Ralph and Terry Kovel
Encyclopedia
Ralph and Terry Kovel's passion for collecting antiques started on their Bermuda
honeymoon in 1950. They were riding bicycles and passed an antique shop. Prices were low, so the Kovels bought a Meissen figure, English silver open salt dishes, a pair of Jacob Petit bottles, and two large "French" vases to convert into lamps. All their purchases turned out to be great buys—and if you visit the Kovel home today, the Bermuda treasures are still there.
Ralph and Terry started to go to house sales to find more antique porcelains. The few books that identified marks on old porcelain were written for museum staff. Ralph had an idea—find marks, arrange them by shape and take his notes to house sales. He showed the idea to a local book dealer who showed it to the president of Crown Publishing, then a small company. After a few months, Ralph was sent a contract and a check. That was the start of the Kovels’ writing, speeches, website and more. They produced information about collecting, but were never dealers.
Ralph and Terry worked together on all of their antiques projects, although, as they joked when asked how they worked together and stayed married, their offices were, literally, four miles apart.
In 1953 the Kovels started writing a question and answer column for The Cleveland Press. It was syndicated in 1955 with Register and Tribune Syndicate and was soon running in 100 newspapers. “Kovels: Antiques and Collecting” is now the longest-running U.S. syndicated column written by the original bylined author. Today it is distributed by King Features Syndicate to over 120 newspapers nationwide and online.
In 1967 The Kovels wrote Kovels’ Know Your Antiques, an easy-to-read book for collectors filled with marks, dates, and helpful information. The next year they decided that an up-to-date book listing prices for antiques was needed. They used the newest technology, keypunch cards and that modern invention, the computer. The cards were punched, corrected, sorted by hand (there was no sorting machine), and printed on the white side of green bar paper used for accounting. The system used the only available typeface and no photographs. The printed pages were reproduced to create the book, so the time to complete the book was speeded up by six months. It is said to be the first “bookstore” book done on a computer. The Complete Antiques Price List has been published every year for over 40 years with changes and improvements. The title is now Kovels' Antiques and Collectibles Price Guide. It has color photographs, paragraphs of information, marks, a computer-generated index, a listing of record prices for the past year, tips on care, and 47,000 prices for pieces sold in the previous year. Over four million copies of the book have been sold since the first edition. Other books followed, and the Kovels 98th book is Kovels’ Antiques and Collectibles Price Guide 2010.
magazine
1995-2003: “Antiques and Collectibles” section for the Encyclopædia Britannica
Yearbook
2000-2001: regular column about antiques in Forbes magazine
Special Reports that include hard-to-find identification clues for collectors. Subjects have included jewelry, pottery, woodblock prints, and more.
The Kovels have also written articles for many magazines, including Forbes
, Boardroom Reports, House Beautiful
, Family Circle
, Woman’s Day, Redbook
, Town and Country
, Giftware News, and various antiques-oriented publications.
, the Cleveland public television station. Twenty-six shows were made by 1972 and distributed nationally. Other TV series include:
have lectured to audiences in museums, historical societies, department stores, home and garden shows, antique shows, colleges, and charitable fundraisers.
and have served as expert witnesses in court cases. They have taught adult education classes at Case Western Reserve University
and John Carroll University
.
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
honeymoon in 1950. They were riding bicycles and passed an antique shop. Prices were low, so the Kovels bought a Meissen figure, English silver open salt dishes, a pair of Jacob Petit bottles, and two large "French" vases to convert into lamps. All their purchases turned out to be great buys—and if you visit the Kovel home today, the Bermuda treasures are still there.
Ralph and Terry started to go to house sales to find more antique porcelains. The few books that identified marks on old porcelain were written for museum staff. Ralph had an idea—find marks, arrange them by shape and take his notes to house sales. He showed the idea to a local book dealer who showed it to the president of Crown Publishing, then a small company. After a few months, Ralph was sent a contract and a check. That was the start of the Kovels’ writing, speeches, website and more. They produced information about collecting, but were never dealers.
Ralph and Terry worked together on all of their antiques projects, although, as they joked when asked how they worked together and stayed married, their offices were, literally, four miles apart.
Books and Other Published Writing
The first Kovel (rhymes with “oh well”) book was written in 1952-53. Ralph and Terry were living in an apartment with their young son, Lee (and with a breakfront full of their collection of English 18th-century porcelains). Their daughter, Kim, was born the day the first copy of Ralph and Terry’s first book, Dictionary of Marks: Pottery and Porcelain arrived by mail. That book, now titled Kovels’ Dictionary of Marks: Pottery and Porcelain, 1650–1850, is still in print. In 1986 they updated their information about marks with a new book, Kovels New Dictionary of Marks: Pottery and Porcelain, 1850 to the Present.In 1953 the Kovels started writing a question and answer column for The Cleveland Press. It was syndicated in 1955 with Register and Tribune Syndicate and was soon running in 100 newspapers. “Kovels: Antiques and Collecting” is now the longest-running U.S. syndicated column written by the original bylined author. Today it is distributed by King Features Syndicate to over 120 newspapers nationwide and online.
