RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1433

Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2014 

Questions and Answers

QUESTION:  I have a 1950s Japanese photograph album filled with over 100 pictures.  The lacquered wood cover has a black background with a green and red stripe and leaf border motif.  In the center of the cover is a square featuring a map of the Japanese islands.  The upper left corner of the square pictures a cottage and water wheel.  An elaborate colored bird, spilling outside the square, is in the lower right corner. Does it have any value in the United States? – RS, Cincinnati, OH, Email Question

ANSWER:  Your Japanese photo album has three potential values: (1) the album alone, (2) the photographs in the album, and (3) the combination of the first two values.  Your album is typical of Japanese lacquered photograph/scrapbook albums dating from the late 1940s through the 1950s.  They were popular purchases by G.I.s stationed in Japan and tourists who visited the islands.  Many were sent to the United States as gifts.

For a sample of the variety of cover art available on these Japanese lacquer albums, see https://www.etsy.com/uk/search?q=lacquer+album. The values are expressed in English pounds.  A quick conversion calculation indicated asking prices range from $20.00 to $40.00.  One album listed on Esty.com featured a music box, the music playing when the album was opened.

An eBay search revealed listings for 17 albums with values ranging from $8.00 to $65.00.  One seller, who wins my “Optimist of the Month” award, is asking $190.59 or “Best Offer.”  Only two of the albums – one listed at $8.00 and the second at $15.00 – feature open bidding.  Thus far, neither has attracted a bid.

Based on the above, your album has a secondary market resale value of between $15.00 and $20.00.  This value is based on the album’s decorative/conversation value as opposed to its collector value.

The photographs in the album appear to be stock picture and postcard sets sold to G.I.’s and tourists.  The captions are in English.  These sets were mass produced and survive in large quantities.  What is unknown is whether the album contains full sets or select images.  Even if there are full sets, there is little secondary market interest in the stock pictures and/or sets in the United States or Japan.  It is possible that some of the postcards may have value, but they need to be reviewed on a postcard by postcard basis.  The safe conclusion is that the images are worth a dime or less each.

If the album contains personal photographs which are identified and/or show typical life in the street scenes or at a military base, the value of the images is higher.  Like manuscripts, the value of photographs is heavily “content” based.

A fair price for your 1950s Japanese lacquered wood covered album filled with stock picture images and postcards is between $20.00 and $25.00.

QUESTION:  I own a Webster Chicago Model 80-1 wire tape recorder.  The recorder still plays.  In addition to some blank tapes, I have tapes made by the family that initially owned it.  It is time to pass it on to someone else.  Does my wire tape recorder and itsaccessory material have any value? – S, Reading, PA

ANSWER:   Your question rekindled a series of wonderful childhood memories.  In the fall of 1948, my family moved into our home at 50 West Depot Street, Hellertown, Pennsylvania.  Shortly before or after (my mind is a bit foggy on this point), my Uncle Bill Rupert, married to my mother’s sister Loretta, and his family live two doors up the row at 48 West Depot Street.  Uncle Bill loved gadgets.  I remember him purchasing a wire tape recorder.  All the relatives along with the neighbors and friends stopped by Uncle Bill’s house to record something.  I had 18 aunts and uncles and 21 first cousins on that side of the family.   I have no knowledge of what became of that machine or the recordings.  My guess is that they are in the landfill.

“Rinker on Collectibles Column #867, written in 2003, contains a detailed history of the wire tape recorder.  If interested in reading the full column, you should be able to locate a copy via an internet search.  The column contained the following three paragraphs about Webster-Chicago:

“Webster-Chicago Company of Chicago, Illinois, was once an important manufacturer of consumer phonographs and similar equipment.  In 1945, the company decided to become a licensee of the Armour Research Foundation of Chicago and began manufacturing wire recorders, the first product being a version of the Armour ‘military’ wire sound recorder which it sold to the U. S. Navy.  After the war ended, Webster-Chicago continued to make wire recorders, but introduced a new line of machines oriented toward the civilian market.

“The ‘Webcor’ brand was one of the best-selling wire recorders, and the company specialized in machines adapted for dictation purposes.  Webster-Chicago was one of the few Armour licensees to redesign the basic machine, substantially improving the performance. The production run seems to have lasted from ’45 to ’52, after which the company apparently dropped all its wire recorders and switched to tape recorders.

