Where else can you find the first English printing of the Rosetta Stone, a copy of Norma Jean DiMaggio’s driver’s license (Marilyn Monroe, for the uninitiated), a broadside for a slave auction and daguerreotype of the slaves offered, a 1950s travel poster for Cannes, a Pat the Bunny book that still has a fluffy tail or a signed photograph of John, Paul, George and Ringo? Where else, but Papermania Plus, billed as the largest and longest-running paper, ephemera and memorabilia show in the Northeast. On January 9 and 10, Arlene Shea and Gary Gipstein opened the 57th edition of this twice-a-year opportunity for anyone to come and “Buy Back a Memory.”
Hartford’s XL Center was rocking to the beat of Disney On Ice above and the more subdued sounds of paper rustling, postcards being leafed through and old friends greeting each other after a six-month hiatus down below. Carl Candels greeted visitors as they descended the escalator or walked down the stairs, as he has for 33 years. This year the Avon, Conn., dealer’s “best item” was that driver’s license that had once belonged to Norma Jean DiMaggio.
Tucked way in the back of the cavernous XL Center filled with some 160 exhibitors, where one has to really look to find them, were Rex Stark and his friend and boothmate John Kashmanian. Two more opposite boothmates really cannot be found. Stark, from Gardner, Mass., was showing a quarter-plate daguerreotype of gold miners at work in Auburn, Calif., circa late 1850s, for $24,000, while Kashmanian, from North Providence, R.I., specializes in sports ephemera but was also offering a plate salvaged from the wreckage of the USS Maine and a coverlet of cultural icons from around the country made from tobacco silks. The coverlet had a picture of Ty Cobb representing baseball, and “that made me buy it,” Kashmanian said, “it is sort of outside my area, but sometimes you buy things just because you like them.”
Customers were buying what they liked. James Arsenault reported that “notable sales included an important African American Civil War photo [$9,500], a group of cyanotypes taken in the vicinity of Mount Rainier and in Alaska [$5,500] and an early American work of dentistry [$2,800].” The Arrowsic, Maine, dealer also said, “It was another good one for me at Papermania †the best ever, in fact.”
While Arsenault has been coming to the show for years, newcomer Michael Pierce drove from Monroe, Mich., with his vintage monster magazines, comics, pinups, model kits and masks. His company, Monsters Among Us, Inc, attracted a crowd looking at magazines, such as a 1959 copy of Famous Monsters of Film Land, which sported a giant greenish one-eyed ghoul with long arms and no body on the cover. “I had several customers lined up to come to the show,” he said, adding, “We had sales all weekend long; even had a good Sunday.”
In the next booth over, another longtimer at Papermania demonstrated how eclectic and far-reaching the offerings can be. Norman and Doris Sandys, Albertson, N.Y., displayed Asian and African photographs taken by early Twentieth Century explorers, a Parker Bros, 1925 Five Wise Birds game ($100), several 8-by-10-inch tintypes taken by intrepid photographers who scaled mountains with their clumsy and delicate cameras, and an early Derby Steeple Chase game by McLoughlin Brothers marked at $240.
Another McLoughlin item, The New Pretty Village, 1898, contained paper cutouts of a village †from houses and people, to trees, church, animals and everything one would have found in a village just before the turn of the Twentieth Century. Found at Elizabeth Baird’s booth, the village was in pristine condition and required a set of five shelves to display it. The Portland, Maine, dealer was happy to report, “The New Pretty Village by McLoughlin sold, and the new owner said she cannot wait to set it up on her mantel.” Baird said, “Papermania was very busy, active, with many people asking questions. There were customers in my booth until the end on Sunday afternoon.”
She also reported many sales of Victorian valentines, one of her specialties, including “grandparents from Providence, R.I., letting each of their two young granddaughters choose a valentine, all on their own.”
Young collectors also could be found at booths featuring sports cards and memorabilia, of which there are many at Papermania. At Seocom Enterprises Unlimited, the Byram, Conn., dealer was showing early cigarette cards once offered as premiums in cigarette packs of the early 1900s. One set featured Indian chiefs, another a baseball team and a complete set of 1954 baseball cards, 40 altogether, was $500. A T-206, circa 1909 tobacco card showed the inimitable Honus Wagner (not the card that recently sold at auction for well over $1 million), and an 18-page booklet of Civil War generals, both Union and Confederate, was from a series called “History of the Generals.”
Bronson Galleries also featured sports cards and memorabilia, as well as signed baseballs and other trading cards. Kevin Bronson came from Hollidaysburg, Penn., with 1948‱955 sets of Bowman cards, 1951‱975 Topps, game-used equipment, advertising, trophies and vintage equipment.
Political ephemera is another favorite collectible, and Eric Caren has been showing rare and unique memorabilia at Papermania for years. He showed a Titanic disaster broadside from Oklahoma, printed in 1912, embellished on the back with a hand drawn, Art Nouveau-style picture of a young woman sitting on a banana-shaped moon with puppets strung from her hand for $1,000. He also pointed out a highly dramatic newspaper cover of the Titanic sinking printed in April, 28, 1912, in Italy. It is “the most dramatic coverage I’ve seen.”
The Lincolndale, N.Y., dealer also showed off a photograph with the first inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame, including Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson and Cy Young, among several others.
About that 1804 printing in English showing the entire Rosetta Stone †that was a British magazine that could be seen at Michael Atherton’s corner spot, where the Cambridge, Mass., dealer was also showing a book printed in Boston, 1719, “printed and sold by Timothy Green in Middle Street.” Trading under the name Ahab Rare Books, from Harvard Square, Atherton had a set of The History of the United States of America in three volumes and a History of America , both by Thomas F. Gordon, and The New England Primer, printed by Cheever Felch in Walpole, N.H., in 1811.
Slightly out of the loose parameters of the show, Elizabeth Mead had a display of her own handmade paper collages. Using vintage crewel work, needlepoint, tatting and lace, the Orleans, Mass., artist makes her own versions of sailor’s valentines, doilies and fine art works.
From a Flags of the World tobacco felt coverlet, early Twentieth Century, at Certain Books, New York City, to 1813 court document written and signed by Wentworth Cheswill, the first black man elected to office in the United States †he was justice of the peace in Newmarket, N.H. †Papermania Plus lived up to its reputation and promise.
Arlene Shea and Gary Gipstein, Hillcrest Promotions, will conduct the summer edition of Papermania Plus August 28 and 29 at the XL Center. For information, 860-563-9975, 860-529-2234 or www.Papermaniaplus.com .
