ephemera

Hawaiian Hula Girls Photo Album

A fantastic photo album with ephemera of 1920's Hawaii, done by an American soldier based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is up for bid on eBay.

According to the listing information, the album includes approx. 215 photographs, including photos, RPPC, photo postcards, and snapshots. Images include hula girls with and without guitars, military, training exercises, volcanoes, Kilauea, parades, native Hawaiians, Honolulu, Hilo, Diamond Head, USS Selfridge, several images of a trip up a Volcano on Hilo on Horseback to the summit in the snow. Images range in size from 3" x 2" to 8" x 11", most of the images are either 5 1/2" x 3 1/2" or 4 " x 2 1/2".

The auctioneer, Matchsets, says, "Most are glued onto the album pages, some have black corner mounts. The album also includes four Military menus from 1st Company at Fort Kamehameha, Pearl Harbor, and about eight pieces of ephemera glued onto the pages. A wonderful item for the Hawaii collector. Some of the pages have nice Hawaii related drawings around the images. Album itself measures 14" x 10". Overall condition is very good."

Lincoln Ice House Cover Stamp

A torn but unique envelope bearing a 90-cent stamp portraying Abraham Lincoln, which turned up 40 years after it was stolen in 1967, fetch more than $400,000 when it is offered at auction on June 13 by Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries in New York City.

Known to stamp collectors as the "Ice House Cover", the 3¾ by 9-inch envelope was mailed in 1873 from a Boston ice exporter to its icehouse in Calcutta, India. It is prized by philatelists because it is the only authenticated example of the 90-cent Lincoln stamp still affixed to its original envelope.

The stamp comes from the 1869 issue of pictorial stamps, which included the first United States postage stamps printed in two colors. The portrait of Lincoln is printed in black, while the surrounding frame with the 90-cent denomination is printed in red.

Although numerous examples of the 1869 90-cent Lincoln stamp are available to collectors, only this one is still attached to its original envelope. It was discovered in 1914 by a collector touring India and passed from collector to collector until its theft.

The Ice House Cover was one of 250 envelopes stolen on December 9, 1967, from the home of an Indianapolis stamp collector named J. David Baker, now deceased. The crime was part of an organized burglary operation that targeted stamp collectors whose names and addresses were listed geographically in the member directory of The American Philatelic Society.

In 1974 the FBI recovered the stolen Baker collection, except for the Ice House Cover. Mr. Baker gained ownership of the recovered items after suing the insurance company to enforce a provision of his original settlement, which allowed him to buy back any recovered items for the insurance compensation.

The recovered Baker collection was sold by the Siegel firm in 1978. Even without the Ice House Cover, the collection realized $772,000, many times its insured value at the time of the 1967 theft.

For four decades the Ice House Cover remained lost to philately. Most collectors thought the thieves had soaked off the 90-cent stamp to make it more saleable.

Then, on a cold winter day in January 2006, an elderly couple walked into a small stamp shop in Chicago and inquired if three stamp items had any value. Two were worthless, but one was recognized by the dealer as having great value. After consulting with another dealer, the dealer determined that the item was the legendary stolen Ice House Cover.

The FBI confiscated the stolen property and began an investigation. The couple who brought it to the Chicago stamp dealer claimed they had no idea that the old envelope in their possession was valuable or stolen. They said it was among items they found while cleaning out the residence of a deceased relative. No charges were filed against the couple.

While the Ice House Cover lay in the evidence room of the FBI's Indianapolis office, several parties filed claims of ownership. Two years later, the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis ruled that the re-opened Estate of J. David Baker was the rightful owner. Baker's widow transferred ownership to a trust and consigned the item to Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, the same firm that conducted the 1978 auction of the other recovered items.

"During the 40 years the Ice House Cover has been missing, prices for the rarest philatelic items have risen dramatically. It's not that unusual to surpass a half-million dollars or even one-million dollars. The uniqueness of the Ice House Cover and its remarkable story of discovery, loss and recovery will undoubtedly attract the attention of stamp buyers around the world," said Scott R. Trepel, president of Siegel Auction Galleries in the days prior to the stamp's auction.

Photograph courtesy of Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, NYC.

World War Monkey Collectible Trading Cards

Dallas-based Illustrator Chet Phillips sent me a pack of his tongue-in-cheek World War Monkey trading cards. According the Monkey Union Telegram that I received with my 14 collectible trading cards, the set was commissioned to "pay tribute to historic monkey leaders that forever changed the course of history." The telegram goes on to say that the "High Commissioner of Simian Propaganda, Secretary Reginald H. Witless, requests these portraits be displayed, shared, and otherwise honored in accordance with martial monkey law." So, to that end, I provide you with this public service announcement for Chet's very clever and oddly compelling World War Monkey trading cards.

Chet describes the set thusly: "A set of 14 monkey portraits inspired by turn-of-the-century cigarette cards depicting an alternate universe of WWI era monkey warfare. Each card has a full color portrait of military monkey figure on the front with a short biography on the reverse. Packaged in a high-quality paper Japanese styled portfolio and comes with a commemorative Monkey Union Telegram."

The illustration and copy work is done with impeccable quality and attention to detail. It deserves its shining place in the annals of ephemera and monkey military lore.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful work with my readers, Chet. It's an honor.

For more on these monkey, here's a video I shot featuring these delightful illustrations for Youtube:

American Political Items Collectors

The American Political Items Collectors is an organization dedicated to promoting the collection, preservation, and study of materials relating to political campaigns and the U.S. presidency.

