Oct 4, 2014 5 min read

What kind of antiques collector are you?

Some collectors search for pieces from a past era; some want pieces with a connection to a famous person or event. Many collectors are furnishing a house or apartment and want antiques that are useful and well-priced. But younger collectors today seek useful things from the ’50s era that are colorful, well-designed and in excellent condition. Telephones, electric fans, telephone insulators, large metal and wooden machinery, steel school lockers, and jewelry made from computer parts sell quickly at shows. At a recent Absolute Auctions & Realty online auction, two pink “Dada Babies,” figural speakers only 6 inches tall, sold for $3,277. Their bases are marked “Dada Baby Art by B & W (Bowers & Wilkins), Handmade by Blueroom Loudspeakers.” Their modern shape and color may have attracted bidders, but many technology collectors must have wanted these rare speakers.

Bowers & Wilkins is an audio-equipment company founded in England in 1966 by John Bowers and Roy Wilkins, who wanted to make better sound speakers. They met an artist who thought music would sound better if played through speakers with rounded, not straight, edges and the company started making speakers in several abstract modern shapes. In 1996 B & Wcreated its Blueroom Dada Babies. The wire for each speaker connected to the figure like an umbilical cord. The seated baby has a head that rotates to send the sound in several directions. Dada Babies originally came in five colors: blue, red, yellow, black or pink.

Only a few still exist because half of the 100 speakers made in 1996 were lost in a fire. Examples are occasionally offered online or at live auctions. Are the just-purchased “babies” now exhibited on a living room table as works of art? Or are they on a shelf with other unusual well-designed pieces of technology?

Q. I’m trying to learn something about my chest of drawers. It has three drawers with original knobs, a beveled mirror and rolled feet instead of legs. Inside a drawer there’s an old emblem with “HL” in the center surrounded by the name “Harris Lebus.” The chest is in very good condition. Can you tell me something about the maker?

A. Harris Lebus was a family-run business that became England’s largest furniture manufacturer in the 1890s. Louis Lebus, a German immigrant, opened a furniture shop in London in about 1857.

Sometime after 1879, when Louis died and his son, Harris, took over the business, the name of the company became Harris Lebus. It made quality furniture inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement. During World War I, the company made airplanes, gliders, tent pins and other military equipment.

Furniture manufacturing resumed after the war. During World War II, production switched to munitions, and the factory was involved in a top secret government project. Two or three wooden

tanks, exact replicas of Sherman tanks, were built. They were meant to be used as decoys to fool German bombers. Harris Lebus became a public company in 1947 and later made inexpensive furniture using chip board and other woods. The company went out of business in 1969.

Q. I have a bronze sculpture of a chubby Greek god sitting on a donkey. The god has a wreath on his head and is carrying an animal pelt. It was acquired by one of my relatives, who said he was the first Allied officer to enter Hitler’s quarters at Berchtesgaden in the Bavarian Alps. It came from Hitler’s long desk in front of the large window overlooking the front of the building.

The sculpture in 10 1/2 inches high and is mounted on marble. What is it worth?

A. Hitler’s quarters were bombed by the British and burned by retreating SS troops before Allied troops entered. If you can prove the bronze sculpture came from Hitler’s desk, it will be of interest to collectors.

Without provenance – a letter from the officer who found the sculpture or some other proof of Hitler’s ownership – the value is the same as for any other unsigned bronze sculpture.

Tip: If your stainless-steel knife blades stain in a dishwasher, rinse them, then dry or clean them with silver polish.

Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions.

• Depression glass bowl, Woolworth pattern, stippled grapes, pink, Westmoreland, 6 inches, $5.

• Match safe, hunters, game, deer head, hunting horn, cast iron, 10 1/2 inches, $95.

• Club chair, green upholstery, rounded arms, Mayo, 1957, 34 x 28 inches, $200.

• Toothpick, 14K yellow gold textured case, retractable, 1 3/4 inches, $205.

• Swastika Keramos vase, green trailing edge, gold ground, white beading, three handles, 7 1/4 inches, $230.

• Violin, tiger maple, silver, mother-ofpearl, Germany, bow, case, student’s, c. 1900, $300.

• Toy bus, Royal Blue Line Coast to Coast Service, tin lithograph, Chein, 18 inches, $365.

• Purse, pony hair, deer print, faux tortoiseshell chain-link strap, 11 x 12 inches, $415.

• Silver claret jug, mounted glass, lion & shield finial, cylindrical, Elkington & Co., England, c.1890, 11 inches, $875.

• Chinese export plate, famille rose,?millefiori, footed, flared wide border, gilt, 10 inch pair, $1,060.

Write to Kovels, Observer-Reporter, King Features Syndicate, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019.