Scarce 270-year-old book found in library vault

The 1743 tome, Dissertation Upon Parties by Henry St. John Lord Bolingbroke, was one of 800 volumes that planter and diplomat John Mackenzie donated to the College of Charleston in the 1700s.

His library was housed at the Charleston Library Society, founded in 1748, until a proper library could be built at the fledgling college. But a devastating 1778 fire ripped through the Library Society and only 77 titles from the Mackenzie collection were thought to have survived.

The 78th, the Bolingbroke book, was found as part of a multiyear search through the Library Society vaults to record the thousands of volumes it contains. After centuries, the book about political parties, with Mackenzie's name embossed on it, will be returned to College of Charleston officials at a ceremony on Thursday.

A check of the Internet showed that 15 copies of the Bolingbroke book remain in existence, mostly in academic libraries. The survival of that many copies of a book that's almost 270 years old shows it was popular at the time. Library records show the society used to have two copies of the Bolingbroke book.

Library archivist Trisha Kometer said the contents of its vaults, one of which is located behind an antique shop on Charleston's King Street, remain unclear.

“We have lists but because the library itself has been moved from place to place to place, the collections have been integrated, they have been pulled apart and a lot has gone on during the years,” she said, making it difficult to tell for sure.

During the Civil War, for instance, the collection was moved from Charleston, which was bombarded throughout the war by union gunners, to the state capital of Columbia 120 miles inland.

The recent search of the archives has already turned up several other gems that librarians didn't know were there.

They include two letters written by Alexander Hamilton and a unique third letter written by John Marshall, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, to South Carolinian Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who helped draft the Constitution.

“It was written the day that Thomas Jefferson was sworn in (as president),” Kometer said. “John Marshall was the one who actually swore him in. He started a letter to Charles Coatesworth Pinckney in the morning and then he took a break and came back at 4 o'clock to finish the letter and said I have just administered the oath.”

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AP-WF-05-07-12 1843GMT

Stradivarius cello damaged in photo shoot accident

A National Heritage official declined to specify what went wrong. She refused to comment on an El Mundo newspaper report that the instrument fell off a table during a photo session. She confirmed it happened about three weeks ago. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

The damage sustained: a piece that joins the neck of the 17th-century instrument to the body of it broke and fell off the rest of the cello.

That piece was not original but rather a replacement installed in the 19th century.

The official said the cello can and will be repaired.

The heritage official declined to say how much the cello was worth. She said it was part of a set of instruments—two violins and a viola were the others—that were known as “the Quartet.” They got this name because they were commissioned at the same time.

El Mundo quoted an unidentified expert at the Association of Luthiers and Bow-Makers of Spain as estimating the instrument would fetch up to 20 million euros ($26 million) at an auction. An official at Sotheby's Madrid office said he could not immediately comment on that estimate.

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AP-WF-05-07-12 1339GMT

Historic NH resort putting items up for auction

A big auction is being held Saturday, May 12, at the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in Dixville Notch.

The nearly 150-year-old resort was sold last year to two businessmen for $2.3 million who plan to reopen it in 2013. They have commissioned North Country Auctions to liquidate the contents.

Among the items up for auction are 300-plus complete bedroom sets, kitchen and baking equipment -- and a biomass plant.

A preview will be on Thursday, May 10 and Friday, May 11. The sale will start at 7:30 a.m. on May 12.

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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Italian antiquities recovered from Oregon dealer

His wife answered the door and called him in tears: The Italian government had identified three 13th-century choral music manuscripts Pirages was selling online as stolen, and the U.S. government was there to reclaim them.

After several unpleasant conversations, the Oregon book dealer was convinced that the manuscripts he had purchased in Europe and Ohio were stolen from Italian monasteries and churches between 1975 and 2008.

"I was very impressed with how serious the (Italian) government was about reclaiming these," Pirages said.

Pirages said he had no inkling that the pages were stolen when he bought them.

"Often times these things are acquired as groups of things," Pirages said. "Not in every case, but I bought a dozen leaves for a certain amount of money and, what are you going to do?"

Federal officials say he cooperated fully with the investigation by U.S. and Italian officials and won't be charged.

