Category Archives: Personal

What is Stickybits?

Posted on by
3
Billy Chasen

Billy Chasen

Today’s post has nothing to do with antiques, but rather my son, Billy Chasen, and his latest creation, Stickybits, which was launched a few days ago. Billy is a software engineer with a very fertile imagination, who would rather be called an inventor. His latest idea is so clever, I predict it will be a major success. The proud father wants to tell you about it at this early stage.

Basically, Stickybits allows digital information to be attached to a bar code. First you download the free app on your smart phone, like the iPhone or Google Android phone. Then you scan a sticker with a bar code and attach any digital information you want to the sticker. The sticker can physically be attached to anything, like your computer or a greeting card or a bottle of prescription medication. If the concept is a little fuzzy, let me give you a specific example. Let’s say I buy a birthday card for Aunt Vicky with a Stickybits bar code inside. I line up the whole family and record a video singing happy birthday to Aunt Vicky. Then I attach the video to the Stickybits bar code and mail the card to Aunt Vicky. When Aunt Vicky receives the card, she uses her smart phone to scan the bar code and voila, she watches the video. The information is automatically encoded with GPS information and a trail is formed. Information is added every time the code is scanned.

Stickybits logo

Stickybits logo

How about this? I’m going to put a Stickybits bar code on my business card. I can attach and change the information as often as I like. One day if you scan the code, you might see a photo of my latest purchase, or a link to my blog. On another day, there might be a video of me and Lia wishing you a Merry Christmas.

How about tagging an object with Stickybits and sending it on a random trip around the world, a modern-day version of message in a bottle? Everyone who picks it up can add their information to the trail of its travels with automatic GPS locations. That would make a cool TV show.

The possibilities are limitless, which is what’s so nice about this technology. Billy and his group have come up with lots of suggestions about what can be done with Stickybits, but there are many more possibilities that haven’t even been dreamt up yet. Once the technology becomes ubiquitous, the true potential will start to be realized. More information is available at http://stickybits.com. The idea is getting a lot of publicity and buzz. Here are links to several of the articles that have been written. The LA Times at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/03/stickybits-barcodes-social-network.html. CNET at http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10467485-36.html?tag=mncol;txt Ecoconsultancy.com at http://econsultancy.com/blog/5592-q-a-stickibits-founder-billy-chasen

What do you think? Email me at philchasen@aol.com.

I’m taking a lot of time to add new items to my website. I’ve already listed new items under Gallé glass, Daum Nancy glass, Tiffany Studios glass and Marblehead pottery, to name a few. Please take a look, as every day I’m adding more. Click on this link chasenantiques.com.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

The show must go on! The adventures of the Intrepid Antique Dealers

Posted on by
Reply
Southbound on I-95, south of Richmond, VA, 2/10/10

Southbound on I-95, south of Richmond, VA, 2/10/10

I’m writing this post from the passenger seat of a rented car on I-85, north of Charlotte, NC. Now for the story of how we got here.

Our scheduled departure for West Palm Beach, FL was today. The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antique Show begins setting up tomorrow, with the opening preview party on Friday night. You probably know that a massive winter storm is presently battering the Northeast of the US. Since we had plenty of notice, I personally went to the airport on Monday to change our tickets to leave yesterday, Tuesday. The US Airways agent was very helpful and changed the tickets in five minutes. There was no penalty because all the airlines were permitting changes because of the impending weather. We were scheduled to fly from LaGuardia Airport in NYC to Washington, DC at 3 PM on Tuesday. I asked the agent if he could give us a more southern connecting city, but he said all the seats were sold. I was justifiably concerned about possible weather conditions in DC.

We arrived at LaGuardia on Tuesday at 1:45 PM, with plenty of time to spare. We started to check in, when the agent said he couldn’t find our reservation. Huh?? I had a printout of our flights from the previous day’s agent. When the agent in front of me continued checking, he found out that our flight from Washington, DC to West Palm Beach, FL, had been canceled and rescheduled for the 13th, four days later. Can you believe it? US Airways never informed us by phone or email that our flight had been canceled and rescheduled. I explained to the agent that we HAD to get to Florida in time to set up a show. Our driver was already halfway there with our merchandise and we had paid in full to exhibit there. For an hour and a half, Thomas valiantly tried to find an alternate route to ANY city in Florida on ANY airline, but every seat was sold out on every flight out of the area. My backup plan was to take a 24 hour train to Florida, but when I called Amtrak, I was told that all southbound trains had been canceled.

