This elephant doorstop just started showing up in the market. Its dull gold paint with flat black highlights looks aged. We could not find an old counterpart.

Picture buttons are among the most popular and expensive of antique buttons. They are almost always made of metal and constructed of two or more separate pieces or layers. Designs include animals, birds, insects, occupations, sports, and famous persons to name a few of the more popular categories. Picture buttons based on well known subjects from fairy tales, operas, literature, poetry or folk tales are called story buttons.

A sewing bird is a clamp, usually fastened to a table, to hold fabric for hemming or embroidery. The first sewing clamps were individually forged in the first quarter of the 19th century. By the mid-1800s, sewing birds were factory-made of iron and or brass. Some clamps were figural including birds which gives the clamp its name.

This reproduction brass match holder has just appeared in the market. It is solid brass with a dark antique finish, 11 tall, 3 wide.

When many people think of reproduction toys, they often limit their concerns to elaborate mechanical banks, complicated wind ups, character toys or fancy space toys. But while toys of cast iron and die stamped tin certainly are widely copied, buyers often forget to be wary of simpler toys made of paper, wood and cloth.

Figural cane heads of hand-carved hardwoods are being exported from the Czech Republic. Five of the new canes are shown above. Left to right, subject followed by wood species: bearded man in hat, walnut; eagle, elm; fighting lions, walnut; old woman, cherry; ram head, pear. Heads are mounted on matching hardwood shafts, total length is 36. We found the canes shown above at $59 each.

There are some unusual wooden knobs currently in the market causing some mistakes. Knob centers have diameter insets with either a womans portrait or a clock face. Knob bodies are turned Philippine mahogany.

A variety of reproduction metal toys have recently been introduced into the market ranging from tinplate to cast iron. Many are direct copies of original vintage toys. If buyers rely on pictures in reference books alone, they may be fooled into confusing the fakes with authentic toys.

American Indian Artifacts - Genuine or fake? Glossary of Terms: Bannerstone, Celt, flint, gorget, birdstone, chalcedony, arrowhead, knapping, steatite, soapstone

Mother Russia finally seems to be learning the ways of capitalism. Warehouse finds of surplus junk from the former Soviet Union are pouring into Western markets. Items available include everything from clocks out of army tanks to this Lenin banner. With the new Russian republics starved for hard currency, these items are being hawked with the enthusiasm usually seen only in Western infomercials about firm buttocks and sharp knives. Many items look older than they really are because they were shoddily made and poorly designed. Know what you're getting before plunking down your hard earned rubles.