I carry a compact in my purse, a plastic one, peach colored with white swirls. The Fashion Fair label on it wore away years ago, and I only use it in the summer time to…
The beauty of compacts
Posted in Beauty Products, and Personal items
Month: June 2010
I began reading the auction bid sheet, indifferently scanning the items at the Orientalia sale at one of my favorite auction houses. There were Asian artwork, screens, furniture, garden seats, bronze figurines and more. The auction house seems to…
Memphis, Sinatra & the music
Posted in Broadway plays, and Music
I was dropped right smack in the middle of the 1950s last week and bathed in soul music. It wasn’t the R&B music of Booker T. & the M.G.’s or Sam and Dave or my man…
Black images and America’s shameful past
Posted in civil rights movement, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Photos
The images spoke their own evilness. Paul Robeson – one of the smartest and most talented men in the world – toting a bale of cotton, staggering out of a bar singing “Ol’ Man River”…
Furniture that caught my eye
Posted in furniture
I was trolling through the “junk” furniture on an outside lot at auction last week when I saw a few pieces that struck me. This auction house usually puts the less-desirable furniture in this exterior lot…
There was a time when some girls stitched designs on sheets, pillowcases and tablecloths for their dowries. These could be either simple or intricate designs on household items they’d take with them into their marriage.…
Don’t tear apart old books for the bird prints
Posted in Books, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Uncategorized
For me, books are sacred. You don’t tear out the pages or write on them or mar them in any way. That’s a no-no. Imagine my horror when I came across sets of pages torn from…
Buzz is still on story of ‘rare’ slave photo
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Photos, and slavery
Last week, questions were raised about what was described as a “rare” photo of two slave boys and the identity of the photographer who captured them. I wrote about the photo, too, out of curiosity. I’m an…
I have a friend who bleeds red. Not in the color of blood but the apple red color of her sorority Delta Sigma Theta. I have another friend who bleeds pink and green – as…
Buying old dusty bottles of whiskey
Posted in bottles, and collectibles
Would you buy an opened bottle of Seagram’s at auction? How about an unopened bottle caked in dust, looking as if it’s been sitting in an attic or basement untouched for years? Does whiskey…