Have you ever wondered how old your Steinway piano is? An antique is classified as something over 100 years old. You can read more about the differences between antique and collectibles in the article differences between antiques, collectibles, and vintage item. Steinway has been in business for around 150 years making only 50 years worth of pianos antiques. To find the age of your Steinway piano please see the Steinway chart below. Continue reading ››

For years now when my Mechanical music friends, mentors, collogues, and myself get together for meetings and other events there is a subject that always comes up. That is the effect eBay is having on them and the antique world. This conversation on antiques always starts out the same way. They start talking about how good the prices for antiques were in the early 1990's. From about 1989 to early 1997 antique prices where the best ever seen. Then the year 1997 came along. This is when the antique market would be changed forever. The launch of eBay was also the death of the common antique market. Continue reading ››

Amazing Fantasy; #15; Marvel, 1962; milestone issue describing the origin and first appearance of Spider-Man. The story starts out a teenage nerd at New-York University is observing a science experiment on the new radiation technology when unexpectedly he gets bitten on the hand by a spider. Continue reading ››

Online appraisal/valuation differs from traditional appraisals because of geographical distance and lack of direct physical inspection of the subject property. The inability to inspect creates assignment conditions that are restrictive. These restrictive conditions do not prevent doing a credible appraisal. Continue reading ››

There are many auction houses around the world and each with different criteria on what they will take in for consignment. There are a few questions you should ask yourself before choosing an auction. In this article I will go over some of them and provide some tips to help you in your choice. Continue reading ››

Thomas Edison's work on two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone as a result of this the phonograph was invented. In 1877, Edison was working on a machine that would transcribe telegraphic messages through indentations on paper tape, which could later be sent over the telegraph repeatedly. This development led Edison to wonder if a telephone message could also be recorded in a similar fashion. He experimented with a diaphragm which had an embossing point and was held against quickly-moving paraffin (wax) paper. Continue reading ››

The Edison opera was introduced in November 1911. This superior Edison phonograph was said to have given the best sound of any cylinder or disc machine. This phonograph had a horn-reproducer assembly which made it immobile. The cylinder would move under the stylus. This would produce very little mechanical noise. The reproducer was suspended over the cylinder record by its own output tube. This tube was held in the neck of the horn support by a knurled screw. To play a cylinder record you would just press one lever that would make the motor start and the needle drop down. Continue reading ››

The Victor Talking Machine Company was founded by Eldridge Johnson in 1901, and quickly became a main player in the quickly growing phonograph market. Johnson had been active in the phonograph business as a motor supplier for several years earlier, and had learned an immense deal about the emerging home entertainment market. At the turn of the century, all phonographs used a large external horn to "amplify" the playback sound. Although this system worked quite well, the stark horn tended to dominate the average parlor, and many people felt that this created an unattractive appearance. In addition, the horn was quite prone to being bumped or damaged. Continue reading ››

There have been many types of furniture styles over the years. When a style would make it's entrance into the market it was almost immediately reproduced. There are many fake antiques out there and your best line of defense against them is to know the product you are buying and to do your research or to ask someone that does, to help you. In this article I have explained the different styles of furniture from 1700’s-present. Continue reading ››

Cookie jars like cookbooks offer endless variety. The plain 1930s era stoneware jars were ultimately replaced by figures of every type like fruits including a pineapple, hippos, lions, cartoon characters,  bears, windmills, houses, clowns, angels, leprechauns, barns, shapes and just about anything else you could picture. The initial figural cookie jars were decorated over their glaze with a cold paint, but by the 1940s an under glaze decorating technique was developed that produced bright, permanent colors. Continue reading ››