Collectors eager to get hands in (or on) these cookie jars Wyeth`s

A u c t i o n & C o l l e c t i n g N e w s pa p e r
Nation al Section
Vol. 47. Issue No. 2342
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T h e W e e k ly A n t i q u e
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AntiqueWeek
July 7, 2014
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Collectors eager to get hands Letters from famous give
in (or on) these cookie jars
glimpse into their thoughts
FREEMAN, Mo. —
Cookie jars are on a
resurgence.
And Auctioneer Kent
Mickelson – a national King
of Cookie Jars – is ready.
On July 12, starting at 11
a.m. at Mickelson Auction
Center in Freeman, about
25 miles south of Kansas
City, 489 top lots of cookie
jars will go up for sale.
Above: Three of the many highlights in the July 12 Mickelson Auction
Many of the lots come Center cookie jar sale include a 1950s American Bisque Little Audrey, a
from two collectors with Helen Hutula Tat L Tale from the late 1940s and another choice piece
more than 25 years’ from the 1950s, the Regal Drum Majorette.
experience in the field,
buying some of the rarest and unique jars in existence.
Mickelson, who has been an auctioneer for nearly 30 years, began selling cookie jars in 1995. He
expects a good draw at the July 12 sale.
“I’ve been getting calls from all over the country,” Mickelson says. “I think in the last year, there
has been a resurgence of interest in cookie jars.
Mickelson should know of what he speaks. In the past, the small town of Freeman (pop. 485) has
seen license plates on cars from as many as 20 states pour into Mickelson’s auction for the unique
selection of jars.
There’s a lot of action at a cookie jar auction, Mickelson said.
While selling a Shawnee Smiley Clover Bloom for $6,750, a record at the time, he watched an
unexpected reaction from the happy consignor.
The Smiley jar came from the collection of the late Ermagen and Earl Westfall, who amassed
more than 4,000 cookie jars.
“As the Smiley jar was climbing, Mr. Westfall, Earl, who used a walker to get around, edged up
closer and closer to the edge of his chair. When the hammer went down at $6,750, I swore he jumped
up and threw his canes, shouting ‘hallelujah’ and danced a jig.”
Mickelson said there may be other such antics, given the quality of the cookie jars. Many of the
lots come from noted cookie jar collector Barbara Crews, longtime editor of the Cookie Jar Digest.
The other consignor is collector Nancy Allen.
Highlights include earlier productions including the American Bisque Little Audrey jar, a Helen
Hutula Tat L Tale and Regal Drum Majorette, in addition to at least three American Bisque
Flasher jars.
There are also a host of character cookie jars, including Jacqueline Kennedy pink pillbox hat jar,
Elvis and an abundance of Disney characters and comic book heroes.
Contact: (816) 507-6960
www.mickelsonauction.com
By Eric C. Rodenberg
CALABASAS, Calif. — Three hundred – or so – years from now, how will
historians record our current era?
There won’t be handwritten or typed letters from soldiers on the war
front. Those are all digital.
There won’t be tangible photographs. Those are in cyberspace. Music,
books, even movies – all of our recorded culture – is archived as 1s and 0s.
How susceptible is such data to hackers, terrorist cells, wars and worldshattering events?
These are questions Joseph Maddalena, owner of Profiles in History and
a noted authority on historical documents, often mulls.
“Material on the Internet doesn’t last forever, at least that’s what I’m
told,” Maddalena said. To think that documents in cyberspace will last as
See Profiles in History on page 3
Above: Not all letters flatter. Although a literary genius, Ernest Hemingway was
fraught with an array of personal problems that may be seen in the archieve of
eight personal letters, in addition to Life magazine. The letters capture some of his
more turbulent moments leading up to his divorce from journalist Martha Gellhorn.
