NEW ORLEANS (AP) - For author and historian Margo Moscou, the decision to research New Orleans cabinetmakers who were free men of color started at the cradle.

Not hers, but an antique cradle at Oak Alley plantation.

Moscou, a native of Boulder, Colo., was visiting friends for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 2003 and took a side trip to the Vacherie estate, where she saw the piece.

"The guide ... pithily pointed out a beautifully carved cradle that, he said, was made by a plantation slave whose name remained lost to history," Moscou writes in her recently released book, New Orleans' Free-Men-of-Color Cabinet Makers in the New Orleans Furniture Trade, 1800-1850 ($18.95, Xavier Review Press).

"I could not forget that cradle. In fact, what was a fleeting tour-guide moment set me on a course of research that consumed the next five years of my professional life."

After her trip to Jazz Fest, Moscou went to London for two years to work on a master's degree in fine and decorative arts. When it came time to choose a topic for her thesis, the memory of the exquisite cradle and its forgotten maker led her to New Orleans.

LONDON (AP) - Administrators for Waterford Wedgwood PLC, the collapsed maker of classic china and crystal, said Thursday they had reached a tentative agreement with U.S. private equity firm KPS Capital Partners over the sale of many of the company's assets.

Waterford Wedgwood, which has its roots in a pottery factory in central England and a crystal factory in southeast Ireland, said it had signed a "letter of intent," a nonbinding agreement, with KPS about certain assets of the brands Waterford, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton and others.

The company filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week after failed attempts at a restructure or a sale, and administrators appointed to run the business said Thursday they were working "to expeditiously agree the terms upon which a transaction can be completed in the interests of stakeholders.''
Waterford Wedgwood chief executive officer David Sculley said the preliminary agreement was a "critical step forward."

"We commend KPS for its confidence in our company, for the enormous amount of time, effort and resources expended by KPS globally that have resulted in reaching this important stage,'' Sculley said in a statement. "I look forward to working towards the successful completion of a deal.''

Waterford Wedgwood, which employs around 7,700 worldwide, is the latest on a growing list of iconic British companies to succumb to the global economic slowdown and credit squeeze.

Department store veteran Woolworths, the queen's tailor Hardy Amies, tea and coffee merchant Whittard of Chelsea and fellow ceramics stalwart Royal Worcester and Spode have all filed for bankruptcy protection in recent months.

Under that process, administrators are appointed to salvage as much of the company as possible for the benefit of its creditors. While they may do so by selling the company as a going concern, they can revert to a break-up to recoup as much money as possible from assets if a buyer for the whole business cannot be found.

Waterford Wedgwood's administrators said Thursday they would continue the process of seeking a separate buyer for any or parts of the business - while talks with KPS were ongoing - in accordance to their duties to creditors.

Trading in the company's shares has been suspended on the Irish Stock Exchange, where they languished at just one-tenth of a euro cent. The company's directors have handed in their resignations.

Wedgwood has been an iconic name in British pottery for 250 years, after its founder Josiah Wedgwood opened the first factory in Stoke-on-Trent, central England, in 1759, while Waterford Crystal traces its lineage to a factory opened in Waterford, southeast Ireland in 1783.

Waterford acquired Wedgwood in 1986 to form the present company, listing on the stock exchange and expanding overseas in the 1990s before buying fellow Stoke-on-Trent ceramics maker Royal Doulton in 2005.

Much of the business has now shifted offshore, where it employs 5,800 people, including 1,500 people at a plant in Jakarta, Indonesia, which produces most of the company's ceramics. The majority of its crystal production has been handed to Eastern European subcontractors.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) _ Court records show a couple has been charged with obtaining property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from a man with dementia.

Washington County District Court records indicated the couple, 39-year-old Daniel Lee Meldron and 23-year-old Angie Rebecca Meldron, had power of attorney for the man. They were charged Dec. 15 after the sale of 26 antique cars that belonged to the Boonsboro-area man.

Court documents say the man was deprived of the sale proceeds of securities and bank accounts worth around $325,000.

LONDON (AP) - Waterford Wedgwood PLC, the maker of classic china and crystal, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday after attempts to restructure the struggling business or find a buyer failed.

Four administrators from business advisory firm Deloitte were appointed to run the company's businesses in Britain and Northern Ireland, while a Deloitte partner in the Irish Republic was appointed as receiver of Waterford Wedgwood PLC, the ultimate parent of the U.K. companies, and other Irish subsidiaries.

