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 some preliminary research to get them started. So, these are market values based on prices I find on the web, not appraisal for insurance purposes that I suggest for items that have been determined to be of great value.
Today’s questions are about a straightening comb, an ice cream maker and a Louis XV-style toilet chair.
Question:
Do you know where I might be able to purchase a cast iron straightening comb?
Answer:
The reader emailed me after coming across a blog post I wrote two years ago about three brass straightening combs at auction. Although these instruments of hair torture were once part of practically every black girl’s childhood, I hadn’t seen one in years.
Who uses them anymore? There are plenty of chemicals available now to turn our naturally curly hair “silky smooth.” I suspect, though, that there are plenty of beauty salons that still use them for their customers who can’t let go of straightening their hair with heated combs. Besides, many of us buy our hair already long and silky.
Wanting to know rather than guessing, I asked the stylists in the natural hair salon where I get my locks done. The owner said some stylists in other shops had the combs but she wasn’t sure if they still used them. She noted the misconception that Madame C.J. Walker had invented the straightening comb. This remarkable woman did not invent it but used it with the hair care products for African American women that she built into an empire in the early 20th century.
The straightening – or hot – comb seemed to have been of French origin, developed in the late 19th century for white women’s hair. It was first patented in the United States around 1900 by an African American woman named Annie Malone.
Meanwhile, I asked my mother who is in her 80s and grew up at a time when straightening combs were common. She mentioned that her stylist uses chemicals on her hair now, but that there were customers who still got their hair straightened.
From my childhood, I don’t recall if the straightening combs were brass or cast iron (they had actually turned black from so much heat).
I would suggest the reader try Google or eBay, where you can find practically anything. Most of the ones I found for sale on eBay were brass. I did find two cast irons with wooden handles that sold for $9.99 each, and they were dark and dirty like the ones I recalled from my childhood.
Question:
Do you still have this ice cream maker? Would you be willing to sell your find? The green color and vintage look are exactly what I’ve been searching for.
Answer:
The reader was referring to an old-fashioned hand-crank White Mountain ice cream maker that I bought at auction two years ago. The vintage maker still had all of its parts, but needed a good scrubbing.
In my research back then, I found a White Mountain manual that identified Nancy Johnson of New York as the inventor of the ice cream maker. Unfortunately, though, she didn’t patent it. Other research showed that she was from New York and received a patent in 1843, while another site said she was from New Jersey and the patent date was 1846. Still another site acknowledged the discrepancies.
Augustus Jackson, an African American man living in Philadelphia, was said to have invented the modern process of making ice cream in 1832.
I no longer have the ice cream maker. I would suggest the reader check eBay, where I found several green White Mountain ones that sold for up to $160. The cheaper ones were not in the best shape – rust and dirt from years of non-use – but all of the pieces seemed to be there.
Question:
I want to buy a Louis XV style toilet chair in pastel pink. How can I have it and how much?
Answer:
This reader came across a blog post I wrote last year about two pastel Louis XV style toilet chairs that I came across at auction. I did not buy the chairs, though. They were so interesting and unusual that I only took a photo and wrote about them.
This was not the first inquiry I had gotten about the chairs. Another reader wanted to buy them, too.
The reader may be able to find them on the web at an upcoming auction where she lives (check auctionzip.com), or on retail sites and eBay. She may have to keep checking pretty often until one shows up, though. If she can’t find a Louis XV, other styles do come up at auction.
You could also ask several auction houses to contact you if they come across such a chair. Most should be very obliging, especially if you become a good customer.
Craig’s List is another alternative for bulky items such as a chair. But I always advise that buyers (and sellers, too) use caution in that forum. Both should be very careful about where they meet strangers for an exchange, choosing a public place.