"Once we established that they were stolen, he voluntarily agreed to surrender them," said ICE special agent Melissa Cooley. "He didn't fight the forfeiture."

The pages were among seven antiquities turned over to the Italian government Thursday in Washington. They came from several separate investigations.

Pirages had been asking about $15,000 for the pages and says they were insured. Such pages for church choirs feature lavish illustrations and artwork.

He still speaks with some relish about the manuscripts.

"They're beautiful, and they old," Pirages said about his decision to buy them. "And they're musical. And as a result of all those things, they're salable.

"It was a no-brainer until what happened happened."

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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

French 15th-century manuscript sells for two million euros

PARIS - A 15th-century French manuscript with intricate miniature paintings sold at a Paris auction on Friday for two million euros, the Drouot auction house said.

Commissioned in the third decade of the 15th century, the book was put on sale by the French firm Millon. It earlier belonged to Jean Andre Hachette,

who had acquired a huge collection of ancient books and drawings.

The 530-page manuscript contains 22 large and 38 miniature paintings depicting religious and country scenes.

Drouot said it was probably commissioned by John of Lancaster, the Duke of Bedford, who acted as regent of France for his nephew who later became king Henri IV.

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Stolen Cezanne back in Switzerland

GENEVA (AFP) - Paul Cezanne's The Boy in the Red Vest is back in Switzerland after being stolen four years ago in Zurich, ATS news agency reported Tuesday.

The painting, whose value is estimated at 100 million Swiss francs (83.2 million euros, $109.5 million), was transferred back to Zurich from Serbia, the city's public prosecutor's office said.

It was stolen from the E.G. Buehrle collection in Zurich in February 2008 together with paintings by Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.

At the time, the theft was the biggest art heist ever in Europe.

Police recovered the other three masterpieces, but the Cezanne had remained missing until April 11, when Serbian police found it hidden in the back of a car after chasing down a suspect in Belgrade.

Serbian officials said they had tracked down the painting by the French post-Impressionist after a two-year investigation focused on following a possible sale to a buyer who was reportedly ready to pay three million euros.

The heist involved three armed masked men, and witnesses said they spoke German with a Slavic accent, Swiss police said at the time.

Just days after the theft, Swiss police announced they had found the stolen Monet and Van Gogh paintings in Zurich in the back of a car in the parking lot of a psychiatric hospital.

The Degas was found in 2009.

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1896 Olympic marathon cup sold at Christie's auction in London

Spyros Louis was presented with the cup, a silver medal, an antique vase, an olive branch and a diploma by Greece's King George I for his Athens victory in the 25-mile (roughly 40-kilometer) -long race. That's slightly shorter than the modern, 26.2-mile-long marathon.

The cup was being sold by Louis' grandson, who shares the same name as his grandfather.

The junior Louis said he was overwhelmed by the international interest in his grandfather's award and said Wednesday that the money would ``secure the future of my family.''

The cup will return to Greece after being bought by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copper heiress' jewelry brings $21M at NY auction

Christie's said Tuesday's sale from the estate of Huguette Clark caught the attention of collectors worldwide. The star of the collection, a rare pink cushion-cut 9-carat diamond ring, sold for nearly $16 million.

The auction house had estimated the collection of 17 pieces would bring between $9 million and $12 million.

The reclusive Clark was 104 when she died last year. Her father was U.S. Sen. William A. Clark, once one of America's wealthiest men, who built a fortune from copper mining and railroads.

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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Rare Paul Revere print found in 19th century book

A Brown preservationist discovered the print a few weeks ago while studying an 1811 book once owned by a 1773 Brown graduate. The book was donated to Brown 70 years ago by the graduate's descendants.

The print shows Jesus and John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Revere's name is featured on the bottom corner. Only five copies of the print are known to exist.

Richard Noble, who catalogs rare items in Brown's collections, says he has several unanswered questions about the find, including Revere's reasons for making the print, his relationship with the book's owner, and why it took decades for anyone to notice the rare item.

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AP-WF-04-11-12 1648GMT

Mother attends 'Antiques Roadshow' in son's memory

So, when the 46-year-old police officer died unexpectedly in March 2011, taking those pieces of pottery to the show became a mission for his mother, Ellen Whitaker of Watkinsville.

