Monday, May 21, 2013
    (Queen Victoria's Birthday)

Bonham's  Toy Soldiers Revisited

   I wrote about Bonham's 2 days ago when I had discovered a great feature there that I missed  ever since I've been blogging. It's their magnification feature for their images. Mr. James Opie was the first Bonham's expert that I had met, and he allowed me to write a post about their fine toy soldiers . He's the expert of those magnificent lead soldiers, and even has a website about them.

  As a result of my discovery, I decided to post again about toy soldiers. Coincidently, it's Queen Victoria's Birthday today, and Canada celebrates it, having been a member of the Commonwealth a long time, and before that a colony. When I think of Britain's history, I always remember the famous motto - "The sun never sets on the British Empire".That simply meant that at one time,  Great Britain was such a big colonial empire, that no matter where you went on the globe, they had a colony, and the sun would have been shining there! 

   I'm not a history buff (someone interested in a topic),buy for those who are, toy soldiers certainly would offer that person a lot of interest. Britains coincidentally, is the name of one of the most famous companies that produced and still produces thee fine toys or collectors items. I wouldn't be surprised of in most of the period movies about British history, you would see these toys if they required such props. 

   For those of you who like reading or actually have a "real" magazine in your hand instead of a pad "device", Bonhams has many outstanding magazines about their many difference areas of items that have come to auction.

Please click on this sentence to be redirected to Bonhams fine website

I decided to present today the excellent magnificent feature that is available at Bonham's for people to use. Although they mostly present only 1 image of their toys, the magnification feature, as well as they;re descriptive "narratives" of their items, certainly is enough for the viewer to decide whether ot bid or not on an item.

I didn't readjust the font size for this image  in order to illustrate the magnification feature.

You can see the smaller type relative to the larger-sized image.

Also, don't forget that since these images are very large, I can't present them fully. 

So clicking on any image will allow you to view them as a slide show with the larger-sized magnification.

The "problem" belongs to Google Blogger. Once you set the format of a blog, it is "set in stone" forever, meaning that I can't readjust t he width of a post, without changing every one of my 421 posts to date! That is a real inconvenience to me. I've written to Blogger,but they never reply!

I purposely selected the wagon and riders above.I might even have used it in my previous post about Bonhams lead soldiers. In this case, the texture and weave of the wagon cover is what I wanted you to see. Now that's  detail!

Take a look a these 2 almost identical soldiers. Look at the red strips on their left pant legs above the foot. Notice how the stripes are different for the 2 soldiers. Not only does the magnifiction present this well, but one has to realize that all of these outstanding lead soldiers were hand painted, so thye never were 100% exact!

An example of the magnification at work - super!

I did some "minor" retouching to remove some of the chopped-off soldiers on the right side. I'm sure Bonhams won't mind.

The item above is from the Trophy company.

It's a great "moment in time" of what might have actually occurred way back then.

Above is the  magnification of the lower level of the paddle steamer.

Above is the upper level of the paddle steamer. 

There's a few specks of dust that I didn't retouch out.

Now that's what the great magnification feature at Bonhams does - it allows you to see fine detail!

If you were once a British colony or are still a member of the Commonwealth, then Happy Queen Victoria Day.

Here in Quebec, Quebec has their own holiday (it's political), so it'c called "La Fete de Patriote" -  ThePatriot's Holiday.

If you do'nt have a holiday, then have a great day anyway.

Thanks for visiting,

Stacey

A Great Discovery at Bonhams

Saturday, May18, 2013

A Great Discovery at Bonhams

   When I get up every morning, I like to go on the Net and read the newspapers. I usually read The New York Times, Washington Post, The Globe and Mail (Canada)  The National Post (Canada) ,  and The BBC, to name a few.  So when I visited The Globe and Mail , I was surprised to see an article about models*. I placed the asterisk (*)  there, because I had mistakenly called those soldiers "toys", when they were in fact models! 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/success-stories/consultants-toy-soldier-collection-is-serious-business/article11969645/

(Please click on the above link to be redirected to the article)

   I immediately sent Mr. James Opie , the specialist on Toy soldiers at Bonhams, the link. I had made contact with James close to a year ago, when I wanted to expand my blog articles,and James helped me out. I wrote an article about the fine toy soldiers that Bonham's often has up at auction.  At the time though, I  was so busy writing articles, as I still am (usually 1 a day), that I did not notice a great feature that Bonham's has. This great feature is the ability to magnify their images to see detail. When I discovered this feature, I was in total amazement. The reason is that I like to see detail, and being able to see detail in toys is great, especially if you're a bidder.

