ANTIQUEHAVEN

I have an opportunity to purchase a painting by Henri Renard. Is his work worth anything? Renard is in a line of other French painters who sold their work to tourists who poured into Paris in the 1950's-1970's. Nearly all of the works you will find by Renard are Parisian street scenes. He did have these same themed paintings sent to galleries in the US for sale. Renard, according to a bio on the back of one of his works, was born in 1920. Little to nothing is known of  his full biography.  Auction records show that his paintings have reached the $600-800 range, however, recent records from the past 4-5 years, show his paintings selling for about $100-150. As I have stated in previous blog articles, I am not an art expert, but, I have noticed what appears to be a decline in the interest of these Parisian street scenes as I have handled quite a few of them and noticed a downward trend. 

Is this Fiesta? If not can you please tell me what pattern it is? This is the Harlequin Pattern made by Homer Laughlin, the same company that made Fiesta. Harlequin was sold exclusively through F.W. Woolworth Co. The Pattern was made from 1938-1964.

I believe this to be a military dog tag. Can you tell me which war? You are correct, it is a WWI Era ID Dog Tag. It was for a member of the 94th Aero Squadron.  It is worth around $20, but, could fetch a little more.

I recently acquired this Cookie Jar and cannot find anything about it on the internet. It is marked underneath, but, hard to make out. Join the club ! You have a rare and early cookie jar made by Kellems-Pasadena, a fairly obscure California Pottery that was in existence in the late 1940's into the mid-1950's. You will not find this jar in any of the 3 leading cookie jar books, nor the California Pottery Books. It is an attractive jar and appears to be well made. The 1953 copyright date makes this a fairly early jar. Cookie Jars were largely a post WWII phenomena.  At first glance, it reminds you of Winnie the Pooh, but, there are no copyright markings to justify that thought. Nonetheless, I would think this to be a desirable guy that should be worth a couple few hundred dollars to a cookie jar fanatic. Kellums made a specialized figural cookie jar based on a comic strip character around that same time and it brought over $400 at auction. We will keep an eye out for whe...

Can you please give me the value of this Antique Ansonia Mantle Clock? Your late 19th c Cast Iron Ansonia Mantle clock would sell for around $120-160 at live auction. This is based on 3 examples of the same clock that have sold since 2008. These heavy cast clocks have stayed fairly firm in value for 20 years and they will probably remain in that range in the foreseeable future.

I believe another mystery has been solved. I have an 8.5" platter with a Bi-Plane Logo with the initials "A.C.C." The Restaurant Ware Collectors Network chatroom has someone who I believes hunch is correct in identifying the piece as coming from The Aviation Country Club of Detroit, which was located in West Bloomfield Township.  In 1920, The Detroit Aviation Club led by prominent Detroit automobile magnates, early aviation promoters and WWI army flying corps veterans backed the purchase of 823 acres of land surrounded by 3 lakes in Oakland County (Flanders, Green and Union Lakes) from auto assembly line pioneer, Walter E Flanders estate. The land purchase cost $750,000 with the whole project estimated at $2 million. On this property would be a clubhouse, golf course, air strip, horse stables, ballroom, airplane hangers, guest rooms and more. The air strip would be 3,000 x 2,000 feet. The hangers would hold up to a club fleet of 20 planes. The lakes would offer a perfe...

I collected cards for over 45 years.  I was given this card to me by my great grandfather over 40 years ago.  I have been searching for years to determine if there are others out there. No one at any show could ever produce one that was similar or close. This may be one and only. I have had many offers over the years. But I could not part with this card. What do you think it is?  Any help appreciated.  This is an uncatalogued, 4 in 1 card, made for/by Universal Toy & Novelty Co out of Chicago, ILL. A 6 in 1 card has also been found. In 1925, Universal Toy & Novelty distributed catalogued (W504) team sets of strip cards of The Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Giants and Washington Senators. This grouping of 4 in 1's, similar to the later 1935 Goudey 4 in 1's, is not listed in the Standard Catalog of Vintage Baseball Cards.  At a minimum, Universal Toy put these cards in a "Universal Surprise Box" toy, which was full of little...