San Jose: Steven Yvaska, longtime California antiques columnist, dies at 68

As an antiques qualified, Steven Wayne Yvaska experienced a exclusive talent that went over and above his information of vintage pottery, his enthusiasm for finely crafted silver and his keen eye for scarce postcards.

He realized the actual price of antiques resides not in their monetary truly worth but in the hearts and recollections of all those who gather them. And he conveyed that to countless numbers of Bay Location collectors over the several years, telling them to cherish all those parts of historical past — and then move them alongside to the subsequent generation.

Yvaska, an antiques columnist, appraiser and trainer, died Oct. 1 at his San Jose home next a prolonged fight versus Numerous Method Atrophy (MSA), a rare degenerative condition. He was 68. He had published his column, “The Seasoned Collector,” for The Mercury Information for approximately a quarter-century, and it also later appeared in the Bay Area Information Group’s East Bay Instances.

“As a robust voice for the antique world in the Bay Region, he promoted small antique corporations and helped us all succeed,” mentioned Craig Trimble, owner of the Antiques Colony, a huge San Jose collective. “He piqued the nostalgia that we have, manufactured it Okay, even stylish, to like aged issues.”

Born on Nov. 15, 1953, in Boston, Yvaska started out amassing as a youngster after obtaining a “Felix the Cat” Halloween card, then made an appreciation for finer collectibles when his mom gave him a laborous chore: sprucing the family members silverware. “Gradually I started out to admire the lines and splendor of all that aged silver,” he would tell the learners who took his classes.

A Syracuse College social science and training graduate, Yvaska moved to California in 1983 with his lover-turned-spouse, Monthly bill Kirkness. He taught at Heald University in San Jose, then took a finance task in 1990 at the Mercury News, switching departments in 1995 to turn out to be the newsroom’s coordinator.

That similar 12 months, Property & Backyard garden editor Carolyn Snyder resolved she preferred to publish a neighborhood column on antiques and collectibles, instead than a syndicated column. She gave Yvaska a tryout and his column created its debut, working often for 24 several years.

Yvaska schooled his viewers in design and style designs and chronicled the switching developments in the field. His column subject areas above the yrs could fill an antiques emporium, ranging from antiquarian textbooks to Grateful Useless memorabilia to classic Valentines.

He routinely made available a calendar of functions, clueing in readers about the large-stop Hillsborough and San Francisco demonstrates as properly as the avenue fairs like Fremont’s once-a-year Niles Antique Honest and Flea Marketplace. In 2011, he wrote about a new breed of collectors who would be flocking to the inaugural Goat Hill Fair in the Santa Cruz Mountains for “industrial chic” antiques, then and now a very hot pattern.

“What a joy to have shared an absolute passion for antiques and their history with Steve,” stated Cyndi Garofalo, producer of the show. “He brought his students, offered lessons and wrote wonderful posts about Goat Hill Truthful. Steve will be drastically missed.”

Readers adored the Yvaska appeal and individuality that arrived through in print. On one particular shopping tour, “I found a switch-of-the-century, 8-foot-prolonged pine harvest table ($1,185) for the state kitchen of my desires,” Yvaska enthused, “but settled on a further spice tin ($4).” His well-liked Mystery Object columns that asked readers if they could establish the “whatchamacalit” of the month (“No, it is not a spittoon” was his tip the moment) drew hundreds of responses each and every time. Yvaska would pick a winner at random from the right guesses and deal with that particular person to lunch and a dialogue of collectibles.

And viewers realized they could depend on the at any time-practical Yvaska for other tips, no matter whether it was reminding them that any trip to the St. Christopher Antique Demonstrate meant also partaking in an Italian food built by the church’s greatest cooks, or telling shoppers to pack their tolerance when buying at the Oakland Museum Women’s Board White Elephant Sale, a large fundraiser held in a warehouse. “Since you are going to have a bit of acreage to cover, don fantastic going for walks sneakers,” he wrote. “Bring a drinking water bottle and a tote bag. Count on a wait around at checkout. Be quiet. Get pleasure from. The knowledge is very well really worth it.”

He also wrote about background on a bigger scale, encouraging viewers to assistance the Bay Area’s grand old mansions and other historic residences — among the them, Montalvo in Saratoga, Filoli in Woodside, Ainsley in Campbell, J. Albert Smith Background Home in Los Altos — and make repeated visits. When his column expanded to the East Bay Situations, his “beat” grew to consist of the Dunsmuir-Hellman estate in Oakland, Shadelands Ranch Museum in Walnut Creek, McConaghy House in Hayward and other individuals.

“These fundraising festivities not only set you in a merry body of mind,” he wrote, “they also help protect the Bay Area’s historic residences and their stunning gardens, fund museum applications and help plenty of charities.”

Moreover his complete-time newsroom career and column-crafting, Yvaska was a repeated guest lecturer for regional teams these types of as the San Jose Woman’s Club, the Harris Lass residence in Santa Clara and the Lace Museum in Sunnyvale. He also did verbal appraisals at Bay Area dwelling shows, the Pleasanton Antiques & Collectibles Fair, the Benicia Peddler’s Truthful and several other occasions, asking viewers to bring either “family keepsakes or garage sale finds,” and he would gladly decide up his magnifying glass and assess all.

Yvaska would sit for hours and offer you informal appraisals. “I practically flipped when a girl introduced in a tough-to-come across piece of Arequipa pottery for identification,” he wrote at the time, referring to the Arts and Crafts pieces manufactured in Marin County in the early 1900s. But additional typically than not, the finds had been humble kinds. If an individual showed disappointment that their loved ones heirloom might not be truly worth significantly money, he would carefully — and truly — tell them how fortunate they had been to own these kinds of a fetching trinket or finely crafted piece of embroidery.

In the latest years, he taught a preferred series of lessons by San Jose Parks and Recreation. When the pandemic hit, he ongoing educating a main group by using Zoom.

Yvaska was predeceased by his husband, William Kirkness his mom and dad, Peggy and William Yvaska and his siblings, Donald and Cheryl. His ashes will be interred together with all those of his spouse in Vergennes, Vermont. Memorial companies are pending.

Retired Mercury Information author Mary Gottschalk contributed to this report.