Actually it’s one month, two days, and one hundred and fifty-two years ago as I write this. We apologize for posting our Fourth of July article so late, but a big storm in June zapped our printer (which is also our scanner) and we’ve been on another road trip to New England that we just returned from. Consequently, we are acknowledging the Fourth of July in August.

I picked up this little ribbon at a flea market about a week or two before the Fourth of July this year. I paid about twenty dollars for it, and the picture of it pretty much explains what it is. It is just under seven inches in length.

What gives an antique value is often what it represents. There was a lot going on in and around Philadelphia leading up to the Fourth of July, 1863. Most importantly, Philadelphia and the rest of the United States were right in the middle of the Civil War.

The spring of 1863 had not been a good time for the Union forces. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia had won stunning victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Virginia. In June, his forces had entered Pennsylvania with the hopes of bringing the North to the peace table to end the war with a negotiated peace. This would have brought about an independent Confederate States of America.

There was a very real possibility that Harrisburg and Philadelphia would end up under Southern occupation. Philadelphia was shoring up its defenses and there were calls for more militia units to defend Pennsylvania.
Fortunately, as things were looking their darkest, Union forces finally checked Lee’s forces at the Battle of Gettysburg – about 100 miles west of Philadelphia. The three day battle, which took place on July 1,2,3, was not only the bloodiest battle of the war- it was the turning point. Lee’s forces never came that far north again.

As if that weren’t enough, the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi fell to the Union forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant on the Fourth of July, 1863. This opened up the Mississippi River to Union forces and split the confederacy in two. Vicksburg would not celebrate the Fourth of July again until World War II.

I doubt that the citizens of Philadelphia had been able to absorb all that had happened in just those few days, but there must have been a great sense of relief. When the “Friends of the Union” celebrated the Fourth of July, 1863 in Philadelphia, they were also celebrating the turning point of the war and one of the most important events in American history.

That’s a lot of history in one little ribbon found at a flea market.

The post A Patriotic Ribbon From 1863 Tells the Story of an Important Fourth of July appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Ration books are rather commonplace even after seventy years, but we liked this ration book envelope showing Uncle Sam rolling up his sleeves. It was a giveaway from Royal Crown Cola. Likewise, old bottles of ink aren’t hard to find, but it was fun to find Parker Quink ink for V-mail in its original box. The little flannel pennant with the nice patriotic graphics and the patriotic cardboard fan showing a WWII nurse were also little “finds.”

Among our better finds was the “Hi Buddy” ceramic soldier head. He turns up with some frequency on the antique circuit, but this example has nice, bright paint and only a few minor condition issues. He is marked “Hi Buddy” on the back of his shirt collar and is an early type of “Chia Pet.” The striations on his head are meant to grow a grassy form of hair! He was made by the Morton Pottery Company in Morton, Illinois.

We were immediately drawn to the cloth saluting soldier doll with a paper Shackman label on his back. He is eight inches tall and in excellent condition. He has wire arms and legs which make him very posable. He also has a Christmas tree hook through his cap, so he could be hung up. While he looks like a WWII G.I., he couldn’t possibly have been made during the war because the label says that he was made in Japan. This doll either predates the war by a few years or was made in the 1950’s after occupation ended. The Shackman Company started its toy and novelty business in 1898 and continues to this day so either date works. I’d like to think that this little guy was available for young wives and little sisters of soldiers to buy at the local Woolworth’s in 1942, but I don’t know for sure.

Last, but certainly not least, in our WWII acquisitions is Scrappy (Yard Bird), the Lucky Mascot. Thankfully, he has his original tag explaining that he was a “Service man’s pal” who could handle the annoying details like sassing the sergeant back. Without his tag, one would be left pondering the meaning of this painted pinecone with a weird attached head and boots! There is a patent serial number on the tag, but no company name, so who made Scrappy is a mystery. It was likely a very small company with a handful of employees or even a cottage industry that produced him. In the South, a yardbird is a chicken, and Scrappy could be a chicken. During WWII, “yardbird” was a slang term for a basic trainee because much of his time was spent out in the yards. My guess is that some creative entrepreneur who lived near an army post filled with new recruits came up with the idea of Scrappy. Whatever his origins are, I doubt too many Scrappys still exist. We’ve never seen one before, and that’s why he left his temporary home in a case in an antique mall in Missouri and came back with us.

