[TheForge] Re: Help Save a small part of the Sorber Collection (magichammer)

[Brian Gilbert]

Hi All:

I think Dave's note needs a little clarification, as he's left out a bit of
the story.

When the Sorber auction was first announced, Dave Mudge, Don Plummer, LeeAnn
Mitchel, Jim Wallace, myself, and others started passing around emails
trying to figure out some way for blacksmiths to pool their resources to buy
at least some of this collection. There's no way that I, or most other
smiths, would be able to come up with the $$$ to buy even a single lot,
since this collection has been valued at over a million dollars. And since
the auction house is going to try to do it all in a single day, they are
probably going to have to put anything remotely affordable into large lots,
like fifty Pennsylvania thumb latches.

So what's happened is that Jim Wallace of the National Ornamental Metal
Museum has agreed to help out by setting up a special donation page and
account to buy, hopefully, at least some of the Sorber collection. If we are
unsuccessful, then the money will go to the metal museum, so no matter what
happens, donations will be used to preserve ironwork.

It's my personal hope that we can raise enough to create a travelling
exhibition, but that's a pretty tall order. Those of you who remember the
Sorber exhibitions at the ABANA conferences in Lacrosse and Asheville might
understand the value of an exhibit like that.

So go to this page:

http://www.metalmuseum.org/donations.htm

and make a donation to help buy some of this ironwork. If we do nothing,
it's likely that ALL of this original source material will disappear into
the homes of private wealthy collectors. And if you don't have even five or
ten bucks to give, then get creative... I'm selling some stuff on ebay where
all of the money raised will go to this fund. But act now... we've only got
until May 13th to keep some prime source material available to blacksmiths
around the country.

Thank you

-- 
Brian Gilbert
Editor, the Hammer's Blow