All Hallow's Eve Costumes

It's Halloween Time Again

Here are some ideas from Better Homes & Gardens to inspire your Halloween Weekend party decorating using vintage items.

Search the V&A Collection Online

The Victoria & Albert Museum has announced that over one million records detailing objects in its collections are now available online. Using Search the Collections, anyone can find images of more than 100,000 objects, with records that vary from detailed curator notes to basic inventory information on the maker, provenance or style. Visitors can look up whether an object is on display and where in the Museum it can be found. The database is live so will be updated and grow as new research and photography is carried out, objects are moved and new acquisitions made. Read ArtDaily article here.

World Record Price For Flag

"One of the last flags from the Battle of Trafalgar sold for a world record price on Trafalgar Day on Wednesday confirming that our patriotic love affair with the Union Jack is still going strong. The finely preserved 200-year-old Napoleonic Flag that flew from the jackstaff of HMS Spartiate sold for £384,000, more than 25 times its top estimate of £10,000-15,000, at Charles Miller Ltd in London." (BBC Homes and Antiques article here.)

Nefertiti Back On Show - But Not All Are Happy

The famous limestone and stucco bust of Nefertiti is back on display at the reopened Neues Museum in the heart of Berlin. However, Zahi Hawass, general secretary of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, who is a pioneer for the repatriation of Egyptian objects thinks it should come home. Read NY Times article here. In May this year, a German archeologist claimed it was a 19th Century fake. Read his claims (or conspiracy theory depending on how you look at it) here.

New Objectspace Exhibition Highlights Collections

'To Have and To Hold: Making Collections' is a new exhibition on at Objectspace, Ponsonby which explores the motivation behind collecting objects. 18 different collections are on display in the gallery including; Royal Copenhagen figurines, sunglasses, Winston Churchill memorabilia and contraceptive devices. Read review from the NZ Herald here.

A Deaccession Exhibition in England

It seems it is a time for deaccessioning at museums all around the world. This new exhibition at University College London lets the crowds decide what to keep and what should go. Pictured is 'Agatha Christie's Picnic Basket'. I am sure all collections have stacks of items with tenuous provenance, or none at all. Are they worth keeping the collection? Guardian article here.

Doreen Blumhardt Dies Age 95

Leading female potter Doreen Blumhardt has died aged 95. Read Dominion Post article here.

Alberton Almost Ready to Show Off New Facelift

The restoration of the Historic Places Mansion Alberton is almost finished. Read the latest NZ Herald article here.

Tales From Te Papa

I am probably the only one who has just learned about this bite sized tv series on TVNZ 6. Maybe it is because I am one of the very few New Zealanders without Freeview or Sky? Anyway the stories look great and you can watch them online here.

(image from Te Papa Blog: Riria Hotere and Simon Morton - your guides to NZ's cultural treasures in Tales from Te Papa)

A Roman Cameo Vase to Rival The Portland Uncovered

Bonhams are hailing a find of a rare Roman Cameo Vase as what "may be the most important of its kind in the world".

"These very rare vessels were highly artistic, luxury items, produced by the Roman Empire’s most skilled craftsmen. They are formed from two layers of glass – cobalt blue with a layer of white on top – which is cut down after cooling to create the cameo-style decoration.
Items of this kind were produced, it is thought, within a period of only two generations. They would have been owned by distinguished Roman families." There are only 15 known to exist.

Bonhams claim the vase it in better condition and with superior decoration to the Portland vase housed in the British Museum collection. (Portland left,Bonhams right). Read ATG article here.

$19,000 Portrait May be a £100m Leonardo

This portrait, sold as "German, early 19th Century" at Sotheby's in 1990 may in fact be a lost work by Leonardo Da Vinci. Using new scientific techniques a fingerprint that is "highly comparable" to a fingerprint on a Vatican work was found. Read ATG article here.

Another Artist More Famous After Death

America's most famous Victorian gothic author has been given a well attended funeral in Baltimore 160 years after his death. His funeral in 1849 was witnessed by only a handful of people. Read the BBC article here.

This reminds me of a great story on America's Antique Roadshow about this Poe daguerreotype (illustrated) that came in for appraisal on the show. Purchased for $96 in Walnut, Iowa it was appraised at $30,000 - $50,000. However, it was a find too good to be true and became more complicated once the FBI became involved. Read the story on the Roadshow website here.

Antique Dealer Sick of Appraising Smurf Collections

I hope you are aware of The Onion - there is always truth in satire. I am sure I have seen Smurfs at auction here in New Zealand.

Photographs From Petite Chose

An updated look for vintage studio portraits. See more on her Flickr page here.

More Crazy Toy Prices!

This c.1912 Märklin fire engine toy sold for US$130,000 against a $40,000-50,000 estimate as part of the Donald Kaufman toy collection at Bertoia Auctions in New Jersey.
Fewer than five examples toy are known to exist of this live-steam fire engine, considered by many to be the ultimate in Märklin craftsmanship. (Antiques Trade Gazette)

Merchant Ivory Collection To Sell

James Ivory is selling around 300 objects that belonged to his companion and business partner, Ismail Merchant, who died in 2005 at Christie's London this week.

Mr. Merchant collected antiques obsessively and eclectically for 40 years. The items were kept in apartments in Mumbai, London, Paris and New York in addition to a country house in upstate New York. Some items were used on their movie sets.

Items include Indian furniture, paintings and ceramic pieces. The sale is catalogued online on Christie's website here.

V&A's New Ceramic Galleries

"Take a glimpse of the museum's redeveloped collection" here. (Guardian)

Samson The T-Rex Fails to Sell in Vegas

The T-Rex skeleton offered for auction in a Las Vegas fossil sale did not make the $6 million mark. Bonhams & Butterfields are negotiating with buyers as many institutions found it hard to come up with the large amount of money needed to buy it. The rest of the sale sold well. Read full Herald article here.

Children and Their Toys

Here is Some of His Work

Further to the introduction yesterday here are a few examples of Mr Karch's work featuring; rolling pins, vintage cake moulds, linen, greeting cards and bakelite.(via Apartment Therapy)