The post 2014 Road Trip Blog: Scrappy the GI Mascot and Other WWII Collectibles appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Since that time I have added a few more examples to my collection which I would like to share with our readers.  I am still somewhat picky about what enters my collection, and I also remain somewhat cheap as well.  These three examples ranged in price from $25.00 to $40.00 and I think are among the best ones I have found.

I particularly like the one with the shoe painted on the side complete with “shine” lines on the toe included to exemplify the quality of their work.  Who wouldn’t want shoes with shine lines emanating from them?

I also like the one that wants to almost shame you into getting a shine.  I think the phrase, “Your Shoes are Showing” is a take-off on, “Your Slip is Showing,” something husbands would have to tell their wives before leaving the house in the morning in the 1930’s, 40’s or 50’s.  “Hav Ya Shind Em,” however, is the icing on the cake with this one. The bad spelling only adds to its charm.   I purchased this in Florida from a dealer who told me that this box had recently come out of the ghetto of Flint, Michigan.  I have no reason to doubt him.

The last one is painted silver to give it a classy look to go with the classy shine you would have gotten.  This is the box of an upscale establishment.  Either that or they were just using up a can of radiator paint.

I still feel that shoe shine boxes are great Americana and remain underpriced.  They are great folk art for the budget minded.

After each purchase, I still get the same question:  “Are you starting a new business?”

For more examples of shoe shine boxes, please see my first article right here on The Collector Gene.

The post Shoe Shine Boxes – Part II – More Shine Is Just Fine appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Today marks the 70^th anniversary of D-Day, a somber yet triumphant anniversary to be sure. Thousands of American troops became casualties as they stormed the beaches of Normandy in a successful effort to wrest control of Europe from Hitler and the Nazis. Thankfully, less than a year later, the war in Europe was over and democracy prevailed.

However, for nearly five years prior to that moment, all Americans were caught up in World War II. Sacrifices were made not only by the men and women in uniform but by ordinary citizens back home. When confronted with stressful circumstances, many human beings rely on humor to get through. Here, then, are some of the more humorous/fun ways that Americans dealt with the war in general, the European conflict more specifically and Adolf Hitler especially.

The term, “Kilroy Was Here” and the accompanying cartoon/caricature of a bald-headed man with a big nose peering over a wall or fence is well known even today. It became very popular with WWII GI’s. Research turned up no definitive explanation of Kilroy’s origin, so I’ll leave it be. But how can anyone not like this wooden Kilroy gag on its original card?

We found this in an antique shop in California two years ago. Notice that it says, “Kilroy IS Here.” That seems appropriate for the GI’s landing on the continent of Europe on June 6, 1944. Also note where the woman on the left has positioned her Kilroy.

“Put the Yanks in Berlin” is a simple marble game produced by Modern Novelties of Cleveland, Ohio. Though not dated, it is clearly from war time because the inside lid of the box mentions the strategy being pursued to defeat Hitler and the Axis in Europe. Clearly, the colorful graphics both inside and outside the box are what make this game desirable.

It was easy to direct a lot of anger at Adolf Hitler, but that also led to a lot of novelty items that poked fun at him being produced.

We’ve owned the “Let’s Pull Together” button for about 40 years now. It’s a great mechanical pinback that shows Uncle Sam with his sleeves rolled up hanging Hitler from a tree. When you move the little lever on the left side of the button, Hitler goes up and down on his rope.

Last but not least is the “Hotzi Notzi.” This novelty pincushion shows Hitler bending over with a large padded posterior ready to take some pokes.

World War II was no laughing matter, but Americans found ways to inject humor into the serious business of war, and that has made collecting WWII homefront items a lot of fun.

The post Fighting the War in Europe on the Homefront With Humor – Poking Fun at Hitler appeared first on The Collector Gene.

As an artist it is always my goal to own original art work from people I admire.  Of course, original art tends to get very expensive.  The two pieces I am showcasing today were relatively inexpensive, probably because they are unsigned, but their provenance is what I liked most.  They are a fascinating snippet of Disney history that a lot of people don’t know about, and kind of go against the family friendly, squeaky clean, Disney image.  This post is a little bit NSFW (Not Safe For Work since we don’t tend to post this kind of stuff on The Collector Gene).  You have been warned.  Don’t blame me if your boss catches you reading this nerdy article (Bet you never thought you would read Disney and NSFW in the same sentence!).

