Author: Bookend Collector

Miscellaneous

SBCS Convention 202ONE

Bookend Collector

SBCS Convention 202ONE

Jackson, MS

Oct. 8 & 9 

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WHERE MEMORIES WILL BE MADE, FRIENDSHIPS RENEWED, and BUILDINGS SWAPPED, BOUGHT, and  AUCTIONED!

Items from the Bob Kneisel Collection will be for sale and auction, including highlights from his MICROCOSMS trove.  

There is still time to register for SBCS 202ONE !

Health and Safety:

Many SBCS members have voiced health safety concerns about the upcoming convention.  The SBCS Executive Committee has made the decision to go forward with the convention with some sensible health safety protocols in place.  Hopefully these guidelines will give comfort to all attendees. 

We expect ALL attendees to be fully vaccinated.  We will ask for your proof of vaccination at check in.  Make sure to bring it with you.   No proof of vaccination – no entry to any convention events.

A Covid PCR test will be available on site if interested. Registrants can receive further information regarding this. 

ALL attendees must wear masks during the Friday bus tour and at all inside events.  At outside events and with indoor informal contacts – please social distance at least 3’ – use good judgment and wear or have masks available at all times.

Our hope is that these safety protocols will help us feel safe while enjoying each other’s company during the convention.   We will continue to monitor the health situation and these guidelines are subject to modification if necessary.

Our hosts have planned a full schedule.  Buildings, Buildings, Buildings will be the focus. 

Thursday October 7:

5pm – 7pm Convention check in.  Hotel lobby.

Friday October 8: 

10am – 12pm Convention check in. Hotel lobby

1pm – 5pm bus tour of Downtown and guided tour of the Capitol building (Bus will leave from hotel)

 6:30pm – 9pm Dinner and Show & Tell at our host’s home

Saturday October 9: 

9am – 10am Business meeting in hotel

10:15am – 12pm Swap Meet in hotel

1pm – 3:30pm walking tour/museum tours 

6pm – 10pm Dinner/Raffle/Auction at local restaurant near hotel

Our hotel is the Hampton Inn & Suites in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Click here for more information and the link to make reservations. 

It’s also time to send in your convention registration form. Click here for the blank form. 

Miscellaneous

SBCS 202ONE Convention Update

Bookend Collector

 

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI, here we come!

Health and Safety update:
Ridgeland, MS is in Madison County, which has a higher vaccination rate than the rest of the State.  We respectfully ask that all attendees be fully vaccinated.  For everyone’s safety, we will encourage all to wear masks for indoor events.  Here is a link to COVID safety at Hilton:  Hilton.com/en/corporate/cleanstay/

 

Our hosts have planned a full schedule.  Buildings, Buildings, Buildings will be the focus. 

Thursday October 7th from 5-7pm Convention check in.  Hotel lobby.

Friday October 8th from 10am -12pm Convention check in
                     1-5pm bus tour of Downtown and guided tour of the Capitol building.
                                  Bus will leave from hotel
                      6:30-9pm Dinner and Show & Tell at our host’s home
Saturday October 9th from 9-10am Business meeting in hotel
                           10:15am – 12pm Swap Meet in hotel
                            1-3:30pm walking tour/museum tours 
                            6-10pm Dinner/Raffle/Auction at local restaurant near hotel

Our hotel is the Hampton Inn & Suites in Ridgeland, Mississippi. Click here for more information and the link to make reservations. 

It’s also time to send in your convention registration form. Click here for the blank form. 

We look forward to catching up with old friends and welcoming new ones.  This will be a terrific opportunity to buy and sell little buildings.  Hope to see you there.

Miscellaneous

A June ZOOM ……… Sunday, June 13

Bookend Collector

GUEST SPEAKER: Ronnette Riley, FAIA

Convention 2021 Update: Steven Chevalier

SBCS MEMBERS ONLY!  June 13, 2PM EDT, bi-monthly Zoom Meet-up.  Invitations sent out via Email.  If you are not a member and want to join us, here is a link to the membership application. 

Sunday, June 13 -Zoom Guest Speaker – Ronnette Riley, FAIA

Long-time souvenir building collector & accumulator, SBCS member and Architect Extraordinaire, Ronnette Riley, will be our Special Guest Speaker at our next Sunday Zoom, on Sunday June 13 at 2PM Eastern time.

Ronnette is principal of her eponymous Architectural firm since 1987. A graduate of University of California, Berkeley and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, she spent eight years at the office of Phillip Johnson and John Burgee Architects. Ronette served as Project Architect for the iconic Lipstick Building in Manhattan, the Bank of America Center in Houston, 33 Maiden Lane in Manhattan and worked on projects at Johnson’s Glass House estate.

2021 SBCS Convention, Jackson, Mississippi – October 8-9-10

Steven Chevalier, our host of October’s Jackson, Mississippi 2021 convention will also join us. Don’t miss Steven talk for a few minutes about what he has planned for us this fall. Live on Zoom.

