African-Americana Attracts Collectors
By Richard Chang
NEW YORK (Reuters) - African Americans seeking to reclaim their past are turning a hobby once dominated by racist images into a cultural celebration instead, helping push prices of historical artifacts to new heights.
Documents about black slavery, politics, sports, literature and entertainment are showing up at auctions where once the only choices were mammy dolls, Aunt Jemima cookie jars, figures of boys eating watermelons, "Colored Only" signs and the like.
"Before the Civil Rights Movement many collectors were white. Most of the stuff was negative. After the movement blacks started demanding more positive images," said Larry Vincent Buster, author of "The Art and History of Black Memorabilia (Clarkson Potter, http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/clarksonpotter/).
In 1996 bookseller Wyatt Houston Day (http://www.abebooks.com/home/WHDBOOKS/) put together an annual auction of printed and manuscript African-Americana at Swann Galleries in New York (http://www.swanngalleries.com), helping to meet pent-up demand for such artifacts.
"As a rule, black memorabilia was created by whites stereotyping. There was no real venue for mainstream African-American history," he said. "I mean documents from the slave trade abolition and so forth, not to mention for lesser known authors from the Harlem Renaissance."
At the next Swann auction on Feb. 27, a graphite and crayon drawing on cardboard by folk artist Bill Traylor is estimated at $10,000 to $15,000. One of his works last sold for more than $20,000 at Sotheby's in 1997.
A 1858 poster (22 inches x 7 inches) advertising 82 slaves for sale by C.E. Girardey, one of the largest slave dealers in the South, is expected to fetch $4,000 to $6,000.
At a Swann auction in February 2001, an unpublished manuscript of a fictionalized slave narrative from around 1850 emerged. "The Bondswoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts, a Fugitive Slave, recently Escaped from North Carolina," sold for $9,775.
A copy of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1964 book, "Why We Can't Wait," autographed by him "To my good friend James Farmer, ..." sold for $13,800 on Feb. 17, 2000.
At the same auction, a postcard dated July 21, 1955, from Malcolm X to "Marie Muhammad" fetched $3,680.
In the more popular arena, the Feb. 8, 1999, issue of Time magazine with hip-hop artist Lauryn Hill on the cover became a hot item after she won five Grammy Awards -- more than any other woman in history. The issue is now probably worth $150 to $500, Buster estimated.
A set of three politically correct black "Shani" dolls first sold by Mattel Inc. in July 1991 is probably worth $2,000, he said. And a 1984 Kellogg's cereal box featuring then-Miss America (news - web sites) Vanessa Williams -- which was pulled off supermarket shelves after photos of her were published in Playboy magazine, prematurely ended her reign -- could sell for $150 to $1,000, he noted.
Black Satin Collectibles, an online store, focuses only on collectibles that are "a celebration of our history," said site owner Sylvia Rosario (http://www.blacksatincollectibles.com). The site also sponsors the Black Memorabilia Collectors Club, which boasts 600 members from the United States, Britain, France, Africa and the Caribbean after being launched in 1998. Black Satin Collectibles sells the memorabilia of Josephine Baker, Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, film and vintage videos and jewelry. They also sell vintage dolls that are not regarded as demeaning.
Despite the shift in the hobby, small kitschy objects such as full-lipped figures and rotund mammies remain popular, possibly because the 1964 Civil Rights Act -- which made it illegal to mass produce negative stereotypes -- helped to make all such items a "hot" commodity," said Jan Lindenberger, author of "Black Memorabilia Around the House" (Schiffer).
While some African-Americans buy insulting images to remove them from the market, others seek to reclaim ownership of the past and overcome the pain of history.
"Still others find that the objects reinforce their attitudes about race, allowing them to maintain the stereotypes and beliefs they have held since childhood," said Douglas Congdon-Martin, author of "Images in Black: 150 Years of Black Collectibles" (Schiffer, http://www.schifferbooks.com).
Ceramic cookie jars from the 1940s and '50s, mostly in the shape of mammies, now sell for $800 to $900, compared with $25 to $35 in the early '80s, said Lindenberger, a dealer. She sold a plain but rare one with a polka-dotted scarf, made by the Mosaic Tile Co. for $3,000. Another jar shaped like a mammy with an armload of cauliflower went for almost $2,000.
A wind-up 16-inch moving doll -- called a "store stimulator" because it was displayed in shop windows to stimulate business -- is worth $5,000 to $6,000, far more than the $100 that Lindenberger paid in 1979.
One of the most demeaning artifacts she sold was a 3-foot long slave yoke from around 1860, with a photo of two family members wearing it. Its selling price of $900 in 1979 went up to $3,000 10 years ago.
Buster's monthly "Black Memorabilia" newsletter (http://www.blackmemorabilianews.com), with a nationwide circulation of 2,000, keeps collectors up to date on the latest news and prices.
The gamut of collectibles and documents is available at the annual Black Memorabilia & Collectible Show and Sale in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to be held this year on Saturday, April 12 (http://www.johnsonshows.com). Former players of the Negro League baseball teams and former pro football player Fred "The Hammer" Williamson will be on-site to sign autographs.
