“Gee, I Wish I Were A Man, I’d Join The Navy” was just one of the World War I recruiting posters by Howard Chanler Christy in the booth of Bob Veder, Class Menagerie, Bolton Landing, N.Y. It was priced $3,000.

Review & Onsite Photos by Rick Russack

HARTFORD, CONN. — It’s hard to believe but Papermania at the Hartford Civic Center (which in 2007 was renamed the XL Center) is well past its 45th birthday. Arlene Shea told Antiques and The Arts Weekly that she and her husband, Paul Gipstein, started producing antiques shows in 1974 and switched to paper and ephemera shows in 1977. The August 26 show was their 84th edition, and January 2024 will mark the 50th anniversary of the Gipstein family running shows. Arlene said, “We signed a contract for our first show at the Civic Center when it was just a hole in the ground.”

Paul Gipstein died in 2002 and his son Gary now runs Papermania Plus, while his mother Arlene, is still an exhibitor. He said, “It almost feels like I grew up in this building.” This edition of the show had about 55 dealers, from 10 different states. Some, like Peter Luke and Jim Arsenault, have been doing the show almost since the beginning, and two dealers, Stan Gorski and Ross Curtis were exhibiting for the first time. When the Gipsteins started the show, it was primarily a paper and ephemera show, but years ago, the word “Plus” was added to the name, to accommodate photography, advertising and more, increasing the scope and attraction of the show, which is well known for the extensiveness of the offerings and the expertise of its exhibitors.

It’s almost impossible to describe the breadth of the offerings, which ranged from postcards priced from a dollar or two to a $22,000 map which sold at the show. In between were daguerreotypes and other types of photography, books, movie and sports memorabilia, early games and valentines, political ephemera, posters, books and still more.

James Kochan, Wiscasset, Maine, sold this 1779 Chorographical Map of the Province of New-York in North America. Priced at $22,000, it was framed in three sections, one of which is shown here. It was one of the more expensively priced items at the show, and it found a buyer there. Photo courtesy James Kochan.

There may have been more expensive items at the show other than the $22,000 rare map of the colonial province of New York with James Kochan, Wiscasset, Maine, but we had a chance to learn about this one. Claude Sauthier’s large-scale Chorographical Map of the Province of New-York in North America was published in 1779. A very large hand-colored map, it was framed in three sections, each 25 by 56 inches. It was the most detailed map of an American colony published during the Revolutionary War and was based on surveys done a few years earlier. The scale, five miles to the inch, showed and identified military grants, manors, townships, rivers, lakes and much more. Sauthier surveyed other areas of North America and his maps are in several major collections, including the Library of Congress. The LOC’s online discussion of this map includes a raster image allowing it to be greatly enlarged. Kochan said that he brought one framed section of the map to show, as a customer had asked to see it; that customer then bought it. Kochan said that he also sold a number of other items and met customers he had not known before.

Richard Thorner, Resser-Thorner Antiques, Manchester, N.H., among other things, always has a selection of historical and political ephemera. For this show, he brought a copy of the September 8, 1794, issue of the Boston Gazette, with a masthead woodcut designed by Paul Revere. It was priced $500. He also had an unusual 1840s temperance broadside, titled The Spider and The Fly. Though now it reads as if it were written in jesting tone, it spelled out the perils of alcohol, listing the diseases it could cause — palsy, apoplexy, consumption and fevers of all kinds. It railed against the “thousands of public houses” and suggested that wives and “starving children,” along with full jails, would testify to the effects of drinking. Thorner priced the broadside $1,250.

Do you remember the series of “spaghetti westerns” starring Clint Eastwood? Most were made in the 1960s. Joe Maynard of Newburg, N.Y. had one for The Outlaw Josey Wales. He was asking $425.

