Coin Tuesday: The Mule

Aug. 3, 2010
Written by John Dale

The Mule, or, A Mildly Embellished Slice of Life:

"Coin question.”

I looked up. It was one of the photographers. Young guy.

“Coin question? What’s up?” I asked.

“What’s a mule?”

I filed my first response — too much Captain Obvious — away for later. He did say “coin question,” after all. I owed him a Serious Professional answer.

“It’s a coin with two sides that don’t match. Like if a Washington quarter obverse was put together with a Sacagawea dollar reverse.”

I wondered to myself: which coin brought this on?

I started checking through the coins in the Boston ANA Auction in my head. Mules, mules… there was that one pattern with the three dollar gold obverse and the Shield five cent obverse on the same nickel planchet, Judd-531A, by the numbers, and unique by the book… that thing was cool, but weird - seriously weird even by pattern coin standards. New nickname for the Judd-531A: the Lady Gaga.

Maybe it was something else. Another Shield nickel pattern, perhaps?

There was the one dated 1865 with a reverse that has no rays between the stars, the Judd-418. Shield nickels weren’t made for circulation until 1866, and the No Rays reverse didn’t come out to play until 1867, so the two sides didn’t go together. Was there a little Mint hanky-panky at work? Almost certainly, just like with the Lady Gaga.

Two possibilities. I had to ask:

“So which coin is it?”

“This Gobrecht dollar. I was working on the video and it was in the script.”

Gobrecht dollar? I checked the script. Oh, right. Lot 3284, the Judd-65. It pairs the no-stars obverse used on Judd-60 Gobrecht dollars with the no-stars reverse used on Judd-84 Gobrechts. Subtle, but definitely a mule.

I explained what made the Gobrecht dollar a mule. He got the general idea, if not the terminology.

“All right. I still don’t get why they call it a mule, though.”

City kid. It was time to break out the Captain Obvious. I smirked a bit as I slipped into the voice I usually reserve for non-precocious three-year-olds.

“Well, you see, when a horse and a donkey love each other very much…” […and the horse is a male and the donkey is a female, you get a hinny. – Noah]

“Oh, I gotcha.” He cracked up. Point for me.

He got in a parting shot, though. As he walked away, he muttered under his breath, just loud enough for me to hear, in true non-collector fashion:

“Coin weenies," he said. "What’ll they think of next?”

Mr. DOB: A Murakami Lithograph Coming in October

Sept. 15, 2009
Written by John Dale

The recent posting of the October 2009 Modern and Contemporary Art Auction had me browsing the lots, and as I was drawing close to the end, I saw a name and broke out into a grin. The name was Takashi Murakami, and his work appears in lot 63117, a lithograph on paper titled And then, and then, and then…Variation 4. Mr. Murakami is famous for his artistic and commercial prowess - to be more specific, his remarkable faculty for managing and merging the two.

Based on my slight [Slight?! Slight?! – Noah] penchant for Japanese popular culture, as previously mentioned in “Thoughts on Assorted Japanese Imports-,” it shouldn’t come as much of a shock that I’m intrigued by Mr. Murakami and his art, which counts Japanese popular culture, particularly the otaku subculture frequently associated with manga and related phenomena, as an important inspiration. The lithograph being offered by Heritage shows that inspiration clearly: the face of Mr. Murakami’s signature character, Mr. DOB (check the ears), dominates the space with his wide eyes and broad grin. The wide eyes in particular are an important part of the manga aesthetic.

Artistic influences such as Pop Art and manga, however, are only part of Mr. Murakami’s appeal. He operates not only in “fine art,” as it is understood in the West, but also in a variety of more commercial fields. His firm Kaikai Kiki, a combination studio and agency representing Mr. Murakami and selected other artists, pursues a variety of merchandising opportunities: “pillows, bags, towels, key chains, sticker sets, and even soccer balls” bearing the designs of Mr. Murakami and other represented artists, according to the site. It’s worth noting that Kaikai Kiki is listed as the publisher of the lithograph in the auction.

Through his strategy of selling products and lending his name and designs to commercially successful projects, Mr. Murakami has continually raised his profile as an artist and the demand for all his work, costly art and inexpensive sticker sets alike. When he collaborated with Louis Vuitton on a line of products bearing his “Multicolore” reinterpretation of the famous LV monogram pattern, both parties benefited. Similarly, his art for a series of Kanye West singles (no VMA jokes here; those are so 48 hours ago) and West’s Graduation album introduced Mr. Murakami to a broad and previously unaware audience.

