Antique Trader Magazine features Terry Kovel and Kovels’ 2023 Price Guide

By Janet Dodrill

The November 15, 2022 issue of Antique Trader magazine features the 55th edition of Kovels’ Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide 2023, and Kovels (http://www.kovels.com) business owner, Terry Kovel. 

I took the photograph of Terry Kovel for the magazine cover and an inside picture of her holding a teapot. 

Terry is my boss at Kovels and I have been very involved with the book for 12 years. I worked with dozens of auction houses to obtain the images for the price guide, as well as outlined and edited the images for the book directly for the publisher, Hachette in New York. The 2023 guide includes over 3150 images. 

In addition to working on the images for the price guide, both print and online versions, I also designed ads for the back of the book, and work on marketing materials for the book for its promotion and release, including brochures, buck slip inserts, email blast graphics, and social media ads.

Antique Trader magazine featured story November 15, 2022

https://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques-news/kovel-price-guide-antiques-and-collectibles

Antique Trader magazine, November 15, 2022 issue.
Photo: Antique Trader

Kovels’ Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide 2023

Other recent Antique Trader magazine articles about Kovels:

December 1, 2021

https://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques-news/kovels-price-guide

May 15, 2021

https://www.antiquetrader.com/collectibles/terry-kovel-antique-treasure

Copyright article and images. All rights reserved. Not to be used without permission.

#antiquetrader #antiquetradermagazine #kovels #terrykovel #terrykovelandkimkovel #ralphandterrykovel #kovelspriceguide #hachettebookgroup #janetdodrill

Everett Dodrill, Writer, Actor, Director, Producer, Talent, and Artist

By Janet Dodrill

Career Highlights – Everett L. Dodrill Jr.

Everett Dodrill

1940s

Columbia College, BS Degree, Science and Literature, NY, NY

Morey, Humm & Johnstone, NY, NY, 3 years, wrote articles for 4-color magazine “House Organ”

Art School, one term, NY, NY

Pratt Institute for advertising design, NY, NY

Professional Magician, Ajax the Magician (1940s & 1950s), Larchmont, NY

Ballet Dancer, performance at Metropolitan Opera house of a Russian opera, NY, NY

1950s

Bedford Players theater group, Founder, Bedford, Ohio

Lakewood Little Theatre, actor & director, Lakewood, Ohio

Karamu House theater, actor, Cleveland, Ohio

Clague Playhouse, actor, Cleveland, Ohio

Penn, Hamicker, Meldrum & Fewsmith ad agency, writer, Cleveland, Ohio

Lang Fisher & Stashhower ad agency, writer, Cleveland, Ohio (1950s)

1960s

Chagrin Valley Little Theater, actor, Chagrin Falls, Ohio

Dobama Theatre, founding theater company, actor & director, Cleveland Heights, Ohio (1960s through 2000s)

Story Craft, script writer for “On Location” radio shows and daily show “Speaking of Money”, Cleveland, Ohio

Editorial Features, and Editorial Services, writer with author Bill Ellis on book The Cuyahoga, Cleveland, Ohio

Mark V advertising agency (1960s & 1970s), Cleveland, Ohio

1970s

Dodrill-Vasilakes & Co. (1970s & 1980s), training and sales documents, technical writing, sales & educational scripts and presentations, articles for “Basic Utility Sales Techniques” industrial magazine, Cleveland, Ohio

“The Wandering Muse of Artemus Flagg” TV special, writer, starring Burgess Meredith, featuring the Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, WJW Channel 8, Cleveland, Ohio

“Say Older My Son, Not Old”, wrote and produced, WVIZ Channel 25 an Emmy winning TV series, Cleveland, Ohio

Heartsong USA project, wrote and produced, WVIZ Channel 25, Cleveland, Ohio

1980s

“Home Again”, wrote and produced, WVIZ Channel 25, Cleveland, Ohio (on rehabbing a Cleveland house)

Educational Research Council of America (1980s), wrote 50 educational stories including Truck Mechanic, Ecologist, and Market Researcher for its “Real People at Work” series, and 3 textbooks, Cleveland, Ohio