Disney animators worked long hours every day tirelessly animating those classic films of your childhood.  Sometimes those guys needed a break, and what did they do?  They drew pictures for fun.  It’s what working artists do.  They create art for someone else all day, and then in their time off they create art for themselves.  The Disney animators were known to draw caricatures of each other fairly regularly.  They would slip them under each other’s office doors to egg each other on, or comment on the events of a day.  These caricatures are highly sought after by Disney collectors, especially if they come from Disney’s Nine Old Men, his top group of animators from the 30’s- the 60’s.

I do not own one of these caricatures (though I happily would), but what I own is another fun tradition from the studios in the 40’s and 50’s.  Pinup drawings.  We all know the classic pinup girl paintings from the 40’s and 50’s.  Varga girls and Bette Page are well known today.  Well, the young men working at Disney Studios were just as fascinated by these paintings as any other red blooded heterosexual male of the time, but when they just drew them it happened to be with a Disney twist.

This one ain’t too naughty.  Well, on today’s standards it ain’t so bad.

Here’s the NSFW picture.  Again, not too bad on today’s standards but pretty racy for the time.

Okay okay.  Insert cartoon wolf howling and stomping his foot on the floor with his tongue hanging out.  Firstly, you might notice the holes in the edge of the paper.  These lovely ladies were drawn on perforated animation paper.  That’s the paper the guys at Disney had laying around.  These are beautiful quick sketches by a Disney artist who was happy enough with his work to add a little water color as well which makes them that much more beautiful and dynamic.  They have a ton of energy and life to them, where you can almost see their movement as they strike their permanent pose.  Clearly this artist was well versed in pinup imagery.

Unfortunately my Disney pinups are unsigned.  There is reference in the book “Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life” by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston (two of Disney’s Nine Old Men) that references artist Fred Moore drawing pinups in studio, but looking at his work I don’t think these are his.

I have seen a signed Ollie Johnston pinup on eBay once before, so we know more than one artist was drawing these pictures.  In fact the eyes on both of my drawings remind me of the eyes on the Centaurettes in Fantasia, which were animated by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, so it is possible one of them could have done these.  This is probably wishful thinking on my part, but I’ll tell myself it’s a possibility.  I can only attribute the works at this point, but it is fun to think an important animator could have worked on them.

I find these fictional portraits to be very beautiful and well executed.  Frankly, I see most pin up drawings and paintings that way.  I also love that they represent a seedier side to the Disney animator.  Yes, Disney animation is family friendly and made for “children of all ages”, but I don’t think the goal of the artists was ever to make things perfect and squeaky clean.  I think they were artists trying to create the best possible quality of work that was possible at the time they were working.  The family friendly nature of things was more for marketing to make the money to create such elaborate and beautiful animation.  I think just like most young men of their day, they enjoyed thinking about naked women as much as the next guy.  Remember, Playboy didn’t come out until the 50’s, and these drawing seem to predate dirty magazines.  What’s an artistic lad to do but to draw naked women for himself?  It was a simpler time.  No one associates Disney with gratuitous sex, which makes these pieces of Disney history all the more interesting to me.  They are proof that these guys were human and had normal human flaws and needs just like you and me.  I guess when you stare at pictures of cutesy animals all day, you gotta do something to bring yourself back to reality.

The post Disney Pin-ups. appeared first on The Collector Gene.

This month is the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I remember that day well, as does anyone else who happened to be alive at the time.

Perhaps it’s because I was a kid – in the fourth grade when Kennedy was elected in 1960 – that I remember his presidency better than those of many that have come after him. A lot happened in the less than three years that he was president, including the earliest manned space flights, the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, which was probably the scariest two-week period of my then short life.

I also remember the lighter side such as Jackie Kennedy’s tour of the refurbished White House and his famous press conferences which pre-empted the TV shows I was watching after school. At the time they called it “charisma,” and he certainly had it.

I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Memorial Library and Museum outside of Boston a couple of months ago. It’s a good place to go to get a feel for the history and also the style of the Kennedy White House through the numerous objects on display. I particularly enjoyed the “campaign” section.

So much has been written about JFK, from endless conspiracy theories about his assassination to the sometimes questionable conduct of his personal life, that time does not seem to have taken away our fascination of him. It’s hard to believe that he would be 96 years old if he were still alive today! One may also wonder what would have happened had he lived.

