When I dig around tag sale boxes for LPs, I’m generally pretty ignorant about what I’m looking at. The only things I’m informed by are whether or not I’ve spotted a jazz record (which are usually gone by the time I get there), or how hot the chick on the cover is. There’s little else I concern myself with, as I’m not blessed with the encyclopedic knowledge necessary to know which album, amid the usual sea of Christmas junk and Herb Alpert madness, is worth anything. I enjoy buying things obliviously and tracing their stories later.

So, when I hit the Kent Library book sale this past weekend, I bought three records at a dollar apiece. Sure, it was no Cold Spring Library book sale with their ten-cent records, but it sufficed. One of the records I was attracted to was ‘Orienta’ by The Markko Polo Adventurers. Usually, I make an educated guess about which LPs I’m buying have been released on CD or not, and this one didn’t look like it made the successful transition into our modern age - a principle that increases their inherent value to me, and which usually helps increase their monetary value also. Plus, it spelled things funny.

My guess was incorrect, and as I explored, it seemed that 1959’s ‘Orienta’ was actually a standard among the current hi-fi lounge / exotica crowd, and did exist in CD format. The album itself is an imaginary adventure amid the Asiatic countries, with the exact path of the expedition written out as a narrative in the liner notes on the reverse of the album cover. The record’s previous owner, TJ from Scarsdale, did me the favor of marking off their three favorite songs with blue Xs. While I ultimately could have just downloaded the thing or bought the mp3s, the record itself is worth around 5 bucks, and I was more interested in hearing it as it was originally heard anyhow - and it’s not nearly as hip.

Of course, if I’d found the alternate pressing of ‘Orienta’, which has a black bar across the top of the jacket that reads ‘Living Sounds’, I would have netted an $85 find. As it was, I was in it for the music. And a little bit for the redhead on the cover.

I discovered that this record had more connections to my proclivities than I’d anticipated. Further exploration revealed that the album’s musical content was composed and/or arranged by Gerald Fried, who was a noted composer for over 111 TV shows and movies. The most well-known piece of music that he composed was the very-oft-repeated Kirk vs. Spock battle music from the original Trek episode ‘Amok Time’. You know, the scene where Shatner finally finds an excuse to show off his man-chest via a well-placed cut across his Captain’s uniform? That scene

Even if you’ve never watched Star Trek, you’ve heard this music, as it finds itself used and re-used anytime there’s a mock-dramatic battle (usually between two friends) in any show of quality. You can also hear Fried’s work during some episodes of Gilligan’s Island and Lost In Space, and even in horror movies like the weird, expressionist ‘I Bury the Living’. Fried had even won an Oscar, so he knows his stuff.

While talk about ‘Orienta’ seems to focus on the fact that this was recorded as something of a parody of the exotica albums of the time, the music stands up well enough on its own - not unlike recent death metal parody band Dethklok’s superb pseudo-album. It’s not ‘real’, but it sounds so good that you don’t even care. ‘Bands that don’t really exist’ is another collecting theme I tend to pursue, as it were. So, throw on a copy of ‘Orienta’ during your next backyard barbecue, put up the tiki heads and light the torches - it’ll all go together swimmingly.

Related items currently available for sale

I wanted to list an item on Wifey’s Ebay site, but could barely read the mark on the back of a decorative plate. Shown photo enhanced is a factory mark I did not reconize. I turned to our book shelves for help.

Our library of antiquing books contains two volumes that get lots of attention with wifey’s antique business. The one we have had the longest is “Kovel’s New Dictionary of Marks.” Published in 1986, it’s from Crown Publishers. Inc of New York by Ralph and Terry Kovel. It covers the world of ceramic companies.

The second, a newer book, acquired just a few years ago, is “U.S. Marks on Pottery, Porcelain and Clay” by Lois Lehner, published by Collectors Books a division of Schroeder Publishing Inc. © 1988.

Since neither book contains prices, they provide a wealth of information without losing their usefulness with age.

The Kovel book has an interesting arrangement for finding and identifying marks, especially when blurred, partial or faded. The layout of the pages are by the actual major design element of the maker’s mark in alphabetical order – Animals, Arrows, Banners, Birds, Cartouche, etc.

In the boxed section containing the logo is a small synopsis of the company essentials, the factory name, locations, dates the mark was used, successor companies, and years the factory was in production.  Here I found the information I was looking for.

Back pages titled “The Vocabulary of Marks” list the dates country names were first included on the pieces, the meaning of words found in marks, dating systems listed by company, and factory’s family trees.

