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my latest acquisitions

Edward

Well-Known Member
Hey Edward, I won that auction yesterday. I pick them up next week at the Auction house. One is by James Bama called Homecoming. It was weird, it took me hours to try and get this photo on here. It would not load so I had to end up copy and paste it. But the illustration is of a WW2 MOH recipient returning home a hero. I am trying to hunt down the story that used this Bama illustration. James Bama is super famous and is still alive in his 90's. He was pals with all the top illustrators like Norman Rockwell, Mort Kunstler, Rolf Armstrong etc. He did magazine covers just like Tom Lovell did, then over to pulp magazines then on to traditional Westerns which launched him to superstardom. Usually you drop 10k and upwards to get his works. But there was an error in the Auction listing and this was sold as part of a group lot sale that had 4 original paintings and 4 lithograph prints. No names of the artist or the name of the art pieces were listed and I noticed and one other person noticed the error and we had a bidding war. I won the whole lot. 2 originals by Tom Freeman famous Aviation and Naval artist. One original watercolor by Patrick Henry Raleigh who did illustrations for Good Housekeeping magazine in 1924 called the Cruisers and then this 1 by James Bama. I tried posting all this yesterday but it wouldn't load so I do not know if any of those listings went thru, so if there are multiple listings of this then I am sorry for the glitches.

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Wow! Great score! Really got a nice haul there! Beautiful!
 

Edward

Well-Known Member
Picked up two more .50 cal shells. (Ball round) 1943
M = Milwaukee Ordnance Plant - Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
SL = St. Louis Ordnance Plant - St. Louis, Missouri.
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Edward

Well-Known Member
Can only imagine the billions of those rounds that must have been manufactured during the war years . The production numbers must have been staggering . Nice find Ed .

St. Louis Ordnance Plant alone manufactured 6.7 billion .30 and .50 cartridges for the War. So yes! Staggering!!!!
 

Micawber

Well-Known Member
Still plenty of .50 ammo kicking about on former airfield sites over here. That's not to say you can legally saunter about kicking through over 70 years of leaf litter and soil seeking it out as the vast majority of sites are back in private hands. However with the right consent it's amazing to still discover what was left behind and an insight into the unimaginable quantities of material and manpower that was utilised.
 

Edward

Well-Known Member
Still plenty of .50 ammo kicking about on former airfield sites over here. That's not to say you can legally saunter about kicking through over 70 years of leaf litter and soil seeking it out as the vast majority of sites are back in private hands. However with the right consent it's amazing to still discover what was left behind and an insight into the unimaginable quantities of material and manpower that was utilised.
I can only imagine metal detectors probably never stop beeping in those fields!
 

Micawber

Well-Known Member
I can only imagine metal detectors probably never stop beeping in those fields!

It can be like that, annoying when it's bits of Window / Chaff that has been buried or ploughed in but even mundane stuff like toothpaste tubes, hair dressing tins, buttons and the like which seem to abound around old accommodation sites are a buzz to uncover. Flare cases near the sites of control towers or sites of runway control trailers are common finds.
 

Edward

Well-Known Member
Its a sickess... its gotten out of hand! :D added two more 1 pint RAF mugs this week. Interestingly both became available at the same time so i nabbed both of them. These Latest (two up front) are from Ohio and New Jersey. Rare that these are available from persons within the US. Both amazingly In almost unused condition! Usually you see a little bit of scuffing, scratches or wear markings from spoons inside at the bottom but these are impeccable!
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B-Man2

Well-Known Member
Its a sickess... its gotten out of hand! :D added two more 1 pint RAF mugs this week. Interestingly both became available at the same time so i nabbed both of them. These Latest (two up front) are from Ohio and New Jersey. Rare that these are available from persons within the US. Both amazingly In almost unused condition! Usually you see a little bit of scuffing, scratches or wear markings from spoons inside at the bottom but these are impeccable!
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I love these things .. great score !!
 

Rory Schultz

Well-Known Member
That is a cool hobby Edward. It is an affordable hobby and nothing to sneeze at either. Well it isn't the Pez collection! LOL

I wish I could find an old air strip with a hangar. I would convert the hangar into a home and have my collection on display. Also have huge amount of space to get back to painting again. I designed and built and marine winch operated easel that could hold a 12 by 20 foot in size canvas that could be raised and lowered by winch. Since I no longer have my huge art studio I can not use it or do large paintings. I used to read a lot of Clive Cussler in the adventures of Dirk Pitt. Clive Cussler died last year. Cussler lived in a hangar just like his character he wrote about. Clive Cussler collected vintage cars, airplanes and wooden speed boats, he even had a few of the rarest of cars in the world. In fact his collection was a near rival to Jay Leno's. I would love to have a hangar, build a home inside and then make it similar to WW2 period with a few planes, artwork etc. and all of my other collections inside too. Because not only artwork and bronzes, I collected historical items. I do not come close to the massive collection I once had due to the fire in 1996 which destroyed 90 percent of it. Then again, I wish I had nothing, no responsibilities and could just hop on my Indian and ride all over the USA taking in all the sites.....just ride all over taking my time. I used to read a ton of Dean Koontz also, I do not think he will be around much longer he is showing signs of Parkinson's disease. I prefer Dean Koontz over King. Only a handful of Stephen King's work I find exceptional like The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Dream Catcher, The Shining, The Dead Zone. But both Cussler and Koontz works is that each book is great reading with only a handful not being very good.

Here is the pic of the latest painting I picked up called The Sheriff Ducks from 1931

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Edward

Well-Known Member
how much do those go for?
Typically around $80 U.S. and up. (Plus shipping.) I managed to get a couple of them for about $50 and one I got one for only $8.00! (I think they mistakenly put the decimal point in the wrong place and meant to list it at a buy-it-now $80.00 but hey, I stole it for $8.00 :D
 
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