With an estimate of $1,000 to $1,500, this lithograph makes for a relatively inexpensive introduction to Mr. Murakami’s work. As for myself, well…maybe I’ll settle for a key chain.

To leave a comment click on the title of this post.

-John Dale Beety

In Memoriam: 9/11 eight years later

Sept. 11, 2009
Posted by Noah

Where were you eight years ago this morning, and what were you doing?

I hope no one will have any problem today with me taking a little time off from regular Heritage blogging to commemorate the sadness of today's date, and to celebrate the incredible bravery and spirit it inspires. Sept. 11 is indeed one of those days where absolutely everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing.

On that Tuesday morning - it was a bright and brilliant early fall day - I was driving the back roads of Duchess County, New York, from my home in Rhinebeck to the offices of Taconic Press in Millbrook, some 35 minutes away, where I was then editor of the Rhinebeck Gazette Advertiser and the Hyde Park Townsman (Hyde Park, NY, the home of FDR). It was deadline day and time to put the papers together. I relished that drive, and was just passing the last long stretch of open country, past the estate that Bette Midler had just purchased, when the report of the first plane hitting the towers came on NPR.

Like most people, I assumed it was a small prop plane and that some joker thought it would be funny to buzz the towers and got too close. I worried that someone on the ground might get hurt.

Once I got to work, I went upstairs to my friend John's office, where we waited patiently for CNN.com to open up. It was, understandably, inundated with hits. When the site finally picked up, and the first image came on, the initial horror set in. This was no prop plane. We sat in flabbergasted silence for several long minutes before I finally said, "I need to get to work."

Once downstairs, at my desk, I tuned the office radio to NPR - much to the chagrin of several other editors who dismissed the crash and wanted to hear the latest on the ubiquitous sports radio that constantly numbed my brain on those days. 10 minutes later, when the report of the second plane hitting Tower 2 broke, there was no more protest. Clearly something major was amiss.

We all worked on in stunned silence, knowing that something terrible was happening just an hour south of where we were. When the towers crashed an hour later the only sound in the room was the stifled sobs of reporters and editors alike. We went into crisis mode.

The Hudson Valley is home to countless weekend houses and commuter towns for NYC, so this was really close to home for us. There were casualties from all of our neighborhoods, and many of the firefighters, first responders and police that raced to the city were zooming down the streets right outside our windows on their way to ground zero.

For me personally, I was but a year or two removed from my life in NYC, and 90% of my friends were still down there. Many worked in the area and I fought uselessly to get through to anybody's cell phone. Within 48 hours I had discerned that my friends were okay, but that the city was devastated, of course. When I made my way down there a week later the palpable sadness in the air was only equaled by the smell and the pall of the dust from the collapse.

I thank my lucky stars every day that we have avoided and stopped further attacks since that day, and that America - despite all its political squabbling and differences - has held together, united in our determination that nothing like Sept. 11, 2001, will ever happen again.

The Buchanan Collection of American Art brings $4.4 million+

June 12, 2009

Posted by Noah

While the auction of the Honorable Paul H. Buchanan Jr. Collection of American Art was taking place at Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas, TX, on Wednesday night, June 10, it was New York State’s luminous Hudson River School of Painting that was drawing the bidders in a Signature American Art Auction that finished the evening with a total exceeding more than $4.4 million.

It was Hudson River School painter Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) – though his complete association with the group is a subject of consistent scholarly debate – that proved the most hotly contested, with three of his paintings occupying spots in the top five lots of the auction, including the first and second slots, Sunset over the Marsh, c. 1876-82, and Cherokee Roses on a Purple Cloth, 1894, which realized $537,750 and $507, 875, respectively.

Heade’s Hummingbirds and Their Nest, 1863, a delicate and moody painting on an oval – punctuated with a splash of brilliant red on the male hummingbird’s throat – took the number five spot with final price realized of $310, 700.

Relatively diminutive in size, roughly 1-foot high 2-feet wide, Sunset over the Marsh carries a massive emotional impact with its bold coloring sweeping horizon. American arts and letters never dealt with the salt marshes of the northeastern United States before Heade, but under his lifelong study they would become the national treasures they are now regarded as. Heade was doing something new in American landscape painting with his marshscapes, and that newness was a direct violation of the standard practices of the Hudson River School formulas. His choice to paint an “anti-picturesque” landscape, with a flat uninterrupted expanse, an absence of framing devices such as a canopy of trees, a rocky wedge of foreground or a jutting precipice, and virtually no focal point at all, patently disregarded the rules for a successful (i.e., picturesque) landscape set forth in 1792 by the Reverend William Gilpin in Three Essays: On Picturesque Beauty, On Picturesque Travel, and On Sketching Landscape.

