Some advertising is considered art
Advertising signs are popular collectibles, but some are sold as art at galleries or auctions.
Travel posters, French Art Deco wine ads, Art Nouveau ads by Alfred Mucha, pictures from calendars by Maxfield Parrish and many other commercial prints are valuable.
Also high-priced are ads that are decorative or conversation pieces. Wm Morford Auctions had a successful advertising sale that included a life-size cutout of a woman with bobbed hair and Mary Jane shoes. The sign was promoting light bulbs in a box labeled “Edison Mazda lamps.”
The clothes, size and brand name, plus its almost-perfect condition, made this store display desirable and dated as circa 1920s. The sign sold for $775.
General Electric registered the Mazda name in 1909. Before that date, every light bulb company used a different metal base and a carbon filament. GE used a tungsten filament that gave more light, but cost more.
Q: What’s the history of gold-colored tableware? I have pieces of Dirigold flatware.
A: Dirigold looks like gold, but it’s an alloy of aluminum, copper and other metals. It was developed in Sweden in 1914 by Carl Molin, and he and a partner exported it to other countries. A sales office was opened in Minneapolis in 1924. Shortly after that, a factory was opened in Kokomo, Indiana, where flatware and hollowware were made.
The company went into receivership in 1930, was sold and became American Art Alloys in 1935. The company made Dirigold flatware and holloware. After the Federal Trade Commission sued the company in 1935, saying “Dirigold” was misleading because it didn’t contain any gold, the company changed the name of its product to Dirilyte. Production stopped in 1986.
Tip: Aluminum chairs and other brushed aluminum from the 1950s can be cleaned with a silver polishing paste or a metal cleaner.
Current prices
Prices are recorded from across the U.S.
■ Terra-cotta sculpture, sitting man braiding ropes, 10 ½ x 7 ¾ inches, $70
■ Toy, tractor dump truck, blackrubber-tread tires, tin lithograph, Marx, 14 inches, $120
■ Tiffany glass bowl, gold iridescent, scalloped rim, wide ribs, favrile, 1920s, 2 ¼ inches, $210
■ Schneider glass vase, trumpet-shape neck over sphere, orange, yellow, round purple base, c. 1900, 14 ¾¾ x4 inches, $345
■ Wall hanging, embroidered, phoenix, flowers, leaves, Japan, 80 x 53 ½ inches, $1,090