It’s no surprise that Kennedy is popular with collectors of political memorabilia. Here are some items that were available during his 1960 campaign and presidency.

Campaign buttons

Convention hat

Broadside advertising rally & coffee cup

Assorted figurines of Jackie, Caroline, and John-John plus  bottle stopper and salf & pepper set

Halloween masks of JFK & Jackie

Personalized autographed photo

Please NOTE: JFK was notorious for using secretaries and an “auto-pen” for autographs.

After studying samples of his handwriting at great length, I believe this to be a genuine autograph.

The post Collecting JFK – Fifty Years Later appeared first on The Collector Gene.

My apologies on the flash flare. This thing wasn’t easy to photograph!

It probably isn’t much of a secret that circuses would sometimes exaggerate in their advertising. A case in point is the subject of this article. Were the Giraffe-Neck Women from Burma really the “Greatest Educational Discovery of the Century”? I doubt it.

Were their necks really THAT long? I doubt that too.

Nevertheless this circa 1930 Ringling Brothers poster has great imagery and if I were a kid back then I would be pestering my parents to drag me to the circus ASAP!

Sometimes you have something so long that you start to take it for granted. This poster has been in our collection since 1975 when we purchased it at an antique show in Atlantic City. A dealer was selling off the contents of the “Merle Evans Circus Museum”. We purchased this and several other circus posters for five dollars each. This was by far the best one, so we had a frame specially made for it and it has been hanging on the wall in various locations ever since. Merle Evans, by the way was the band director of the Ringling Brothers circus for many years.

I haven’t checked values recently but I think it was a really good investment.

I wish I had bought more.

The post Giraffe-Neck Women from Burma Circus Poster appeared first on The Collector Gene.

Somehow, though, I think more Americans think of their Uncle Sam in April when the deadline to file taxes comes along. I think nearly every family has a relative like Uncle Sam. He always seems to want your money. He’s not too good at living within his means and before you know it, he’s back wanting more! But he is family and we all want him to succeed. He is the personification of the United States of America itself and we all have a stake in his future.

Uncle Sam doll made in Germany around the turn of the century.

The origin of Uncle Sam can be traced back to 1813 when Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York supplied beef for the army during the War of 1812. The barrels of beef were marked “U.S.” for the United States, but the soldiers began referring to them as “Uncle Sams”, a nickname for Samuel Wilson.

The image of Uncle Sam as we know him is attributed to Thomas Nast, the prolific political cartoonist of the nineteenth century who also gave us the image of Santa Claus. The most famous image of him, however, is attributed to James Montgomery Flagg, who created the Uncle Sam made famous on the World War I recruiting poster pointing sternly with the caption “I Want You”.

This plaster figure of Uncle Sam is dated 1917 and is captioned “Rollin ’em up,” referring to preparations to fight in World War I.

With his tall, lean and lanky physique matched by his colorful attire, Uncle Sam is a natural for collectors if you can find him out there in Collectorland. His popularity was at its peak from about the late nineteenth century (especially around the Spanish-American War of 1898) through World War II. He was usually portrayed in a positive light during that time when America was becoming a stronger and more influential player among the family of nations. During the Vietnam War he wasn’t quite so popular.

Uncle Sam pin tray from the early 20th century.

Poster from World War II

Artist-made figure of Uncle Sam in a Pickle. It’s hard to date exactly because historically Uncle Sam always seems to be in a pickle!

German candy container of Uncle Sam riding a rabbit. This well-detailed piece was probably made around the Spanish American War (1898).

Today the image of Uncle Sam can often be found in craft shops as a patriotic decoration. Unfortunately he is often portrayed with a Santa Claus type beard and moustache instead of the long thin beard grown only on his chin. How did the song go – “Don’t know much about history”!

Many of our Uncle Sam items were purchased back in the seventies and eighties. Today, finding them is difficult and can be expensive. As always with collecting, however, you never know what lies ahead at the next flea market, auction, or yard sale.

This flask is a souvenir from Canada during Prohibition when many Americans headed north to get a drink!

This Uncle Sam on a bicycle toy was made between the wars by the A. C. Gilbert Company. He would ride along a string moving his legs.

This decal is dated 1933 and reflects the optimism that the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt would soon put an end to the Depression.

