The stuffed cardboard box was trying mightily to stay folded shut, but the papers inside were not cooperating. Ever curious, I wanted to see what was preventing it from lying flat and closing. Pulling back the…
Month: November 2013
Reader asks ‘What to do with Kennedy assassination newspapers?’
Posted in collectibles, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
Old and sometimes faded and folded copies of newspapers from the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy keep turning up, and I always get questions from readers about how much they are worth. I’ve…
A book of “My Spirituals” by Eva Jessye
Posted in African American women, Books, and Music
On its website, the auction house was advertising a massive sale of books, 3,000 of them. The idea of so many books was so overwhelming that I wondered if it would be worth the effort…
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
When the auctioneer mentioned that he had years’ worth of driver’s licenses, I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. How do you accumulate more than 30 years of licenses belonging to so many different people?…
Reader asks about Thomas Blackshear art figurines
Posted in Art, collectibles, and Figurines
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
A genealogist intrigued by what she didn’t know about black dolls
Posted in Doll collectors, and Dolls
Like most folks, Joyce Stamps didn’t grow up with black dolls, but when she was finally introduced to them fully as an adult, the genealogist in her was curious about their history. “I wish they…
Whenever I visit Longwood Gardens near Philadelphia, I always head to the amazing little nook that is its orchid house, where the plants are always in bloom in seemingly every color of the rainbow, healthy and…