Greg Whitaker grew up in Oconee, went into law enforcement and became a sergeant with the Johns Creek Police Department in Fulton County.

When he learned Antiques Roadshow was coming to Atlanta, he called his mother asking to take two pieces of pottery his late grandmother originally acquired and that his mother now owns. The pottery was produced by Shimuel Timmerman in Lanier County during the late 1800s.

Ellen Whitaker remembers the enthusiasm her son had for the show, which will air the Atlanta episodes at 8 p.m. the next three Mondays on Georgia Public Broadcasting.

“He got everybody he knew to sign up for tickets—family and friends—just in case he didn't get tickets. It turned out that nobody he knew received tickets,” she said.

More than 26,000 people applied for tickets, but station WGBH in Boston only gave out 3,000, according to Mandy Wilson, communications manager for GPB.

But in February 2011, her son had surgery to remove a tumor on his spine. The surgery left him paralyzed, though his surgeon assured him he would be able to walk and return to work by September.

He had a pulmonary embolism while recovering and died.

Knowing how much Greg had wanted to attend the show, Ellen Whitaker wrote a letter requesting tickets so she could go in his memory.

Two friends from her church had tickets and offered them, but she declined. Soon the mailman delivered two tickets, yet there was no explanation accompanying the tickets.

Whitaker, her daughter, Paige Spearing, and a granddaughter, Kate Spearing, attended the taping and took the two pieces of pottery. Although she was not selected for the on-air appraisals, they had “a wonderful time,” she said.

“The time passed so quickly, because you're looking around to see what others have. The line wound around like a snake in this huge room,” said Whitaker, who had a chance to meet Wilson, who also grew up in Oconee County.

Wilson also brought them together with the woman who sent them tickets.

Amy Santamaria, the event producer from Boston, was attending the show, so Wilson introduced them.

“We got a chance to thank her personally, and she told us how the note touched her. She felt like we deserved tickets,” she said.

While she didn't get an appraisal on the jugs at the taping, years ago at a pottery show in Morgan County, an appraiser valued them at $2,000 and $1,500.

Whitaker is glad she was able to attend the show in memory of her son.

“I think I would have regrets about not being able to go and do this for him,” she said.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-04-10-12 1731GMT

$4.5M soda fountain is high-water mark for Richard Opfer

Before the auction, the marble and alabaster fountain that was displayed at the 1893 World's Fair assessed for $125,000. The owner, Schmidt Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia, hoped the piece might bring $1 million. But it surpassed that after just three minutes of bidding.

Museum head Larry Schmidt told The Courier-Journal that he was “shocked” at the final price.

Phil Mooney, head archivist for the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co., said it was “electrifying” to be in the room as the price kept rising. He says people were “literally gasping for breath” when the price started jumping in $500,000 increments.

Auctioneer Richard Opfer said it is the highest-priced item he's ever sold.

Click below to view the fully illustrated catalogs for both the March 24 and 25 sessions of Richard Opfer’s auction of contents of the Schmidt Museum of Coca-Cola Memorabilia, complete with prices realized, at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

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Information from: The Courier-Journal, http://www.courier-journal.com

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-04-08-12 1302GMT

Click here to view the fully illustrated catalog for this sale, complete with prices realized.

Wrestler turned relic hunter stars in 'American Digger'

He's taking America along on the journey in a new television series, American Digger, which premiered recently on Spike TV.

“I want to educate people that it's out there so they'll appreciate the history of it,” he said at Sgt. Riker's Trading Post near Ashland, Va., an antiques shop that figures into one of the first-season episodes.

“You can't get any closer than finding an item dropped by someone in that time period and the next person who picks it up is you,” Savage said.

Through his company called American Savage, he specializes in digs on private property with permission of the owner, who gets a share of the profit. In the series' first episode, he goes to Alaska gold-rush territory to see what the miners left behind.

“A lot of places are hunted out,” he said. “They've been beat to death for 50 years. The bigger, more valuable items are gone. If you can get to a place where no one is allowed to dig—now you can get into the good stuff.”

Once they reach a site, metal detectors are the first step for the four-man crew, which includes Bob Buttafuso of Manassas, Va., who has written a book on relic hunting.