This piece of “Uncle Sammy” sheet music is dated 1904 and shows Uncle Sam with a map of the U.S. and its territories, some of which were acquired at the end of the Spanish-American War.

The post Uncle Sam – He Collects From Us So Why Not Collect Him? appeared first on The Collector Gene.

I purchased this skull a few years ago at a Pennsylvania flea market.  I walked into the market with $52 in my wallet, which doesn’t usually go a long way at an antique flea market.  So of course I found this piece in the first booth I went in, and it was priced at $50.  Needless to say, I was frustrated.  I really liked the skull, but buying it would wipe me out before I was even finished my first row of dealers.  We were also going to check a few more flea markets and shops later that day, which made it even tougher to fathom spending all of my money immediately, especially on an object I knew nothing about.

At first I left it on the table and walked away figuring I would probably go back to buy it after I made sure that there was nothing I wanted more at the flea market.  However, a few minutes later and about half way down the second row of the market, I realized that I didn’t want to risk it.  I really liked the skull, and I knew I would be upset if someone else bought it while I was walking around.  The more I thought about it, the more I wanted it.  I cut back to the dealer’s booth again and bought it, and I have had no regrets about blowing all of my money in the first booth I went in at the flea market that day.  There was nothing else I wanted more, and in my opinion this piece would have been hard to top.  A lot of people like to collect what they know, but I find that the objects I tend to like best in my collection are the objects I didn’t know I needed until I saw them.  Some of the fun of collecting, to me, is finding an object you love, and then finding out you love it even more as you learn more about it.  The Le Macabre skull did that for me.

The Le Macabre skull is made out of plaster, with the name of its place of origin, Le Macabre, Meard Street SOHO, stamped into its forehead.  It is just about life-sized, though it is stylized and kind of elongated if you look at the skull from its side.  The back of the skull is flat and hollow, and the eye sockets are hollow as well.  It has a little metal hook imbedded in the plaster so you can hang it on the wall.  The skull is probably from the 1950’s, which is part of what made it appeal to me, and for some reason I like skulls, so it had double appeal.  The damage to his chin was there when I bought him, and even though I could totally restore it myself, I haven’t done it yet.  I don’t know why. Maybe sometimes I like to think that he received his battle scar in some really epic way and it is a part of his history.  He is a very intriguing advertising piece, and the more I learn about him, the more I love him hanging on my wall.

One of the biggest mysteries with the Le Macabre skull is this: How did it end up in the United States?  Le Macabre was a coffee and espresso bar in SOHO London.  This I knew when I bought the skull because it is stamped on his forehead, and I got an original postcard from Le Macabre with it.

I love this postcard.  The imagery is great, and it adds a sense of humor to the skull plaque.   I have it framed and hanging under the plaque on my wall.  None of this, however, explains why these two pieces crossed the pond and ended up in New Jersey, and the more I research Le Macabre, the more I still don’t understand how these two ended up here.

When I first went to research this piece on the internet back when I bought it, the only information I could find out at the time was that Le Macabre existed from the 1950’s through the 1970’s, and that it offered a place for London jazz musicians and rock musicians to perform.  There was also some reference to Orson Wells hanging out at Le Macabre, which I thought was pretty cool.  Le Macabre had coffin shaped tables and skeleton murals on the wall, but there was never any mention of skulls like mine hanging in the bar anywhere.  I was happy to know that Le Macabre played an integral part in the early history of jazz and rock n roll in England, but there were no pictures to help me understand what part my skull played in the bar.  Were there more than one?  Was it for decoration or a souvenir?  For several years I just assumed that I would never fully understand the skull plaque, but that was okay because I liked it, and I liked that it represented pre-British invasion rock and jazz in London.

It wasn’t until late last year that I decided to research my skull again, and a lot more information has surfaced on Le Macabre thanks to two British news reels, one from 1958 and one from 1959, that have since been posted to the internet.

The first newsreel I found in the internet was the 1958 newsreel called “It’s the Age of the Teenager”, and I couldn’t believe what I saw when I watched it.  If you go to the 00.32 minute mark right in the beginning of the film and look behind the bartender’s head, you will see a skull just like mine hanging on the wall!  Mystery solved!  Well, sort of.  If you keep watching through the rest of the “Le Macabre” section of the film, you will see several other skulls hanging up throughout the joint.  Some are used over light fixtures, and others are just hanging on the wall as decoration.  I still can’t believe that these films exist, and that through them I could finally learn in some capacity why my skull plaque exists.  The rest of the film is an interesting look at British teenagers in the 1950’s.  It doesn’t spend too much time in coffee bars outside of Le Macabre, but it is definitely worth watching and kind of funny by today’s standards.  Follow this link to the website for Pathe to watch the filmstrip.