Freelance writer (1980s and 1990s), research, technical writing, training and development for user manuals and sales presentations for National Electrical Carbon Corp., General Electric, NASA Lewis Research Center, Union Carbide Corporation, and BFGoodrich, Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland Playhouse, actor, Cleveland, Ohio

AFTRA male model (1980s & 1990s)

1990s

Rotary Club, president, Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Cain Park Theater, actor, Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Cleveland Museum of Natural History, volunteer, molds/casts of fossils, Cleveland, Ohio

Case Western Reserve Medical School acting as a patient in its doctor training program, Cleveland, Ohio

Special effects makeup artist

2000s

“Christmas Classics by Cleveland”, producer and cast member, a two hour collection of original and classic Christmas narratives, recorded at WJCU 88.7 FM, Cleveland, Ohio

“A Christmas Carol”, starred as Scrooge, recorded at WJCU 88.7 FM, Cleveland, Ohio

Artist and sculptor

 

Everett Dodrill, Ajax the Magician Business Card

Everett Dodrill ballet dancer, 1940s

Marji Dodrill & Everett Dodrill, acting at Karamu House theater, early 1960s

Everett Dodrill in Caligula, Dobama Theatre, 1962

Everett Dodrill, model, talent, 1980s

Everett Dodrill special effects makeup artist, 1990s

Ceramic mask sculpture by Everett Dodrill

Copyright article and images. All rights reserved. Not to be used without permission.

Save

Save

Save

Artists of Schmitz-Horning Company

By Janet Dodrill

The Schmitz-Horning Co., a chromo-lithographic wallcovering firm, was in business 55 plus years, from 1905 to 1960. But the company may have started in 1903 as a litho poster production company and then developed their own line of wall murals, friezes, and scenic wall papers around 1905, branded San-Kro-Mura. They offered an attractive yet inexpensive product line, using oil-based non-fading color oil-based inks printed on high quality paper that was sanitary or fully-washable. Later as new scenics and panoramics designed, the brand Kro-mura was created.

They rented space at the Whitney Power Building or Power Block at E. 10th and Power Ave., between St. Clair and Rockwell, and later moved to their own building at 777 E. 82nd Street in Cleveland, near Gordon Park. In 1906 a patent was registered for the ‘Frieze’ by co-owners Hugo Max Schmitz and William Horning, along with their head salesperson, Warren R. Cox. The Frieze was a repeating continuous scene which surrounded the room at the top of the wall. In the early years it would take two years to complete the plates for a single scenic. The 43″ x 83″ hand-fed lithographic presses used were the largest in the world. The company custom built three, Schmitz-Horning had two, the other being in London, England. Zinc plates had to be shipped from Germany.

The company produced some of the largest wall maps in the industry.

Hugo Max Schmitz (1867-1938) (my great grandfather), co-owner, was an artist who came to Cleveland, in his 30s, in the late 1800s, and was from a large German family in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He married Pauline (Queen) M. Reynolds in 1902, who was a society lady. They lived in East Cleveland and later moved to University Heights, Ohio.

Venice pattern, 30″ x 10′, and original watercolor by Hugo M. Schmitz, Schmitz-Horning co-founder.

He was a member of Cleveland’s Art Club, with mostly German members, that met in City Hall. He traveled to Paris and Morocco, and perhaps to Morocco with other artists. In one of these paintings, he painted a cleaning girl from a New York City office building and won an award for it (either second place or honorable mention) at an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Our family has a couple of his original watercolors and oils, including a portrait he did of my great grandmother. They honeymooned in Venice, and a watercolor he did there became a wallpaper pattern called Venice. He was rated as one of the best litho-crayon artists in the industry.

William Horning, co-owner, sold his interest in the company to Hugo around 1920, but worked as a lithographer in Cleveland.

Warren R. Schmitz (1905-1970) (my grandfather), son of Hugo M. Schmitz, started working at the company after college around 1929 in sales and promotion, and designed sales brochures, books and displays and traveled to various dealers in the U.S. He ran the company after his father’s death in 1938 until it closed around 1960.