Rita Savage, Ric's wife, researches potential sites and handles the logistics, while son Giuseppe Savage is the chief handyman. Rue Shumate, who owns automotive repair shops in Colonial Heights, Va., is unafraid of wells and tunnels.

Ric Savage grew up near Asheville, N.C., where his father was an English professor and his mother a librarian. His interest in the Civil War started at about age 8 when he read a book on Robert E. Lee. From then on, he wanted to take vacations at battlefields instead of beaches.

“They bought me a Civil War bullet at Appomattox, my first relic. It's still in my collection.”

His professional wrestling career was “totally by accident,” he said. In the Army at Fort Bragg, he won a competition for a spot on the base wrestling squad. After an injury to his left knee resulted in a medical discharge and a year in a knee brace, he hired a personal trainer to help him get back into shape. The trainer happened to be preparing for a pro wrestling career, and Savage was intrigued.

“I got to do something I liked to do, which is entertainment,” he said. When his seven-year wrestling career ended in 1997, he started working for an auto parts distributor in New Jersey. In 2008, he moved to Mechanicsville, where it was much easier to indulge in his passion for Civil War relics.

Savage, 42, has become an expert in spotting fakes, which he details in a column for American Digger magazine. Looking through a tray of Civil War buckles at Sgt. Rikers, he said the Confederate relics are more valuable because they are more rare.

A Confederate tongue-and-wreath style buckle could go for $2,500 if both parts are in good condition. A US Army box plate might be worth $200.

“US stuff was mass produced,” he said. A box plate held down the front flap on a cartridge box, but it wasn't essential. “Soldiers discarded it quickly. It was a little bit of extra weight and it was an extra shiny target for sharpshooters.”

He never knows what he'll find on a dig, he said. Episodes of the show will feature Brooklyn, N.Y.; Detroit; Chicago; St. Augustine, Fla.; Louisiana; and Mechanicsville.

“We don't hit gold every time,” he said. “You can accurately say something happened here. You can't accurately say stuff is still in the ground.”

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Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.timesdispatch.com

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

AP-WF-04-04-12 0223GMT

Famous San Francisco pub's Tiffany lamps headed to auction

Now all six of the lamps and one Tiffany chandelier are heading to Christie's auction house in New York. They're expected to bring more than $2 million on June 14.

Eddie Rickenbacker's colorful proprietor, Norman Jay Hobday, died in February 2011.

He's credited with inventing the "lemon drop'' martini and the "fern bar,'' a term applied to his first restaurant, Henry Africa, due to all the hanging plants.

Hobday's Tiffany collection has pre-sale estimates from $30,000 to $700,000.

The crown jewel is a circa 1910 "Wisteria'' leaded glass and bronze table lamp in deep purples, violets and blues.

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Online: www.christies.com

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Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Select guild of Mass. artisans preserve printed word

Since 1965, his Shrewsbury business has earned an international reputation for restoring and conserving “all manner of bound and printed material,” including old books, maps, documents and even globes.

On a busy Thursday afternoon, five employees work at varied tasks as the radio plays classic rock music.

Christopher Herbert repairs the broken spine of a 19th century City Directory of Baltimore, Md.

Matthew Jones works on three different globes, including a rare Bryant Celestial model from the 1880s. And Nicole McDaniel patiently restores an 1820 first edition of James Fenimore Cooper's first novel, a flop titled Precaution.

In a downstairs shop, cousins Wesley and Christine Carpenter call for help moving a faded 17th century map of England and Wales to a table for cleaning and repairs.

Resembling a mix between Henry Ford's and Santa's workshops, the bindery is packed with century-old presses, specialized tools, a World War II army sink for cleaning maps, paint, paste and a safe with no combination.

A trim, bearded man wearing suspenders, the 79-year-old Carpenter followed a winding path to open his bindery, housed in a two-floor shop he built on Boylston Street.

He studied physics and electrical engineering at the University of Miami, served as chief engineer on a U.S. Navy landing ship tank vessel in the 1950s, taught industrial arts in Stow for 12 years and sold and restored antiques.

“I took some school books apart and put them back together,” recalled Carpenter. “I started doing it and basically taught myself. It just mushroomed.”