The 1959 strip is in color and called “Look at Life: Coffee Bar”, and it shows Le Macabre at about the 07.01 minute mark.  If you look towards the ceiling in one of the early scenes, you might catch skulls like mine hanging up near the ceiling.  They are covering light fixtures that will make the eyes glow when they are lit.  The whole news reel is a rather interesting look into the rise of the coffee bar in London and its clientele and significance.  It is fascinating and worth watching if you want to learn more about the “coffee craze”.    Apparently there were dozens of coffee and espresso bars in SOHO in the 1950’s, but there were so many that it became difficult for them to thrive with all of the competition.  The “coffee craze” in London was certainly not a point in history on my radar before buying the Le Macabre skull, but this is why I love buying pieces of history that I know very little about until I get them home to research them.  You never know what you will find out.   Look at Life: Coffee Bar

Of course, there are still a lot of things I do not know about this skull and about Le Macabre.  I still don’t know if they sold these skulls as souvenirs or if my skull was salvaged when Le Macabre shut down in the 1970’s.  Are there many other skull plaques still in existence out there?  I have never seen another one, but then again, I am nowhere near London.  If anyone out there has any more information about this skull or Le Macabre itself, please share it on the comments section of this site.  I would love to know any information that I can get.

It is very rare to buy an object with very little information and to find out as much as I did from the Le Macabre skull plaque.  Most of the time you aren’t that lucky, and you are left to speculate as to the purpose of an object.  I certainly never could have dreamed that somewhere along the line someone, and in this case more than one person, would post video evidence of my find in its original context.  When we first started this website almost a year ago, I was planning on writing about the Le Macabre skull. However, because I knew very little about it, I was just planning to post a picture and what little bit I knew in hopes that somewhere along the line a person who knew more about it would comment on the site and I would have an answer.  Then the internet surprisingly answered a few of my questions for me.  It has been a fun ride so far figuring out the origins of Le Macabre and the little piece of it I hang on my wall and look at every day, but I have a feeling there is still a lot to learn.

Article Update:

Hey everyone!  This is the first time I have had the opportunity to update an article after gaining some valuable information on its subject matter from another passionate collector.  Hopefully this will be a trend!  Since posting my article about Le Macabre and my skull I was contacted by Del Fuller, another fan of Le Macabre who was actually fortunate enough to visit Le Macabre before it closed in the 70’s.  He and his friend Keith Ryan have supplied me with the following images of other Le Macabre memorabilia and were generous enough to let me share it with the internet.  Please enjoy!

This is a different post card made to promote Le Macabre.  Skeletons and naked ladies were kind of Le Macabre’s thing.

This is an original menu from Le Macabre.  They used the same image from my postcard on the cover.  It is kind of fascinating to see how they made changes to the menu by just crossing things off and adding other things in.

This is a smaller skull than mine measuring about 3″ by 2 1/4″.  We aren’t quite sure of its practical purpose, but it was used on the tables at Le Macabre and has “Saturday 17^th Jan 1959″ written in ink on the bottom.
We still aren’t sure as to whether they sold Le Macabre skulls or if patrons just swiped them, making Del, Keith, and I lucky enough to own what we have.  Either way, it is a fascinating place, and I am so grateful to learn from other collectors and fans about the objects I am passionate about.

The post The Le Macabre Skull appeared first on The Collector Gene.

This all happened a few years ago – 2005 to be exact, when through a happy turn of events Ben was able to secure tickets for all four of us to go to the “Roadshow”.  The bad news was that the closest event to us that year was in Providence, Rhode Island, about a seven hour drive away.  Even so, we weren’t about to pass up the chance to see our favorite show in person.  Since we knew the odds of getting on TV were less than one percent, we pretty much abandoned hope of making it to the little screen.  We figured the best thing to do was to use this experience as an opportunity to find out more about some of the stuff we were having trouble finding values for on our own.  We wanted to hear what the experts had to say.

