Nancy Drew (& Me) in Collectors News Magazine

The February 2009 issue of Collectors News magazine is now available. It features a two-page article on Nancy Drew and my collection of Nancy Drew memorabilia and talks about the Nancy Drew Sleuths fan group and our conventions! I'm including some pictures in the Blog.

If you are interested in getting this particular issue or subscribing to this publication, visit Collectors News online and you can also e-mail: collectors@collectors-news.com or call 800-352-8039.

I was originally contacted by them for an article on my Vintage Halloween collectibles and website, Vintage Halloween. I suggested they consider doing a piece on Nancy Drew and it led to this piece which was put together last summer.

I thought it was well-done and even mentions Edward Stratemeyer!

Jenn:)

Nancy Drew Nappi Painting For Sale: The Ghost of Blackwood Hall

Up for auction is a Rudy Nappi Nancy Drew painting, The Ghost of Blackwood Hall. It is being auctioned by Heritage Auction Galleries.

Bidding begins on or about Feb. 23, ending on or before Mar. 13. ???

Details noted at their website:

RUDY NAPPI (American b.1923)

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #25, The Ghost of Blackwood Hall book cover, 1967
Gouache on board
14 x 9.75 in.
Signed lower left

This illustration appeared on the cover of Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew book, The Ghost of Blackwood Hall, Grosset and Dunlap, 1968, and graced every edition of the book until well into the 1990s.

Nancy Drew and her friends travel to the colorful French Quarter in New Orleans to solve the mystery of The Ghost of Blackwood Hall

A copy of a 1995 edition of the book, autographed by Rudy Nappi, is included in this lot.

Condition Report: This piece has been matted to an overall size of 20 x 15 in., and the art is in Excellent condition.

Jenn:)

Nancy Drew at Bonanzle - A Spiffy eBay Alternative!

Nancy Drew Collectors:

I'm Blogging about the ever-growing alternative to eBay: Bonanzle! It's actually been a lot of fun to check it out and start a booth there. It reminds me of the early days of eBay when there were not a whole lot of listings of Nancy Drew so you eagerly waited to see what was listed.

They also have a neat freebie option where sellers can give you freebies for purchases! A nice plus is that listing is free! I read about the place on Jennifer White's series book blog (www.series-books.com)

Earlier today there were over 200 Nancy Drew items listed and it's growing! It's a fixed-price often times negotiable style listing site.

Check out my booth:

http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/NancyDrewSleuth I will be adding more to the booth as I get time. Also, get a 15% discount through February: use coupon code NDSLEUTHS!

Jenn:)

Nancy Drew Shoes?

Nancy Drew Shoes--possibly!I was searching eBay and followed a link at the bottom of a search page for Nancy Drew shoes, wondering what this might be. The link went to Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Womens-Nancy-Embroidered-Wedge/dp/B0012DCDBS

And more here:

http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Womens-Nancy-Plaid-Wedge/dp/B0012DA9KU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=shoes&qid=1232657655&sr=1-2

Billed as: There's no mystery to solve with this popular pump.

Sugar Women's Nancy Drew Embroidered & Mini Plaid Wedges:

AMAZON DESCRIPTIONS:

This adorable wedge by Sugar captures perfectly the sweet innocence and enduring appeal of its namesake. Crafted with soft, breathable canvas, and intricately adorned with embroidered flower designs, the upper features solid trim around the collar, a comfortable low-cut vamp, and gold-toned oval buckle detail at the toe. The padded footbed gently cushions each step, while the matching wedge heel and grippy rubber outsole provide shock absorbency, slip-resistance and long-lasting wear.

You don't have to be a detective to spot the cuteness of this Nancy Drew wedge from Sugar. This plaid wedge will snazz up the casualness of any ensemble, especially with the oversized buckle detail on the vamp. Plus, the fabric linings and cushy insole will allow for super-longwearing comfort.

The maker is Sugar and what I wonder is if the name "Nancy Drew" appears on the shoe itself, on the box, or something related to the shoe? If not, it's not really a Nancy Drew collectible. The shoes are somewhat cute, if you like a wedge, would work well with summery/spring outfits. Has anyone purchased these? The price is pretty cheap. This is not an officially licensed item, I can tell you that. My guess, it's probably the use of a popular icon - Nancy Drew - to sell a shoe, and the name probably doesn't appear on the shoe.

Jenn:)

My Nancy Drew Date Book & Homework Planner

Advertised in the back of first printings of Wanderer paperback #59, The Secret of the Old Lace in 1980 was the My Nancy Drew Date Book & Homework Planner, which was available for a very short time.One recently came up for sale at eBay and sold for over $200.00. I wish I'd been the high bidder! Unfortunately the images used in the auction were fairly small, but the scans in this blog will give you an idea of what the planner was like.

The planner up for sale had been written in. I am hoping as more of the 1980 buyers who saved theirs are getting to that point of getting rid of childhood items, we'll see more of these come up for sale. That's me being optimistic. Realistically, I doubt many were saved, probably written in and tossed like other types of planners. So is this item rare? I'd hate to say rare, but it's pretty close. This is the only one I've seen for sale at eBay since 1997 when I joined eBay.

Jenn:)

Model Grace Horton aka Nancy Drew

Grace Horton was the model for Nancy Drew--in the original covers and illustrations by Russell H. Tandy. There is not a lot known about Grace, but she clearly lent a "grace" and sophistication to Nancy Drew's style on the dust jackets of those original books.

Her family was known for Horton Ice Cream. I've created a montage shown above using a recent photo of Grace that was sold at eBay. Grace was a Harry Conover model who can sometimes be spotted in old print ads.

