I don’t recall ever having a Barbie doll. All of the dolls I remember were the big baby types, with thick legs and big feet and heads. Not the thin buxomy dolls that Mattel made…
Month: December 2010
I didn’t notice the letter to Thomas Jefferson lying there in the glass case at the auction house next to a document that I had to touch, to see. Jefferson’s letter wasn’t a piece of ephemera that had grabbed…
Georgia face jugs & wood carvings
Posted in Art, Black history, and Carvings
I dragged my sister to an antiques mall just south of my family’s home in Macon, GA, over the holidays to see what was there. I’m always curious about how or whether antiques are different…
Signs of Christmas
Posted in Christmas
A couple weeks ago I was reading my local newspaper when I saw a story about Christkindlmarkt, an indoor market with craftspeople, food and music in Bethlehem, PA. It sounded like fun, so I decided to go.…
The shoes were lined up neatly on the auction table, atop their original boxes, about 25 pairs of them. I had seen women shoes at auction before but never such a large number of men’s.…
The man was an island of calmness standing there behind a display of three chalk-like Santas positioned on top of a vintage sled. You could almost miss him amid the bustle of Christmas shoppers at Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem,…
Phila. condo with an upscale address
Posted in Home
When the notice of the upcoming real estate sales came in the mail, I looked for houses that were selling contents. Seeing none, I tossed the notice on my desk and ignored it. It had…
I immediately made my way to the glass counter to look for the letter. I wanted to see this document written in the hand of a black Union soldier to his wife in May 1864.…
The shoes were like a magnet. Two big black metal behemoths that overwhelmed the auction house table. I moved in to take a closer look, not sure what to make of them. They looked like…
The simple art of advertising
Posted in Art, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
Flipping through a box of newspaper display art, I was thrilled as I stopped during a walk-through at one of my favorite auction houses. I’d been a newspaper reporter and editor and reporter for years, but rarely made…