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Business Card Collection www.cardeologist.com/mecollection.shtml
This is why Steve Patterson’s website attracted my attention. He currently has 96,200 business cards, which is a formidable collection on its own. Yet, he has an audacious dream. In addition to everyday people on the street, Steve has the business cards of Donald Trump (autographed), Jimmy Dean, John Ashcroft and the Mayor of the North Pole, Alaska. He has cards from 42 countries, and in addition to paper, some are made from leather, wood, plastic and CDs. Steve reports that he’s heard of business cards made from glass and chocolate, although the latter defeats the purpose. Steve writes on his website that he is “…a graphic designer [and] has been collecting business cards since about 1996. I enjoy each and every one I get. Good or bad, I learn something new from almost every design I see." You can add to Steve’s collection and help him achieve his goal by cleaning out your files and Rolodex and send any old business cards you have, along with yours, to: Steve PattersonHe has mine and about 50 others that I rounded up. What’s the Largest Collection You Know Of? Thinking about Steve’s collection and his goal, I wonder if there are any other collectors out there with massive collections? Do you know of anyone with a truly impressive collection, maybe not a million, but still huge by normal standards? If you do, I would like to hear about it. And bear in mind that “huge” is a relative term. Owning ten fire trucks or 20 pianos is a huge collection. Send any information you have to mikemcl@mindspring.com, and you may get fifteen minutes of fame in an upcoming issue. Robert Atkinson Fox Society www.rafoxsociety.com
Fox had a strong desire to paint from a very early age. He set out on his own during his teens and apprenticed with a portrait artist for a few years. He painted portraits initially, and Presidents Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison sat for him. He later moved on to commercial painting, and this gave him, his second wife and eight children a comfortable life. He is reported to have painted daily, often completing a painting in a day. On the website, you can see many paintings of western landscapes – Indians, the Rocky Mountains, a cowboy firing his last bullet at his pursuers, etc. But Fox never visited the West during his lifetime, which is evidence of his talent and imagination. The website offers some interesting information about Fox’s use of pseudonyms. As excerpted from Patricia L. Gibson’s book, R. Atkinson Fox Identification & Price Guide, 2nd edition, 2000, “After his paintings were completed, he would patiently make alterations to them as requested by the publisher. Sometimes, when he was not pleased with his work, or if requested by his client, he would use a pseudonym on his paintings. Decendents of the Fox family and painting records from print and calendar companies have verified that Fox used the following pseudonyms: J.H. Banks, G. Blanchard Carr or B. Carr, John Colvin or J. Colvin, Arthur DeForest or DeForest, Dupre, Elmer Lewis, Musson, H. Musson, Ed. Musson or Edw. Musson, George W. Turner, Wainright, Charles Wainright, Chs. Wainright, C.N. Wainwright, Wainwright, George White, Geo. W. White, Geo. White and George Wood.” The society offers a quarterly newsletter to members for $35 per year and holds an annual convention. Fox died in 1935 from heart disease, but his work lives on, in part due to the efforts of the R. Atkinson Fox Society. Blogs www.bottlecollecting.blogspot.com http://teapotsteapotsteapots.blogspot.com/
Most blogs these days are personal reminiscing or politically- or business-oriented. However, some collectors are catching the spirit and posting their own blogs about their collections. I’ve listed a couple here, one on teapots and the other on bottles. Like journals, blogs can be updated daily, weekly or monthly. They can provide useful news and information. Such as, on the teapots blog one day, the 18th-century Staffordshire teapot (pictured here) was posted because it was soon to be sold by Christie’s. Teapotsteapotsteapots.com also lists 105 teapot links and 133 manufactures. The owner, Andy Titcomb, resides in Cornwall, UK. You can learn much on some blogs, but the caveat with them is that anyone can post them, so go cautiously until you know their level of expertise. Blogs are a good way to find other people with whom you can converse about your collection – next door or on the other side of the world. |
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