet.com:

The opera singer Constance Shacklock OBE (1913-1999) joined the New Coven Garden Opera Company in 1946. Her most famous role was being cast as Brangane in Tristram and Isolde in 1948 alongside the Norwegian soprano Kirsten Flagstad. In the mid 1950’s she left the operatic stage to take up a six year role as Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music at the Palace Theatre in London. After retiring from singing, Shacklock went on to teach singing at the Royal Academy of Music. Students under her supervision included Kathryn Harries and Victoria Burmester. She was awarded an OBE in 1971.

A routine call to a property in-between Lichfield and Sutton resulted in the discovery of the vast archive of Shacklock’s own personal paperwork and photographs dating back to the start of her hugely successful career in the 1940’s. It had been inherited by the vendor whose aunt was a very close friend of Shacklock’s who had in turn been given the archive to her on Shacklock’s death in 1999.

The collection came up for public auction at Richard Winterton’s Fine Art & Collectors Sale on 18th August at the Lichfield Auction Centre.

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Legendary flowing hair silver dollar sold

Posted by admin on November 26th, 2010

Legendary flowing hair silver dollar soldOne of the world’s pre-eminent numismatic auctioneers, Bowers and Merena Auctions, recently hosted its Boston Rarities Sale on Saturday, Aug. 7 at Park Plaza Hotel and Towers in Boston, Massachusetts.

In the sale, the featured coin, a rare 1794 Silver Dollar, was sold for $1,207,500.

From Worldcollectorsnet.com:

“There has been great anticipation within the industry for our auction of the condition census #4 1794 Silver Dollar,” said Greg Roberts, CEO of Bowers and Merena. “We started to see bidding activity about two weeks before the live action began with multiple bidders moving the coin from its opening bid to $750,000 where the lot opened on the live auction floor. It then quickly moved up $300,000 at increments of $50,000. When the bid hit $1 million on Saturday, the gasp from the crowd was riveting, and with two of the four bidders live in the room, the intensity was overwhelming.”

The seller of the rare coin, Martin Logies, author of the book The Flowing Hair Silver Dollars of 1794 and director and curator of CCEF, recently purchased the Neil/Carter/Contursi 1794 Flowing Hair silver dollar for $7.85 million in a private transaction brokered by Spectrum Group International, Bower and Merena Auctions’ parent company. The sale marked a new world record price and the coin is currently being showcased by CCEF, a teaching organization, and is being shared with a wider national audience.

The silver dollar first struck in 1794 and only 140 surviving examples of the 1794 silver dollar coin are estimated throughout the world.

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All about Novelty and Antique Clocks

Posted by admin on November 20th, 2010

In this YouTube video, Bob Frishman who is the owner of Bell-Time Clocks, talks about novelty clocks to collect. The free video on collecting antique clocks from France from an expert in clock restoration is a must see for admirers of antiques and collectibles interested in antique clocks.

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How to identify Carnival Glass

Posted by admin on November 18th, 2010

Statia Widak has been collecting antiques for more than 10 years and offers her valuable advice on how to identify carnival glass. This video will surely help admirers of antiques and collectibles to find rare pieces of carnival glasses without any troubles.

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Leeds Pottery Horse for London Ceramic Auction

Posted by admin on November 13th, 2010

Leeds Pottery Horse for London Ceramic AuctionA fine Leeds Pottery horse dating back to around 1825 and estimated at £8,000 to £12,000 is set to go under the hammer at the Bonhams Auctioneers in their Fine British Pottery and Porcelain sale in Bond Street, London.

The Pottery horse is a rare example of white pearlware with a black mane, hooves, tail, and an ornate orange bridle that is decorated with blue florets stands on a green base, majestically poised with ears pricked.

