A NOTE OF THANKS FROM TERRY KOVEL

A Note of Thanks from Terry Kovel



Thank you, collectors, dealers, curators, authors and the many others who are part of our community of "antiquers." Your hundreds of notes and calls have made the past two weeks a little easier.

Ralph and I were together in work and marriage for many years, yet there are many stories I had forgotten or perhaps never heard:

• How he schemed with a dealer to make me think he was buying a 10-foot-tall airplane propeller for our living room, then told me about it in front of the camera during a TV taping.
  
  
• How he sat for hours in an auction to buy a special antique for me for our anniversary. He got it with the best ploy I have ever seen at an auction. He noticed only two other bidders wanted the antique, so he tapped the one nearest to us on the shoulder and said, "Pardon me, I have waited all day for the next piece--don't you have to go to the bathroom?" The dealer laughed, left for a short time, and Ralph's bid won.
  
  
• How he often gave a tie or cufflinks to someone who admired them.
  
  
• How he gave information and advice to anyone who asked, including one bottle collector from Alaska who called at 2 in the morning.
  

The house is filled with Ralph. Every piece of furniture, every vase, and of course our country store collection are all reminders of a wonderful husband and our years of collecting fun. The personal stories from you, especially the ones that tell of a chance encounter at a show or of the importance of his work, have kept me going. I keep thinking that, as one blogger said, "He's probably poking around in God's cupboards" looking for that next treasure.

IN MEMORIAM: RALPH KOVEL

In Memoriam: Ralph Kovel

Ralph Kovel, Terry's husband and business partner, died last Thursday after a short illness. He will be deeply missed by our readers and fans, by everyone in the world of antiques, and by all of us at Kovels. If you would like to send condolences, you are welcome to use our blog. We very much appreciate all of the kind notes already sent by so many of you.

Our website, all of our publications, and our love of antiques will carry on--with the help of Terry Kovel, Kim Kovel, Lee Kovel and the rest of the Kovel staff.

OUR 100TH EDITION!

Our 100th Edition!

This is the 100th edition of Kovels Komments. Our very first Komments reported on "everybody's dream." A $15 piece of glass from a thrift store sold at a Green Valley auction in Virginia for $22,000. It was a Boston & Sandwich Glass Co. Tulip vase in dark cobalt blue with white striations.

Since then we have continued to report the news with an eye to how it affects the world of antique collecting. There have been strange stories: an elbow through a multimillion-dollar painting (Oct. 19, 2006), the discovery of more dodo bird bones (June 7, 2007), record prices for the Honus Wagner baseball card as it went up and up to $2.8 million (Jan. 3, 2008), how an empty paper box added $40,000 to the value of a pistol (Jan. 10, 2008), and the paintings of saints purchased for $500 that sold for $3.4 million (April 26, 2007).

We have also identified 100 marks, answered 100 Collectors Concerns questions, and given 100 tips. Best of all, everything we've written is all still "out there" in our free ezine archives for you to read (look under "Free Resources" on our Kovels.com homepage). We are adding more features to our website all the time. Have you visited our blog at kovels.blogspot.com? And don't miss the "Directory" that lists information like matching services, appraisers, people who refinish furniture, and where to get old nails. Our "Store" is filling up with useful leaflets and special reports on subjects like costume jewelry, record prices, and how to be sure you do the right things before, during, and after a natural disaster to protect your collection.