Lehner’s Encyclopedia of U.S. Marks is the “War & Peace” of antiquing books. Containing 634 pages, it’s arranged alphabetically by factory name. In the back are definitions used in the book, lists of various types of manufacturers, railroad letters and symbols used on diner car china plus electrical porcelain insulator markings.

Each company listed contains a great deal of detailed information on the founders, locations, dates, products and general history of the factories along with examples of the various iterations of the marks used.

The importance of identifying the marks and knowing the history are two-fold, first is having a key word or “tag” to include with wifey’s on-line antique listings, that steer searchers to her Ebay site.

Secondly, age and obscurity drive the passion of many collectors, and knowing the history and longevity of a particular mark’s usage, adds validity to your purchase price.

One other book in our library is this recent addition titled “Antique Trader, Pottery & Porcelain Ceramics, by Kyle Hosfloen, published by Krause Publications in 2006 and listed as its 5^th edition.

While on the same general subject as the other books, it is first and foremost a price guide and includes dolls, figurines, cookie jars and lamps among the more common shapes and functions of typical pottery. Filled with color photos in 768 pages, this book also includes a small glossary on the back pages.

Alphabetically arranged, mixing categories with manufacturers, this book also contains histories of items and companies throughout, so when looking up examples of children’s ABC plates, we first learn they were popular at the turn of the last century, often incorporating the alphabet on the rim and scenes or rhymes at center. Other reference books are suggested for the serious collector throughout. The ABC section is followed by the manufacturer Abingdon, and so on. 

We find this book’s usefulness in the information sections provided, the introduction to each entry and the quality of the pictures, along with the relationship between prices of like item you might see in a retail setting. Since antique and collectible values can change in either direction and have contracted in recent years, the use of any guide should be verified with recent sales on sites like Ebay or Tias.com.

Related items currently available for sale

A few bits, boards and pieces from our vintage game/toy box…

Tigger, a piece from the 1988 Winnie The Pooh Train Set.

Vintage Game of The States box with spinners.

Retro Where’s The Beef? gameboard.

A huge metal gun from an old Clue game.

A vintage game board with multiple games (and cool graphics).

The ‘B’ side, sports games.

A Slater card from the Saved By The Bell game. (He’s soooo dreamy!)

A classic die from Skunk game, and an old plastic state (Utah) from Teach-a-Toy puzzle map of the US.

A vintage Pig Dice Game shaker cup (love, love, Love the graphics on this!)

Statler Muppets game piece.

Red”Infra-Scope Goggles” from an old Undercover game.

Retro The Jetsons Funpad Game piece.

================

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Related items currently available for sale

As a collector (and this almost goes without saying, folks), I crave collectibles. If I fall a little in love with a fictional character, I want a monument in plastic or fabric that I might be able to hold onto. I need the tactile sensation of something to prove my unrelenting adulation. I need to stick it on top of the TV and watch it collect dust as I forget it exists out of familiarity, and become re-enthralled with it when I dust it off and notice it again. This is how it works. I can explain the actions, but not the machinations.

In terms of collectible items from The Venture Bros. cartoon, shown very late at night on Cartoon Network’s [adult swim] block of mature programming, there’s been almost nothing. The show’s creators, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick, play their merchandising rights pretty close. If I wanted to hold onto something concrete, I was limited to DVD sets, or two small PVC figures released by Kid Robot, done in the form of supervillian The Monarch and his beau, Dr. Girlfriend. Action figure nerds customize figures of the Venture clan and the bizarre, exciting rogues gallery of the Ventureverse, and even the t-shirt offerings have been shady.

Not even the simplest of all branded collectibles, the coffee mug, has been offered. On Monday night, Jackson Publick’s LiveJournal sprung a surprise on me, and the Venture website, Astrobase Go! announced the Amazing Shirt of the Week Club. I’m sure I backed away from the computer and flailed my arms wildly like one of those car dealership wind-powered tube men and made a noise that likely scared (or romantically attracted) most of the wildlife in the surrounding environs. When I regained my composure, I clicked on in.

I’ve blogged here before about my ever-growing collection of t-shirts, even though I have big ideas about dressing like an adult someday. If maturity is an eventual goal of mine, I’m sure that wearing t-shirts isn’t the biggest part of the problem. We’ll deal with the piles of colorful action-dolls that I have scattered around me first, and I can use my charmingly receding hairline as a testament to my true age, which is ‘perpetual curmudgeon’. Well, I’m now (or will be) 14 more shirts away from maturity. Maybe 14 Venture Bros. t-shirts is too many. Maybe you should mind your own business.