From Worldcollectorsnet.com:

This rare example has been in a single family’s ownership since it was made in the Leeds Pottery. The Leeds Pottery situated on Jack Lane in the Hunslett area of Leeds became known as ‘The Leeds Pottery Company’ in 1834 after a string of owners and different names and was managed by Stephen Chappel who went on to become in 1840 the sole owner of the business, when he was also joined by his brother James. An employee John Charlesworth Porritt married Hannah Chappel who was most probably a relative of either Stephen or James in 1824 and the Leeds Horse was passed through the generations of the Porritt/Chappel family to the present owner.

The horse known by the family as ‘Clarence’ lived in a wardrobe for many years until it was decided it was too valuable to languish unloved and unseen. It is thought to be an early or prototype example indicated by the shallow plinth. Later models had deeper plinths after it was discovered that the shallow bases tended to warp and distort. Standing 43cms high it is expected to romp home on an estimate of £8,000-12,000. Alison Gillatt, Bonhams Leeds’s Ceramic and Glass specialist said she was “delighted to find such a rare example of Leeds Pottery with such a pedigree provenance.”

The Leeds Pottery reached the height of its popularity in the 1780s, producing an elaborate book of designs and exporting its products to Germany, Holland, France, Spain and Russia. By 1847 the Company was bankrupt and although it was revived in 1850, it limped on until 1878. Sadly for Leeds, the pottery was finally closed and demolished in 1881. Despite the demise of the Leeds Pottery, Bonhams are certain the odds on Clarence are a winning cert.

The horses were originally meant for veterinary surgeons, saddlers, and druggists as a sign that they traded in products for horses.

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Motivational Quotes for admirers of antiques and collectibles

Posted by admin on November 8th, 2010

Motivational Quotes for admirers of <b>antiques and collectibles</b>\Admirers of antiques and collectibles often find themselves in confusion concerning genuineness of a desire. However, things can be made easy and interesting when motivational quotes come their way to give a fresh air of knowledge.

The artist is the opposite of the politically minded individual, the opposite of the reformer, the opposite of the idealist.  The artist does not tinker with the universe, he recreates it out of his own experience and understanding of life.  – Henry Miller

Everything in creation has its appointed painter or poet and remains in bondage like the princess in the fairy tale ’til its appropriate liberator comes to set it free.  – Ralph Waldo Emerson

As far as I am concerned, a painting speaks for itself.  What is the use of giving explanations, when all is said and done?  A painter has only one language.  – Pablo Picasso

What was any art but a mould in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself – life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose.  – Willa Cather

The artist’s world is limitless.  It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away.  It is always on his doorstep. - Paul Strand

Very few people possess true artistic ability.  It is therefore both unseemly and unproductive to irritate the situation by making an effort.  If you have a burning, restless urge to write or paint, simply eat something sweet and the feeling will pass.  – Fran Lebowitz

Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail. - Theodore Dreiser, Life, Art, and America, 1917

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Scientists predict end of Universe in 5 billion years

Posted by admin on November 2nd, 2010

Scientists predict end of Universe in 5 billion yearsA new study has predicted that the universe too would come to an end-in just five billion years right around the time when Sun is slated to die.

The predication is based on the theory of eternal inflation that says our universe is part of the multiverse.

From in.news.yahoo.com:

The problem with a multiverse is that anything that can happen will happen an infinite number of times, and that makes calculating probabilities-such as the odds that Earth-size planets are common-seemingly impossible.

“Normal notions of probability-where you say, Event A happens twice and Event B happens four times, so Event B is twice as likely-don’t work, because instead of two and four, you have infinity,” National Geographic News quoted Ken Olum of Tufts University in Massachusetts, as saying.

And calculating probabilities in a multiverse wouldn’t just be a problem for cosmologists.

“If infinitely many observers throughout the universe win the lottery, on what grounds can one still claim that winning the lottery is unlikely?” theoretical physicist Raphael Bousso of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues wrote in the new study.

Physicists have been circumventing this problem using a mathematical approach called geometric cutoffs, which involves taking a finite swath of the multiverse and calculating probabilities based on that limited sample.

But in the new paper, Bousso’s team noted that this technique has an unintended and, until now, overlooked consequence.

The story was published at the Cornell University website arXiv.org.

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