A screensaver for your desktop until April 15th tax deadline . . .

"Paying the Tax" or "The Tax Collector"
(Click photo to enlarge)

Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564 or 1565–1636), Flemish painter. Oil on panel circa 1620. USC Fisher Museum of Art, The Armand Hammer Collection.

I thought you might want to use this as a screensaver for your desktop to remind you that April 15th is just around the corner and you should start figuring your taxes.

Some things never change, do they? There are papers everywhere and nobody looks happy. I wonder what that woman is digging out of that basket? Certainly not credit card receipts!

Timely 17th century quote on taxation by Jean-Baptiste Colbert . . .

"The art of taxation consists of so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers while promoting the smallest amount of hissing."

A very timely quote by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French Economist and Minister of Finance under King Louis XIV of France 1619-1683.

Some things never change, do they? I appreciate the humor of this man in tights!

Image from one of my antiquarian prints.

My dog is worried about the economy . . .

My dog Webster is very worried about the economy.

His wet dog food is up to $1.00 a can.

That's $7.00 in dog money!

UDDERLY Unstable American Ecomomy . . .

OLD AMERICAN ECONOMY
You had two cows.
You sold one and bought a bull.
Your herd multiplied, and the economy grew.
You sold them and retired on the income.



NEW AMERICAN ECONOMY (SINCE 2003)
You have two cows.
You force one of them to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has dropped dead.
You sell the other cow, and start buying dead ‘bulls’ in the expectation that they will be reborn someday.

The solution seems pretty simple, doesn't it? I don't think it takes a genius to figure out how to fix it, do you?

Timely George Washington Quote about Debt . . .

Isn't this the best quote you've seen in ages? It is over 200 years old and still rings true. Too bad it is not practiced. Our national debt is incomrehensible to me.

Image is a scan of one of my early 19th century antiquarian prints. Engraved by A. Daggett from the original painting by Colonel Trumbull.

Abraham Lincoln Money Quote . . .

Henry Ford Money and Banking Quote . . .

Supercar sells for €3,480,000 in Paris | Rare 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante

The Bonhams Retromobile sale witnessed some extraordinary results including €3,480,000 for the Ex-Earl Howe 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante called "Black Bess" which will remain in Europe. Read more about the history of this fabulous car with a slide show showing how nicely it cleaned up!

I wrote about this super rare vehicle last year and thought you would want to know the sale price. WOW! See "as found" photo below:

In this undated image released by Bonhams, an extremely rare 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante, is seen in a garage in Gosforth, England, where it was found by relatives after the death of the owner, an elderly doctor who last used it around 1960. The Bugatti, one of only 17 ever made, is expected to draw a record price when it is auctioned in Paris next month. (AP Photo/Bonhams)

"Take care of your antiques and they will take care of you."

Bernie Madoff cartoon . . .

I am still in shock that this man is not in jail.

via

Korean Jar sells for almost $4.2 Million at Auction . . .

WOW! No recession here!

San Francisco, California:
International interest pushed the price for a circa 1800 Korean jar to nearly $4.2 million at Bonhams & Butterfields on December 9, 2008 setting a new auction world record.

The rare Joseon dynasty Korean blue and white porcelain jar was sold over the telephone, to an unidentified Asian buyer after a hotly contested bidding war among more than 12 clients, bidding from the salesroom floor and via telephones.

The mid-Joseon dynasty jar was discovered by Asian art department director Dessa Goddard in a monthly appraisal event held at the company's Sunset Boulevard gallery in Los Angeles. The jar was formerly in the collection of Mrs. Fiske Warren of Boston, part of the Mount Vernon Street Warren family. It has been in a family member's Southern California home for decades.

The jar was part of a worldwide tour prior to the auction. Its pre-auction estimate was $200/300,000, and the final selling price, including buyer's premium, was $4,184,000.

"We recognized that the subject matter of the Warren jar is unique," said Goddard. "One other jar in the Osaka Museum has a depiction of San Shin [mountain spirit] and his tiger; the Warren jar shows a bearded San Shin in the act of pulling the tiger's tail while basking under a pine tree, sun and clouds. The subject of the vase, together with its masterfully executed brush work, makes the jar of great importance to collectors of Korean art."

"Take care of your antiques and they will take care of you."

Charles Dickens Christmas Card | FREE DOWNLOAD . . .

A Merry Dickensian Christmas to You!