Wyeth’s windows meant to awaken viewer’s emotions
By Ginger Levit
Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) had a passion
for windows; he liked to paint them from
every vantage point. Whether looking out on
a windy day or looking in from the outside at
one focal point or at an entire room – every
window that the artist painted had a story to
tell. The National Gallery of Art is currently
showing 60 Wyeth paintings, drawings and
tempera; a window is featured in every one of
them. The exhibition Andrew Wyeth: Looking
Out, Looking In is a celebration of a
magnanimous, recent gift to America’s
national museum.
He lived to the age of 91, and during his
lifetime, Wyeth painted at least 300 paintings
with windows. Wind from the Sea, an early
masterpiece, was painted in 1947. It was the
second Wyeth painting to be painted in
tempera – an egg yolk, pigment and waterbased material. Wyeth usually considered the
tempera version to be his final statement
regarding whatever subject he was working
on. The painting entered the NGA collection
See Wyeth Exhibit on page 9
Left: Frostbitten, 1962. Watercolor on paper. The
window became a metaphor for going below the
surface, searching for a deeper meaning to realism.
(© Andrew Wyeth. Private Collection)
July 7, 2014
Profiles in History
From Front Page
long as the Dead Sea Scrolls parchment
or even prehistoric cave paintings is
questionable.
“It’s just not the same,” Maddalena
says. “The best way to read someone’s
thoughts is in the letter they write to
friends and associates. If you want to
know more about George Washington,
the best way is to read his letters. Much
of the story may be told on how, where or
when something occurred. But, to get to
the why, the intimate details, and this
undistilled part of history, you go to
their letters.
“During the Civil War when soldiers
were fighting eye-to-eye, their letters
gave us the horrors of combat, the fear
and, many times, characterizations of
the leaders,” Maddalena said. “But,
today with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
the letters are a thing of the past. Some
of their great history is already gone.”
Great thought – and a sense of private
intimacy – went into the construction of
a letter 100 years ago, according to
Maddalena “News traveled extremely
slow 100 years ago,” he said. “There was
a pride in penmanship, and they thought
about what they put to paper because it
was so much more difficult to edit.
“A letter going from, say, New York to
San Francisco could take up to six
months. It probably went by train part
way, maybe Pony Express. Getting a
return letter took as long, at least three
to four months, which made the letter a
more precious commodity. Now, today,
it’s one of the last vestiges into more
insight of our past.”
Born into a family of “old school”
antique dealers in Rhode Island, Joseph
Maddalena organized his first baseball
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card show at 12 years old. After that
successful showing, Maddalena branched
out to comic book conventions as well.
By the age of 14, he had amassed more
than 1 million baseball cards, thousands
of autographs and more than 100,000
comic books and original pieces of art.
In 1980, as an undergraduate at
Pepperdine University, Maddalena
turned to buying and selling historic
documents to support himself. Scouring
old bookstores in Hollywood (most of
them gone today), he found letters and
rare books from famous authors,
including Dashiell Hammett, Ernest
Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John
Steinbeck and Raymond Chandler.
Those letters and books from these
authors – all of whom had ties to
Hollywood at some point in their career
– fetched good prices on the East Coast.
Upon his graduation from Pepperdine,
he realized a career in broadcasting was
not in the stars, so he opened Profiles in
History in 1985. From there, his
inventory grew to include historical
material dating from the Revolutionary
War through contemporary world events,
including arts and sciences to U.S.
presidents, aviators, explorers, the Wild
West, business leaders, literature and
Hollywood icons.
“Our (letter) buyers are probably not
as visual-oriented; they’re more
interested in content,” Maddalena said.
“They’re probably more cerebral, maybe
higher educated. They know their
material and, I think, they’re more
interested in ownership and stewardship
of a great piece of history. They’re not
collecting as investors.
“Myself, I believe these books and
private letters are relatively undervalued.
There’s really not enough material and,
although discoveries are made, they still
Above: Louis Armstrong writes words of encouragement to a young budding trumpet
player in 1970, among his three letters and
autographed photo up for auction. In another letter, he even offers a diet plan "Lose
Weight the Satchamo Way" to a friend.
are somewhat limited. In the past, it’s
been old school collecting, going from one
collector to another. But, how do you put
a value on a letter signed by Gen. George
Washington from his winter headquarters
in Valley Forge?”