Author Susan Kandel built part of the murder mystery in Not a Girl Detective on Grace Horton and Russell H. Tandy.For more on Russell H. Tandy, check out this page of my website:

http://www.nancydrewsleuth.com/russellhtandy.html

Jenn:)

1977 Nancy Drew TV Show Watch Part 3

An update thanks to a fellow ND collector/Sleuth Vicki! She had a 1977 Hardy Boys watch and I'm including pictures in this blog.

Similar design to the Nancy Drew watch, and dated 1977 and Universal City Studios, Inc. The band is different, but it's for a boy, so that's not a huge clue or anything.

Now to just find out how it was sold! My original thought was that it might have been sold at Universal Studios--maybe in the gift shop--but I checked out some of my other TV show collectibles and noticed the puzzle and the lunchbox all have the same designation of Universal City Studios, Inc. Sears did have a clothing line featuring Sean Cassidy on most items around 1978, so perhaps the watch might have been offered in one of the catalogs--Sear's, Pennys, etc..

I'll keep digging...

Jenn:)

Original Nancy Drew Files Cover Art: #83 Diamond Deceit

I finally took a picture of the painting I purchased at the 2008 Nancy Drew Sleuths convention in Bird-in-Hand, PA. Nancy Drew Files illustrator Tricia Zimic attended and had some of her paintings up for auction. It was a treat to get to meet her and she spoke about her experience illustrating some of the Nancy Drew Files books. This was my first purchase of Nancy Drew cover art, so it was a thrill:)

She still has paintings available for sale if anyone is interested!

Jenn:)

1977 Nancy Drew TV Show Watch Part 2

I received the watch today! I'm including photos of it.

Including the front, face, sides.

It states on the face, 1977 Universal City

Studios, Inc. I'm wondering if this watch may have been sold at the theme park?! It's a child's watch as the band is very small. No other markings. I even checked it out using my trusty magnifying glass as any Nancy fan would ;) haha!

Since it was for a child, it would have been marketed as such so in some child mags, fan mags, or like I'm suspecting, at the theme park itself.


If anyone has any clues, I'd love to hear them:) There may have also been a counterpart for the Hardy Boys sold at the same time.

Jenn:)

1977 Nancy Drew TV Show Watch

It's no mystery, that's a Nancy Drew watch:)

So I was checking out eBay a week ago and came across a listing for a Nancy Drew watch--1977 Universal. The face as you can see features a somewhat Pamela Sue Martin style Nancy Drew with a magnifying glass and footprints. It's very Nancyish. I've never heard of this collectible before!

I'm not sure whether it was something available that people could order, perhaps a fan club item, or if it was a promotional item, maybe a cast/crew item. I'm going to contact some TV show people who worked on the show to see if they can shed some light on it. My other thought was some kind of bootleg item.

What stunned me more was that the bidding ended at only $35.89! Where were all the bidders, the usual suspects? Not that I'm complaining:)

I'll let you all know more once I receive the watch and do some digging.

Jenn:)

Nancy Drew in The History of Mystery

I was at Half Price Books a week ago and ran across a volume discounted for $19.98: The History of Mystery by Max Allan Collins. Very large oversize hardcover with dust jacket. Covers mystery books and features lots of illustrations and covers throughout from Edgar Allan Poe to Sashiell Hammett to Raymond Chandler to lots of pulp fiction covers--and even Nancy Drew!

Featured on pages 106-108 is information on boy and girl detectives: the Syndicate and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Pictured is the Applewood book cover of The Secret of the Old Clock.

For Drew enthusiasts who like to collect anything that has something to do with Nancy Drew this is for you--and if you like mystery in books, tv, etc.. this will be a nice feature on the history of this genre--makes a nice coffee table book too. Copyright 2001, Collectors Press.

If you don't have a Half Price Books, I've seen this listed often on eBay and also many copies abound at Amazon.com.

Jenn:)

Nancy Drew & Friends Online Exhibit

The University of Maryland had a neat 75th anniversary exhibition in 2005 and now has an online display you can view! Taken from their website is a blurb about the event:

"To celebrate the 75th year of publishing of Nancy Drew books, The University of Maryland Libraries featured an exhibit on Girls’ Series books in the fall of 2005 in the Hornbake Library Maryland Room Gallery. This exhibit highlights the girls’ series books in the Rose and Joseph Pagnani Collection in the University of Maryland Libraries. This collection contains over 300 books from 33 different series published from 1917 to 1980. Although Nancy Drew is the star of the exhibit, other girls’ series heroines such as Vicki Barr, Sue Barton, Judy Bolton, and the Dana Girls are also included."

They had a nice exhibition and speakers for the event. Here's a link to the online version of the exhibit:

http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/SpecialCollection/nancy/index.html

The online exhibit is a really great wealth of information, I recommend you check it out!

Jenn:)

Nancy Drew Sleuths '08 Convention Photos

We had a great time last year in PA for the Sleuths '2008 convention: Bird-in-Hand, PA, a little town near Lancaster where in this area of PA, Nancy and her chums sleuthed around in The Witch Tree Symbol. Above was our banner on the convention day with the neat hex symbol Sleuth Kelly designed. Below is the fun cake the town's bakery decorated for us.


Sleuth Dean outdid himself on this gift for the Nancy Drew theme gift exchange--Nancyopoly!

Two of our members--Debbie and Marti came in character to the party: Villain Madame from Tolling Bell and Madame Alexandra from Jewel Box.

If you're interested in attending a convention, check out the Sleuths' website:

http://www.ndsleuths.com/ndsconventions.html

Jenn:)