Watergate Items Not Always Valuable

Question: We recently visited Washington and came across a shop selling collectibles from the infamous Watergate break-in. Hotel ashtrays, towels and other items were up for sale. How valuable are they?--A.T.

Answer: Simply purchasing items ripped off from the Watergate isn’t a good idea. But, if they are somehow directly related to the event itself, then there’s a market.

For example, we recently saw in a dealer catalogue what was purported to be an actual piece of carpet “trod upon” by the Watergate burglars at 2:30 a.m., Saturday, June 17, 1972.

Mounted on a brass plaque, the sealed carpet carries an “affidavit of authenticity,” according to dealer Ted Hake (Hake’s Americana & Collectibles, P.O. Box 1444, York, Pa. 17405).

We’ll try to find out its auction price in a future column.

Dan Post, the Arcadia typewriter collector, wrote us about a book that he calls a “vintage typewriter classic,” which is being reissued after being out of print for 75 years. It’s called “The History of the Typewriter, Successor to the Pen,” by George Mares.

“The reappearance of this classic work marks a milestone in itself, being the first new edition since original issue,” Post says. “Few examples of this forthright gem (first published in 1909) have survived . . . .

“Sections (of the book) profiling some 280 different entries provided an impartial ‘buyers guide’ useful both in the new-machine emporium and in the then-emerging secondhand marketplace,” Post writes. Post’s company, Post-Era Books (P.O. Box 150, Arcadia, Calif. 91006), is selling the 320-page hardcover book (220 illustrations) for $24.95, postpaid.

Joan Beam of Los Angeles is secretary of a new marble-collecting club, the Southern California Marble Collectors Society. She can be reached at P.O. Box 84179, Los Angeles, Calif. 90073.

Name-change-of-the-month department: Barney Leto of the City of Commerce writes that the Ezra Brooks Original Sippin’ Cousins Club changed its name to the McCormick Sippin’ Cousins Bottle Club. The club, he says, is affiliated with McCormick Distilling of Weston, Mo., the originator of Elvis Presley decanters, some of which, Leto says, command prices of up to $350.

The club, now in its 17th year, meets at California Federal Savings & Loan, 8211 E. Firestone Blvd., Downey, on the fourth Sunday of the month. For further details, Leto can be contacted at 5823 Bartmus St., Commerce, Calif. 90040.

Calendar

Sunday--The fifth annual “Cornfield Meet”--billed as the largest railroadiana show on the West Coast--will be held at the Rose Bowl Pavilion, 700 Seco St., Pasadena, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. About 75 dealers and exhibitors are expected. Admission is $3.

Ronald L. Soble cannot answer mail personally but will respond in this column to questions of general interest about collectibles. Do not telephone. Write to Your Collectibles, You section, The Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053.