The U.K. joint administrators said they intended to continue to run the business as they seek a buyer. Trading in the company's shares was suspended on the Irish Stock Exchange where they languished at just one-tenth of a euro cent and the company's directors - including Anthony O'Reilly, the Irish publishing magnate who along with his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris owns more than half of all Waterford Wedgwood shares - handed in their resignations.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - It's a gun ban George Washington could approve of - or at least the Revolutionary War re-enactor playing him each year.

That's because a proposed ban on large-caliber assault weapons in New Jersey also would legalize the type of guns commonly used by re-enactors.

Currently, a firearm popularly known as the Brown Bess and often used during battlefield scenes violates the state's gun possession laws.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) - It's sort of like sending your attic and yard sale finds to Cinderella's ball.

The 13th season of Antiques Roadshow starts airing this month on PBS, once again giving everyday people the chance to learn if a particular possession is treasure or trash. But the filming for the folksy treasure hunt happened months ago.

When the reality TV program stopped in Chattanooga, hundreds of ticket holders were waiting at 6 a.m. on a Saturday in July, some with children's wagons and dollies carrying the two items _ newly dusted antiques, heirlooms or collectibles - they are allowed to bring for appraisals.

The main requirement: Items to be appraised must fit through a standard door.

The sun rose with dozens of the randomly selected ticket-holders in line outside the downtown convention center, rehearsing over and over, Welcome to Antiques Roadshow! and after repeated prompts by the production crew to say it louder for the TV microphones, repetitive screams of Welcome to Chattanooga!

SEATTLE (AP) _ The U.S. government wants to seize Charles Morse's car, because the French government considers it a national treasure.

The Seattle car collector says he would be willing to turn the car over, but he wants to be reimbursed the $927,518 he paid for the one-of-a-kind 1919 Turcat-Mery touring car.

"It's a one-off automobile with a wonderful history to it. It was built for the Duc de Montpensier, an heir to the French throne," Morse told The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The Duc de Montpensier was a descendant of the Orleans branch of the Bourbon family, which reigned in France from 1589 to 1848 and owned the French castle of Randan in Puy-de-dome.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A $5,000 reward is being offered for the return of a historic cannonball that belonged to Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana.

The priceless artifact was stolen Sunday night or Monday morning from a display case at the Fairmount Hotel in San Antonio, where it had been kept for 23 years.

The cannonball, from the Battle of the Alamo, has been dated to 1836 and linked to Santa Ana's army. Santa Ana was in charge of Mexican soldiers who stormed the Alamo on March 6, 1836.

NEW YORK - On Jan. 24, 2009 Sotheby's will auction what is perhaps the earliest and most valuable weathervane to appear on the auction market in recent history. The circa-1850 molded-copper fireman "Old Jake" weathervane was made for the Union Fire Hall, now Charley Rouss Fire Company, Winchester, Va., and dates to around 1850. It is expected to bring $3 million to $5 million in Sotheby's sale of Important Americana.

"Old Jake," as the weathervane has long been called, is unprecedented in its quality, form, and scale, measuring over 6 feet high and 6 feet wide, and has topped the Charley Rouss Fire Company since just after the Civil War. After almost 140 years above the Winchester skyline, the weathervane is being sold to raise funds for new fire equipment and the potential construction of a new firehouse.

SAN FRANCISCO - A rare Joseon Dynasty Korean blue and white porcelain jar set a world record at auction on Tuesday, Dec. 9, in the San Francisco salesroom of Bonhams & Butterfields. As it hammered to an undisclosed Asian buyer over the telephone for nearly $4.2 million, the crowd burst into applause after a hotly contested bidding war among more than 12 clients.

The mid-Joseon Dynasty (circa 1800) jar was discovered by Asian Art Department Director Dessa Goddard in a monthly appraisal event held at the company's Sunset Blvd. gallery in Los Angeles. The jar was formerly within the collection of Mrs. Fiske Warren of Boston, of the Mount Vernon Street Warren family, living there at the turn of the 19th century. The vase became a family heirloom and has been in a family member's Southern California home for decades.

The items were found along Mt. Vernon Road during a study required by the state before road construction can begin. Many artifacts were found near Wayne and Jayne Amico's home, which was built around 1770 and is listed as the Rev. John Wightman House on the National Register of Historic Places.

The artifacts include pieces of pearlwear pottery that date from as early as 1780, an 18th century kaolin pipe stem fragment and blue-decorated pottery from around 1820.