I suggested to my wife that we go home and get our car and drive to Florida, a suggestion that I really didn’t want to follow, but what was the alternative? My wife suggested that we rent a car one way to a southern city and then fly the rest of the way. Luckily I was able to find a car rental agency with a car left that we could take. We took the shuttle bus to the rental counter and were delayed there still more. We didn’t start driving until 5 PM. The big problem was that all the weather predictions were telling us that we only had a few hours until the storm was upon us. The prospect of driving in blizzard conditions was not appealing and honestly frightening, but off we started.

Right off the bat, we got stuck in rush hour traffic in New York City and were delayed still more. We didn’t reach the speed limit at any point until we got to Staten Island. OK, so far, so good. The first flakes of snow started to fall halfway through the state of New Jersey — WAY TOO SOON! We expected the snow and driving conditions to worsen as we drove south into the belly of the beast — and it did. Driving conditions continued to worsen through Maryland. It was SCARRREEE, but I drove carefully at greatly reduced speed. We needed to get past Washington, DC to somewhere in Virginia before we could find a motel. Amazingly as we got to the Washington, DC area, the precipitation turned to rain and stayed rain until we reached our motel about 50 miles south of Washington. We decided to sleep it out and deal with whatever we had to in the morning.

After a good night’s sleep, we looked out to find only a few inches of fresh snow. This area had been pounded with two recent storms, so the locals were happy about that. The weather reports indicated that the snow was almost completely north of us. We had made the right decision to push to Virginia. We got on the road and headed to the nearest airport in Richmond, VA. I didn’t even know if there would be any employees there, but luckily there were. After 20 minutes of complex changes to the record, we had our reservations to West Palm Beach from Charlotte, NC at 6 PM. What was the name of that comedy movie where the ticket agent keeps typing and pressing hundreds of keystrokes to accomplish a simple task? That was me, watching this woman, talking on the phone to another agent to accomplish this incredibly complex task of changing our plane reservation. We could have flown from Richmond, VA to Charlotte, NC, but most of the flights were sold out and weather conditions were quite sketchy in Richmond. So we elected to drive to Charlotte and catch the plane there.

We’ll be arriving in Charlotte shortly. The weather is sunny and very windy, so I’m hoping that our flight will get to West Palm Beach today. Got my fingers crossed.

So now that you see the lengths we were willing to go to to exhibit at this show, you HAVE TO come and visit. :>) I’ve brought an incredible number of new and exciting items that I did not have at the Miami shows. See you there! The show must go on!

I’m taking a lot of time to add new items to my website. I’ve already listed new items under Gallé glass (including a blownout vase), Daum Nancy glass and Tiffany Studios glass. Soon I’ll be adding many Tiffany Studios desk pieces. Please take a look, as every day I’m adding more. Click on this link chasenantiques.com.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail.com or
516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

Make the time to smell the roses

Posted on by
Reply
Roses in bloom in Villa La Angostura, Argentina, January 2, 2010

Roses in bloom in Villa La Angostura, Argentina, January 2, 2010

Life is short, so after working hard during the year, we make the time to smell the roses. And the roses are in bloom now in the Southern Hemisphere — Argentina in particular. It’s a beautiful, interesting country, where the dollar is still worth something, so we try to visit regularly.

On this particular trip, we got off to an interesting start when we arrived. Chelsea Clinton and her fiancé were on line with us for 1/2 hour while we waited at the airport in Buenos Aires to have our documents checked, so we had a chance to chat for a while. She’s really down to earth and lovely. They make a nice couple and we wish them the best.

That's the Perito Moreno glacier in the background.

That's the Perito Moreno glacier in the background.

I planned too hectic a trip, so we didn’t have enough time in each city, but we did get to visit El Calafate to see the glaciers, including the most famous one, Perito Moreno. You wouldn’t expect them to be blue, but they are, with some darker blues in some areas where the ice is more compact. We took an all day catamaran on Lago Argentino, for a beautiful day.

That's us, with family, in the mountains of Villa La Angostura, Argentina

That's us, with family, in the mountains of Villa La Angostura, Argentina

On to Patagonia to visit one of the more gorgeous parts of the earth — Villa La Angostura. It’s in the middle of beautiful mountains, lakes and streams. The air and water are clean. Just lovely to be there.

The Miami National Antiques Show, January 15-17, 2010.

The Miami National Antiques Show, January 15-17, 2010.

