Sunday, October 21, 2012
Ever wonder why the sound ‘Cha-ching!’ means money?
Necessity is the mother of invention! And when it is necessary to stop people from stealing from you, then you become an inventor. Thus is the story of saloon owner James Ritty of Dayton, Ohio—the inventor of the cash register. James Ritty was a saloon owner who was fed up with his employees taking money from him. So he did some research, tested some ideas, and finally patented a variation on the adding machine. His new machine registered all of the cash that came into his saloon and the cash register was born. The mechanism for the cash register was patented in 1883 and manufacturers like the National Cash Register Company got the machines to market shortly thereafter. To solve Ritty’s problem and that of many store owners in the late …
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Dr. Lori reveals the surprising history and value behind Cracker Jack prizes.
Do you remember the lazy days of summer when you were a kid? You played croquet in the backyard with the rest of the neighborhood gang, frolicked in the lawn sprinkler, or went to the ballpark to take in a baseball game. Snacks were part of the summer fun and a popular snack food was Cracker Jack, the candy-coated popcorn and peanut snack. An early form of Cracker Jack was first sold at the World’s Fair in Chicago (also known as the World Columbian Exposition) in 1893. By 1896, the popcorn and peanut snack was perfected and sold by the Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein Company. While the delightful snack became a well-known American treat, it also became associated with the American past time, the game of baseball. In 1908, Cracker Jack was …
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
A Norristown property owner found a Colt .22 Automatic Long Rifle hidden beneath the floorboards on the second floor of his property.
According to reports from the Norristown Police Department, at approximately 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, May 24, an officer on patrol in the 700 block of West Marshall Street was flagged down by a man who wished to report a firearm he found in the property he owns. The man reportedly told police that was cleaning up on the second floor of the building sometime in April when his foot went through the floor and down through the ceiling of the room below. While he was making repairs to the hole, he discovered a handgun hidden between the floors. Police say the gun, a Colt .22 Automatic Long Rifle model handgun, was not reported stolen and was last owned by a Ralph O'Neil, born in 1905. The last date of sale was reportedly Dec. 29, 1952. The …
40.12105
-75.35073
700 W Marshall St, Norristown, PA
/articles/homeowner-finds-antique-gun-hidden-in-floor
/locations/7116105
Sunday, April 15, 2012
The economy sparks a need for art and antique insurance.
On the international scene, the demand for private art insurance has risen sharply recently. According to AXA Art, a subsidiary of one of the world's leading insurers, the world-wide art market generates about $5.4 billion in annual premiums. However, growth rates are relatively high as the market advances by about 8% every year. That statistic is almost double the rate of the traditional insurance market which grows by about 4% every year. The main reasons for the sharp rise and interest in buying art insurance has been mainly credited to art owners’ increased belief that they have a real need for specified fine art and antiques insurance coverage. In the wake of the growing number of high profile and recent art thefts, natural disasters…
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Another installment of Dr. Lori's antiques quiz game.
If you haven’t played my new antiques quiz game yet, "Dumpster or No Dumpster," it is very easy to play. I provide you with a few objects from the typical basement re-organization or estate clean out, and you decide which pieces go to the Dumpster and which pieces do not. American basements are funny places — some serve as home offices, man caves for viewing sporting events on big screen TVs, or lounges for the teenagers. Yet, most commonly, basements are the center for all of those objects that you MAY (emphasis on the word MAY) want to use at some time in the future. At least basements are places where you store stuff that is too good to toss but not good enough to take up space upstairs. Since objects that end up in the basement are in …
Sunday, March 18, 2012
The Chinese have many customs and objects related to their new year celebration.
In China, the new year celebrations coincide with the spring festival and some of the festivities are grounded in some golden rules that we should all consider, no matter the date on the calendar. Practice What You Preach The ancient Chinese wanted good luck to shine on them. As such, in many aspects of their fascinating culture, they work to invite good luck into their lives. One way that the Chinese people invite good luck is to speak only positive words. Negativity is not fashionable and neither are curse words, particularly during the spring when nature displays all of its glory. Happy and positive are the buzz words of the season. Celebrating the Spring Season In ancient Chinese homes, as in the western world, certain objects are held…
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Spain's Antoni Gaudi has made his mark with his unique take on Art Nouveau.
Born in 1852, the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi made his mark with his unique brand of Art Nouveau structures around the urban center of Barcelona, Spain. Gaudi died in 1926, victim of a street accident, and was laid to rest in a crypt beneath his career masterpiece, the unfinished church of La Sagrada Familia (The Holy Family). The church has been 120 years in the making and it is expected to be finished in 2026. How has this single structure come to characterize the history of modern Spanish architecture? How has Gaudi’s architecture sparked so much interest nearly a century after his death? Why is this church situated in the center of bustling and cosmopolitan Barcelona so captivating? While novelist George Orwell deemed it "one of the…
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Dr. Lori recounts some of the highlights from her many shows across the country.
Since 1998, I have presented appraisal events to live audiences across the country. You may have attended one of my antiques appraisal shows or read about the people I have met who asked me to appraise family heirlooms or flea market treasures. I tell people the truth about their antiques. I don’t hold back with my opinions either. I just say it – ”It’s a wonderful, rare antique," or "It’s a piece of junk.” It is fun to hear the stories of antiques and collectibles and to highlight the history and value of a cherished object. Recently, I met some folks with some interesting stories to share. A Yankee in Atlanta If you are wondering who the Yankee is, well, that would be me! After a few days in Atlanta, Georgia, I started to feel …
Sunday, February 26, 2012
There's no easy answer, but here are some tips on making sure you get the genuine article.
I regularly field the question, "How do you spot a fake?" Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this question. In fact, there are as many answers as there are materials comprising art and antiques. Like most things in the art and antiques arena, there are many different objects with varied characteristics. So spotting a fake in one category of antiques is different than recognizing one in another category. Did you know that an authentic piece of Roseville pottery must have "USA" as part of the maker’s mark? Were you aware that some pictures that look like real oil paintings are actually prints with clear varnish applied atop the printed image to simulate brushstrokes? And did you know that some pieces of sculpture are cast using a …
Sunday, February 19, 2012
To this day, collectors remain enamored with the tale of Columbus’ voyages and those objects that highlight his historic journey.
Did you ever wonder if Christopher Columbus would be upset to learn that today’s GPS technology is named after fellow explorer, Ferdinand Magellan? Maybe today’s techno-wizards didn’t name the GPS after Columbus because he made a big mapping mistake in his quest to find a new route to Asia. The land mass that Columbus thought was Asia was actually, as we all know, a tiny island in the Caribbean. Perhaps Columbus should have asked for directions. When the Ottomon Turks captured Constantinople in 1453, the price of oriental trade goods went sky-high in Europe. Many believed there was a fortune to be made if a route to "the Indies" – the great civilizations of China, India and Japan – could be found. The desired route was one which bypassed …
cyra briggs
4:05 pm on Wednesday, May 30, 2012
If it was used to kill someone, it might be back in the mob days in norristown. I understand there were murders that were swept under the rug. more ›