Collectors other than music, what was your favorite find of 2010?

[Dmitry]

I'm sure some of us have a love of collecting objects other than cds and records.

For instance, I've been fascinated by old swords for about 8 years.

My absolute favorite of this year came right before Christmas. Good Karma!

I'll post some shots of it shortly.

Post your best collecting finds of this year here, lads. We won't be judgmental! Perhaps you'll even find a collecting buddy.

[Jazzmoose]

A thin year for me; the collecting bug is kind of dormant right now. Well, not completely; I did finally find a first printing of Ten Years to Doomsday by Anderson & Kurland. No biggie, but I've wanted it for decades, so it was cool.

[Dmitry]

So you collect the first printings of the older sci-fi novels?

[Pete B]

My wife and I collect pottery. Some years ago I found a late 19th century dry sink with a matched Minton tile backsplash with a songbirds on vines motif which the dealer sold to me for $750 (we had a really good year financially, which so far has not been repeated) - it was a Valentine's Day gift. The tiles alone were worth the price, but it is a lovely piece of furniture. The dealer cried when I picked it up - she said that of all the pieces she had ever sold it was a favorite.

[vajerzy]

I collect rotary telephones- kinda slowed down- since we no longer have a landline- found an Automatic Electric monophone wall telephone- chromed version for a good price cleaned up real well. Looking to downsize my collection in the next month.

[Jazzmoose]

So you collect the first printings of the older sci-fi novels?

Well, I'm not into first printings except for particular favorites, like this one. In general, it's the cover design and such that attracts me. Although, if it's not an author or book I enjoy for the content, it's hard to justify adding a book to the shelves. What I have is more of an accumulation than a collection, really.

I've collected comic books, coins, stamps, and vintage paperbacks in the past; I'm kind of between obsessions at the moment. This has mixed results; I feel like something is missing, but on the other hand, I'm not broke all the time...

[ejp626]

I've collected comic books, coins, stamps, and vintage paperbacks in the past; I'm kind of between obsessions at the moment. This has mixed results; I feel like something is missing, but on the other hand, I'm not broke all the time...

I certainly have a lot of books, DVDs and CDs/LPs, though I wouldn't call myself a collector precisely (1st editions don't interest me nor does music format so long as it is not painful to listen to). I probably do shade into collector territory with music. One of my best best finds yet was the 3 volume set of Burton's translation of 1001 Nights Burton -- for $1 at a library book sale.

Actually, the Burton volumes were found over a score of years ago. This year I found The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova (the hard cover version) for $1 at another library sale.

Edited December 30, 2010 by ejp626

[Dmitry]

This year I found The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova (the hard cover version) for $1 at another library sale.

Her and I come from the same city.

[Brownian Motion]

I was perusing the book listings on ebay, looking for art books, and came upon someone selling a portfolio of signed graphics from thirty of the heavy-hitters of New York art world of the 1970s--Twombley. Warhol, Rauchenberg, Noland etc.; it was being sold as a book, and the description said nothing about artist signatures. To make a long story short I bought it for the opening bid, 30.00, a dollar a print, and within a week of receiving it in the mail I dispatched it to Rago Auction House; it will appear in their post WWII art auction in May with a starting bid in the 6 to 9 thousand dollar range.

Edited December 30, 2010 by Brownian Motion

[Mark Stryker]

I was perusing the book listings on ebay, looking for art books, and came upon someone selling a portfolio of signed graphics from thirty of the heavy-hitters of New York art world of the 1970s--Twombley. Warhol, Rauchenberg, Noland etc.; it was being sold as a book, and the description said nothing about artist signatures. To make a long story short I bought it for the opening bid, 30.00, a dollar a print, and within a week of receiving it in the mail I dispatched it to Rago Auction House; it will appear in their post WWII art auction in May with a starting bid in the 6 to 9 thousand dollar range.

Wow -- fantastic find. What were the circumstances around the original creation of the portfolio? Do you know who did the printing and the size of the edition?

Staying on the art theme, my wife and I added to our collection this year with works by two artists who happen to have interesting connections to the jazz world. One is a small oil-on-paper by Bob Thompson, the great African-American painter who was close to a lot of musicians on the scene in the early 60s, especially Jackie McLean. Quintessential Thompson imagery and color -- mystical flying creatures, rich purples, greens, etc. (I once had a chance to buy a Thompson sketch of Sonny Rollins, mohawk period, done during a gig, but it was too expensive.) The other piece is an abstract painting (landscape references) by a painter we discovered in Maine named Joe Haroutunian, who grew up in Chicago and, as it turned out, is a big jazz fan and studied trumpet as a kid in Chicago with the same guy who taught Booker Little, whom he used to cross paths with going to lessons.