In 1967 The Kovels wrote Kovels’ Know Your Antiques, an easy-to-read book for collectors filled with marks, dates, and helpful information. The next year they decided that an up-to-date book listing prices for antiques was needed. They used the newest technology, keypunch cards and that modern invention, the computer. The cards were punched, corrected, sorted by hand (there was no sorting machine), and printed on the white side of green bar paper used for accounting. The system used the only available typeface and no photographs. The printed pages were reproduced to create the book, so the time to complete the book was speeded up by six months. It is said to be the first “bookstore” book done on a computer. The Complete Antiques Price List has been published every year for over 40 years with changes and improvements. The title is now Kovels' Antiques and Collectibles Price Guide. It has color photographs, paragraphs of information, marks, a computer-generated index, a listing of record prices for the past year, tips on care, and 47,000 prices for pieces sold in the previous year. Over four million copies of the book have been sold since the first edition. Other books followed, and the Kovels 98th book is Kovels’ Antiques and Collectibles Price Guide 2010.
Other Published Works: Newsletter
The Kovels’ newsletter, Kovels on Antiques and Collectibles, was introduced in 1974. It is a 12-page subscription-only newsletter that had 150,000 subscribers by the early 1990s. The newsletter has kept up with the times both in technology and content. Photos went from black and white to color in 1996, but it still features reports of recent sales and auctions, lists of current prices, tips on care, news "hotlines,” reports of fakes, and many comments on events and market trends.Other Writings
1979-2000: “Ask the Experts,” a monthly column in House BeautifulHouse Beautiful
House Beautiful is an interior decorating magazine that focuses on decorating and the domestic arts. First published in 1896, it is currently published by the Hearst Corporation, who purchased it in 1934...
magazine
1995-2003: “Antiques and Collectibles” section for the Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
Yearbook
2000-2001: regular column about antiques in Forbes magazine
Special Reports that include hard-to-find identification clues for collectors. Subjects have included jewelry, pottery, woodblock prints, and more.
The Kovels have also written articles for many magazines, including Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
, Boardroom Reports, House Beautiful
House Beautiful
House Beautiful is an interior decorating magazine that focuses on decorating and the domestic arts. First published in 1896, it is currently published by the Hearst Corporation, who purchased it in 1934...
, Family Circle
Family Circle
Family Circle is an American women's magazine published 15 times a year by Meredith Corporation. It began publication in 1932 as a magazine distributed at supermarkets such as Piggly Wiggly and Safeway. Cowles Magazines and Broadcasting bought the magazine in 1962. The New York Times Company bought...
, Woman’s Day, Redbook
Redbook
Redbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
, Town and Country
Town and Country
- Locations in the United States :*Town 'n' Country, Florida*Town and Country, Missouri*Town and Country, Washington*Town & Country Village , California- Other uses :...
, Giftware News, and various antiques-oriented publications.
Television
Ralph and Terry Kovel started appearing on television in 1969, when their shows were made on film with one camera and no editing. The first series of 10 half-hour shows with no commercial breaks was produced by WVIZWVIZ
WVIZ is a public television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was the 100th public television station to sign on in America. Its founder was Betty Cope, a former producer at Cleveland's ABC affiliate, WEWS, who recognized the value of non-commercial educational television for the schools...
, the Cleveland public television station. Twenty-six shows were made by 1972 and distributed nationally. Other TV series include:
1981: Kovels on Collecting, a nationally syndicated commercial TV "filler" of 75-second spots
1987: Kovels on Collecting, 13 half-hour shows on public television, awarded a local Emmy
1989-1992: Collector's Journal with Ralph and Terry Kovel, 26 shows shown on the Discovery ChannelDiscovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
2000-2004: Flea Market Finds with the Kovels, weekly half-hour shows on Home & Garden Television Network (HGTVHGTVHGTV , is a cable-television network operating in the United States and Canada, broadcasting a variety of home and garden improvement, maintenance, renovation, craft and remodeling shows...
), awarded a Telly Guest appearances as antiques and collectibles experts on many national talk shows, news shows, and cable programs
Lectures
Ralph and Terry KovelTerry Kovel
Terry was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1928. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. In 1950 she married Ralph Kovel. Their children are Lee Kovel and Kim Kovel....
have lectured to audiences in museums, historical societies, department stores, home and garden shows, antique shows, colleges, and charitable fundraisers.
Other
Ralph and Terry Kovel have been senior members of the American Society of AppraisersAmerican Society of Appraisers
The American Society of Appraisers is a multi-discipline non-profit international organization of professional appraisers . Founded in 1936, the mission of the Society is to foster the public trust of our members and the appraisal profession through compliance with the highest levels of ethical...
and have served as expert witnesses in court cases. They have taught adult education classes at Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
and John Carroll University
John Carroll University
John Carroll University is a private, co-educational Jesuit Catholic university in University Heights, Ohio, United States, a suburb of Cleveland. The university was founded in 1886 by the Society of Jesus as Saint Ignatius College.The university was founded in 1886 by the Society of Jesus, as...
.