Founded in 1945, the group's membership includes collectors and enthusiasts from all walks of life and every occupation such as educators, students, archivists, historians, elected officials including members of Congress, political junkies, political animals, campaign staffers, journalists from print, broadcast, and cable, museum curators, and even a couple of past Presidents.

The APIC cooperates with the Smithsonian, presidential libraries, homes, birthplaces and museums, national and local media as well as colleges and universities to facilitate the understanding of American politics using the artifacts of political campaigns.

Although the campaign button is the most recognized and widely collected of all campaign objects, APIC members actively hunt for vintage political ribbons, ferrotypes, glassware, china, autographs, books, textiles, ephemera, posters, medals, tokens, postcards, pennants, license plates, sheet music, and photography. Campaign artifacts range from matchbooks to street banners and everything in between, according to the group's "about" page.

The interests of APIC members extend not just to the U.S. presidents, but to the political campaigns themselves, the hopeful candidates, the third parties, the first ladies, the primaries, conventions and inaugurations. Many members actively collect material from local, state and even non-U.S. elections.

If you're interested in political ephemera, you'll want to read my interview with Michael McQuillen.

And, if you join the APIC, tell them the ephemera blog sent you.

 

The End of Money

Money is one of my favorite forms of old, dirty paper. I've mentioned it in a number of posts including interviews with a Tom Chao, a paper money collector. Today, we take a slightly different approach. There's a new book by Thomas Greco that couldn't be more timely given the current economic situation. Greco's new book, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization reveals how the essence of money has changed over time and that modern-day money imposes a catastrophic trap for the entire society. To wit, either the majority endures an ever-increasing debt load—which obviously can't go on forever—or the economy crashes. A large part of the economic crisis we are experiencing today is a result of an invisible dept system, according to Greco, almost entirely ignored by the leading mainstream economic press. But not this sharp-eyed ephemera blogger, no, sir.

But fear not. Greco offers a solution in the form of direct credit clearing—a different kind of money that avoids the debt trap. Suffice to say, it's not a topic for this blogger to explore in depth, but, Greco's book provides a unique insight into the paper currency many of you collect—either as objects of art or to pay the rent. So, check out The End of Money and the Future of Civilization.

 

Grand Fancy Titles

I'm a sucker for elaborate, over-the-top titles. Take the ephemera example in this post for instance: Grand Exalted Ruler. That's pretty good.

I have a piece of ephemera in my collection featuring the "Grand Lead and Wheel" of the Order of the Carabao. The Grand Lead and Wheel sounds like a good title to hold. I'll take it.

When asked what my title is by friends and curious, skeptical relatives, I sometimes tell them that I'm an "International So and So." That gives them pause.

Titles are such a great human invention. President is a pretty pedestrian title. That's because George Washington had just spent a few years busting his tush trying to defeat a guy with a highfalutin title—King.

Here are some other honorific titles I really enjoy:

Grand Poobah, which comes from the haughty character in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado.

Kentucky Colonels—Bob Hope was one.

The Right Reverend

Grand Fromage

What are some of your favorite grandiose titles?

 

 

 

Best of Military & Government Ephemera

Well, this has been fun, but after today's post, I'll give the 'best of' a rest and get back to creating new, exciting content that I'm sure you can't wait to consume. Speaking of consumption, if you're a fan of Amazon and eBay (and who isn't), click through to those sites from a related link on this site. It doesn't add a penny to your transaction, but this blog received a small commission that helps make its existence possible.

So, without further ado, here's the best of the posts from my military and government category.

Internees

Chicago Gangs

Mystery Military Pamphlet

Tax on Stupidity

Military School

Steamboat Carried Mail from Key West to Connecticut

This 19th century letter was carried by steamboat from Key West, Florida, to East Haddam, Connecticut on Routes 2 and 3197. It comes from Hugh Feldman's world-class collection of ephemera carried by water.

My recent interview with Hugh ran somewhat long, and this example didn't make it in the original post. I'm running it today with the following commentary from Hugh: "Although the Post Office had a theoretical monopoly on the carriage of mails, in practice letters were carried privately on both post roads and steamboats. The only class of mail not subject to this were Bills of Lading which, until 1854, could be carried without charge if accompanying the goods that they referred to."

Radicals Make the Best Posters

A new book, Off the Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War, explores the propaganda posters of Hezbollah and its allies--straight from the walls of war-torn nation. According to a review in The Economist (January 10, 2009 edition), the poster collection in "Off the Wall" (by Zeina Maasri) comes from the 20-odd faction of Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war and shows that the shifting alliances of leftists and other radicals had a artistic flair from the outset.

 

 

Alphabetilately Exhibit Comes to Smithsonian

ALPHABET + PHILATELY or Alphabetilately is the alphabet of philately. The Smithsonian National Postal Museum is sponsoring a major exhibit called "Alphabetilately" that uses alphabet poster stamps, ephemera, and other treasures to broadly interpret various aspects of stamp collecting or sending mail.

According to the Smithsonian Web site, "Each of the 26 letters stands for some aspect of the collecting of stamps or the sending of mail. The stamps, ephemera, and artifacts exhibited in Alphabetilately graphically document the spectrum of the American experience, from historical subjects to popular culture, from actual events to important ideas. Alphabetilately is a universally appealing exhibition and a lively educational experience for visitors of every age. It provides an extraordinary showcase for selections from our unparalleled collection of American postal and philatelic history."

The exhibit will run until October 15, 2009, and then it will tour nationally.

For more about Alphabetilately, read my interview with California-based artist and stamp collector, Bill Senkus, an expert on the subject of Alphabetilately.