Monday, July 11, 2011

New Ceramic Artist Madeline Nolan at South Coast Antiques & Gallery

Ceramic Artist 
Madeline Nolan
We would like to welcome a new artist at South Coast Antiques & Gallery. Our new Artist is Madeline Nolan. She is a well known local artist, born, raised, and a life long resident of the Gulf Coast. Madeline has been doing art for about fifty years. Much of her past work has been in the field of painting and watercolors. Her ceramic art pottery works, showcase her painterly background and gives her pottery a truly beautiful hand crafted feeling.

She chooses Coastal themes and the bright sun drenched local colors of the area to embellish here gem like pieces. Many of her works draw upon the impressionist movement and specifically the works of Vincent Van Gogh. One of her most popular series is her "Starry Night" pieces that have the blazing Van Gogh Starry skies mixed with the liveliness of Gulf Coast imagery. We are pleased to now be carrying her latest pieces here in Ocean Springs. So, come on down and give them a look the next time you are in the area!

SOLD!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Collecting Cut Out Coins and Cut Out Coin Jewelry

 Lately we have been picking up a type of jewelry that doesn’t turn up often.  It is coins that have had the background meticulously cut out leaving the highlights and words intact.  Older version of this type of work generally have a fancy decorative bezel soldered to the coin and a jewelry quality pin attached to the back.  When you wear the coin jewelry, your clothing shows through from the back, enhancing the jewelry.  Cut out coins began to be popular in the late 1890s as charms and sweetheart pins.

A Fine Example of Cut Out Coin Jewelry. A Pin Crafted from a 1862 Swiss Silver Coin

Fine saw blades for cut out work on sheet silver had been around for centuries, but generally unavailable outside of craftsman and silversmith shops.  They don’t appear for use by casual or itinerant craftsmen until the early 1900s.  The invention of an inexpensive, super fine saw blade made it possible for craftsmen to risk breaking a blade to make an inexpensive piece of coin jewelry

These cut out coins are also collected by some coin collectors of exonuma, along with sweetheart tokens, which are in the same category.  Modern cut outs can be enhanced with gold plated accents  

Cutting coins is difficult due to the thickness of the material, compared to cutting thinner sheet silver and the additional harness of the alloyed silver also increases the chance of the very fine blade of the saw snapping.  Coin fineness can vary from 90% pure down to 72% pure.  The more alloy, the harder the material and the more difficult it is to cut as you increase thickness. 

An experienced eye and a skilled craftsman is required for this difficult work.  The craftsman must plan where the cuts will be made and plan out where relief holes will be drilled for each set of cuts.  He must decide not only where to cut, but how the overall removal will enhance the beauty of the final work.

The holes drilled must be only slightly larger than the saw blade because the blade must be threaded through the hole before being reattached to the saw frame.  The blade is also about the size of a thick hair and very prone to snapping if even the slightest twisting or uneven pressure is made.  One source indicated that 20 to 40 holes must be drilled and the same number of blade inserts and connections to the frame are made.  The most intricate pieces may take over 100 to 150 cuts to complete the work.  Each piece takes hours to finish and the most complex might take up to 15 hours from start to finish, in cases where full legends and date are cut out..  The coin is then polished. Then any soldering for a pin or bail done and a final clean up and polish to complete the work. 

We are more familiar with pieces cut out in the late 1960s and early 1970s from craft fairs and made sometimes by itinerant hippies.  Although they produced some good work, they were not always masterpieces of advanced craftsmen.  In fact, they often didn’t have an aded pin or bail soldered on and a simple cord was used for wear.

Look for pieces with intricate cut outs. For example, there are a lot of letters and numbers are cut out, and soldered on decorative border and a good quality pin or bail for wearing.  It’s not always about age and some new pieces are so intricate and involved, they are more expensive than a vintage item.  Newer pieces may also have gold plating in areas for accents.  Watch out for cast copies of good pieces masquerading as originals.  You will see a line around the rim that shows it was cast and not a coin as well as a blurriness deep within the cutouts around the letters.  Generally these inexpensive copies are made of pewter or lead.

Remember, attention to detail will save you a lot of money and disappointment no matter what you collect.  Buy what you like and don’t worry too much about buying for investment.  The great thing about cut out coins is that you can wear them and they make a great fashion statement about your collecting.

EXAMPLES Available at South Coast Antiques & Gallery 


U.S. silver dollar die cut by machine note lack of soldering (see comments section)
Cut Out 1920's U.S. Morgan Silver Dollar


1920's U.S. Morgan Silver Dollar
Fashioned into a Necklace with Sterling Beads and Light Blue Dragon Skin Agate.


A Dutch sweetheart pin, probably made for American military members in WWII, circa late war.
Crafted From Dutch Silver Coins




Guatemala coin bracelet made up of alternate cut out coins from the late 1800's.  
This work probably dates in the 1920's or 30's.


Tiny Silver 1 Real Coins From Guatemala
UPDATE 1 May 1014:  Buyers beware of laser cut coins being sold as hand cut coins in the past few years.  The coin is scanned and then a computer guided laser cuts out designated areas.  They are pretty and they started life as a coin, but don't fit the definition of hand-made by any means.  Also read the comment section below about a discussion about die-cut coins.  Also note our previous photos below of a base metal cast pseudo coin.  The lead ones are soft and easily bent.  The fact that they are silver plated can lead the unwary to believe they are coin silver.

Fake Bahamas cut out coin made of cast lead.of no actual value.


Friday, July 1, 2011

Meissen Putto Figurine Stolen from South Coast Antiques, Ocean Springs, MS


Today when I went into the shop I had a surprise waiting for me. I was opening up and I noticed a small aesthetic movement bowl that I had sitting out on a counter toward the back of the shop was missing. I called my business partner  and asked him if he had moved it somewhere and he said that he had not. He said that he would be in straight away. I looked around the shop to see if some one had maybe picked it up and sit it some where else in the shop. I was absolutely stunned to find out that the person that apparently took the dish had also opened one of our cases that was not locked and taken my little Meissen Putto making chocolate figurine. I have had this little Meissen treasure for a number of years now and it was one of my all time favorite figurines. I have frequently used it as a teaching aid to show people what a high quality porcelain figurine is supposed to look like. Every so often someone will bring in some type of imitation figurine stating that their grand mother received it from their grand mother and that it is Meissen. I was able to show them this piece and they could easily see what I was talking about. I just can not imagine what kind of person would do such a thing. I could go into a rant and rave session at this point, but there is no real reason to do so. It is gone and I will never see it again. If by any chance anyone out there looking at this blog knows its whereabouts please contact us.