Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of the items that they own. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do some preliminary research to get them started. So, these are market values, not appraisal for insurance purposes that I suggest for items that have been determined to be of great value.
This week’s questions are about Jet magazines and Hoosier cabinets.
Question:
I have 11 1969 Jet books for sale. One is from July 10, 1969, with MLK and JFK on the cover.
Answer:
The reader wanted to know if anyone wanted to buy his Jet magazines. I don’t put buyers and sellers together on my site for liability reasons, but I conducted some preliminary research on the magazines to find out where you could sell them.
The magazines turn up from time to time at auction: I recently bought nine from 1956 to 1977, and had picked up some from the 1960s about two years ago. I am keeping mine for the history they hold. John H. Johnson and his wife Eunice – owners of Johnson Publishing Co., which produced the magazine – created Jet as a news magazine for African Americans in 1951.
It was the publication that arrived in mailboxes or lay around on tables in beauty salons and barbershops with news of what was happening to African Americans around the country – be it about their community, their fight for civil rights, or their weddings, music, birthdays and schools. It has long been a chronicler of black history and life.
I recommend auction sites such as eBay to sell your magazines and most other items. It is a huge international marketplace of buyers looking for just about everything. You should also search the web for other avenues for selling them.
I could find no copies for sale with both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and President Kennedy on the cover. One with Kennedy alone sold for about $10 on eBay. The prices for Jet singles and multiples varied: 457 magazines from 2003-2012 sold for $225, 9 from the 1950s and 1960s sold for $40, 10 from 1966-1969 sold for $29.95, two 1968s with King by himself sold for $31. Abe Books was selling a 1968 Jet with King on the cover for $200.
Like other vintage or antique items, how much money they fetch depend on such things as their condition, how rare they are and who wants them at a given point in time.
Question:
I was given a cabinet that looks very similar to the one at the top of this page. Mine has glass knobs on it. I was told it was a Hoosier cabinet but I can’t find any markings on it. Is there any way to tell? I was going to paint it but then was told not to because it could be worth money. Is there any way you could help me find out if it is?
Answer:
Don’t paint it! That was solid advice you got. You’ll ruin not only the cabinet’s value but its history.
The reader was referring to the Hoosier cabinet in the photo above that she saw in a blog post I wrote more than two years ago. That cabinet still had its metal Hoover ID tag on it so there was problem authenticating it.
Hoosiers cabinets were common in some homes – likely those of a certain income level – at the end of the 19th century and well into the 20th century. But the Hoosier Manufacturing Co. of Indiana wasn’t the only maker of this lovely utilitarian kitchen furniture. At least nine other companies – including Sellers, McDougall, Napanee and Boone – made them and theirs were more common, according to one website. At auction some years ago, I picked up an early catalog of Sellers cabinets.
So your cabinet could be one of the others, and you should research those, too.
Without the tag, there’s no easy answer to your question and a good answer will require you to do some research. I suggest that you research via Google and eBay.
There are two books you should check that pertain to Hoosier and the other cabinet-makers: “Hoosier Cabinets” by Phillip D. Kennedy (1989) is said to offer information, photos and early ads of the manufacturers and their products. It is also said to be the best reference book on these early cabinets. The other book is “The Hoosier Cabinet in Kitchen History” by Nancy R. Hiller, published in 2009.
You can purchase them or drop by your local library or bookstore, and thumb through them.
The website hoosiercabinet.com, which sells cabinets and parts, offers early ads for several of the cabinet-makers, along with a display photos of cabinets owned by people like you. I’m not sure if that service is still available but you can certainly contact the owners to find out. They or their readers may also be able to help you identify your cabinet.
Several sites offered ways to identify Hoosier cabinets, including its three-compartment design consisting of an upper cabinet, a porcelain workspace in the middle (with a flour sifter and bins) and a lower cabinet, as well as tin lining in some of the drawers. Another site suggested you check to see if the top and bottom of the cabinet were made with the same wood or metal, as well as searching for the metal tag.