By Richard Chang
NEW YORK (Reuters) - African Americans seeking to reclaim their past are turning a hobby once dominated by racist images into a cultural celebration instead, helping push prices of historical artifacts to new heights.
Documents about black slavery, politics, sports, literature and entertainment are showing up at auctions where once the only choices were mammy dolls, Aunt Jemima cookie jars, figures of boys eating watermelons, "Colored Only" signs and the like.
"Before the Civil Rights Movement many collectors were white. Most of the stuff was negative. After the movement blacks started demanding more positive images," said Larry Vincent Buster, author of "The Art and History of Black Memorabilia (Clarkson Potter, http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/clarksonpotter/).
In 1996 bookseller Wyatt Houston Day (http://www.abebooks.com/home/WHDBOOKS/) put together an annual auction of printed and manuscript African-Americana at Swann Galleries in New York (http://www.swanngalleries.com), helping to meet pent-up demand for such artifacts.
"As a rule, black memorabilia was created by whites stereotyping. There was no real venue for mainstream African-American history," he said. "I mean documents from the slave trade abolition and so forth, not to mention for lesser known authors from the Harlem Renaissance."
At the next Swann auction on Feb. 27, a graphite and crayon drawing on cardboard by folk artist Bill Traylor is estimated at $10,000 to $15,000. One of his works last sold for more than $20,000 at Sotheby's in 1997.
A 1858 poster (22 inches x 7 inches) advertising 82 slaves for sale by C.E. Girardey, one of the largest slave dealers in the South, is expected to fetch $4,000 to $6,000.
At a Swann auction in February 2001, an unpublished manuscript of a fictionalized slave narrative from around 1850 emerged. "The Bondswoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts, a Fugitive Slave, recently Escaped from North Carolina," sold for $9,775.
A copy of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1964 book, "Why We Can't Wait," autographed by him "To my good friend James Farmer, ..." sold for $13,800 on Feb. 17, 2000.
At the same auction, a postcard dated July 21, 1955, from Malcolm X to "Marie Muhammad" fetched $3,680.
In the more popular arena, the Feb. 8, 1999, issue of Time magazine with hip-hop artist Lauryn Hill on the cover became a hot item after she won five Grammy Awards -- more than any other woman in history. The issue is now probably worth $150 to $500, Buster estimated.
A set of three politically correct black "Shani" dolls first sold by Mattel Inc. in July 1991 is probably worth $2,000, he said. And a 1984 Kellogg's cereal box featuring then-Miss America (news - web sites) Vanessa Williams -- which was pulled off supermarket shelves after photos of her were published in Playboy magazine, prematurely ended her reign -- could sell for $150 to $1,000, he noted.
Black Satin Collectibles, an online store, focuses only on collectibles that are "a celebration of our history," said site owner Sylvia Rosario (http://www.blacksatincollectibles.com). The site also sponsors the Black Memorabilia Collectors Club, which boasts 600 members from the United States, Britain, France, Africa and the Caribbean after being launched in 1998. Black Satin Collectibles sells the memorabilia of Josephine Baker, Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, film and vintage videos and jewelry. They also sell vintage dolls that are not regarded as demeaning.
Despite the shift in the hobby, small kitschy objects such as full-lipped figures and rotund mammies remain popular, possibly because the 1964 Civil Rights Act -- which made it illegal to mass produce negative stereotypes -- helped to make all such items a "hot" commodity," said Jan Lindenberger, author of "Black Memorabilia Around the House" (Schiffer).
While some African-Americans buy insulting images to remove them from the market, others seek to reclaim ownership of the past and overcome the pain of history.
"Still others find that the objects reinforce their attitudes about race, allowing them to maintain the stereotypes and beliefs they have held since childhood," said Douglas Congdon-Martin, author of "Images in Black: 150 Years of Black Collectibles" (Schiffer, http://www.schifferbooks.com).
Ceramic cookie jars from the 1940s and '50s, mostly in the shape of mammies, now sell for $800 to $900, compared with $25 to $35 in the early '80s, said Lindenberger, a dealer. She sold a plain but rare one with a polka-dotted scarf, made by the Mosaic Tile Co. for $3,000. Another jar shaped like a mammy with an armload of cauliflower went for almost $2,000.
A wind-up 16-inch moving doll -- called a "store stimulator" because it was displayed in shop windows to stimulate business -- is worth $5,000 to $6,000, far more than the $100 that Lindenberger paid in 1979.
One of the most demeaning artifacts she sold was a 3-foot long slave yoke from around 1860, with a photo of two family members wearing it. Its selling price of $900 in 1979 went up to $3,000 10 years ago.
Buster's monthly "Black Memorabilia" newsletter (http://www.blackmemorabilianews.com), with a nationwide circulation of 2,000, keeps collectors up to date on the latest news and prices.
The gamut of collectibles and documents is available at the annual Black Memorabilia & Collectible Show and Sale in Gaithersburg, Maryland, to be held this year on Saturday, April 12 (http://www.johnsonshows.com). Former players of the Negro League baseball teams and former pro football player Fred "The Hammer" Williamson will be on-site to sign autographs.
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