The other pair of paintings that round out the top five offerings in the Heritage American Art event were George Henry Durrie’s (American, 1820-1863) bucolic and romantic oil painting Winter in the Country, A Cold Morning, c. 1863, which realized $448,125, and Henry Francois Farny’s (American, 1847-1916)Saddling Up, 1895, a gouache on paper painting that exquisitely portrays a quiet and authentic tableau of Native American life, as well as the sweeping grandeur of the western American landscape, realized $334,600.

Amazing stuff, great prices and a wide open future in the Fine Arts category.... Not bad for a night's work.

Click on the title of this post to leave a comment.

- Noah Fleisher

The Original Varga Girl: Still looking good as she approaches 70

June 3, 2009

Posted by Noah

It may not be entirely appropriate to say that Alberto Vargas saved Esquire in October 1940, when the very first Varga Girl appeared in the magazine's popular gatefold, but within a year the magazine had added 125,000 readers. Look at the picture, do the math, and you'll arrive at the same conclusion. It was Vargas all the way.

Now, a preliminary drawing from the hand of Alberto Vargas, for what would become the very first Varga Girl in the December 1940 issue of Esquire Magazine, is one of the principal highlights of the July 15 Signature® Illustration Art Auction at Heritage. This is the first auction to feature major Illustration Art highlights from The Estate of Charles Martignette, the most important collection of illustration art to ever come to public auction. The drawing is estimated bring between $20,000-$30,000. And she's a real beauty.

Here's a quote from Ed Jaster, our Illustration honcho here at the fort, from the press release I have spent this morning preparing:

“This particular image is not the one that ultimately appeared in the December 1940 issue of Esquire, but it is her very first incarnation,” said Ed Jaster, Director of Illustration Art at Heritage. “From this single drawing Alberto Vargas would become one of the greatest and most famous illustrators of the 20th century. It is extremely finished and exactly rendered, and is as detailed as many of his final artworks, indicating the importance he placed on it.”

In the late 1930s, it was George Petty – his Petty Girls – that dominated the Esquire gatefolds. These popular drawings were the main graphic draw for readers of the time, but that readership – much to the frustration of Esquire’s publisher – was mostly static. The magazine soon devised a double gatefold to showcase Petty’s buxom babes, and to boost Esquire’s lethargic circulation numbers.

Petty wanted more money, sat out the whole of 1940, and the magazine began the thorny task of finding a replacement for its most popular illustrator. The search proved fruitless for the first half of the year, but on a warm June day their prayers were answered: 44-year-old Alberto Vargas, looking for work, walked into Esquire’s Manhattan headquarters and asked if they might be interested in his services. The rest is history.

This is just a single example of the truly great art that Charles Martignette assembled in his life, just a single example among all the great one that are in this collection.

I know I am easily excitable when it comes to all the amazing stuff Heritage has around, but I can't re-iterate enough just how amazing this whole collection is, across the board pretty much. If you have some time, take a little while and look through the paintings that make this auction.

You can thank me later.

Click on the title of this post to leave a comment.

-Noah Fleisher

1804 $1 all over the news

Posted By Noah

The AP in Cincinnati picked up the story about the Carter Adams Class III 1804 $1. It's all over the place right now. Most notably, at least on the front page of my browser at 4 p.m. Central time, the front page of Yahoo.

It's a beauty of the coin and its getting the "mysterious coin" treatment, which is pretty cool considering the shady, intriguing past of this thing. It's all good going into Central States Auction.

Bidding on the coin is already at $1.7M, and the thing is on the block until tomorrow night. Let's hope for $2M, or $2.5.

Here's another link, in case you missed it above.

Also, if you, uh... Tweet, tha is, use Twitter, you'll be able to follow the auction action live in Cincinnati with Heritage's resident rock star Jim Halperin.

Okay, so Jim isn't quite a rock star, but he's the closest thing to one we have here at Heritage, and he's one scary smart man. It should be fun following what he has to say. Twitter is all about the mundanity of things, about voyeurism of a sort, which makes sense in the micro-focused atmosphere of today.

