- #1
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- 57
I just watched a segment of the Antiques Road Show and was surprised with a segment featuring Bill Guthman. He died a couple of years ago, and he was the ultimate authority on the authenticity of pre-revolutionary powder horns. He was a gentleman, and though we never met in person, we had spent so many pleasant hours on the phone that I considered him a good friend. I knew that he had been diagnosed with cancer, but he was really up-beat, and I was concerned when I couldn't get in touch with him at home for a couple of weeks. I found an old cell-number for him and called it on a hunch and found him in a hospital. He was practically on his death-bed, with his wife by his side, and he insisted on taking the call. He was in the last few days of his life, and a representative of Sotheby's was in the room, making final arrangements to auction his life-long collection of maps, letters, etc, related to the origin of the US. We talked for about 30 minutes and he handed the phone to the Sotheby's agent, telling him "send my friend a complementary catalog of my auction - he'll give you the address." That was the last time I spoke to him.
I was happy to hear Bill's voice on PBS and see his image yet again, and saddened to reflect on how much historical knowledge that he had not been able to pass down (despite the wonderful books that he authored) and sad to miss a friend. Bill had so much left to say, as did my departed friend Frank Sellers. I had taken in a powder-horn to auction believing it to be perfectly right. My boss denigrated the horn, saying it was an obvious fake, and gave me a hard time for agreeing to auction it. Frank looked at the horn, which had a scrimshawed map of the Connecticut River, and said "It's real." I asked him how he knew and he told me that the location of one fort position was presumed to be on the west bank of the river until a dig less than 25 years previously located the fort on the east bank of the river, which was properly portrayed on the horn. We're losing REAL scholarship and knowledge at a frightening rate.
I was happy to hear Bill's voice on PBS and see his image yet again, and saddened to reflect on how much historical knowledge that he had not been able to pass down (despite the wonderful books that he authored) and sad to miss a friend. Bill had so much left to say, as did my departed friend Frank Sellers. I had taken in a powder-horn to auction believing it to be perfectly right. My boss denigrated the horn, saying it was an obvious fake, and gave me a hard time for agreeing to auction it. Frank looked at the horn, which had a scrimshawed map of the Connecticut River, and said "It's real." I asked him how he knew and he told me that the location of one fort position was presumed to be on the west bank of the river until a dig less than 25 years previously located the fort on the east bank of the river, which was properly portrayed on the horn. We're losing REAL scholarship and knowledge at a frightening rate.