Matthews, N.C.) - An extremely rare American Ammunition Company Smokeless 12-gage empty shell box, one of only a few examples known and in nice condition, sold for a new world record price of $6,859 in an Internet and catalog auction that went online Sept. 1 and concluded the weekend of Sept. 27-28. The sale was conducted by SoldUSA.com, the premier hunting collectibles auction site.

The box featured the American flag in the center, and was surrounded by American shields and red and blue banners. The integrity of the box was very sound, with a correct label on the bottom. It showed some light soiling and edge wear, but was otherwise in fine condition, with no fading. The end panel clearly read, “Long Brass, Smokeless Powder, 3-1/8 Drams – 1-1/4 Oz. - No. 7-1/2 Chilled.”flanged Red Hat Motor Oil sign, measuring 18 inches by 17-1/2 inches and showing only light wear to the flange, slight scratching and discoloration to the sides, minor paint loss to the edges and some minimal rusting, gaveled for $3,124. There was virtually no fading, and the sign would probably rate a 7 overall on a 1-10 scale. Even so, it would display well in anyone's collection.

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Oceanside, N.Y.) - A coveted T206 Honus Wagner baseball card – often called the Holy Grail or Mona Lisa of sports collectibles – will be sold as part of a huge weekend multi-estate sale planned for Nov. 22-23 by Philip Weiss Auctions. Nov. 22 will be dedicated mainly to sports memorabilia; Nov. 23 will feature comic collectibles and original comic art. In all, nearly 1,000 lots will change hands.

“This will be our greatest sports sale ever,” Philip Weiss said of the first day of the sale. “The Honus Wagner card, which we expect will bring $500,000-$800,000, comes from the original owner's family and has never before been offered on the market. It is SGC graded 3, and that's the only thing keeping it from being worth much more.” A similar card graded SGC 8 sold for $2.8 million last year.

Goebel of North America Latest News from the M.I. Hummel Club

Pennington, N.J. Oct. 2008 - Goebel Germany has recently announced that it will discontinue production of M.I. Hummel figurines on October 31, 2008 and focus its resources on the company's home accessory brands. Current details concerning Goebel Porzellanmanufaktur's
M.I. Hummel business division are as follows:

1. The Goebel Information Center in Rodental, Germany closes at the end of August 2008.

Sotheby’s Fall Photographs sale in New York on October 14-15th will feature seminal photographs from both the 19th
and 20th centuries, many extremely rare, from masters of classical photography such as Man Ray, Carleton E. Watkins,
Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, to contemporary artists such as Cindy
Sherman, Richard Prince, Lee Friedlander and Irving Penn, among many others. The auction will feature 249 lots over
two days, beginning with an Evening Sale on October 14th, and is estimated to bring $6/10 million.
The sale includes a scarce surviving print from a series of nude studies of Tina Modotti, made by Edward Weston on the
terrace roof of their house near Mexico City in the summer of 1924. Featured on the cover of the sale catalogue,
Tina on the Azotea (pictured, est. $250/350,000) has remained out of the public eye, in a private collection, since
the 1970s, and may be unique. No other prints of the image have been located
as of this writing. The photographs from this series, each of them frankly sensual,
constitute a break from the nudes Weston had executed before: the clarity of
the images represent yet another step away from the romantic style in which he
had photographed Modotti earlier in the decade. Although the image is
reproduced in the Weston/Modotti literature, each of these illustrations traces
back to the present print. The reappearance of this single print underscores the
rarity of much of Weston’s work, and demonstrates the extent to which the
photographer’s more erotically-charged nudes were printed in small numbers—
likely only for his models—and were not part of his regularly exhibited work.

Skinner, one of the nation’s leading auction houses, today announced that its semi-annual Fine Musical Instruments auction will be held on October 12th at noon in the Boston gallery. As in past sales, this auction proves Skinner as a reliable source of fine quality musical instruments for the trade, private musicians, and collectors alike.

Of significant note is a collection of vintage and rare American guitars. Expected to draw great interest is a 1951-52 Fender Telecaster (lot 29; est. $22/30,000), signed by Tadeo Gomez on Oct 28, 1951 – his 49th birthday. Gomez was a legendary craftsman and neck carver in the early years of Fender Electric Instruments, and his work is the most highly sought after of all in the Fender line. Featuring its original “poodle case”, it bears the serial number stamp 1040.

SILVER SPOONS, ROGERS GROUPS, CLOCKS, ART GLASS, WAVE CREST AND
MORE TO BE SOLD OCTOBER 25 IN ST. CHARLES, MO., BY WOODY AUCTION

(St. Charles, Mo.) - Hundreds of high-end items in a broad array of categories will be offered at a multi-estate auction slated for Saturday, October 25, at the St. Charles Convention Center. Lots will include over 2,000 silver spoons from a lifetime single-owner collection; about seven Rogers Groups; 26 vintage clocks; art glass; R.S. Prussia; Moser; Wave Crest; five decorated Tiffany vases; and more.

OVER 300 LOTS OF QUALITY, FRESH-TO-THE-MARKET MERCHANDISE WILL CROSS THE BLOCK AT AN EXCEPTIONAL ANTIQUE AUCTION SLATED FOR SEPT. 27 BY FONTAINE'S

(Pittsfield, Mass.) - More than 300 lots of outstanding, fresh-to-the-market merchandise in a broad array of categories will be offered at an exceptional antique auction slated for Saturday, September 27, by Fontaine's Auction Gallery. The sale will be held at Fontaine's spacious showroom facility, located at 1485 W. Housatonic Street in Pittsfield. For a free color catalog, call 413-448-8922.

“This auction will feature hundreds of wonderful items from prominent area estates,” said John Fontaine of Fontaine's Auction Gallery, “and it's just one of four great sales planned for the rest of the year.” The other sales are the Henry Brownell Estate Auction (Saturday, October 18); an Important Antique Clock Auction (Saturday, November 8); and a Discovery Auction (Saturday, December 8).

Antique Farmstead Saturday, Oct.4th, 1pm (preview 10am-1pm)
120 Boston Rd.(119) Groton MA 01450 on the grounds of PC Myett Inc


This will be an ABSOLUTE auction without reserve. Starting at 1pm we will be auctioning off the contents of a local Chelmsford MA Dairy barn which will include wagons, sleighs, farm equipment, antique furniture and accessories, here is a partial list of this jam packed auction:

Nearly 2,500 lots of American, European and Japanese toys will take the spotlight Nov. 7-9 at Bertoia Auctions’ gallery, with prestigious collections anchoring the sale.
VINELAND, N.J. – Nearly 2,500 lots of American, European and Japanese toys will take the spotlight Nov. 7-9 at Bertoia Auctions’ gallery, with prestigious collections anchoring the sale. Automotive collectors will be treated to more of the late Bob Smith’s friction and pressed-steel toys, while holiday enthusiasts will be invited to take a third helping from the mind-boggling Fred Cannon collection and choose favorites from the revered Mary Lou Holt collection. In addition, Bertoia’s will present still banks from the collection of the late Dick Sheppard, European toys from the late Steve Olin and his wife Diane, and a remarkable Midwest private collection of horse-drawn cast-iron toys of every imaginable discipline.

Big Fan Autographs and Collectibles has been trading and selling autographs for years now and we naturally have bought their share of fakes and are joining other retailers and dealers to “clean-up” the business of autograph dealing by educating autograph collectors about what to look out for.