January starts a busy antiques season with shows in Miami and Miami Beach. The first, the Miami National Antiques Show, will be held from January 15-17 at the Doubletree Expo Centre, Miami Merchandise Mart, near the airport. It’s a beautiful show with important dealers. It’s also your opportunity to get first crack at the great items they’ll be bringing, before they go on the following week to exhibit at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

I’m taking a lot of time to add new items to my website. I’ve already listed new items under Gallé glass (including a blownout vase), Daum Nancy glass and Tiffany Studios glass. Soon I’ll be adding many Tiffany Studios desk pieces. Please take a look, as every day I’m adding more. Click on this link chasenantiques.com.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail.com or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

The turkeys are back

Posted on by
Reply
Lia Chasen, with friend Sandra Pak, feeding the wild turkeys

Lia Chasen, with friend Sandra Pak, feeding the wild turkeys

Having never seen a wild turkey on Long Island for my whole life, I’ve now seen them three times in a month. Today they visited again and this time they brought their friends (or relatives). Today’s visit included a rafter of nine turkeys. (How do you like the term “rafter of turkeys”? Had to look that one up online to find the proper term.) Two of the eight were probably the alpha males. They were much bigger and had their tail feathers open. They seemed to be in charge and protective of the others. Two of the turkeys flew up to drink from the bird bath. Did you know that turkeys can fly? Well, not very far, according to my research. Basically they just fly up into trees.

The alpha male turkeys

The alpha male turkeys

Long Island’s wild turkeys are quite tame. So many people feed them that they’re practically domesticated. We had a hunt on Long Island a few weeks ago, but that was farther out on Long Island in Suffolk County. Hunters had to get licenses and were permitted only one turkey per permit. Very few turkeys were caught during the five day hunt. They haven’t yet learned to fear humans, so hunting them shouldn’t have been that difficult. I guess the problem was locating them, as there aren’t that many yet — approximately 3000 on all of Long Island, and Long Island is very big.

A couple of the turkey hens drinking from the bird bath

A couple of the turkey hens drinking from the bird bath

It’s fun to get a visit from the local turkeys, as long as they leave soon, and they usually do. A rafter of nine turkeys can leave quite a bit of poop. Just ignore them and stop feeding them — that seems to do the trick. At least they’re not as bad as geese (and we have lots and lots of geese on Long Island). Once they decide they like your property, it’s very difficult to get rid of them.

I’m taking a lot of time to add new items to my website. I’ve already listed new items under Gallé glass (including a blownout vase), Daum Nancy glass and Tiffany Studios glass. Soon I’ll be adding many Tiffany Studios desk pieces. Many are priced right for great holiday gift-giving. Who wouldn’t like to receive a genuine Tiffany desk set accessory as a Christmas or Chanukah gift? I’ll soon be starting a big sale on Icart etchings. Please take a look, as every day I’m adding more. Click on this link chasenantiques.com.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail.com or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

Wild turkeys on Long Island follow-up

Posted on by
2
Lia with my neighbor, Jim Farrell, with the wild turkeys in our driveway

Lia with my neighbor, Jim Farrell, with the wild turkeys in our driveway

I wrote a blog post on November 3rd about a visit to my home of some local wild turkeys. My son, Billy, thought it was amusing enough to send it to the website reddit.com, so instead of the usual 100 readers to my website, I had 1000. That led to a call from the local Long Island newspaper, Newsday. A reporter there was writing a piece about the wild turkeys on Long Island and happened to read my blog. She asked if I could send her the photos I had taken of the turkey visit. I did and she used the photos for an article published yesterday in Newsday. That led to a call from the NYC TV station, WCBS, channel 2. The reporter there had read Newsday and wanted to come visit me to tape an interview. Unfortunately, being the good antiques dealer that I am, we were already on the road to Fairfield, ME, to attend the James D. Julia auction. Oh well, there goes my 15 minutes of fame. I did, however, email my photos to WCBS, and I suspect they’ll use one or two of them in their report.

The timing of the WCBS report coincides with the start of a wild turkey hunt on Long Island this Saturday. Wow, that sounds strange. We don’t have too many wild animals on Long Island and we don’t have much hunting. New York State reintroduced the turkey to Long Island several years ago, where the count is now approximately 3000. That is apparently a sufficient number to warrant a wild turkey hunt on Long Island.

It’s all quite amusing, for me, but not for the turkeys. Licensed hunters, with turkey permits, in Suffolk County only, will be allowed to bag one bird each. The hunters have from Saturday to Wednesday. I’m wondering what kind of a hunt it’s going to be. The turkeys are so tame they can be hand-fed. Are people going to choke them? Doesn’t seem too fair to me.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail.com or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

A visit to the USS New York

Posted on by
Reply

1

What does an antiques dealer do on his day off? Easy. Take his wife to visit the Navy’s newest warship, the USS New York, while it’s docked in New York. And what a wonderful visit it was.