Starting this Sunday, June 1st, the third season of The Venture Bros. will begin on TV, and continue uninterrupted every Sunday for 13 weeks. Each week, Astrobase Go! will reveal a new shirt, which will be based on something within the episode itself. They’re not going to be screenshots from the episode, or narrative illustrations - but they will be imaginary logos, phrases and the like. Each shirt will be for sale for one week only, and when the end of the week rolls around, your opportunity to buy the shirt is over. Shirts retail for $22 each, but if you subscribe to the whole Club package, the shirts balance out to less than $18 each (which includes shipping), and you also get an exclusive shirt which isn’t otherwise offered for sale individually.

Limited edition? Exclusive? Venture Bros? T-shirt? All of these aspects tickle me in ways that get right into my pockets and gently pry open my wallet, and even caress my leg a little on the way out. So, not only do we have a new Venture episode every week, which is a glorious reward unto itself, but we’re now treated to episode-specific collectibles - one for every episode. Because of the low profile and sheer unexpectedness of this Venture Shirt Club, I anticipate that these early shirts will prove to be highly collectible, not unlike certain out-of-print Threadless t-shirts and other wearables (such as sneakers), so they’ll likely find a good, pricey place in the secondary market. The club’s first official shirt features the logo for The Guild of Calamitous Intent, printed in gold ink over a black shirt, which satisfies my gold-on-black shirt fetish, and partially quells my pain for missing an awesome Sun Ra shirt over at Threadless some months ago.

The shirts will be printed on soft, thin (but strong!) American Apparel material, which is something that Threadless recently started progressing towards also. If everything goes accordingly, they hold a print very well, and they’re softer than your average shirt. And if they have the faces of crazy robot-eyed bad guys on ‘em, all the better.

Only two shirts of the potential 14 have been revealed, so I really must be an easy mark to buy such a large quantity of things sight unseen, but I’m excited for having weirdly talismanic, obscure icons of the things I love to wear, and when it’s presented as a complete collection of something, there’s nothing you could do to keep me away.

Related items currently available for sale

We have a home that is about 70 years old and we often fill it with period décor and furnishings. But we are also fans of “true antiques” and do our best to find older items. We rarely purchase pieces for their intrinsic value, but more for what we like and what fits in. The comment “very eclectic” has been heard quite often from guests.

On occasion, I have found items that are contemporary and it takes a little creativity to make them fit with the ‘old stuff.’ Let me give you an example. I fell in love with this 1920s garden table as it was being pulled out of a van in front of an antique store. The dealer was just bringing it into her booth. I asked the price while she had it in mid-air, not wanting this to hit the show-room floor! I know, I know, you should never appear to be anxious or the price can easily escalate, but I knew this would have appeal and plus, she already had a tag dangling from one of the legs. That pretty much locked in the price. She showed me the tag and then offered a very generous opportunity. It turns out the mall was having its semi-annual sale in the coming weeks and she had planned to put her booth on sale for 20% off. She kindly allowed me to buy it for the reduced rate! It was quickly a done deal and as we loaded into MY van, I thanked her profusely. I have continued to shop in her booth and will do so whenever possible.

I just adored its look – green metal curvy legs, glass that has been painted and somehow treated to look wavy and look at those marvelous stone feet! Hubby helped me bring it into the house and we proudly set it in our sun-room. We have numerous items from the ’seashore’ and although we put some shells and figurines on it, nothing seemed to do it justice.

As luck would have it, my daughter and her friend asked me to join them on a trek to Cedarburg, Wisconsin. This is a charming, historical town, not far from Milwaukee. It is just filled with boutiques, art studios and antiques. If you ever get the chance, check it out! Well, we walked into an art gallery, and there it stood. An egret in mid-flight, quite large and dramatic, but brand new. Would it work with this old table? I’ll let you be the judge, but somehow it looks like the bird is coming in for a landing.

Another example of the old/new concept is in our kitchen. Another of my addictions is old copper. It is so warm and inviting and while I have stayed away from the copper molds and kettles, the teapots, chafing dishes and plates have drawn me to them. The item on the left is a copper sink sieve.

While at our favorite antique fair, presented by N.L. Promotions and held in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, I found another must-have-item. This piece of art glass is so elegant. The dealer told me her mother had purchased it at an art fair in Racine, Wisconsin in the 1990s. She recalled her mom saying the artist was present at the show. I knew it would work with my old metal pieces and held my breath, asking what she wanted for it. To my great surprise (and delight) she gave me a price of $5.00! I did not even ask if she could take $4.00, that’s how excited I was! Somehow this truly fits into our kitchen with the antiques.

It just goes to show you that you should not limit yourself to one style or time-frame. You can mix and match and let your possessions do their own thing. Wishing you happy hunting for your next treasure be it old or new.

Related items currently available for sale