Early WWI aviation collecting is an exciting and popular field. Collectors are drawn to aviation because it was new, dangerous, and filled with unlimited possibilities for technical advancement. At the inception of WWI there were only five airplanes in the American Military Aviation department. By the war's end this number jumped to 2,500 airplanes.

The field of early aviation insignia collectibles is fairly large in scale. In addition to the aviation wings there are also collar, sleeve insignia and other aviation cloth insignia with corresponding symbols to denote pilot's divisions and units. Because WWI aviation wings are scarcer than their WWII counterparts, a beginning collector should be prepared to pay a premium for WWI wings.

The earliest American aviation wing was created when the U.S. War Department's General Order #39 was issued for the first Military Aviator's badge on April 17, 1913. The first badges had an eagle clutching two Signal Corp flags and was entitled "Military Aviator." They were manufactured by the U.S. Ordnance Department at Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois. These rare first issue wings were originally made of 14-karat gold. The inspiration for the badge was the "Expert Rifleman's Badge," which was intended to be used as an award badge and not a qualification badge.

Usually the more common WWI wings were struck from one piece of silver, embroidered with silver wire and the gold "U.S." was applied to the shield. These badges had pins, safety catches or screw posts for attachment to uniforms. WWI badges have symbols and letters that designate the bearer's position in the military. To distinguish between experienced aviators and junior aviators, the right wing was omitted from the junior aviator's badge. The half-wing form of badge was discontinued after WWI.

Independent jewelry stores created badges for two years during WWI, though most of the early badges were made by one of the dozen large manufacturing companies. These jewelry-store badges are hard for a collector to identify because each one has individual characteristics. However, advanced collectors can identify the jeweler who made these badges by inspecting their unique, individual style.

Dallas Wings from WWI, made for pilots and crew at Kelly Airfield in Texas, the largest military airfield at during the war, are highly sought by collectors, possibly because of their associations with Charles Lindbergh, who graduated from the Kelly Advanced Flying School in 1925. 250,000 men were organized into aero-squadrons in 1917 and 1918 associated with Kelly Airfield.

During WWII, large medal manufactures such as Balfour and Jostens flourished. WWII wings are mass produced and slightly less ornamental, and are therefore generally of lesser value than earlier WWI wings. Wings are still produced today for commercial and military purposes, but lack the craftsmanship of their earlier counterparts, thus making the WWI wings even more desirable.

One can start to collect early aviation wings by going to local military shows that hold conventions throughout the country. Auctions and antique shops are additional possibilities. As always, a collector should beware of the numerous fakes and reproductions that are on today's market.

Research by Joe Moran.

Wes Cowan is founder and owner of Cowan's Auctions, Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio. An internationally recognized expert in historic Americana, Wes stars in the PBS television series History Detectives and is a featured appraiser on Antiques Roadshow. Wes holds a B.A. and M.A. in anthropology from the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan. He is a frequently requested speaker at antiques events around the country. He can be reached via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Among collectors of English silver, works by women silversmiths are quite prestigious for their scarcity. One name in particular, Hester Bateman, stands out. She is best known and probably the most highly regarded silversmithess of 18th-century England, though her works are very affordable for a beginning collector.

In 18th-century England, silversmithing was perhaps the only trade considered "gentlemanly," for one could create delicate objects of masterful skill and high style for an elite clientele. Believed to be a trade practiced by only by men, the art of working silver is labor intensive and requires strength and endurance and working with intense heat.

Little is ever discussed about the women silversmiths of 18th-century England, although there were several, including Hester Bateman. Most came to the trade serendipitously. Wives who had helped with their husband's businesses, or daughters who has come into the trade by apprenticing for fathers, may have found themselves without the head of household and with the need to earn a living wage, so they came into the trade through the "back door."

Married to John Bateman when she was about 15 years of age, Hester had little formal education. John was by trade a chain maker and silver worker, essentially a craftsman who performed small jobs for master silversmiths who were too busy to handle all of their commissions. Hester maintained a household and raised children while assisting her husband in every aspect of his business, including sales and hands-on metalworking. When he died of consumption in 1760, Hester filed the will the day after his death. John left her his business and his tools. From that day forth, Hester, with the assistance of her children, built a dynastic firm that lasted several generations and became an upper middle class provider of luxury items to their English clientele.