Edited January 1, 2011 by Mark Stryker

[Brownian Motion]

I was perusing the book listings on ebay, looking for art books, and came upon someone selling a portfolio of signed graphics from thirty of the heavy-hitters of New York art world of the 1970s--Twombley. Warhol, Rauchenberg, Noland etc.; it was being sold as a book, and the description said nothing about artist signatures. To make a long story short I bought it for the opening bid, 30.00, a dollar a print, and within a week of receiving it in the mail I dispatched it to Rago Auction House; it will appear in their post WWII art auction in May with a starting bid in the 6 to 9 thousand dollar range.

Wow -- fantastic find. What were the circumstances around the original creation of the portfolio? Do you know who did the printing and the size of the edition?

"The New York Collection for Stockholm, Experiments in Art and Technology" is the full name of the portfolio, and the artists "donated" their work. The edition was 300 copies. I read all the printed material that came with the portfolio, but there was no further explanation.

[Jim R]

I was perusing the book listings on ebay, looking for art books, and came upon someone selling a portfolio of signed graphics from thirty of the heavy-hitters of New York art world of the 1970s--Twombley. Warhol, Rauchenberg, Noland etc.; it was being sold as a book, and the description said nothing about artist signatures. To make a long story short I bought it for the opening bid, 30.00, a dollar a print, and within a week of receiving it in the mail I dispatched it to Rago Auction House; it will appear in their post WWII art auction in May with a starting bid in the 6 to 9 thousand dollar range.

Wow, congrats. Pretty amazing that you were able to get it at that price in a huge marketplace like ebay (as opposed to being in the right place at the right time at a local auction or an estate sale or something). Back when we were collecting and dealing in 20th Century decorative arts (mostly art deco through mid-century modern), we had some similar $ucce$$e$. It's one of the things that puts the "thrill" in the hunt.

[Mark Stryker]

I was perusing the book listings on ebay, looking for art books, and came upon someone selling a portfolio of signed graphics from thirty of the heavy-hitters of New York art world of the 1970s--Twombley. Warhol, Rauchenberg, Noland etc.; it was being sold as a book, and the description said nothing about artist signatures. To make a long story short I bought it for the opening bid, 30.00, a dollar a print, and within a week of receiving it in the mail I dispatched it to Rago Auction House; it will appear in their post WWII art auction in May with a starting bid in the 6 to 9 thousand dollar range.

Wow -- fantastic find. What were the circumstances around the original creation of the portfolio? Do you know who did the printing and the size of the edition?

"The New York Collection for Stockholm, Experiments in Art and Technology" is the full name of the portfolio, and the artists "donated" their work. The edition was 300 copies. I read all the printed material that came with the portfolio, but there was no further explanation.

Some interesting background on Experiments in Technology and the portofolio ...

http://www.fondation...php?NumPage=405

http://www.fondation...php?NumPage=237

I looked up some of the images and recognized a few from having seen them here and there -- it was a big edition (300), so there are surely other complete portfolios hiding out in the world, but to find one on eBay and at that price -- that's needle in a haystack stuff. Someone obviously didn't know what they had. Very cool for you.

[Dmitry]

I was perusing the book listings on ebay, looking for art books, and came upon someone selling a portfolio of signed graphics from thirty of the heavy-hitters of New York art world of the 1970s--Twombley. Warhol, Rauchenberg, Noland etc.; it was being sold as a book, and the description said nothing about artist signatures. To make a long story short I bought it for the opening bid, 30.00, a dollar a print, and within a week of receiving it in the mail I dispatched it to Rago Auction House; it will appear in their post WWII art auction in May with a starting bid in the 6 to 9 thousand dollar range.

Now THAT is an awesome find!!!

Please post photos of the portfolio. Maybe there's another one lurking in a thrift shop somewhere.

Did you see this recent story?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BN2GH20101224

[Brownian Motion]

This is my 'find of 2010', also from eBay, which went pretty much under the radar of other collectors and dealers, perhaps due to the somewhat esoteric characteristics of it. It's a ca.1650 dish hilt rapier, possibly English, with a rarely-seen style of hilt. It's amazing to find a piece like this in uncleaned, unmolested, 'estate fresh' condition. I will be conserving it, which will take some time. This was a very exciting find for me!

