KOVELS NEWS FOLLOW-UPS

Why did the ivory box sell for $410,000? Whats new about President Garfields and Queen Nefertitis heads? Fifty-two Kovels Komments were emailed this year, each with a story based on the news. Ever wonder how the story ended? Here are the ten most interesting stories of 2009, the ones that got the most inquiries from readers asking How much did it sell for? or Then what happened? (The dates of our original stories are listed after each follow-up. Look them up on our website, Kovels.com. Click on "Free Resources" , scroll down to "Weekly Ezine," and select the date). Next week we will give you ten tips to buying smart in 2010.

1. The original bidder for the crypt above Marilyn Monroe's did not pay, so it was offered for sale in another auction in October. It did not get a single bid in that auction. As of November, the crypt still holds the body of Richard Poncher, whose wife was trying to sell the crypt to raise money. (Aug. 19)

2. Eva Zeisel is still designing and working with ceramics. She has even designed her first rug. Zeisel is alive and well at 103 as we write this follow-up. (July 1)

3. Egypt's antiquities chief said in December he will again demand the return of the famous stone bust of Queen Nefertiti. It's in a Berlin museum. This is the latest request for the return of the bust, which was first displayed in Germany in 1924. (May 13)

4. President Garfields head, stolen from his statue last spring, was returned to Hiram College in Ohio in the fall. The college is trying to make sure it won't happen again, but officials are taking precautions just in case it does. Metal rods were installed to hold the head in place, and a GPS device has been embedded in the head. The college also made a cast of the head so if it's stolen again the school can make a copy. And a security camera is trained on the statue at all times. The head was returned to the local police department by a "Good Samaritan" who refused the $1,000 reward but would not explain where the head was found. The grand jury is going to consider charges against a suspect. Hiram, an excellent liberal arts college in northeastern Ohio, has received nationwide publicity because of the theft. The headless statue was photographed by hundreds of visitors and the college even markets a T-shirt with the slogan "Get a Head at Hiram College." (May 20)

5. Amelia Earharts fake hair is still on display at the International Womens Air & Space Museum in Cleveland. The hair has a new label that explains the story of the hair-thread mix-up. (Oct. 21)

6. A moon rock was given as a gift to the Dutch prime minister in 1969. Somehow it became mixed up with a piece of petrified wood on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. No one seems to know how they were switched, but we understand the real moon rock is safely stored in Amsterdam. Last we heard, the petrified wood is still on display at the museum alongside a new label telling about the mix-up. (Nov. 18)

7. The ivory box that sold at a Cleveland auction for $410,000 has been identified. It's a 16th-century Persian jewel box that may have belonged to royalty. The writing on the cover has been translated. It tells of jewels as bright as stars. (Oct. 7)

8. The Abraham Lincoln stamp ("Ice House cover") that sold for $431,000 in June had been stolen in 1967 during the theft of about 250 valuable stamps from the Indianapolis home of J. David Baker (see the June 17 issue of Kovels Komments). We explained who got the proceeds (Baker's heirs) in our June 24 ezine. But there's much more to the story. It has been suggested that the 1967 theft was by someone working for the Chicago mob. In 1974 Boston police stopped the car of a known thief and found some of the stolen stamps. A short time later, a police officer posing as a crook was offered the return of the rest of the collection for $100,000. But the man who made the offer was murdered before a meeting could be set up. Soon after that, the undercover cop received another call from someone eager to sell the stamps. Police arranged a meeting, arrested the man trying to make the sale, and recovered the stamps. But the Ice House cover was not there. Meanwhile, a longtime legitimate collector said he and a friend bought the rights to buy the stamp (whenever it surfaced) from the insurance company that covered the original loss. But when the collector's friend committed suicide in 1995, the collector discovered that his friend was $11 million in debt and had been accused of selling fake collectibles. Now jump ahead several years: In 2006 a Chicago-area couple claimed to have bought the stamp at a flea market 20 years before and then forgot about it. They found out what they had when they took it to a Chicago stamp dealer. There are other Lincoln stamps, but this one is the most valuable because it's still on its original envelope. (Find more information at Starpress.com.).

9. The Bugatti car that was found in a barn when Dr. Harold Carr's heirs cleaned out his many collections sold at Bonham's in February. Presale estimate of the value was about $8.7 million. The Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe, purchased by Dr. Carr in 1955 for $2,520, sold for $4.4 million, much less than expected. (Jan 14)

10. We announced in Kovels Komments on March 19 that our newly designed website was to be launched soon. Like all other website projects, it has taken much more time than we expected. Our new site will be introduced in the next few months.

Happy 2010!

ARE THE PIANO KEYS IVORY?

Q: I bought a baby grand piano at an estate sale for $500 in 1972. It is labeled "Made and Guaranteed by The Packard Piano Co., Fort Wayne Ind. Est. 1871/Bond Piano Co." The serial number is 22190. I would like to know what the white keys were made of and the value of the piano today.

A: Albert Sweetser Bond was one of the owners of Packard Piano Co. In 1911 a group of Packard stockholders founded Bond Piano Co. In 1913 they decided it was inefficient to run two separate operations and Packard began manufacturing pianos with the Bond name on them, while continuing to make pianos with the Packard name. Bond pianos were made through 1925. The serial number on your piano indicates it was made in 1924. Piano keys were made of ivory or celluloid before the 1950s, when plastic keys were first used. Ivory keys were made in two pieces with a seam between the front and back part of the key. The keys are grained and may look yellowish. Celluloid keys were made in one piece and are off-white. A piano has to be seen and played to be appraised since the condition of the sounding board and internal mechanism helps determine the value.

IVORY SALE NOW LEGAL IN SOME COUNTRIES

It is now legal to sell some new ivory. Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe sold over 100 tons of elephant ivory to China and Japan to be used for jewelry and carvings. The United Nations sanctioned the sale because the ivory came from elephants that died of natural causes or were killed in a population-maintenance program. The money must go for conservation in Africa.

IVORY

Tips on Care and Repairs

Last week's tip about ivory included a suggestion about holding the ivory near an open flame and sniffing the smoke for a telltale odor. It is not a good idea for an amateur to try this; the ivory may be burned. The website given in the tip had an incorrect letter. It should have been iovinc.com.

COLLECTORS TIP FROM ONE OF OUR READERS

Collectors tip from one of our readers

It is fairly easy to discern ivory if you know what it does NOT look like.

Cast resin whale teeth or other cast resin pieces usually have tiny burst bubbles in them that leave small round depressions in the surface. Also, the cavity in the bottom of the tooth will not be deep and will not mirror the contour of the outside. Best test is to hold the item about 2 inches over a stove burner. As it heats up it gives off a noxious plastic odor.

Bone, which is organic, will normally show either a uniform blanched white surface or numerous tiny parallel lines. If you hold bone over a stove burner, as it heats up it will begin to smell like chicken bones left on a barbecue grill.

Ivory, regardless of the animal it comes from, normally has some apparent wavy grain like woodgrain that you can find someplace on the surface. If the object includes the entire round tusk, you can see crosshatching just inside the outer "skin". If held over a stove burner, it will give off the same smell as bone as it heats up.

On fake scrimshaw, the "engraving" and artificial scarring are the same shallow depth. A fake whale tooth generally also shows parallel saw marks across the bottom (open end).

Collectors tip from one of our readers--Dr. Jerome C. Ford from http://www.iovinc.com/