Such is the case in Profiles in History’s
July 11 auction, in which several of
Washington’s letters are offered,
including such a letter signed by
Washington as the Commander in Chief
to a subordinate officer dwelling on the
repercussions from the cruel winter at
Valley Forge. The two-page letter carries
a $15,000-$25,000 pre-sale estimate.
The Washington letter and other
historical lots are part of the fourth
auction of property of a “distinguished
American private collector.” The
collector, who Maddalena said is “a
household name in his industry,” doesn’t
want his name attached to the collection.
“He was concerned that articles about
the collection would be more about him,”
Maddalena said. “He wanted the focus to
be on the collection, not him.”
The past three auctions from this
collector of antiques, fine art, historic
items and more have generated $11.5
million. The July 11 auction of 112 letters
will not disappoint.
“This guy has been collecting for 30
years, and he buys nothing but the best of
the best,” Maddalena said.
One of the highlights of the auction
Left: Profile in History owner Joseph Maddalena, a noted authority on historical documents, wonders how history will record
our era 300 years from now. They certainly
won't have the benefits of initimate letters,
illustrating the writer's thoughtful concerns
and inner emotions.
National Section – Page 3
Above: Samuel Langhorne Clemens in one
of his letters divulges how he came up with
his pen name Mark Twain ... “…..but to
state in a word, I took the name from the
leadsman’s cry: it mean’s 2 fathoms, 12
feet….”
should be the manuscript speech signed
by President Thomas Jefferson in 1808
addressed to the Chiefs of the Cherokee
Nation.
Addressing the Native Americans as
“My Friends and Children Chiefs of the
Cherokee Nation,” the four-page speech
was made on the heels of the Louisiana
Purchase. Jefferson pleads for peace
between the Indians and the white man,
as new white settlers continue to push
the tribes farther west beyond the
Mississippi River.
“The Mississippi now belongs to us; it
must not be a river of blood,” Jefferson
wrote. “It is now the water path along
which all our people of Natchez, St. Louis,
Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and
the western parts of Pennsylvania &
Virginia are constantly passing, with
their property to & from N. Orleans.
Young men going to war are not easily
restrained.”
As an example of Jefferson’s eloquence,
the pre-auction estimate for this speech
manuscript is $150,000-$250,000.
The sale also offers an autographed
manuscript laboratory notebook, with
sketches, logging Thomas A. Edison’s last
experiments for finding alternate organic
sources for the production of rubber
automotive tires, per the requests of
industrialists Henry Ford and Harvey
Firestone.
The 121-page laboratory notebook,
detailing the inventor’s experiments from
October 1927 to January 1928 featuring
handwritten notations from Edison, is
expected to sell for $50,000 to $75,000.
Included in the auction are several
letters from second President John
Adams, Author Samuel Langhorne
Clemens (revealing how he came upon
the pen name “Mark Twain), several
letters from Civil War soldiers, several
letters from Ernest Hemingway (giving a
view into his more turbulent moments
including insinuations of debauchery that
would lead to his divorce from journalist
Martha Gellhorn), and other disparate
letter writers as Victor Hugo, Nikita
Khrushchev, British Admiral Horatio
Nelson, Louis Pasteur and more.
And, to think, if an Internet had existed
several hundred years ago, would these
inner thoughts, historical insights and
intimate emotions be captured for
prosperity?
“I’m not saying it’s right or wrong,”
Maddalena says. “It’s just going to be
different.”
Contact: (310) 859-7701
www.profilesinhistory.com
Left: "The Property of Distinguished American Private Collector, Part IV" will certainly
run the gamut among historical figures and
celebrities. This sample offering illustrates
letters from baseball legend Ty Cobb, third
President Thomas Jefferson and second
President John Adams.