Below is the brief press release we sent out. You can pick up Jim's Twitter page from it:

Heritage’s Jim Halperin joins Twitter

Tweeting live now from CSNS in Cincinnati at www.Twitter.com/JimHalperin

Dallas, TX – Heritage Auction Galleries Co-Founder Jim Halperin has started his own Twitter page, and will be Tweeting live from the Central States Numismatic Society coin auctions from April 29-May 3.

Jim will relay live updates from the bourse floor, as well as from the auction gallery, at Heritage’s CSNS Auctions in Cincinnati, OH, now through May 3.

Jim will also be Tweeting live from Heritage’s Platinum Night Auction at CSNS, Thursday, April 30. This will include up-to-the-minute updates on important developments in the auction, interesting side topics and – most importantly – an instant update on the auction of the Carter-Adams Class III 1804 $1 specimen, which already shows bidding approaching $2 million.

Watch (or sign-up for free to follow) at www.Twitter.com/JimHalperin. For any numismatists that are just getting into the world of social media, Twitter is a good place to start, and following Jim’s Tweets will give the inside information that will take several more hours, if not days, to reach the general public.

-Noah Fleisher

Koufax glove brings six figures, proving Sandy really is still the Super Jew

April 29, 2009
Posted by Noah

The Sandy Koufax 1966 game-used fielder’s glove that recently sold for $107,000+ in the April Sports Collectibles Auction is the same one I wrote about back in January in the early days of what is now the Juggernaut known as the Heritage Blog – We literally have tens and tens of readers – as a dream lot for any baseball collector, but especially so for Jewish kids of a certain age, to whom Koufax is of divine stature. Now that it’s gone into a good collection, and proved the King Of The Hill for the April auction, I stand by my earlier post.

My heart also swells with pride as Koufax tops this list because it’s a rare feather in the cap of famous Jewish athletes. There are only a few that might come to mind – Rod Carew, Hank Greenburg, Mark Spitz, Mavs owner Mark Cuban – besides Koufax.

I can remember very clearly the adoration with which my Sunday school Hebrew teacher, Mr. Flick, spoke of Koufax when I was a kid, and I also clearly remember being asked by him in a trivia contest what is the name of the famous Jewish pitcher who refused to pitch in the World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. I didn’t know the answer, but my brother Cris did, and he clandestinely wrote it in blue pen on the palm of his hand and showed it to me. It was Koufax, of course, and I would never forget his name after that day, or how good the quarter of that Everything Bagel tasted, given to me as a prize from the teacher for that answer. In fact, I cannot eat an everything bagel with a schmear today without thinking of the great Jewish southpaw hurler.

The glove was given to a National League umpire Doug Harvey in 1966 as a thank you from Koufax for returning his World Series lighter, which Sandy left in a bar one night, and which Harvey picked up.

“Fewer than five fielder’s gloves have ever cleared the six-figure mark at auction,” noted Ivy, “and our Koufax gamer joined that elite club Friday with a result of $107,550.”

The Sandy Koufax glove was the subject of much pre-auction buzz and it proved equal to the hobby interest. One of the greatest pitchers to ever play professional baseball, Koufax left the game after a dozen amazing years with a 165-87 win-loss record, a 2.76 ERA, and 2,396 strikeouts. He a six time All-star, a three-time World Series Winner (and twice the series MVP), a three-time Cy Young winner, and the owner of a Sept. 9, 1965 Perfect Game against the Cubs, despite the arthritis that was ravaging his cannon of an arm and which would force him to retire a year later in 1966.

He was also a first ballot Hall-of-Famer in 1972 and the Dodgers retired his number. He’s also very protective of his name and image, so to have a memento of this magnitude directly attributable to one of the best to ever put on the spikes achieve such a respectable price is simply further reinforcement of his undeniable legend.

Another of the diamond’s great names – and easily one of its greatest sluggers – Josh Gibson proved almost as popular as Koufax, as his 1941 signed Puerto Rican League contract was the subject of one of the most intensely contested lots of the day. When the hammer came down on the intriguing artifact it was to the tune of $95,600. It just goes to show how great a player Gibson was, how wrong it was that he didn’t get to play in the Bigs before his death, and how the fascination with him continues even now.

“Gibson was such a great player, and he died so early, that relics from his career are very tough to come by,” said Ivy. “In the 62 years since his untimely death Gibson’s become much more than just a baseball player; he’s become an American folk hero, ‘The Black Babe Ruth,’ whatever you want to call him. While his stats may remain frustratingly unspecific, his greatness can never be challenged.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Click here if you want to check out the full results of the auction. There’s a ton of great stuff that sold that I would love to write about but just don’t have room.