We're standing in front of the bow of the ship

We're standing in front of the bow of the ship

Construction of the the USS New York incorporated 7½ tons of steel recovered from the debris of the World Trade Center, to forge the bow of the ship. Genius! The ship is a San Antonio-class LPD (Landing Platform Dock) with all the latest bells and whistles a modern warship should have. Its main purpose is to deliver marines and their equipment wherever in the world they’re needed.

I'm on deck in one of the helicopters

I'm in one of the helicopters on the deck

Today was the first day the general public was allowed to visit, so we came prepared with newspapers and other toys to stand on the long lines we expected. To our surprise, there were no lines. Not sure why, but we were grateful. The weather wasn’t a factor because it was beautiful. I suspect as word gets out, there will be many more visitors on the weekend.

Navy V-22 Osprey

Navy V-22 Osprey

The first thing we noticed was the security — young navy security guards with machine guns stationed up front. Navy and Marine personnel everywhere — all very poised and very friendly. They seemed genuinely pleased to see us and show off their impressive new ship. We visited two equipment decks with troop carriers and an Abrams tank, which we were allowed to crawl over and into. It got more interesting on the top deck, where helicopters and a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) plane, the V-22 Osprey, were on display. The Osprey can take off and land like a helicopter and then rotate the engines to fly like a standard airplane. Wow!

The engineering control room of the USS New York

The engineering control room of the USS New York

It was all fascinating to me, but not quite as much to Lia. She was more interested in the human aspects of the ship. How do the sailors sleep and eat? So I mentioned this to one of the sailors, who by sheer dumb luck, happened to be the Chief Engineer of the ship, third in command. He invited us on a personal tour of the entire ship, from the mess hall to the engine room. What a treat! He couldn’t have been nicer, answering all of our questions while showing off his ship. So a big thank you to Lt. Commander Harris of the USS New York.

It was a fine day. We left with a feeling of pride in the fine young men and women of our armed forces. If you’re from the greater New York area, I strongly suggest you visit the ship. You have until this Sunday. For complete information, click on this link. USS New York

By the way, did you watch the Yankees win the World Series? At one point, the camera zoomed in on the commander of the USS New York (who is a native New Yorker), seated next to Mayor Bloomberg. About 30 sailors were guests of the Yankees.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, a surprise!

Posted on by
Reply
Lia and Bill feeding the turkeys

Lia and Bill feeding the turkeys

OK, we’re loading the van, preparing for the Morristown Armory Antiques Show this coming weekend, when Lia (my wife) calls me in the office and says “You’ve got to come down right away and see this!”. So I go downstairs to the driveway and guess what? Lia and Bill (my employee) are feeding five wild turkeys. I’ve lived on Long Island for over 30 years and I’ve never even seen one wild turkey, let alone five, so imagine my surprise! Nassau County is on Long Island and doesn’t have many wild animals. I’ve seen rabbits, raccoons, fox, one owl, various small birds and once a very large bird — a blue heron, but no deer or other large mammals. What is the meaning of their timing? Were they offering themselves for Thanksgiving dinner? We made a lot of jokes, but there’s no way I could do it.

Hey, lady! Any more bread?

Hey, lady! Any more bread?

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. It’s a wonderful time to get together with family and friends and actually be thankful for all of our blessings. At this time of year, let us be especially thankful to all of our brave young men and women in the military who are in harm’s way around the world. May they all come home safely and soon!

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail.com or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

The road to knowledge is filled with potholes, part I

Posted on by
1

Marc Bell asked “How did you avoid the pitfalls in the antique lighting business?”  Well, Marc,  I didn’t. I hit my share of potholes along the learning road.

(Do you have an antiques questions?  I’ll try to answer them in future posts.  philchasen@gmail.com)

A Tiffany 3-light lily lamp with Quezal shades, similar to my first purchase

A Tiffany 3-light lily lamp with Quezal shades, similar to my first purchase

I remember the first time I bought a signed lamp.  The year was probably 1973.  We were at an auction and the auctioneer was explaining that the next item for sale was a Tiffany 3-light lily lamp with Quezal shades.  We were the successful bidders and paid $600 for it.  My wife and I were really nervous about this huge purchase.  I told my mother and she told me I was nuts.  Thanks, Mom.  She just couldn’t conceive of a lamp costing that much money.