"PLEASE SIR, MAY WE HAVE LESS?"
This Oliver Twist parody says it all, doesn't it?

Print as many cards as you need.

FREE DOWNLOAD from THE GUARDIAN, UK

The Economic Crisis | CAPITALIST FOOLS . . .

Hilarious photo illustration by Darrow

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and former Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan bookend two decades of economic missteps.

The Economic Crisis ~ Capitalist Fools
Behind the debate over remaking U.S. financial policy will be a debate over who’s to blame. It’s crucial to get the history right, writes Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel-laureate economist, identifying five key mistakes—under Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II—and one national delusion... read more ~ Vanity Fair ~ January 2009

Henry Ford's Advice | No Bailout . . .

Henry Ford with Model T in 1921.
American industrialist and pioneer of the assembly-line production method.

I wonder what he would have to say about the pitiful state of the American automobile industry?

Maybe all those boys in Washington should take a break today and read some words of wisdom from Henry Ford.

Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them, and then make our plans with confidence.

A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.

People can have the Model T in any color--so long as it's black.

As an industrialist Henry Ford’s #1 rule was: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large. All Fords are exactly alike, but no two men are just alike. Every new life is a new thing under the sun; there has never been anything just like it before, never will be again. A young man ought to get that idea about himself; he should look for the single spark of individuality that makes him different from other folks, and develop that for all he is worth. Society and schools may try to iron it out of him; their tendency is to put it all in the same mold, but I say don't let that spark be lost; it is your only real claim to importance.

Christie's September 25, 2008 Americana Sale . . .

Rare Monhegan Island-style red-breasted merganser drake carved by Augustus Aaron Wilson (1864-1950) of South Portland, Maine, circa 1900, with carved crest and eyes, relief-carved wings, and a slightly turned head, 16½" long (pre-auction estimate $100,000/150,000). One of three known from the same rig, it was purchased from a fish shack in Cape Porpoise, Maine, in the early 1980’s. Bidding opened at $55,000, and Christie's auctioneer John Hays knocked it down for $124,900 to a New York collector in the salesroom. The underbidder was on the phone.

Allegory of the Masonic Virtue of Wisdom, oil on canvas, 40¼" x 48", signed and dated “S. Jones 1836” and inscribed with the words “Wisdom” and “Strength.” Estimated at $20,000/30,000, it sold to New York collectors in the salesroom for $56,250, underbid on the phone.

Estimated at $20,000/40,000, this small folk art chest sold for $23,750 to a dealer in the salesroom.

Description: Grain-painted seed box, attributed to John Palm Boyer (1833-1901) of Brickerville, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1870- 1900. It has its original white porcelain pulls, and each drawer is inscribed with the name of a seed. The high bracket feet, scalloped skirt, porcelain drawer pulls, and slanted lid are typical of Boyer’s work. Made of recycled wood, this one incorporated a shipping box for Johnson & Son, a wood finish company, as the baseboard. Three rows of six drawers are unusual; most have three rows of an odd number of drawers and a fourth row of smaller drawers. For more information on seed chests, see John Long and John Boyer: 19th-Century Craftsmen in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Donald Herr, published by the Heritage Center of Lancaster County in 2006.

I think it pays to be in the audience if you really want something.

Take care of your antiques and they will take care of you.

Rare 1612 Champlain Map of Canada sells for $232,101 . . .

Photo: Sotheby's...can be enlarged.
LONDON.- On November 13, 2008 Sotheby’s London auctioned a large, finely-engraved antiquarian map of the northeast part of America, drawn by “The Father of New France”, Samuel de Champlain (est. £30,000-40,000). Champlain’s very rare map of 1612 is considered the most important single map in the history of Canada, and can be regarded as a foundation document for Canada. This map sold for £157,250 GBP which is approximately $232,101. in US dollars.

The map was the highlight of Sotheby’s sale of Natural History, Travel, Atlases and Maps. It was drawn from Champlain's personal observations in over twenty voyages to Canada and New England. It is also the first printed map to allude to the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes system based on factual (rather than hearsay or imaginary) evidence.

Champlain has been described as “The driving force behind the initial success of French attempts at gaining a foothold in America”. The map accompanied the publication of Les Voyages du Sieur de Champlain, which included large-scale plans for potential harbours, with an important description and promotional account of Canada.

Take care of your antiques and they will take care of you.

Money and Checking Quote | Federal Reserve . . .

What's wrong with this picture?