When I saw the round paper discs lying in a box on the auction table, I was certain they were the lids for old milk bottles. Those glass bottles were delivered at homes before I was…
Month: October 2012
I have a friend who loves those late-night TV movies, the ones with actors who never really made it big but whose faces show up over and over again. She’ll spend an entire night glued…
Readers ask about Delft pottery & Earnhardt Coke machine front
Posted in collectibles, pottery, and Reader questions
Friday at Auction Finds is Readers’ Questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of the items they own. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I…
On first glance, the dome-shaped item looked like an antique version of a roulette wheel. It had the trademark numbers encircling the edges, but it was missing the red and black stripes radiating from the…
“This is a man’s version of buying shoes,” my auction buddy Janet observed as we watched the men wrangle over some antique wooden machinist tool chests at auction. Janet isn’t exactly the kind of woman…
A collection of lovely old accordions
Posted in Music, and Performers
I don’t know squat about accordions – how to play them and how to really appreciate their sound. But when I stumbled onto about a half dozen at auction recently, I was taken by the artistic design of the…
Sweetgrass baskets by Annabelle Ellis
Posted in Art, Black history, collectibles, Crafts, and Culture
My auction buddy Janet had missed the two baskets entirely. I had, too, on my first walk-through at the auction house – a new one for me but a return spot for her. They were…
Readers ask about matchbooks & Booker T. Washington
Posted in Books, collectibles, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
I get a lot of requests from readers about how much their matchbook covers are worth. This blog post offers suggestions on how to determine what you have and the market value. Each Friday, I answer readers’ questions…