“Webcor made several models including Model 80-1 (a top seller in the late 1940s and priced at $149.50), Models 179, 180, and 181, which arrived on the scene in April 1950, and Model 228 which was introduced in 1952.”

[See: http://www.recording-history.org/HTML/wire1.php for a more detailed history of the wire tape recorder.]

Wire tape recorders have little to no secondary market collector value.  Several untested or not running Webster-Chicago Model 80-1 wire tape recorders are listed on eBay at prices ranging from $65.00 to $99.00.  All are “Buy it Now” or “Best Offer” prices. Realistically, any offer over $25.00 is a generous one.

Assuming you want to get rid of it, I recommend you contact a local, regional, or state historical society and/or local colleges and universities with a strong media program to see if any institutions have any interest in receiving the wire tape recorder and tapes as a donation.  Wire recordings do survive.  The difficulty is most institutions to which the tapes are donated do not have the ability to play them.

If the wire tape recordings have strong content such as comments about life at the time or business practices, consider having the audio transferred to a disk and presenting copies to area libraries and historical societies. 

Finally, try Craigslist.  You will have a better chance there than eBay.  List it as “best offer above $25.00.”  Given my fond memories of Uncle Bill’s machine and my fascination with the possible content of the wire tapes, I am half tempted to talk with you about acquiring the machine.  However, it is a purchase that would more likely evoke Linda’s wrath than approval.

QUESTION:  I just bought two blue and two pink Fenton Glass bunnies from a private owner, who told me they were at least 20 years old.  Each has a five pointed star on the bottom.  Can you tell me what that means? – MS, Email Question

ANSWER:   Cynthia Danielski’s “Fenton Glass 101 – A beginner’s guide to collecting,” a blog on www.rubylane.com (https://www.rubylane.com/blog/node/770), contains the answer:

“Seconds Marks: Seconds only began being marked in the early 1990’s.  A sandblasted Flame which resembles an S was first used.  1996-1998 a sandblasted star, solid or outlined, was used to denote a second.  Piece marked with two stars were items that Fenton donated to charitable organizations.  From 1998 to the present, an uppercase block F is used to mark seconds.”

Historically, manufacturers destroyed defective products.  However, following World War II, glass and ceramic manufacturers discovered that individuals were willing to buy defective pieces and pay good money for them.  American ceramic manufacturers, such as Stangl, set up factory outlets to sell seconds, third, and short run products.  English ceramic manufacturers followed suit.  Goebel was selling seconds and thirds of its Hummel figurines as early as the 1960s.  Ceramic seconds are often marked with one (second) or two (third) score lines through the manufacturer’s backstamp.

Seconds are seconds because they have defects.  Beware of paying top secondary market price for a defective piece.

QUESTION:   I own a copy of the “U.S. Official Pictures of the World War Showing American Participation: Selected from Office Files of the War Department.”  It is copyrighted: “DC: Pictorial Bureau, 1920.”  What is its value? – T, Bozeman, MT

ANSWER:  Interest in World War I has faded.  No living veterans remain.  Frank Buckles, the last living American veteran, died on February 27, 2011, at the age of 110.

Your book is typical of many World War I pictorial histories that were published immediately following the end of the Great War or “The War to End All Wars.”  The survival rate is high.

Two copies of your title are listed on www.abebooks.com – one at $78.00 and another at $99.00.  Neither has sold.  A more realistic value is between $35.00 and $40.00.

The 100th anniversary of World War I events has begun.  June 28, 2014, marked the 100th anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.  Although WWI began in Europe in 1914, America did not enter the war “officially” until April 6, 1917.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  Selected letters will be answered in this column.  Harry cannot provide personal answers.  Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned.  Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI 49512.  You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

You can listen and participate in WHATCHA GOT?, Harry’s antiques and collectibles radio call-in show, on Sunday mornings between 8:00 AM and 10:00 AM Eastern Time.  If you cannot find it on a station in your area, WHATCHA GOT? streams live on the Internet at www.gcnlive.com.

SELL, KEEP OR TOSS?: HOW TO DOWNSIZE A HOME, SETTLE AN ESTATE, AND APPRAISE PERSONAL PROPERTY (House of Collectibles, an imprint of Random House Information Group, $17.99), Harry’s latest book, is available at your favorite bookstore and via www.harryrinker.com.