We've received a supply at the MagSampler.com newsstand of last week's Antiques And The Arts Weekly, a very impressive publication from The Bee Publishing Company in Newtown, Connecticut. It's a large tabloid newspaper of 160 pages, each 11 by 16 inches, and crammed with articles, pictures and advertisements about art, antiques and collectibles of all kinds. It's a prodigious ongoing publishing achievement!
A lengthy article starting on the front page of that January 19 issue provides an appropriate introduction to the world of serious collecting. It's about a new book, Expressions of Innocence and Elegance: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana. Jane Katcher is a Florida-based radiologist who's been collecting American paintings, weathervanes and other folk art for years. The book explains how she got interested in the subject, where and how she accumulated her impressive collection, and of course offers lavish illustrations of the objects themselves.
I can imagine Dr. Katcher and other collectors spending happy hours devouring the contents of Antiques And The Arts Weekly, scanning its articles and ads for news of upcoming auctions and gallery exhibitions, reading reports of prices gained at completed auctions, and exploring all sorts of tangents leading from their main interests to other areas.
While the editorial content and advertising in the publication focus on the Northeastern United States — from New England down through New York — there's substantial national and international coverage as well. For instance, there are a couple of articles, and more than 20 photos, from a huge antiques fair held in December at a former RAF base in Newark, England.
The variety of objects discussed or advertised in the pages of Antiques And The Arts Weekly is wide indeed. In this issue I found Marilyn Monroe's autograph on a letter accepting the terms of her first radio appearance in 1947; a circa 1765 Philadelphia Chippendale chair that was given by Benjamin Franklin to his daughter; a monumental four-piece bedroom set with a bed that measures 10.5 feet in height; a collection of old patent medicine bottles from the 19th century (contents included); an on-line auction of artifacts from Harry Houdini and other classic magicians; and autographed palm prints from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Babe Ruth. Great Men just don't do that anymore.
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