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Philip Hone
Philip Hone 1780-1851, American diarist and politician, b. New York City. With his brother he built up a successful auctioneering business, which he later abandoned for politics. He was mayor of New York City in 1825. His diary (1828-51), opinionated and shrewd, contains valuable records of life in...
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pinochle
pinochle , card game, probably derived from bezique , that was developed in the United States in the 19th cent. Pinochle is played by two, three, or four players, with a deck of 48 cards containing two each of the aces, face cards, tens, and nines of all four suits. The cards rank (in descending or...
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bridge
bridge card game derived from whist , played with 52 cards by four players in two partnerships.
Basic Rules
The cards in contract bridge rank from ace down to two; in bidding, suits rank spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. After all cards are dealt, so that each player holds 13 cards, t...
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Christie's
Christie's English firm of art auctioneers and appraisers, one of the largest clearinghouses in the world for art objects of all kinds. Founded in 1766 by James Christie, it has locations all over the world.
Bibliography: See M. C. Marillier, Christie's, 1766-1925 (1926); D. Sutton, Christie'...
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antique collecting
antique collecting the assembling of items of aesthetic, historical, and often monetary value from earlier eras. The term antique initially referred only to the preclassical and classical cultures of the ancient world. It is now applied to old artifacts of all cultures. Legally and traditionally,...
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Estonia
Estonia , Estonian Eesti, officially Republic of Estonia, republic (2005 est. pop. 1,333,000), 17,413 sq mi (45,100 sq km). It borders on the Baltic Sea in the west; the gulfs of Riga and Finland (both arms of the Baltic) in the southwest and north, respectively; Latvia in the south; and Russia in...
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e-commerce
e-commerce commerce conducted over the Internet , most often via the World Wide Web . E-commerce can apply to purchases made through the Web or to business-to-business activities such as inventory transfers. A customer can order items from a vendor's Web site, paying with a credit card (the cus...
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Josh Billings
Josh Billings pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw, 1818-85, American humorist and lecturer, b. Lanesboro, Mass. After a roving life as farmer, explorer, and coal miner, he settled in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., as an auctioneer and real estate dealer. In 1860 he began to write humorous sketches and homespun p...
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John Fries
John Fries c.1750-1818, American rebel, b. Montgomery co., Pa. After serving in the American Revolution, Fries became a traveling auctioneer. Strongly opposed to the federal property taxes levied (1798) for a possible war with France, he stirred the Pennsylvania Germans into an uprising (called Fri...
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Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall 1961-89, a barrier first erected in Aug., 1961, by the East German government along the border between East and West Berlin, and later along the entire border between East Germany and West Germany. At first constructed of barbed wire, the wall was built to halt large numbers of defectio...
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