In 10 years' time, Hester Bateman transformed "John Bateman, Jeweler, Chainmaker and occasional silverworker" to her own concern, "Hester Bateman, Silversmith."

Striving to build a customer base, Hester kept a keen eye on stylistic shift. She predominately worked in the Adam style, the only style named after an architect rather than an English regent. Adam style was the essence of neo-classicism, and Hester's work honors that spirit. Her hollowware is sparsely elegant with surface decoration, pierce work or ajouré, and engraving. An emerging middle class, intent on acquiring the accoutrements of upper classes, created a large demand for tea wares, or service pieces for the serving of tea, the telling ceremony of status. Hester and her family made perhaps thousands of teaspoons, tea caddy spoons and tablespoons, some more desirable today than others, in particular her bright-cut decorated spoons.

Her hollowware pieces are better examples for her best work, both as true interpretations of the neo-classical style and as magnificently executed metalwork. The irony here is that while highly desirable, Hester Bateman silver is oddly still affordable. The beginning collector can buy Bateman spoons ranging from $75 to $300 depending on the level of decoration and specialty of use. Hollowware Bateman pieces range from $500 for a simple waste bowl to several thousands for kettles-on-stands.

Sources for this article:

Hester Bateman, Queen of English Silversmiths, by David S. Shure,
Doubleday, New York, 1959.

Women Silversmiths, 1685-1845: Works from the Collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts by Philippa Glanville and Jennifer Faulds Goldsborough , Thames and Hudson, 1990

George III and Other Old English Silver Including Examples by Hester Bateman - Part 3 of the Estate of Cushing Toppan [Parke-Bernet, Feb. 4-5, 1959]

Wes Cowan is founder and owner of Cowan's Auctions, Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio. An internationally recognized expert in historic Americana, Wes stars in the PBS television series History Detectives and is a featured appraiser on Antiques Roadshow. Wes holds a B.A. and M.A. in anthropology from the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan. He is a frequently requested speaker at antiques events around the country. He can be reached via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Objects with these trader-influenced motifs were lighter in weight and less expensive than traditional Indian jewelry, hence they held great appeal for tourists traveling in the Southwest. Herman Schweizer, manager for the Fred Harvey Indian department known for his taste and business acumen, said that pawn jewelry (traditional old Southwestern jewelry) was "too heavy for tourist taste" (Batkin 2008:113).

Curio trade items expressed the exotic charm of the Southwest. Initially, as early as 1903, they were made and sold by Indian silversmiths in a backroom at Harvey's Alvardo Hotel in Albuquerque, N.M. (115). A history of these items demonstrates that many objects were made and sold in shops all over the Southwest. Despite the difficulty of authenticating a genuine Harvey Co. object from one purchased or made elsewhere, these Southwestern antiques have become highly desirable collectors' items. Therefore, peeking into the manufacturing history of trade curios reveals some fascinating information.

From about 1910 to 1940 some of these trade items were completely handmade while others were made with the assistance of impressively specialized machines. Handmade jewelry meant that the smith used traditional Indian techniques-hand-cutting pieces from a hand-hammered block of silver or a Mexican peso, then laboriously filing, stamping and polishing each object. Machines shortened the endeavor by creating commercial sheet silver and machine drawn wire. A pair of handmade earrings, for example, would sell for about $4, whereas machine-made earrings could be made at the rate of 30 per minute and "purchased wholesale for $6 per dozen" (152). Thus, widespread confusion and distrust existed among consumers. Which objects were really Indian handmade versus those only Indian-designed and made mostly by machine? To make matters worse, some objects were not made or designed by Indians at all.

The Fred Harvey Alvarado Hotel in Albuquerque, the region's best-known retailer sold thousands of these popular curio trade objects. While Indian silversmiths made many of the items sold at the Alvarado, similar pieces could be purchased across the street at the H.H. Tammen Co. or from other traders (187). Silversmiths working in the backrooms of Tammen used machines for a wide range of jewelry-making activities. One mechanized press was capable of stamping out one hemisphere of a half- inch silver bead (133).

Naturally, this makes it nearly impossible to determine genuine handmade Fred Harvey bracelets and objects from those made elsewhere or by machine. In fact a close examination of stamping dies from two different companies reveals that the designs are virtually indistinguishable (170-171). The dubious origins of Fred Harvey jewelry, combined with the fact that ideas and patterns were often flat out stolen, only makes the identification process and attribution to the Harvey Co. even more complicated (154).