To post comments, click on the headline above and enter comments after the post.

-Noah Fleisher

Rare Christy Mathewson photo in tomorrow’s Sports Auction: A portrait for the ages of a player for the ages

April 22, 2009
Posted by Noah

Let’s just say that modern day major league baseball could use a few more men like Christy Mathewson. Not even just baseball, really. The world in general could use a few. Make that a few million. Mathewson may have been the greatest pitcher of baseball’s dead ball era at the turn of the 20th century, and he was probably the most intelligent pitcher to ever pick up the hard ball. More than that, though, Matty was a tremendously upstanding man. He was honorable, polite and dignified no matter what the situation. His reputation was beyond impeccable and his moral authority unimpeachable. By any standard he was a gentlemen’s gentleman. I only wish I could have been around to shake his hand.

He died way too early, at the age of 45, from complications from inhaling chlorine gas in the trenches of Europe in World War One. It’s a shame MLB was denied at least a good 20 years of his further influence.

People universally venerated Mathewson. His dominance on the field, and his conduct off of it, made women all love him, men all want to be his friend and children absolutely worship him. One look at the amazing Mathewson portrait at auction in tomorrow’s Sports Collectibles auction captures the man perfectly. As the catalog says, it is easily the finest Mathewson portrait extant. It portrays the future inaugural class Hall of Famer standing on the mound, surveying the still infield against – as the catalog puts it – “the ghostly expanse of the empty grandstand.”

Both Mathewson’s stature as an athlete, and his measure as a man, are perfectly defined in this amazing photo. To boot, it’s got an un-personalized autograph, which is unheard of in the very small realm of existing Mathewson sigs. Simply put, this is an extraordinary thing.

It’s also another lot in this deep auction that works equally well as a piece of Americana, or even fine art photography. The composition is so clear, and the subject so expertly and artistically presented that I wouldn’t doubt it will draw some interest from outside the sports collectibles spectrum. Astute collectors of Mathewson memorabilia, however, are not likely to let this disappear into other hands. Between us chickens, I’d like to see this thing end up in Cooperstown. A lot of things are labeled as Cooperstown quality, but this thing really fits the bill. It’ll bring at least $20,000. As there’s never been a photo like this show up on the block, it’s hard to tell where the wheel will stop.

Mathewson was truly one of the greats, and he is missed even now, more than 60 years after his death. He was voted one of the 100 Greatest Athletes of All-Time by ESPN, had a career record of 373-188, an ERA of 2.13, struck out more than 2,500 batters and pitched an outstanding 79 shutouts. He was as handsome as he was humble, and no one ever wanted to get on his bad side. He would have been a great President had he chosen to go that way, or lived long enough to realize that he would have excelled at such a thing.

Here’s another look.

To post comments, click on the headline above and enter comments after the post.

Ruminations on Maravich and a father-son bond for the ages

April 16, 2009
Posted by Jonathan

(I’ve written several times before about the numerous good writers here at Heritage, and I still stand by the claim. There are simply a lot of men and women here who know how to turn a phrase with considerable skill. Jonathan Scheier, a Consignment Director and Cataloger in Sports, is one of those people. I’ve highlighted his catalog work before, and it gives me great pleasure to introduce his first blog post for the Heritage Blog. His is a moving missive on Pete and Press Maravich, and an amazing Maravich archive in the upcoming April 24 Sports Auction. Pete Maravich was one of the great NBA players of all time, and his relationship with his father was monumental. Jonathan does a beauty of a job giving some insight into this important partnership, one without which we all would have been denied one of the greatest basketball talents to ever hit the court. Read on, and enjoy! – Noah Fleisher)

From about age six to maybe 11 or 12, I was one of the very best soccer players in my county. Seriously, whenever sides were picked before a game I was the number one draft choice every time. If this sounds like arrogance, it’s actually quite the opposite. From age 13 to present day, I’ve been – at best – thoroughly mediocre in any athletic endeavor, and I wouldn’t call hitting one’s peak before hitting puberty the most ideal of situations. I guess, though, it’s a common enough story.

During all those years of recreation league, club league and school soccer, I don’t think my father ever missed a single game. He had grown up on the upper west side of Manhattan under the close, careful watch of an overprotective Jewish mother (Are there any other kind? – Noah), so I think he was thrilled, and probably a bit baffled, to have fathered a young sports star. My father’s one of the smartest guys you’d ever want to meet, but athletic? Not quite. He’s one of the only people I’ve ever met who doesn’t know how to ride a bicycle. I only wish I could have kept my own glory days going for him, but I suppose it was still better than nothing.