On a somewhat more upbeat note, several dealers had posters of all genres. Fans of “spaghetti Westerns” could take home a large poster for Clint Eastwood’s The Outlaw Josey Wales. It depicted a very angry Eastwood as the title character brandishing two six-shooters; $425 would have bought it from Joe Maynard of Newburg, N.Y. Maynard also had posters for James Bond films, some priced at $125, and a poster for Fast Times at Ridgemont High, a tale of drugs, sex and rock and roll at a southern California high school in the early 1980s, which was also priced $125. Maynard had recently bought a large collection of about 12,000 lobby cards which he was selling for up to $3 each, in boxes of 1,000.

Fans of music and concert posters had many to choose from, including a Bruce Springsteen concert poster for which Connecticut dealer Mahol Grant was asking $45. Bolton Landing, N.Y., dealer Bob Veder, Class Menagerie, had some colorful World War I recruiting posters designed by Howard Chandler Christy, priced $3,000 each. One was a US Marine Corps poster and the other was a navy poster. Veder told us that Christy had been married three times and each of his wives served as a model for recruiting posters. He also had Wild West show posters, transportation posters and many others. Prices ranged up to $8,500.

It may not be a beautiful stereograph, but its interest is historical. It shows the cheese room at the Canterbury Shaker village. Scott De Wolfe, De Wolfe and Wood, Alfred, Maine, was asking $200 for it.

Scott De Wolfe, De Wolfe and Wood, Alfred, Maine, specializes in Shaker related material. For this show, he had a stereograph that was of historical interest. It depicted the cheese room at the Canterbury Shaker village with a large rack of cheese wheels and buckets, circa 1880. It was priced $200. De Wolfe also had an interesting collection of about a dozen engraved invitations to medical lectures for which he was asking $550. He said that such lectures were attended by aspiring students wishing to become doctors and were used as evidence of the knowledge gained by the student. He also had a 1904 letter written by a Canterbury Shaker sister to a customer of theirs in Philadelphia who was a regular buyer of the poplar sewing baskets and pincushions the Shakers made and sold to stores along the Eastern Seaboard. Seeds and other Shaker-made items were often left on consignment with various types of retailers.

Tim Stevenson, Carlson & Stevenson Antiques, Manchester Center, Vt., had a selection of Native American ledger drawings of mounted Indians. They had been done by unknown artists in the early Twentieth Century by students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Penn., and/or St Mary’s Indian Boarding School in Colby, Wis. The larger ones were priced $950.

Exhibiting for the first time at this show was Ross Curtis, who had just moved to Bozrah, Conn. With a particular interest in historical photographica and other material, he was asking $500 for this early stereograph of a California mining town. An article in the Smithsonian Magazine refers to stereographs as the “original virtual reality.”

First-time exhibitors Ross Curtis had just moved to Bozrah, Conn., from the West Coast. “I used to do shows when I lived out West and I’ve always heard good things about this show, so I decided to give it a try. I’m a retired archeologist and I love history. I sell photographica and other items with historical interest that I like.” One of the items that he brought was a stereograph of a California mining town taken during the early days of the gold rush. It was probably made by a local photographer. Each of the two photos was hand cut and pasted to the backing — indicating that production was likely small and distribution local. Curtis priced it $500.

Also doing the show for the first time was Stan Gorski, a Doylestown, Penn., dealer, also recently retired. He particularly likes early science fiction and horror titles, along with American first editions. He had a table full of paperbacks, including mysteries, science fiction and others, often with the lurid covers that publishers used to attract buyers. Prices of the paperbacks seemed to start at $15.

There was much more to be seen at this show and there were dealers willing to share their knowledge. After the show, Gary Gipstein said, “It went well. The crowd was consistent with our previous August shows, and we continue to see younger collectors. Good things will always sell, and the dealers know that, so we have plenty of good stuff at all price levels. Shows, in general, are recovering from the effects of Covid. It’s a different dynamic now and we’re going strong. Our next show will be January 13.”

For information, 860-280-8339 or www.papermaniaplus.com.