The Auction Preview Party is Back (So Donate Now)!

The FRIENDS of the Wisconsin Historical Society is once again collecting tax-deductible donations for the 2022 version of our 30th Star Benefit Auction.

The inaugural auction held in April 2010 was followed by five successful encores in April 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018, and May 2020. The proceeds of these auctions have provided important funding for historic sites in Wisconsin as well as for National History Day.

The auction’s now-legendary Preview Party included a Wisconsin fish dinner, prizes, a speaker, silent auction, and good old-fashioned fun on the night preceding the auction. We had to forgo this function in 2020, but we have plans to reinvent this year and hopefully welcome you back to the Old World Wisconsin venue later this season. Well…consider it done.

Save the date!
FRIENDS Preview Night Party: Friday, October 7, 2022 at Old World Wisconsin

Featuring: new brewery tour and sampling, our usual Wisconsin Friday night fish fry, silent auction, raffles, speaker, and usual rollicking fundraiser. Can we count on your support?

FRIENDS grants and funding have served to:

-Restore valuable portraits at Pendarvis

-Provide historic recreations of scenic wall backgrounds to enhance the portrait studio at H.H. Bennett Museum

-Purchase a Seipp Brewery advertising mug connected to the State Historic Site of Black Point

-Pursue countless other endeavors benefiting the Society’s sites and those of local historical societies in your neighborhood

Your attendance, contributions, and donations—whether a traditional antique, collectible coin, or vintage travel or rock poster—will make a difference.

For questions about our plans and to make a donation of an antique or vintage item, contact:

Phillip Schauer: 608-295-7240, pipsqkme@gmail.com

Pat Raap: 262-893-1479, paraap@att.net

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A Look Back at Our Best Auction Yet

Thank you all for making our 2016 fundraising benefit a massive success! Last month’s 30th Star Benefit Antiques Auction and its Preview Night were very well-attended, and the donated vintage and antique items were definite treasures. We are proud to be able to assist the Wisconsin Historical Society with putting the auction proceeds to good use keeping history alive. You can be sure that your support will make a difference for our state historic sites!

Spring Pillars 2016

 

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Return of the Asparagus Man: Heaven on Earth for WADA and Friends

“Asparagus Man” painting donated to

2016 30th Star Benefit Antiques Auction;

Heaven on Earth to be displayed at

Wisconsin Antiques Dealers Assn. Show

Feb. 6 & 7, 2015, Waukesha

Anyone familiar with Wild Rose, Wisconsin, will remember it is as a tiny, picturesque town, smack dab in the middle of the state. If you ever traveled down County Highway K between 1947 and 1975, you may have encountered the tiny one-bedroom farm home of Adam and Anna Berg with signs “Odd Job Work” and “Asparagus” hanging on the clapboards. Adam had just retired as a Chicago cab driver in 1947 when he and Anna made Wild Rose their home, selling asparagus and charging 10-cent admission to their art gallery to generate a small cash income. He soon became known locally as the “Asparagus Man.”

A self-taught folk artist, Berg believed isolation from the cultural mainstream allowed him to develop a technique to “carve” his paintings using the medium of oil. By adding multiple layers of oil paint over a period of years, he painstakingly transformed his detailed paintings into low reliefs up to ½” thick. Berg described Heaven on Earth, completed in 1963 after five years of paint layering, as “the masterpiece of his life’s work.”

Kozlowski - Berg Heaven on Earth 1 (2)

Kozlowski - Berg Heaven on Earth 3 (3)Kozlowski - Berg Heaven on Earth 6 (2)

This most impressive 60″ x 48″ piece, which was purchased in 1973 for $2,300 ($13,000 in 2014 dollars!) and which traveled throughout Wisconsin as part of the exhibit Grass Roots Art: Wisconsin, has been generously donated to the Friends of the Wisconsin Historical Society for their 2016 30th Star Benefit Antiques Auction, which will raise important funding for Wisconsin historic preservation.

Furthermore, before Heaven on Earth reaches its auction destination, it first will be displayed at the Wisconsin Antiques Dealers Association (WADA) Show on February 6 & 7, 2015 at the Waukesha County Expo Center!

WADA is kindly providing the Friends of the Wisconsin Historical Society with a free booth at this antiques show, where volunteers will accept tax-deductible donations of antique and vintage items for the 2016 auction. Tax-deductible receipts will be provided at the show to each donor. WADA also has provided their fourth grant to the Friends of the Wisconsin Historical Society as founding & continuing sponsors of the 30th Star Benefit Antiques Auction. To learn more about WADA antiques shows and the grants and scholarships they provide, see www.wisconsinantiquesdealers.com.

