For two days, January 5 and 6, the telltale aroma of old paper wafted above the exhibition space at the XL Center as the popular antique paper show known as Papermania Plus marked its 63rd edition with a smorgasbord of documents and nostalgia. Items ranging from postcards, rare books, photography and movie star posters to bygone collectibles were set out by more than 150 dealers from throughout the East Coast states, Michigan, Ohio and Canada as they offered rare historic documents, framed prints and maps, early advertising containers, rock and roll, Disney, Elvis and Marilyn Monroe memorabilia, stamps, song sheets, vintage valentines and more to eager crowds of collectors and other dealers who seemingly never get enough of the stuff.
“The show was good for me, and sales were strong both days,” said Evie Eysenburg afterward. “I sold quite a few trade cards, including a Gold Rush-related 1852 card for Cornelius Vanderbilt’s line of steamers from New York to California, via Nicaragua,” said the Cold Spring, N.Y., dealer. Eysenburg explained that using Vanderbilt’s steamers saved time, although it consisted of three separate legs †New York to the east side of Nicaragua, a carriage trip to the Pacific side and another steamer voyage to San Francisco. It did, however, spare travelers the long and perilous trip around Cape Horn.
Other sales recorded by Eysenburg included pre-1850 trade cards and illustrated invoices, a 1951 edition of Our Big Book, the oversized classroom version of the Dick and Jane pre-primer, an 1861 Baltimore Confederate song sheet and several multilayered human anatomical charts. “There was a lot of interest in the 1898 and 1899 Antikamnia calendars with colorful and bizarre illustrations of dressed skeletons by Louis Crucius,” said Eysenburg. “The calendars were originally sent to physicians by the company as promotional items.”
Gold Rush-related material also figured in an interesting item offered by Greg Gibson of Ten Pound Island Book Company. This was a sea journal of Captain Alexander Winsor chronicling four years of his sailing career †from November 1850 to April 1854 †notable for the cargo being carried on his ship, the Audubon †women who were bound for San Francisco in the early days of the Gold Rush. Handsomely executed ink and watercolor illustrations of ships sighted on the journey added to the journal’s cachet as an example of American folk art, according to the Gloucester, Mass., dealer.
“I sold $9,000 worth of manuscripts, charts and broadsides,” said Gibson, whose wry observations on this show and other adventures of the paper trade both entertain and inform readers of his blog at www.tenpound.com. “For more than three years I have been writing this weekly review of events in the book trade. In addition to petty gossip, deep thinking about the future and embarrassing photographs of colleagues, I review major and minor book fairs and related events,” said Gibson.
At the show, the dealer related that interest in his pieces on display was mostly from other dealers or specialized collectors and academicians. “The general public, as is often the case, seemed confused by what I have on offer. One lady wanted to know why a $75 poster ‘cost so much’ †my most expensive item was $15,000,” he said. “I wound up selling the poster to her for $60.”
Eric Caren of Lincolndale, N.Y., was enjoying a lot of preauction publicity over a previously unseen press photo of a teenaged Diana Spencer lying in the lap of a young man, recently revealed to be Adam Russell, reading a book in a picture dated two days after Buckingham Palace announced Diana’s engagement to Prince Charles. Caren explained that he had obtained the photo †which was slated to be auctioned by RR Auction on January 24 †as part of a “cherry-picking” purchase of thousands of photos from the archive of the London Mirror .
At the show, however, from the same tabloid hoard, he was showing two less controversial images, both by Margaret Bourke-White, one an emotional image of a Korean ex-guerilla being reunited with his mother and the other a World War II image titled “Patriot’s End,” Italy, 1944. “I spent most of the two days buying everything from Lizzie Borden to negro pro baseball from the year 1900 to the Revolutionary War,” said Caren.
Kimberly Kittredge is both a dealer and show manager †well-known for her annual doll, toy, bear and holiday show in Sturbridge, Mass., and as the owner of Treasured Memories Antiques. The Mansfield, Conn., dealer said she found this winter’s Papermania Plus show to be “very well attended and I did extremely well. I was hoping that a ‘blend’ would do well, and it did just that,” she stated. “We sold children’s books, early toys, a German feather tree with fence, wonderful folky carnival knockdown targets, an old black gollywog cloth doll, Dresden Christmas ornaments, candy containers, an early Connecticut fire warden sign, among other items.”
A signed first edition of Volume 5 of Winston Churchill’s six-volume The Second World War , 1959, was attracting much interest at Wilfrid M. De Freitas Bookseller, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, as was a leaf from William Shakespeare’s third folio, London, 1664, containing the famous line from Henry V , “Once more into the breach&• “Saturday was particularly busy, with lots of new faces †including some first-timers; possibly they heard mention of the event on the Friday evening and Saturday morning local television newscasts and were curious as to what it was all about,” said the dealer. “With such a variety of things on display, at first they found the whole experience a bit bewildering, but once they got used to the idea, they just loved the show.
“We talked to someone who said she didn’t know what to collect,” he continued, “so Susan [Ravdin] asked her what she liked, then told her to go and look for anything related, and she came back carrying a large bag. It’s a cardinal rule: collect what you enjoy. If it turns out to be something that increases in value, that’s the icing on the cake; meantime, you’re owning something that gives you pleasure and you shouldn’t expect more than that.”
A selection of holiday, Art Deco and Italian regimental postcards was part of the offering by Wolf Creek Paper Antiques, Madison, N.J. The firm’s co-owner Michael Shor pointed out that Saturday’s good crowd kept him busy all day without a break. “Sunday, usually much slower, was still pretty strong,” he said. “Good weather certainly helped. Overall good traffic, including lots of people that I have never seen before. Several mentioned that they saw the show on TV on a ‘what to do this weekend’ segment.” Sales of Connecticut town views were very strong, he added. “Also strong were lighthouses, Art Nouveau, Santas, holiday greetings, ocean liners, scouting, train stations, comic, large letter linens, cats and dogs, lovely ladies, bathing beauties, pinups, amusement parks and asylums.”
It has been quite some time since we have seen Cathy Sykes of Dragonflies Antiques, a Wolfeboro, N.H., certified appraiser, antiques dealer and specialist in classic boats. She and her son Sterling †now a fourth-generation dealer as his great grandfather ran an antiques business in Weare, N.H. †were giving the show a road test as first-time exhibitors, bringing some vernacular photography, a signed Peter Max poster and an interesting advertisement done in the form of an optical chart, circa 1900‱910.
“We had a great experience at Papermania,” said Cathy Sykes. “The show was so well run, and a very easy facility to get in and out of. Our sales were plentiful throughout the weekend. We sold a Cuba poster and the Philadelphia poster, both which were front and center and our booth. We were happy to see so many familiar faces that we’ve known for the past 25 years and even more happy to meet many new faces we didn’t know.” One of the new faces was Jay Gitlin, a history professor at Yale, who was writing an essay on “bubbles” and looking for things in that vernacular to help develop his project, which in turn is going to be in a book about material culture.
Maternal pride in her son was clearly evident, with Cathy saying, “I was very proud that Sterling was able to do the entire show from beginning to end with very little help from me, which gives me the confidence to send him out on his own to do shows.”
Papermania Plus returns to the XL Center for its 64th show on August 24′5. For information, 860-563-9975 or www.Papermaniaplus.com .
