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Perhaps like me, you enjoy purchasing a new calendar every year. The promise of a new year, with the future wide open, is invigorating. Even with the reliance on cell phones and digital calendars, I still carefully select a decorative desk and wall calendar each New Year. (I like the Metropolitan Museum of Art versions.)
Ephemera collectors enjoy all antique paper items. Since very old paper items are hard to find because of the delicate nature of the treasures, finding worthy examples of old calendars is truly a treasure hunt.
Collectors save many different kinds of calendars including wall, desk, pocket and perpetual calendars. Art illustration used on calendars is one of the attractions, with famous artists such as Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish and others leading the way. George Petty and Alberto Vargas also are big names and drew the famous calendar pinup girls that defined glamour in the 1930s and 1940s.
Advertising calendars are the most attractive category for collectors though – like the much-copied Coca-Cola calendars. Originals bring hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on the condition and age of the calendar. For example, the rare 1896 Coca-Cola calendar with the tagline, “The Ideal Brain Tonic,” was recently listed at $8,000 on a calendar collectors’ website.
Another big name in advertising calendars is Winchester firearms. It too has been reproduced many times, so be careful when shopping for originals.
Art, slogans and condition are everything when evaluating old calendars. Since most of these old calendars were given away as freebies even as late as the 1960s, they were often used then thrown away at the new year, making it difficult to find good examples with all pages intact.
Other less traditional versions of calendars like those printed on plates and towels are also popular with collectors. Plates are especially attractive and feature pottery or porcelain bodies with decals or hand-painted flowers, designs and a year of calendar months lined up and adding to the decorative art. Calendar plates were very popular as business premiums or gifts for the New Year during the first couple of decades of the 20th century.
Other popular calendar themes include children and babies, especially the Dionne Quintuplets as they grew. These calendars date to the 1930-40s.
An interesting calendar design change over the years is the transition from the early design of a single illustration, with a pad of month pages to be torn away. By contrast, modern calendars feature a different image every month. As you might imagine, it is unusual to find an old calendar with the whole year of months still attached.
Movie star calendars featuring Marilyn Monroe, Roy Rogers, Disney characters, the Beatles and others are strong with collectors also. Americana collectors enjoy interesting country store names and defunct manufacturers too. Of course, many collectors seek their own hometown business names from yesteryear.
Even old Farmer’s Almanacs, which are sort of like calendars, are valuable to the right antique lover. Amazingly, the handy Farmer’s Almanac got started in 1792 when George Washington was president and it has never missed a year of publication!
Calendar collecting can be a fascinating and fun hobby that offers a bigger field of desirables than I realized. It’s a hobby that offers interesting gifts too, since everyone likes to commemorate the year of their birth and finding a vintage calendar for your favorite birthday person would be a perfect gift. Here’s hoping that your calendar will bring lots of happy memories in 2015!
For comments or suggestions on local treasures to be featured in Antique of the Week, Maureen Zambito can be reached via email at: zambitomaureen@hotmail.com or by writing in care of this newspaper.
For comments or suggestions on local treasures to be featured in Antique of the Week, Maureen Zambito can be reached via email at: zambitomaureen@hotmail.com or by writing in care of this newspaper.