Is a rapier a weapon of war, or a weapon for dueling? Or both? And what does it weigh?

[cih]

I was perusing the book listings on ebay, looking for art books, and came upon someone selling a portfolio of signed graphics from thirty of the heavy-hitters of New York art world of the 1970s...

Amazing. I didn't think this sort of thing possible any more. Back in the 'early' internet days I visited Abebooks on the hunt for art books, with an orientation toward surrealism, and was astounded to get, each for under £20 - an Andre Masson monograph - first edition, print run of 50, signed by the artist, plus Michel Leiris and Georges Limbour. A Paul Eluard limited first edition from 1932, signed and dedicated to the Mexican poet Bernado Ortiz de Montellano, the Roland Penrose biog of Picasso with an original drawing on the fly by Penrose, signed, and a limited first edition of Andre Breton's 'Les Vases Communicants'. All of a very respectable value. Can't find a thing like it nowadays - I guess people can look up the value of this stuff too easily and price it accordingly!

[Dmitry]

This is my 'find of 2010', also from eBay, which went pretty much under the radar of other collectors and dealers, perhaps due to the somewhat esoteric characteristics of it. It's a ca.1650 dish hilt rapier, possibly English, with a rarely-seen style of hilt. It's amazing to find a piece like this in uncleaned, unmolested, 'estate fresh' condition. I will be conserving it, which will take some time. This was a very exciting find for me!

Is a rapier a weapon of war, or a weapon for dueling? Or both? And what does it weigh?

Rapier developed in the 16th c. as a weapon of costume, self-defense and dueling. It was lighter than the arming sword, and nicely balanced. As the c. progressed, the customary wear of daggers by the upper classes gave way to wearing swords, most often rapiers. In the second half of 16th c. duels with rapiers became near rampant, and numerous fencing schools opened all over Western Europe. Most of the fencing masters were from Italy, Spain and France. If my memory serves me right, somewhere around 6,000 nobles lost their lives to dueling in France during the reign of Henry III. At the end of 16th-turn of 17th. rapier-hilted broadswords came to be used by officers and men of various European armies. These swords had hilts similar to rapiers, but were mounted with much beefier 'cut and thrust' blades.

From the middle of 17th c. rapiers gradually fell out of fashion, and were replaced by much lighter and less cumbersome smallswords.

This particular piece has a 85 cm. blade, which doesn't appear to have been shortened. Normally one would expect to see 100+ cm. long blades, and 120 cm. wouldn't be unique.

It weighs 630 g.

[Dmitry]

On 12/30/2010 at 6:31 PM, Brownian Motion said:

I was perusing the book listings on ebay, looking for art books, and came upon someone selling a portfolio of signed graphics from thirty of the heavy-hitters of New York art world of the 1970s--Twombley. Warhol, Rauchenberg, Noland etc.; it was being sold as a book, and the description said nothing about artist signatures. To make a long story short I bought it for the opening bid, 30.00, a dollar a print, and within a week of receiving it in the mail I dispatched it to Rago Auction House; it will appear in their post WWII art auction in May with a starting bid in the 6 to 9 thousand dollar range.

How did you do with that portfolio?

[BFrank]

Don't remember seeing this topic before.

I have my father's camera collection, which I have been selling off for a couple of years, so not in the "acquiring" mode right now. But I've decided to keep quite a few of the most interesting and valuable pieces for myself. In the process of researching and selling on ebay, I've learned quite a bit about vintage and antique photographic equipment and really appreciate the progression of technology over the past 150 years or so. I have pieces that span that entire timeline.

Needless to say some of my favorite pieces are Leica and Zeiss models, but there are MANY others that are amazing, too.

[jazzbo]

I collect guitars, though I'm not really a guitar player. I just love the wood, the interaction of the mechanical elements, the sounds. This year I picked up my first arch top, an Epiphone ES-125 Premium, at half price (only way I could justify it) and really enjoy the sound and feel. It has real Gibson pickups in it, which made the guitar "premium" and a real deal at half price, and these work perfectly with my two most often used amps, a Fender Jazzmaster Ultra-light SE prototype and my Fender Bassman TV Fifteen. So it's the one non music (well, not recordings or stereo hardware) purchase I'm most excited about.

[Jim R]

The Epi sounds like a nice addition to your collection, Lon.  It's often fun and rewarding when you switch gears and try something different (an archtop, in this case).  I had sort of the reverse experience about ten years ago, when I got a Strat after not owning a solidbody for decades.  I've also been enjoying the "semi-hollow" experience again with a couple of instruments I acquired in recent years (see below).