Now I had my first antique lamp and I was eager to try and sell it.  I took good photos and advertised the lamp in Hobbies magazine.  Hobbies was an important monthly publication for both collectors and dealers.  (All of you old-timers should remember the good old days when it was possible to sell items by advertising in magazines.  For you younger collectors, there really was an antiques world prior to the Internet.)

I waited for over a month until the magazine was published.  I got a few calls and one was long-distance from a collector in Iowa.  (How many of you remember when everyone would stop whatever they were doing because someone was calling LONG DISTANCE?  It was exciting!)  He told me the lamp was a marriage – the lamp base was from one company and the shades from another.  Apparently a marriage in a lamp was a bad thing.  I didn’t know that!  I had assumed that the word Quezal was a Tiffany word, like Favrile.  Pssssssssss.  The air just zoomed out of my bubble!  But it didn’t end badly.  This caller was willing to buy the lamp as is.  I learned a big lesson that didn’t cost me a penny, in fact I earned a small profit.  I was lucky because most lessons in the antiques business are much more costly.

And that, folks, was the ignominious beginning to my education as a lamp dealer.

Tomorrow you can read lesson #2, which took place a few years later.  It’s much juicier than this one, guaranteed!

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

We were already in California, so…

Posted on by
Reply

The Napa Valley Wine Train

The Napa Valley Wine Train

We looked on the Internet and checked northern California tourism and discovered the Napa Valley Wine Train. What a treat! There are several options, but the one we chose was the lunch trip. Arrive at 10:30 AM to check in and listen to a short lecture with wine tasting. The white was a Pinot Gris, the French equivalent of Pinot Grigio, using the same grape — quite tasty. I liked the syrah that followed but Lia didn’t.

A view of some vineyards from the train

A view of some vineyards from the train

Then on to the train for an 11:30 AM departure and a 3-hour trip through several towns of the Napa Valley, starting in Napa, traveling to St. Helena and returning to Napa. The trains are restored 1915-17 Pullman dining cars with air conditioning and compressed natural gas engines in some of the locomotives. It’s a delightful relaxing ride.

Philip and Lia in the dessert car

Philip and Lia in the dessert car

I was quite surprised by the quality of the food and the service. Michell was our fine waitress and tour guide as we passed various wineries. I expected cafeteria food but got gourmet, restaurant quality food. The special was ribeye steak, which was excellent. The pork chop was almost as good. I misread the details of the trip, so I thought the wine pairings were included in the cost, but unfortunately, they were additional. My wine, a Zinfandel blend, called “The Prisoner”, was excellent. I’ll be looking to buy more when we get back to NY. After lunch, we proceeded to another car where we got dessert and coffee. My brownie was delicious.

A stop at the Grgich Winery is possible on another tour

A stop at the Grgich Winery is possible on another tour

So, if you find yourself in the San Francisco area, looking for a day’s entertainment, I highly recommend the Wine Train. For $15 additional, there’s even a boat that takes you to the train directly from San Francisco. That would have been fun, had we actually started our journey from there.


Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

How I got started in the antiques business

Posted on by
Reply

Joe Mollica wrote to me with the following question.  How did you get started in the business?

The route I took to becoming an antiques dealer is similar to many others in the fact that I was a collector first.  You can open a card shop or a franchise without much experience, but not an antiques business.  Collecting first gives one the time to gain the requisite knowledge to be successful.

Rare Handel Elk lamp

Rare Handel Elk lamp

In the early 1970s, my sister bought a country house in upstate New York.  One day she asked me to go to an auction with her to buy some items to furnish her house.  I was more than a little bit reluctant, but she was convincing.  So I went with my wife and my sister to my first auction.  It was an old-fashioned estate sale where everything was there to be sold without reserve.  We had no idea what we were doing, but we bought a few items — a rocking chair, a small rug — and had fun.  We started attending auctions and bought without a plan, but antique lighting was especially interesting to me.  I liked the idea that I could buy an antique that was functional.  Handel, with its beautiful reverse-painted lamps, was the first company I gravitated to.  I became knowledgeable quickly and was off to the races.

At the time I was teaching chemistry, physics and math in the NYC high school system.  I’d never wanted to teach, but the army wanted me to become a private in Vietnam or teach.  Hmm, tough choice.  So for the 8½ years that I taught until 1978, I juggled both teaching and the antiques business.  Because of the Women’s Liberation Movement, men could now apply for paternity leaves, so I took a leave for a year.  My wife continued teaching, while I helped to take care of my young daughter.  It allowed me to spend more time in the antiques business.  The year was successful, so I resigned from the New York City Board of Ed and haven’t looked back.  For me it was a good decision.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090.