After time, the company produced small scale salesman samples of the wallpapers for sales calls. Prior to that they were taking long rolls on calls. The same high quality inks and papers were used on the smaller scale versions. Warren Schmitz modernized the product line, obtaining sketches from prominent artists. New sales promotion aids were printed in-house using a small Harris offset press. In the 1950s he appeared on the TV show ‘What’s My Line?’. The company was also featured on a radio segment called ‘On Location’ with young announcer Virgil Dominic, sponsored by The Illuminating Company.

Chateau de Province pattern, ten sections, each 40″ x 80″, repeat, designed by Henry G. Keller. Above catalog illustration, below section of actual paper (detail photo: Cooper Hewitt).

Henry G. Keller (1869-1949) was a Cleveland School Artist and taught there. He designed the pattern, Chateau de Province, while in his prime. It was a French rural scenic, and included a chateau, native trees, and a fox hunt of equestrians with horses. It was 10 sections, each near 33″ x 72″.

Carl Fuchs designed Old South, believed in the 1940s, of plantation life in early America, including a steamboat and fox hunt. There were twelve sections, each 40″ x 80″ in repeat pattern.

Old South pattern, 12 sections, each 40″ x 80″, repeat, designed by Carl Fuchs. Section of actual paper (detail photo: Cooper Hewitt).

Lou Ramacciato, began working at Schmitz-Horning after graduating from Cleveland Institute of Art in 1946, and later went on to work 28 years at the Cleveland Museum of Art restoring art and preparing gallery exhibits.

Robinson Crusoe Pictoral Mural Map, one panel 40″ x 60″, designed by Glenn M. Shaw. Above catalog illustration, below section of actual paper (detail photo: Cooper Hewitt).

Glenn M. Shaw and Elsa Shaw had a studio in Lakewood and both worked commercially and taught. Elsa did some design work for them, though Glenn designed a number of patterns for the company, including 5 illustrated maps which were said to be accurate, the Old Canal set which depicts the Ohio and Erie Canal between Cleveland and Bath, Ohio, and Old Dominion which is a set of 7 panels. Each panel is 30” x 80” plus, could be trimmed at the desired height. He is known for painting murals in three post offices, in Canton, Warren, and Perrysburg, Ohio.

Paul A. Meunier was a litho artist, from Hunting Valley, who worked at the company for 11 years. Two other family members worked there, Ovid Meunier for 25 years and Laurence Meunier for 7-10 years. After leaving Schmitz-Horning, Paul became partner then owner at R.E. May, a plate-making company, that is still in existence today on E. 24th Street in Cleveland. I found an old brochure page on their website which shows Paul, and in another photo on the same page is a small-scale Schmitz-Horning western mural, called Wells Fargo. The Western Reserve Historical Society has a full size set of the pattern in their collection.

Wells Fargo pattern, 5 sections, each 40″ x 80″, repeat (artist unknown).

I found a still life watercolor by Paul Meunier on ETSY in 2011, and his name plate appeared on the back of the framing. He painted it in 1937, during the span of time when he worked at Schmitz-Horning. He wrote a book on the history of Gates Mills, Ohio, and there is an award in his name at the Gates Mills Art Show. I read that a painting of his was in the chamber room of their city hall. He enjoyed drawing, printmaking, and painting wildlife and horses.

Paul A. Meunier, watercolor or gouache floral painting, 1937, employed at the Schmitz-Horning Co. 1927-1938.

Ed Sinz worked at the company for 35-40 years. We have Christmas cards, to my grandfather from the sculptor Walter Sinz around the 1940s, possibly Ed’s son or relation.

Here is a comprehensive list of known artists or litho artists that worked at the Schmitz-Horning Co., either on staff or assignment-based, as designer and/or litho artist.