Zoom space limited to the first 100 people to respond to email invitation.

COVID19 Vaccine:  Please, in advance of October’s convention, get yourself fully vaccinated so that we can gather safely this year! 

Perhaps some moments from Conventions Past will watch over our 2021 gathering.

Chicago
Chicago
Boston
Boston
Nashville
Nashville
Orlando
Orlando

Miscellaneous

ZOOM into Spring, 2021 !!!!! There is lots going on with miniature building collectors.

Bookend Collector

ZOOM………..

SBCS MEMBERS ONLY!  April 11, 2PM EDT, bi-monthly Zoom Meet-up.  Invitations sent out via Email. 

Our April special guest will be long-time member Chris Spry. Chris is a docent for the Los Angeles County Conservancy, a local historic building preservation organization that is a smaller version of the US National Trust for Historic Preservation. Prior to the pandemic, he led walking tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles and Union Station; and Art Deco, Mid Century Modern, and the Victorian Angeleno Heights neighborhoods on a regular basis, as well as helping with special tour events that the Conservancy hosted. Chris is planning on bringing a long a few guests of his own. 

This promises to be an informative and evocative presentation.

Don’t miss it. Look for the invitation in your email box. See you soon on Zoom – Mark

 FACEBOOK

The Souvenir Building Collectors Society Facebook group is “building”.  SBCS membership not required – but approved application to the FB group is.  If you are interested, check it out at:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/47920772123

Many photos of interesting buildings and monuments have been appearing.  Our FB posts and commentaries are ranging from successful scores in the  Bob Kneisel Building Collection Auction last month, to recent finds, to requests for identification, to links to special opportunities. 

Buildings, Miscellaneous, Monuments, News

BOB KNEISEL SBCS LEGACY AUCTION

Bookend Collector 

 

At Last

The SBCS has just heard from RSL Auction Company that the Bob Kneisel Collection auction is scheduled for

Friday 26 February 2021 starting at 12 noon EST.

The auction will be hosted by Cyber Toy Auctions (a subsidiary of RSL Auctions) on LiveAuctioneers. This auction will feature a fantastic variety of Souvenir Buildings, Still & Mechanical Banks, Boats, Automotive, Trains, Wind-ups and more!

Here is the link to LiveAuctioneers where you can register for this auction and view the nearly 600 lots: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/193388_architectural-souvenir-building-banks-and- toys/

Please note that this auction will contain items from the Bob Kneisel Collection along with other souvenirs, banks and toys. It will feature almost half of Bob’s total collection. The remaining items in Bob’s Collection will be featured in another auction later on in the year. We will be sure to let you know when that auction is scheduled.

The good news is that there are 100’s of wonderful souvenir buildings in this auction. The more good news is that we all will have yet another opportunity to bid on even more wonderful souvenir buildings at the next auction.

So use the above link to visit the LiveAuctioneers site and register for this auction. Then join us on Friday, 26 February 2021 starting at 12pm EST for Cyber Toy Auction’s 14th sale entitled :

Architectural Souvenir Banks & Toys!

Check out all of the delightful little buildings awaiting your bids on February 26, 2021.

Good luck!

Buildings, Miscellaneous, Monuments, News

A SBCS VALENTINE: Paul Goldberger

Bookend Collector

 

Paul Goldberger

 

Celebrate Valentine’s Day, Sunday, February 14, 2021.  SBCS’s first Zoom meeting of the year features a very special guest, Paul Goldberger, Contributing Editor at Vanity Fair, former Architecture Critic for the New Yorker, recipient of the Pulitizer Prize for Distinguished Criticism, and souvenir building collector. Learn more about Paul here https://www.paulgoldberger.com/biography/

Congratulations to Mark Fine, SBCS Zoom Ringmaster, for starting the 2021 ZOOM Calendar with this distinguished guest.  Mark’s stewardship of the Zoom gatherings that were established to bridge the loss of 2020 activities has morphed into a well-received benefit of membership in the Souvenir Building Collectors Society.   The 2021 Zoom meetings are scheduled bimonthly on the 2nd Sunday at 2PM Eastern Time.  The 2021 Calendar is below. 

The first Zoom meetings in 2020 were based in our classic Show & Tell format from the annual meetings.  Participants shared stories about their new finds and long held treasures.  In October Mark interviewed Jon Merwine soon after his publication of Replica Buildings – A Visual History was published.  Then in December Anton Tremblay, long-time member and founder of Microcosms was featured.  

These interactive Zoom meetings are only open to current members of the Souvenir Building Collectors Society.  All current members are sent an email a few days before the event.  Registration is by reply to the email.  The emails contain instructions for registration and for accessing Zoom.   Memberships are now due for 2021. 

2021 Zoom Bi Monthly Meeting Calendar

 

Buildings, Events, Miscellaneous, Monuments, News, People

ZOOM In for the October SBCS “MEET and GREET”

Bookend Collector

The newly published REPLICA BUILDINGS, A VISUAL HISTORY will be the focus as Jon Merwine is interviewed by Mark Fine, ZOOM Master.