I couldn’t help but think of my own father when I came across the basketball that a 19-year old “Pistol Pete” Maravich gave to his dad at the close of his sophomore season at LSU after he scored point number 1,138 to lead the nation in scoring. It must have been an incredibly special, incredibly proud moment for the both of them. For those of you unfamiliar with the historic partnership between Press and Pete Maravich, I’ll provide a brief retrospective:

From the earliest days, father and son shared a love of the sport of basketball, and it was all but preordained that Pete would be a future star. Press was a widely respected basketball coach and, from the youngest age, Pete showed both a natural gift for the sport and an unyielding drive to perfect his game. Together they would shoot hundreds of thousands of free throws until it became as natural as breathing. For weeks Press would allow Pete to dribble only left-handed, until his ambidextrousness was ingrained. By the time Pete graduated high school he was one of the top recruits in the nation, and Press just happened to be the coach of the Louisiana State University varsity basketball team.

Pete would leave the collegiate game following his senior season at LSU as the owner of the most prestigious individual record in NCAA basketball: Career Points Leader. It’s a record that stands to this day, claimed from the great Oscar Robertson with another basketball, likewise presented in the Heritage Sports April 2009 Signature Auction. The ball used in the final game of his sophomore season, however, is my personal favorite.

Along with a boldly applied “1138,” denoting Pete’s record-setting points total for the season, he inscribed on the ball: “I present this ball to you, Dad. Without your guidance and assistance this would have never been made possible.”

For anyone who has ever been a boy on the field of play, or a father on the sidelines, it’s a real heart warmer.

Cross-category gem: A circa 1900 Unidentified Baseball Game Spinner in the April Sports Auction

April 7, 2009
Posted by Noah

This is one of those things that’s just plain cool that I like to dig through our catalogs for. It’s enigmatic, artistic, bespeaks an era unto itself and looks like it’d simply be a lot of fun to play with. It’s also in our April 23-34 Signature Sports Auction, which features a ton of great stuff. What this thing is, exactly, is hard to say. It’s obviously a baseball game of some kind from around 1900, and it’s obviously well made. It doubles as baseball memorabilia and American folk art alike, and I’d love to get my grubby little paws on it.

Jonathon Scheier, one of the sports consignment directors – and a writer I am trying to recruit to post occasionally to this blog - wrote the catalog description for it, which is quite good:

“Try as we might, we've been unable to solve the mystery of this beguiling game piece, a rather ingenious and fully-functional toy that simply oozes Dead Ball Era charm. A four and a half inch batter, complete with high-collared jersey and wide-handed grip, is spun into place against the resistance of a coiled spring. A push of a button releases the batter's powerful swing, and the bat smacks a small roulette wheel with a satisfying ‘ping,’ causing it to spin at a high rate of speed. An arrow points to one of a number of random scenarios when the wheel stops, signifying hits, outs, balls, strikes and home runs. It's definitely one of the most attractive and outright cool game pieces we've ever encountered for the sport of baseball, certain to pique the interest of many a collector with a concentration in the field...”

In the field, or out of it, I might add again, as this thing would fit as well in a hobby memorabilia shop as it would on the floor of a high-end Northeastern U.S. antiques show. I saw more than a few oddities like this little beauty on that circuit, and this thing has all the hallmarks of working beautifully across any number of categories.

It reminds me of the games my brother Cris and I would play as kids, drafting players from our baseball cards and rolling dice to signify hits and strikes and outs. We later switched to Mattel Intellivision Baseball, where we played the game as our respective teams and players and kept in-depth stats. I once had a team that, if I remember, had Gary Carter, Thurman Munson, Jim Sundberg, Buddy Bell and Catfish Hunter. On one magic, blisteringly hot 1979 afternoon – the baseball gods smiling on me – I managed to play a perfect (video) game against my brother with this team. It was a rare victory for me, let alone in such spectacular fashion. It led to my brother smashing his fist on the game console, ripping up his stat sheet and then punching me in the arm several times before sticking a finger in my face and telling me never EVER to talk about this again.

It was akin to having an opponent wreck the board in the middle of a game of chess because he had an obviously losing position. I never had that pleasure in my competitive chess playing days, but I know the pleasure from watching my brother freak that sun-bleached July day. We never played the game again, but I can still show you exactly where the three bruises from his knuckles appeared on my left arm.

Check out the spinner here. A real beauty in an auction full of amazing stuff.