The controversy of handmade versus machine-made led two Indian silver experts, John Adair and Kenneth Chapman, to study the issue. They focused on the "physical character of worked silver," which was at the heart of the heated controversy. Chapman invented a tool capable of detecting "irregularities in the thickness of a bracelet." Thus he believed it possible to determine whether the bracelet had been hand-wrought or made from commercial sheet silver (207). But Adair, author of an in-depth study on Southwestern Indian jewelry, maintained that all pieces of "well-finished jewelry looked similar" (207). Hence the process of deciding which curio bracelets are machine-made, which are handmade, and then, which are authentic Fred Harvey bracelets still remains an elusive goal.

Regardless, this type of jewelry is attractive and timeless. The Native American Curio Trade in New Mexico (Santa Fe, N.M.: 2008) by Jonathan Batkin fully discusses the history of curio jewelry and is a good reference to have if collecting. Prices will vary, so when buying curio jewelry, buy what you love and what you find attractive.

Research by Susan Labry Meyn.

Wes Cowan is founder and owner of Cowan's Auctions, Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio. An internationally recognized expert in historic Americana, Wes stars in the PBS television series History Detectives and is a featured appraiser on Antiques Roadshow. Wes holds a B.A. and M.A. in anthropology from the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan. He is a frequently requested speaker at antiques events around the country. He can be reached via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Long obsolete, sugar chests have become collector favorites. Most sugar chests come from Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina, but they also were produced in New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Southern sugar chests are a better choice because the market for collecting Americana of the South has escalated considerably.

Sugar chests are case pieces. Much like a chest of drawers, presses or blanket chests, a sugar chest is essentially a box with the specific function of housing light and dark sugar. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, sugar was a valuable commodity. Those who could afford sugar kept it under lock and key. Early sugar chests were made to suit that purpose and to make a statement that a family was sufficiently affluent to purchase sugar.

Sugar being a precious commodity, sugar chests were not ordinary storage pieces, that families socked away behind the home in a summer kitchen. Usually made of walnut or cherry, sugar storage pieces were chests of valuable hardwood. Often decorated with fine line inlay, the chests were finished on all sides and generally were made on at least 4-inch legs. Sugar chests were kept in prominent spaces where families would entertain, such as dining rooms or in parlors.

Most sugar chests were made with flat-hinged tops that locked. The interior storage area was divided into two sections - one for light sugar and one for dark. Drawers beneath the sugar storage area housed spices, teas or coffee. These drawers may or may not have locks.

As sugar became more affordable, cabinetmakers continued to make sugar chests well into the 1840s, although the form changed. Sugar storage pieces became vernacular pieces and affluent households came to regard them as outmoded. With time, significant differences between early and later forms of sugar chests emerged. The two main differences are chest size and leg design.

Early chests are much smaller. Larger chests from the later period tended to be characterized by thickly turned legs. Some early chests stood on tapered legs and were slant-front desks, called sugar desks. The form served several purposes: sugar was in a lockable area inside the lid, and the fall front could be used as a writing surface. Sugar tables developed, as did sugar sideboards. The inventiveness of cabinetmakers with these forms is a key determinant of their charm and appeal to today's collector, and of their value in the marketplace.

Sugar chests and desks can be found in private antique shops and at auction. Expect to pay $1,000 to $3,000 for larger chests, while small early chests may command as much as $30,000, depending on form, decoration, condition and provenance.

What to Look for in collecting sugar chests:

• Case pieces - either chests or small slant desks.
• Interiors that are, or have evidence of being, divided into two sections.
• Cherry or walnut as the primary wood.
• Turned or tapering legs.
• Inlay - usually those with inlay are the most desirable forms.
• Smaller case pieces, or the earlier forms, are sought more than later big, boxy pieces.
• Avoid finished or varnished interiors or pieces that have been aggressively refinished

Wes Cowan is founder and owner of Cowan's Auctions, Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio. An internationally recognized expert in historic Americana, Wes stars in the PBS television series History Detectives and is a featured appraiser on Antiques Roadshow. Wes holds a B.A. and M.A. in anthropology from the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan. He is a frequently requested speaker at antiques events around the country. He can be reached via email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .