Ralph Kovel; Brought Antiquing to Middle America

Over the years, he was a food broker and in 1989 sold a company called Sar-a-Lee to Sara Lee Corp., where he continued as a senior vice president until 2000.

He and his wife got into the antiques business after their 1950 honeymoon in Bermuda, where they bought some old things. "Nice middle-class Americans didn't really buy old stuff back then. You just inherited it," Terry Kovel said.

But the couple needed things for their home in Cleveland, so they started buying more old things, such as lamps and ashtrays, at house sales. They were intrigued by the factory marks under their pottery but could not find a good source to help identify them.

They decided to publish an alphabetical guide. "I showed a bookstore what I had done, figuring we might sell it for $100," he told The Washington Post in 1984. "The bookstore sent it to a publisher, and a check for $500 came back."

In 1953, their first book, "Dictionary of Marks: Pottery and Porcelain," launched them into a lifetime of husband-and-wife collaborations.

At the same time, more Americans became interested in their family stuff. "They wanted to know what grandma had left them, and they wanted to know what they could get for what grandma left them," Terry Kovel said. They started a newspaper column, now syndicated in 150 papers. Their monthly newsletter, begun in 1974, has more than 60,000 subscribers.

The Kovels never sold an antique -- they only donated them or gave them away. Their white frame house in Shaker Heights is stuffed with their finds, and each room has a different theme, such as the library done in Mission style, the family room in Egyptian Revival and the living room in Sheraton and Hepplewhite.

"Our one big joke is that we finally got everything in the house to be old -- including us," Terry Kovel said.

Probably their best find, according to Terry Kovel, was a silver sugar caster made by Paul Revere, father of the horseback rider, that they found at a house sale. It was coal black, and they paid $15 for it. It is now in a museum.

Ralph Kovel was never a fan of online shopping. "His philosophy was that half the fun is hunting for it and fishing it out of the bottom of the pile," Terry Kovel said. "He could not understand shopping online."

Two days before his surgery, Mr. Kovel was browsing at an antiques shop in his wheelchair, researching prices for his 2010 annual guidebook, in which one could find the value of a Depression Glass plate or an "Ike" campaign button.

"Kovels' Antiques & Collectibles Price Guide 2009," which lists 42,000 prices in 700 categories, will be published next week and will soon be on the shelves of thousands of collectors, dealers and appraisers -- and under the tables at a lot of flea markets.

Survivors include two children, Karen "Kim" Kovel of Miami Beach, who is part of the family business, and Lee Kovel of Los Angeles, who, according to his mother, is a non-collector who believes in clutter-free living. He also leaves three grandchildren.