One of the items we determined to be “Roadshow” worthy was our little Michelin statue. Purchased by Carol in 1987 for the grand sum of seven dollars, she found it at the yard sale of an auctioneer.  I received it as a birthday present that year.   Standing just fourteen and a half  inches tall, this little guy doesn’t look much like the cuter powdered doughnut version of Bibendum (yes, he has a name) that we see in commercials today.  Bibendum’s origins go all the way back to 1898 in France.  The Quaker Oats guy and Aunt Jemima have been around longer but they have human forms, they’re not made out of, well,  tires after all, nor do they smoke, drink and dance with women in their early ads either!  Leave it to the French to have an advertising icon with a true joie de vie!  Indeed, Bibendum, by the way, is Latin for “drink to be done”!  He was sort of the bad boy of early advertising icons!  Like all bad boys, however, that made him kind of cool.

We arrived at the Rhode Island Convention Center at about 8:30 that June morning and were greeted at the door by volunteers wearing light blue “Antiques Roadshow” polo shirts who directed us to go up the stairs and to the end of the ever growing line.  The line moved quickly, however and soon our tickets were checked and we each showed our items to a couple of ladies who determined which appraisers we would each see.  The Michelin Man earned me a ticket to the “collectibles” line which was understandably among the longest there.  In about only fifteen minutes or so though, I found myself face to face with Gary Sohmers (the guy with the white ponytail) who looked at my little tire guy and determined that Noel Barrett (at the adjacent toy table) would know more about it than he.  Suddenly there was Noel Barrett holding my little French advertising icon in his hands.  They seemed to be sizing each other up!  The seasoned dealer, auctioneer and appraiser looking down and Bibendum looking up.  There obviously was a bond forming.

Noel Barrett (the other guy with a ponytail by the way) then motioned that I come over to the toy table and have a seat behind the appraisers desk while he contacted his producer.  Holy cow, he wants to put us (mainly Bibendum) on TV!  I motioned for the rest of the family to join me and nobody seemed to mind all of us sitting there watching all the activity before us.  We also met a nice lady from Maine with her doll furniture, who was also waiting to talk with the producer.  She would end up on TV also.

Eventually the producer (Marsha Bemko) came over and talked first to the nice lady from Maine and then to me.  After a few question I was asked if I would like to be on TV and escorted to the “green room”.  The green room wasn’t actually green but was a separate area partitioned off by curtains.  There were several long tables by which to sit and wait your turn.  In each corner was a monitor showing the live raw feed of what was being taped.  There were also two make-up people.  The appraisers would go to one before their taping and the rest of us went to the other.  While in there we met Mark Wahlberg, who was on his first day on the job as the new host.  He, Noel Barrett, and everyone else was very nice to us.

My turn finally came and out I went holding the Michelin Man.  I was directed to one of the three tables in the center of the room set up for taping.  My microphone was hooked up and soon Noel Barrett joined me and off we went.  My three minutes of fame had begun!  I can’t say that I wasn’t at least a little nervous but I was really enjoying drinking in the experience (that would be bibendum in Latin) and I realized that I was actually living something that I had dreamed about.  One of the advantages that comes with age is that you worry less about what other people may think – even if there’s several million of them.  I had a great time.

I would have to wait eleven months to see if I made the cut that day.  As with most TV shows, the “Roadshow” tapes more material than it uses, so the possibility of ending up on the cutting room floor still existed.  Finally in May, 2006 in hour 2 from Providence, Rhode Island, there I was.  I was on TV.  I had made the cut.  So far my episode seems to run about every two years.  The last time I saw it on TV was last summer (2012).  It became the gift that kept on giving!

As far as the appraisal is concerned, below is the page from the 2010 “Antiques Roadshow” calendar which tells the story.  You can also view the appraisal on the “Antiques Roadshow” website in the archive section – just type in “Michelin”.

Watch the clip and read the transcript here at the Antiques Roadshow website.

By the way, the Michelin Man is still with us.  He wasn’t so valuable that we felt we had to sell him.  Valued at $1200 to $1800 he went right back to his familiar spot in our family room, but now he has a great story behind him.  He was, after all, on the “Antiques Roadshow”.

As for me, it didn’t exactly make me rich or famous.  Many people I knew told me that they saw me on TV but nobody ever asked for my autograph.  The whole experience, however, has only made me fonder of the “Roadshow”.  May it keep going for many years to come.

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