Schmitz-Horning Co. Artists:

Anne Nolan (catalog Illustrator)
August Biehle (?)
Binnie Wilson
Carl Broemel
Carl Fuchs
D.E. Sutton (catalog Illustrator)
Ed Sinz
Elsa V. Shaw
Glenn M. Shaw
Havenstein
Henry G. Keller
Hugo M. Schmitz (Schmitz-Horning Co. co-founder)
Kathy Cass
Kyra Markham
Laurence Meunier
Lou Ramacciato
Ovid Meunier
Paul A. Meunier
Paul Haas
William Horning (Schmitz-Horning Co. co-founder)

Posters and displays were printed for
Advertising Agencies:

Fred Dugar Co.
Fuller-Smith & Ross
H. Stief Company/Harvey G. Steif, Inc.
Lang, Fisher & Stashower

Lotus Garden pattern catalog illustration by B.E. Sutton.

When I began to uncover material from the company in our family home, it sparked my interest. Starting with my first blog post about Schmitz-Horning in 2011, I began writing a series of blog posts, and started to receive many inquiries about the company and patterns. I hope to continue my research and  produce a publication on it one day.

 

Copyright article and images. All rights reserved. Not to be used without permission.

Save

Peter Max Continues To Impress!

By Janet Dodrill

Peter Max exhibit announcement.

During our sunny, warm autumn in greater Cleveland, we were host to a renowned pop artist’s exhibit which warmed the soul! Peter Max had a retrospective of over 125 works of art at the Beachwood Community Center, in Beachwood, Ohio from October 16-25, 2015. Peter Max was available in person for the last two days of the show, to meet the public and to personally sign purchased artwork. I was able to attend the event, and converse with him. On two other occasions I also met him, once at his art exhibit in Little Italy, Cleveland, Ohio, and once at the Rock Hall. On one of those occasions I received a personalized autograph in exchange for a 1971 Peter Max Paper Airplane book that I had brought with me with intentions to have him sign. And, I recall an exhibit of his at Tower City one year that I attended with my late mother, which we both enjoyed.

Personalized autograph from Peter Max.

I am continually impressed with his work, the use of color, and the energy the work transmits. I love the use of broad multi-color brush strokes, and ever-changing subject matter and evolving style.

If his work comes to town again, I will surely go to see it, to be once again inspired.

Resources:

www.petermax.com

(Text and photos copyright Janet Dodrill. Not to be used without prior permission.)

 

Peter Max exhibit at Peter Max exhibit at Beachwood Community Center, Beachwood, Ohio. Nearby trees were decorated in anticipation of the exhibit.

 

Art by Peter Max.

 

Art by Peter Max.

 

Art by Peter Max.

 

Art by Peter Max.

 

Peter Max exhibit at Beachwood Community Center, Beachwood, Ohio. Nearby trees were decorated in anticipation of the exhibit.

 

Peter Max exhibit at Beachwood Community Center, Beachwood, Ohio.

New JCPenney Logo Unveiled in 2012

By Janet Dodrill

Have you seen the new J.C. Penney retail store logo? It rolled-out February 1st along with new pricing, store layouts, monthly promotions and low price days.

The new design features red, white and blue to utilize the colors of the American flag and emphasize an American brand. The square shape is to push their motto to treat customers ‘fair and square’, and the frame suggests that the customers remember to frame the things they love, a theme which is evident throughout their marketing.

Penney’s previously attempted to redesign the logo in 2011, however it was not received well and said to be like the GAP logo disaster (after social media backlash, Gap pulled their new logo design in 2010).

I favor their ambition and idea of a branding makeover, and personally adore their supporting TV commercials featuring Ellen Degeneres. However, in my opinion, I would tweak the new logo design, making the tiny blue box in the upper left corner larger. Why all the big empty white space inside the red frame? When the logo is reduced the company name initials nearly disappear (Also, see their favicon in their web site URL).

Will calling it by the JCP initials catch on? Anyone I know has always referred to the store as Penney’s.

Sources:

Jcpenney Gets All Patriotic With Its New Logo Square design reminds customers to ‘frame the things they love’, Adweek

New Gap logo ignites firestorm, CNN Money

Logo property J.C. Penney Company, Inc.

JCPenney on Facebook