You will have an opportunity to ask your own questions of Jon.

Sunday, October 11, 2020 at 2 PM EDT, 1 PM CDT, 12 Noon MDT, and 11 AM PDT.

This opportunity is open to current members of SBCS. Check your October 7 emails for your invitation and directions on how to respond to confirm your attendance.

Jon has graciously provided printable downloads of the KEY and INDEX pages of REPLICA BUILDINGS, A VISUAL HISTORY. These are available in the MEMBERS ONLY section of this website.

Buildings, Miscellaneous, Monuments, News, People

A RESPITE from VIRUS, FIRE, HURRICANES and MEDIA !

Bookend Collector

SBCS members Mike and Jon Merwine have produced a book for us to savor in our hunkered down, isolated state.  

“Replica Buildings: A Visual History”, contains over 2400 items cataloged with clear, high resolution images along with material, maker, size, location, function and age information per piece. It is over 340 pages with a hard cover – detailing pieces from the Grand Tour all the way to the modern miniatures made by InFocusTech.

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“What started as a hobby in 1998, quickly became the Merwine family business – what many collect today as Cast Metal Buildings by InFocusTech. Over these past 22 years, the company has created over 1000 building replicas from all over the world in various shapes and sizes. This hobby was greatly influenced by the souvenir building collecting obsession – one held by both Mike and Jon. While the collection was around 300 very common pieces in 1998, it rapidly grew over the past two decades and currently sits above 4000 items. Being a family of collectors and creators we felt a great way to express our passion for the hobby was to create a guide using our collection.  And also to inspire others to take up the mantle of collecting as “Monumental Miniatures” by Majua and Weingarten did for us 21 years ago.” Jon Merwine.

Link to Book: https://www.replicabuildings.com/book/index.html

Buildings, Miscellaneous, Monuments, News, RECENT FINDS

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! SBCS ZOOMERS

Bookend Collector

Hear Ye!  Hear Ye!  SBCS September ZOOM Meet & Greet is cancelled.

These friendly monthly ZOOM gatherings will resume on Sunday, October 11th.  Mark your calendars. 

An official invitation to this upcoming meeting, with more information, will be sent via email to all current SBCS members in early October.  Remember that you must respond to the email to be included in ZOOM meeting. 

In the meantime, the Souvenir Building Collectors Society Facebook group continues to engage with photos, conversations, and collections,  everything from a Sunsphere throwdown to a staid Lincoln Memorial.  Check it out. 

Sunsphere, Knoxville
Sunsphere, Knoxville
Sunsphere, Knoxville
Sunsphere, Knoxville
Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
Nani Nani, Tokyo
Nani Nani, Tokyo
San Francisco
San Francisco

Buildings, Events, Miscellaneous, Monuments, News, People

SUNDAY BUNCH ! …………Meet your fellow collectors.

Bookend Collector

 

 

It’s a Sunday Bunch! Join with fellow SBCS members on ZOOM in a virtual “MEET & GREET” at 2PM Eastern on Sunday, August 9.

Not wishing the Society’s camaraderie to languish during the 2020 Pandemic, cancellation of Convention 2020 and the long wait for Convention 2021, the Executive Team started this monthly virtual gathering. Join us for our third monthly Sunday meet and greet.

The platform is ZOOM. The moderator is Mark Fine. The length of time is 45 to 60 minutes. The loose plan for the initial meeting includes:

  1. EMAIL INVITATION: An invitation to all paid-up members will be sent via EMAIL from Joe Kopitz on Wednesday, August 5th. Members wishing to participate will need to use the ‘register in advance” link in Joe’s email to indicate their interest in attending the virtual “MEET & GREET.” This initial email will explain how to sign up for free ZOOM (if not already a user), and the steps you will need to take when you sign into the meeting.
  2. EMAIL REGISTRATION: A 2nd EMAIL, which will come from AMY MATCHEN (Account holder), is generated by ZOOM and sent to only those members who used the link within the 1st email to indicate their interest. This 2nd email will contain the LINK and PASSWORD needed to join the meeting. On the day of the meeting sign in at 2PM EDT or a few minutes earlier. Refer to the instructions in your first email.

3. This month’s Show & Tell continues the theme of a Great Story. Where you found it, how you found it, a special moment, a story about the piece itself, etc. Please do not plan to take us on a tour of your collection.

THIS “EXPERIENCE” IS LIMITED TO CURRENT MEMBERS OF the SOUVENIR BUILDING COLLECTORS SOCIETY. If you are not current with your membership or are interested in joining, click here to be taken to the Membership Application page.

THERE ARE PLANS FOR FURTHER MEETINGS. Please let us know your recommendations for themes or topics. As of now the recurring date and time is the 2nd Sunday of the Month at 2PM Eastern. Be sure to stay tuned.