KOVELS
Kovels Antiques: Spice boxes were vital item for food safety 
Spices were an important part of cooking in the days before refrigeration was available in most homes. Meat and fish were smoked, pickled, peppered, salted or treated with combinations of spices that kept the food from rotting.
By Terry Kovel , July 01, 2011
Kovels Antiques: Ayer’s items remain popular with collectors
Deceptive advertising has been a problem for centuries. The “cures” of Victorian times were promoted with posters, trade cards, almanacs, recipe books, calendars and other testimonials.
By Terry Kovel , April 22, 2011
Kovels Antiques: Unusual articles of furniture often uncomfortable
Should a chair be a “conversation piece” or be comfortable? Twentieth-century designers’ chairs can be either, but they’re rarely both.
By Terry Kovel , April 15, 2011
Kovels Antiques: Collectors pay well for older garden gnomes
Gnomes have gone from kitsch to fabulous since they became animated movie stars in “Gnomeo and Juliet.” But they have been used in gardens since the mid-18th century.
By Terry Kovel , April 08, 2011
Kovels Antiques: Old decorative bottles draw collectors’ interest
Bottles can be labeled with paper labels, painted (pyro) labels, embossed lettering or, most unusual of all, labels under glass.
By Terry Kovel , March 18, 2011
Kovels Antiques: One person’s kitsch another’s idea of stylish
"Kitsch” is a term that refers to something that’s overly sentimental or vulgar or in just plain poor taste. Paintings on velvet of Elvis Presley, plastic pink flamingos and hula girl statues were all once considered kitsch – and laughable.
By Terry Kovel , February 25, 2011
Kovels Antiques: Alphabet plates often included strange images
Opinions change with time. Throughout the past 40 years, it has become popular to “think green.” But our ancestors had to hunt for food and killed buffalo, deer and passenger pigeons, making some species endangered and others extinct.
By Terry Kovel , February 18, 2011
Kovels Antiques: Toy monkeys remain popular for collectors
Iron toys made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are so interesting and attractive that they are collected today to be displayed as decorative objects on a shelf.
By Terry Kovel , February 04, 2011
Odd ‘whatsits’ made for farm, kitchen use
Unfamiliar objects used by our ancestors continue to confuse and amuse today’s collectors. “Whatsits” were a popular subject on television shows.
By Terry Kovel , January 28, 2011
Kovels Antiques: Role of comfort in furniture has seen changes
Before the 1850s, few chairs were made for comfort. Seventeenth and early 18th-century American chairs were designed with hard seats and straight backs, and few had arms. No slouching allowed. People were expected to sit up straight.
By Terry Kovel , January 21, 2011
Kovels Antiques: Felines always a favorite item in Galle pottery
Cats are favored over dogs when it comes to collecting. Those who devote sales to paintings, figurines and other depictions of animals find that sales are better for cats, then dogs, then horses, then chickens and roosters, followed by pigs and maybe frogs.
By Terry Kovel , January 14, 2011
Kovels Antiques: Designs embrace natural subjects
Daring designers created a new look for dinnerware, furniture and other household furnishings in the late 19th century. It was part of a new philosophy that promoted the power and importance of art and beauty.
By Terry Kovel , January 07, 2011
Kovels Antiques: Black Forest carvings popular
"Black Forest” is a term used to describe the elaborate, realistic wood carvings that were thought to be made in the Black Forest region of Bavaria, Germany.
By Terry Kovel , December 31, 2010
Kovels Antiques: Santa’s look has changed over the years
Santa Claus hasn’t always been a fat, jolly man with a beard and a red coat. He hasn’t even always lived at the North Pole. The Santa of today often is called the “Coca-Cola Santa” because he was first drawn in the 1930s for a series of Coke ads.
By Terry Kovel , December 24, 2010
Kovels Antiques: Tin toy market came from rise of middle class
Because the 19th-century industrial revolution resulted in new technology and the creation of a middle class, the invention of tin toys was possible and profitable.
By Terry Kovel , December 17, 2010
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