Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in Toys
My auction buddy Janet seems to like noisemakers. She’s always picking up a few here and there at auctions. Usually, she chooses the tin toys with black images on them. Clackers, clippers and clappers, that’s what they’re sometimes…
One of the highlights of auctions for me is stumbling across history of the contributions of black people to this country. I react with sheer joy because much of it was never written or was…
Posted in Photos
No one quite captured the culture, the love and the beauty of the people of Harlem like photographer James Van Der Zee. We all can conjure in our minds his iconic 1932 photo of a…
Posted in collectibles, and Home
“Maybe they cleaned it,” I said to the buyer slightly to the front of me as she hugged the slop jar/chamber pot she’d just gotten at auction. “They” were the previous owners who had once used…
Posted in jewelry
In the back of my mind, the words “Northern Lights” triggered a memory when my auction buddy Janet mentioned them in referring to some jewelry she had just bought at auction. Alaska, North Pole, Northern sky.…
I believe I have gremlins in my house. Some months ago, I cleaned up and left on my kitchen table three small vintage Coca Cola collectibles I had just gotten in a box lot at…
Posted in Photos
I’ve learned that you don’t have to make important finds at auctions. Sometimes, museums themselves can discover treasures among their troves of donated and purchased items. That was the case recently at the Philadelphia History…
Posted in Art
I was at the tail end of an auction a couple years ago, waiting around for some artwork that had captured my eye. I was there with my art-loving friend Kristin, it was late and…
A few weeks ago, I was walking among the tables at one of my favorite auction houses, not finding too much that struck my fancy. Then, on a far table I saw a box of…