He chose the name Green Dragon from a child's watercolor that had passed through his antique store.

Over the decades, Carpenter hired a team of five variously skilled artisans who share some book restoration tasks but have developed specialized techniques for conserving maps, documents and globes.

“We have a special place in the book world. We've learned the tricks and pitfalls you can't learn in school,” said Carpenter. “You have to learn by making mistakes. You have to learn by doing.”

While prices vary, he cited the following fees: $250-300 for rebacking a book in cloth or leather; $100-$200 for restoring a sheet map, print or engraving; $800-1,000 for restoring a wall map; and $1,000-3,000 for repairing a globe.

In a busy field beset by deadlines, he's proud of earning a reputation for delivering projects within a promised 10 to 12 weeks.

Now 79, Carpenter doesn't plan on expanding his business even if there's a market for it.

“I don't want any more people,” he said. “Then it becomes big business and that means big problems.”

Like the books they preserve, each employee has his or her own story.

A former anthropology and art student who studies Japanese swordsmanship, Jones observed what he and the others do “is really both a craft and art.”

“The main things each of us do are arts-skilled. Sometimes, it's in line with being a carpenter who takes apart and mends things,” he said. “You have to be an artist to see the patterns. You have to have the ability to duplicate the feeling of the original work.”

The newest employee who came to the bindery in 2006, McDaniel repairs books and makes jewelry in her spare time. A Hardwick resident, she studied graphic design and bookmaking at UMass and “just fell in love with it.”

When conserving a damaged old book, McDaniel said, “Whenever possible, we save the original and do our best to replicate what we can't. We want the book to be useful so the owner can read it and not just look at it,” she said.

“I feel it's a privilege to be preserving history. To my dismay, books are going by the wayside. I don't take them for granted,” she said. “It's like a new, Old World job that nobody's doing. That's why I'm glad I have it.”

A burly man with long blonde hair, Herbert brushes paste onto the spine of a damaged book with brisk, sure strokes.

After studying commercial art, he was supporting himself as a woodworker when he asked Carpenter to teach him bookbinding.

“It was like joining a guild. I made a verbal agreement to work here five years and he'd teach me the business,” said Herbert.

Entering the first-floor workshop after working on an old map, Wesley Carpenter joked, “My job description hasn't changed in the last 500 years.”

“Are we Luddites?” he pondered. “There are some people here who'd fit that description.”

Someone asked Wes Carpenter if he could use his mechanical skills to repair a Nook or Kindle.

“If he could, he wouldn't,” Jones answered for him. “If he did, he'd be disowned.”

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-WF-03-16-12 1756GMT

Mallett relocating to former palace, London's Ely House

LONDON - On Feb. 23, Mallett will leave its New Bond Street showroom to move to Ely House in Dover Street, in the heart of fashionable Mayfair. Ely House is the former London palace of the Bishop of Ely, built between 1772 and 1776 by the renowned architect Robert Taylor, and was described as 'one of the best houses in London' by Country Life in 2002. The magnificent interiors retain much of their original stucco work and will provide the ideal setting to showcase Mallett's stock in a discreetly glamorous setting.

Founded in 1865, Mallett is one of the oldest antique dealers in the United Kingdom and is unique for the eclectic range of stock it offers from exceptionally fine 18th-century English furniture to leading contemporary designs as well as Continental antique furniture and objets d'art. The move to Ely House will increase the showroom space thus providing the opportunity to expand further its stock to include sculpture, textiles, Old Master and modern pictures.

Giles Hutchinson Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Mallett, says: "The move to Ely House marks an exciting new chapter in Mallett's distinguished history. This magnificent 18th-century house provides the perfect environment for a 21st-century antiques business. The new space is entirely in tune with the Mallett ethos and manages to be both grand but intimate and discreet at the same time. The new space will provide an entirely new retail experience for our clients and we look forward to welcoming them here."

Mallett has long been recognized for it’s knowledge and expertise and has been responsible for building a number of great historic collections. As the art market becomes increasingly global the company has adopted a policy of proactively developing business in strategic overseas markets including China, Brazil and the Middle East through its multilingual staff. The move to Ely House is part of its forward-thinking policy. Mallett will continue to take part in leading international art and antiques fairs.

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