The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a book of children's stories mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. After the publication of Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling authored and published a limited edition of a work of the same name, purportedly the same storybook as portrayed in Deathly Hallows; a copy of this work fetched £1.95 million at auction.

Only seven copies of the book have been created, all hand written and illustrated by Rowling. Each copy is leather-bound and decorated in silver and semi-precious stones. One copy of the book, the "moonstone edition", was auctioned by Sotheby's on 13 December 2007 to raise money for The Children's Voice, a charity that helps vulnerable children across Europe. Estimated to make £50,000, the book was eventually purchased with a winning bid of £1,950,000 by London fine art dealers Hazlitt Gooden and Fox on behalf of Amazon.com. The other copies of the book have been given away as gifts.

More on the purchase along with photos can be seen here on the Amazon web site.

Labels: beedle, harry potter, j.k. rowling, Tales of Beedle the Bard

Looking for a neat item to collect that doesn't take up a lot of room? May I suggest vintage comic character pinbacks? They're really attractive and have a wide range of values to satisfy any budget.

Old pinbacks are usually referred to as either 'litho' (lithographed) or 'cello' (celluloid). The term cello can be misleading since many newer pinbacks are plastic coated but are often listed as 'cello". Beware of supposed "vintage" cellos which are actually recent plastic coated. There are many fakes out there, so learn how to tell the difference.

The lithographed 13/16" Kellogg's Pep Pins comic series are probably the most commonly seen. There were also the Kellogg's Pep military insignia pins & the larger airplane series, but here we're just going to cover the comic character offerings. These comic pins were released in 5 series of 18 pins with Superman in each of the 5 series for a total of 86 different. To explain the Superman being a part of each series- the Superman Radio Show was sponsored by Kellogg's Pep. These pins can be found for around $5-10 for the common and up to $50 or more for the scarcer characters (i.e.: Phantom, Felix, Winnie's Twins). "Kellogg's Pep" is in blue on the reverse. Although you don't see it mentioned much, plain back versions have been seen along with other back variations.

The Comic Togs series very closely resembles the Kellogg's pins. Some of the pins are identical to the Kellogg's except for the back that reads "Comic Togs". There are some characters in the Comic Togs series that weren't offered in the Kellogg's set like Joe Palooka. Not much information is found on Comic Togs such as the characters and number of pins in the series.

Many of the newspapers during the 20s thru the 50s period offered comic character pins, usually to promote their color comic section. Some are fairly plain while others are quite colorful. Some of the nicest are those in the 1 1/4" cello Evening Ledger series.

The comic books of the 30s and 40s also offered comic pins. Fawcett Comics had a series of 10 pinbacks of their characters- Captain Marvel (& the rest of the family), Bulletman, Nyoka, etc. It should be noted here that some of the rarest of the comic pins came from the golden age of comics- the Flash and Wonder Woman from National Periodicals (DC Comics), US Jones Cadets, Captain Battle and others.

If you really want to impress others with your comic character pinback collection, don't clutter it up with pins with rust spots, dents, heavy foxing, etc. Try to go for the best condition possible. With vintage pinbacks, like most collectibles, condition is king!

Labels: comic, pep pins, pinback, the flash, wonder woman

How would you like to save an additional 5% on your Amazon book order? It's as easy as pre-ordering an upcoming title! And there are quite a number of antique & collectible selections slated for this coming month.

How about Warman's Fenton Glass, the 2nd edition by Mark Moran? It's due for release in mid-November, but order before then & get an additional 5% off.

Or you might like the Collector's Toy Yearbook: 100 Years of Great Toys by David Longest. It's due out at the end of November, but order now & get that additional 5% off.

Labels: antique, fenton, glassware, toy, vintage

Here's a neat 156 page book released in 2002 on Daisy Air Rifles that you may have missed. Remember these models- Red Ryder, Buck Jones, Buzz Barton? Or how about the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon ray guns? I especially remember those great Daisy Handbooks.

Flash back to the days of your youth and recall fond memories of your Daisy. Daisy Toy Guns looks back fondly on the first 100 years of Daisy BB rifles and pistols, toy and cork guns, accessories, packaging, period advertising and literature. Wacky ads and catalogs conjure grins of pure nostalgia as chapters reveal how Daisy used a combination of savvy business sense and quality products to dominate the market.

Labels: Buck Jones, Buck Rogers, Buzz Barton, Daisy Air Rifles, Flash Gordon, Plymouth Michigan

We'll be using this area to feature some upcoming antique & collectible guides that are available for pre-order. Also guides and other books relating to antiques and collectibles, that have been out for awhile but are worthy of bringing to your attention. We'll also be discussing antiques & collectibles in general. Hope you'll drop in once in awhile!