“My uncle used to come up here and party,” the man said to me as we headed to the Cotton Club in New York. He and I were among a group of people who had…
Stumbling upon the Cotton Club
Posted in Black history, Culture, dance, and Performers
Month: October 2011
A privy man who knows his outhouses
Posted in Books, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
The little gray book was only a handful lying there among some other papers and books in an open box on the auction table. I don’t know why I decided t0 pick that one up…
The first thing I noticed about the smooth ceramic dolls on the glass shelf at the auction house were their brown gingerbread color and their blank faces. And that they were beautifully spotless. The eight…
In the spring, I was at a New York auction where a purple and white felt banner denoting Father Divine’s ministry sold for a whopping $30,000. That was the first time I had come across…
The prints on the picture racks at the auction house had a decidedly 1960s look. They were intriguing, so I answered their call and drew closer for a better view. The images in some of the…
The man made the statement in jest, but it was oh-so-true. “This was when women had it tough,” he said to the two other people with him. He was walking towards a lovely yellow vintage…
Artist Hughie Lee-Smith would be smiling right now, I thought as I watched phone bidders wrangling over one of his paintings at the Swann Auction Galleries’ sale of African American fine art this week. It…
It could be musical, but it looks medieval
Posted in Music, and Mystery Finds
“What do you think this is?” I asked, interrupting the two men chatting across from where I stood looking dumbfounded at an item on the floor at the auction house. They stopped their conversation, and one…
I watched as two hefty men hauled the big black pot between them and sat it squat on the muddy ground in back of the auction house. As soon as I saw it, a very…
I was walking through a maze of vintage and modern furniture at an auction house over the weekend, looked up and thought I was in a jungle. My eyes caught sight of two lovely upholstered chairs…