   With today's global economy, even antiques have gone global. No longer are people limited to bidding on articles in their country. Now they can bid internationally. Of course, you've seen in movies how collectors have bid on $100,000,000 paintings by the French Masters. Auction house employees are photographed holding phones as the bidders in other parts of the world are busy instructing the to bid higher. But today, anyone can bid anywhere around the world on items up at auction. And that's the marvel of the Net and the adaptation of fine auction houses such as Bonham's.

    Of course, I'll now return to James Opie's realm of fine antique toy soliders and check out the fine detail on selective items, and for sure, I'll post again. As for today's post, I decided to select finely-crafted model trains.  I asked James to ask the specialist on trains (toys), if I might use Bonham's fine train items for today's post. James got back to me, and said that Mr. Leigh Gotch had given me the "go-ahead". I immediately wrote back to thank him.

     I had wanted to use an outstanding antique doll from another auction for purposes of illustrating the value of the magnification feature on Bonham's website, but I need the permission of that specialist. I just received the go-ahead this morning (Wednesday, May 22, 2013). Rachel Gotch is that specialist in the realm of Early Dolls, and this particular doll is certainly "early" - 1750 to be exact. That's 26 years years before America's Independence!  Can you imagine how much information such a specialist as Rachel has to have in order to write up the descriptions ofor this category and its listings?

This is the actual listing at Bonhams

Here's the straightforward screen capture image

I didn't do any sharpening in Photoshop.

The initial image size at Bonham's is very large.

A screen capture of the head of this outstanding doll from so long ago.

The hand painted facial features, the diminutive tiny cracks on the face, the fine hair all are just super! 

A screen capture of the first magnification.

There's plenty of fine detail to see, and I haven't even sharpened the image!

Exquisite! 

However, I've included the link below.The item in question is Lot # 477- "An Important George II wooden doll, English, circa 1750." When you magnify that particular item , you will see "detail" as you've never seen before on an item.  I won't say any more than that, to allow you to discover this for yourself!

Please Click on this sentence to be redirected to Bonham's fine website and trains

 When you click on any image at Bonham's, the image will magnify, and you will arrive at the window above. When you then click on the + or - symbols, you will correspondingly see an enlarged or reduced image.

***When you apply the magnification feature, you will need to wait a few seconds for the image to reformat too the larger dimensions.

* All of the image presented today, are large-sized, however, I couldn't fit them into the blog space. 

So if you double-click on any of the images today, you will get a large image. 

This will allow you to see the fine detail!

I included an example of the written description of the model  train below.

I don't know much about model or toy trains, but the written description certainly would be of benefit for anyone potential bidder who knows his/her train models!

Above is a trio of 3 images in succession of enlargement size. This will give you an example of the importance of the magnification feature at Bonhams website.

    In closing, I would be amiss, if I did not comment on the outstanding photography at Bonham's, especially for the train models presented today.  The images would seem to be "easy" to photograph, but I know from personal experience as a photographer that  expertise went into taking these photos by highly-qualified pros.  

   You  need to know your lighting, and be able to both capture the highlights (bright areas), as well as the shadow (dark areas).  Then there is the question of focus - not the easiest to do when the subject is close up, and at a diagonal. Lastly, there is the question of dust.  Setting up any of the above images requires skill, and by the time you are ready to take the photo, some dust will have fallen on the items. Even beforehand, I'm sure there was some dust, so the items had to be carefully handled, cleaned, and dust blown off. And of course, these items would pick up fingerprints, so cotton gloves had to be used.

  When you visit sites like Bonhams, even  as myself when I am not buying anything, you appreciate what  these excellent and wonderful companies offer not just to potential buyers, but to anyone interested in learning about a topic. And Bonham's certainly has a library of topics!

It doesn't get any better than that!

Thanks for dropping by, and please go to the links to see the magnifications fo the train images. They're better than I could present, since I had to resize them.

And as always, 

have a great weekend,

wherever you may be,

Stacey