Carol Miller of Bailey’s Honor Auction Service in Oconomowoc has once again volunteered to call the auction. You can follow her many auctions throughout the year at www.baileyshonor.com.

For questions about  the 2016 30th Star Benefit Antiques Auction, or to make a donation of an antique or vintage item, please contact Riene Wells at 262-363-4700, info@eagle-house.com,or Debbie McArdle at 815-575-1272, jjmcard@comcast.net.

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We’re Wacky for WADA!

Antiques Show Raises Important Funding

for Historic Preservation and Scholarships

October 3 & 4, 2014

Waukesha (Milwaukee), Wisconsin

Ever wonder what happens to the money you pay for admission to an antiques show? If it’s a Wisconsin Antiques Dealers Association show, the “gate” funds historic preservation and scholarships within Wisconsin!

Acting since 2009 as the founding and continuing sponsor of the 30th Star Benefit Antiques Auction (produced by the Friends of the Wisconsin Historical Society), WADA provides “seed money” for their biennial auctions. The most recent historic preservation project involved window treatments and upholstery at Black Point Estate in Lake Geneva, built in the 1880s by the wildly successful brewer, Conrad Seipp. WADA’s grant dollars were designated specifically to aid in the restoration of a portrait of Mrs. Catharina Seipp, matriarch of Black Point. That restored portrait has resumed its original position in the main entrance of the Victorian summer home. Textile restoration and/or replacement is in the planning stage now that funding is available. In addition, members of the Wisconsin Antiques Dealers Association helped procure a rare Seipp Brewery advertising stein, now on display at Black Point.

Auction Publicity; Black Point d (2)Auction Publicity; Painting RestoredSeipp Stein (2)

As a public service at their October show, WADA is providing a free booth to the Friends of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Visitors to the show may bring their donations of items more than 50 years old for the next 30th Star Benefit Antiques Auction. Volunteers will be on hand to provide tax deductible receipts for antique and vintage donations.

Other recent recipients of grants from the Wisconsin Antiques Dealers Association are: Price County Historical Society, Fifield; Israel Stowell Temperance House, Delavan; Rock County Historical Society, Janesville; Richfield Historical Society, Richfield; New Holstein Historical Society, New Holstein; and Hawks Inn Historical Society, Delafield. Click here for details on grant applications, or visit the WADA show.

Scholarships are also a priority with the Wisconsin Antiques Dealers Association. During the 2013-2014 school year, WADA provided scholarships to high school seniors at Moraine High School, Mukwonago High School and Oconomowoc High School. Click here for details about the 2014-2015 scholarship competition.

Attend the upcoming 63rd Fall Wisconsin Antiques Dealers Association Show on October 3 & 4, and show your support for the scholarship and preservation projects so important to our state.

The Waukesha County Expo Center’s Forum Building, 1000 Northview Road, Waukesha, WI 53188, is the home of this event.  Show hours are Friday, 11-9 and Saturday, 10-5. In addition to the good food customers have come to expect, a Friday Night Fish Fry will be served late Friday afternoon and evening, so bring your appetite! Remember, admission of $6.00 funds scholarships for high school students as well as grants to Wisconsin historic and heritage groups. Parking is free, and an ATM is located on the premises. Click here for a $1.00 discount coupon for the show!

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Sharing the Sharon Adventure

 

 

 

FRIENDS ~ together we can accomplish some great things. To see these images larger, double click on selected image to view in your computer’s image program. To print these images, double click on selected image. When the image comes up on your computer screen, select print from your computer menu.

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Frocks and Farthings

BIKE CROP HORIZIt’s Feminine Frocks & Penney Farthings

On October 24th Volunteers from the FRIENDS offered a free program at the Headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison.  Two members of the FRIENDS Board of Trustees, Beverly Wassam and Mark Mittag, put together this light hearted and high spirited romp into the past. [Continue reading Frocks and Farthings …]

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Abraham Lincoln Springfield Trip

On September 14th FRIENDS and their guests, walked in Lincoln’s footsteps on a dream trip to Springfield Illinois.

This 3 day 2 night coach trip was another spectacular “Time And Place” adventures sponsored by the FRIENDS. These Lincoln fans visited many significant historic locations, including behind the scenes offerings that the public rarely witnesses. Lunch at the Lincoln Library and meeting “Lincoln himself,” were some of the memorable highlights.

Not only was this an eye-opener and an experience to remember, it was lots of fun!

Watch for the pictures coming up soon!

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