I've never tried the Bassman TV 15, but I'll bet I would like it.  Many of my favorite amps in the past had 15" speakers, and my favorite since the early 90's has been my 4x10 Bassman ('59) reissue.

I replied to this topic in 2010, but it didn't occur to me to really respond to the original question.  I definitely have a collector gene, and guitars are also my primary interest in that regard.  I got interested in guitars as more than just musical tools somewhere around 1980, when I bought my first "vintage" Gibson- a 1964 Barney Kessel regular model.  The look, the feel, the sound, the smell (yes, the smell)... it began a love affair with guitars which has continued to the present.  I've owned a couple dozen since then (never more than about five or six at a time), many of them too expensive to keep if I wanted to try something different, so I've done a lot of buying and selling and trading.  I was lucky to get started in the 80's, before prices really started to get crazy.  To me, many guitars are works of art that your senses can engage with beyond just using your eyes.  I do use my eyes a lot, though.  For years I have been finding and saving vintage guitar images online, putting them in a folder and using them as the screensaver on my Mac.

My actual guitar "collecting" has slowed down, mainly because I have been fortunate enough to acquire some wonderful instruments that pretty much have me content and satisfied (and less inclined to risk upsetting my wife with any more big investments).  Coincidentally, it was in 2010 that I bought one of my favorite guitars (a sort of "ancestor" of Lon's new acquisition), a 1962 Epiphone Sheraton.

Here are four of my six.  From left to right...

1963 Gibson L5CT(ES), a rare thinner-body L5 originally created for comedian George Gobel;  1966 Gibson L5CN (custom ordered with a classic "Charlie Christian" pickup);  1962 Epiphone Sheraton (a "semi-hollow" instrument, with a solid block of maple through the center of the body);  and a 1960 Gretsch Country Gentleman (refers to the original design collaborator and endorsing artist, Chet Atkins).  The Gretsch has a somewhat unique internal construction, referred to as "trestle bracing", which makes it sort of a cross between a fully hollow archtop and a traditional "semi-hollow" like my Sheraton).

[jazzbo]

Those are great guitars, I've always admired the guitars you've shared. I don't own any vintage guitars except an Ovation Breadwinner, an early one with single-ended pickups. Otherwise my guitars and basses are from this century.

I do have two guitars I'm proud of that I had made for me by a luthier Troy Post, both are inspired by Doug Irwin's "Wolf," one with the same Garcia chosen pickups and a Fender scale, and one a Gibson scale with jazzy humbucker pickups. I really like them, and they are the only two guitars I've named, "Lobo" and "Loco." And I have two Strats I love, one a Custom Shop Classic Strat and one a Warmoth Strat with a black limba body and a wenge neck, two Cool Rails and a Hot Rail, and no tone controls, just three volume controls with switching allowing coil-tapping on each pickup. Fantastic tone machine. I concentrated on solid body guitars and Fender scale for my first decade of collecting.

The Fender TV Bassman Fifteen I didn't expect to like as it's a hybrid tube/digital amp but it's the most versatile amp I have giving me great sound for my guitars AND my basses. I too have a '59 Bassman reissue, great amp but since I got the FIfteen it's not gotten much use and has been in storage a year and a half. . . . I have too many amps, I guess that's not really a problem!

I do want another arch top though in time.  . .I'd like to investigate a Guild with a floating pickup.

Edited January 9, 2017 by jazzbo

[BFrank]

I envy you guys with room to collect guitars. I live in a condo and I barely have enough room for 3 in the corner of my guest bedroom. So, I don't consider myself a collector of guitars - just enough to provide different playing experiences. I have a MIM Telecaster, a Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster and a Parker PM-20 Pro (sort of a Les Paul style).

I also have my old childhood Tele from the 60s, which would probably be worth something except that the body had been re-shaped when I bought it. It also needs significant other work.

[Mark Stryker]

First edition of James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son." Fine condition with dust jacket. Got it at a great antiquarian bookstore I visit every year in Hallowell, Maine.

[jazzbo]

Brooks, don't envy me. I collected WHEN I had space and no longer have it, I now have a storage space for books, instruments, stereo equipment and discs that costs me money I can't afford each month and despite a motivation to please my wife and divest myself of all these I find it very hard and very frustrating. Better to have the space for three and enjoy those three (and those are a nice three to have though I'd HAVE to have a Strat in place of the Tele. . . I'm just not a Tele man, definitely a Strat man.)