I watched as Jonathan Demme, in royal blue sneakers and looking a little thinner and a little grayer than I expected, walked breezily up to a man staring at a painting by Haitian artist Hector Hyppolite. Demme is…
Month: March 2014
Trying to biblically justify slavery in face of reality
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and slavery
“The Duties of Servants.” On the surface, the broadside didn’t conjure the word “slavery” in my mind. But there it was among the slavery and abolition documents up for auction this week at Swann Auction…
I don’t usually stop to check out the costume jewelry at auction, but I had some time to waste while the auctioneer was selling paintings, none of which had enticed me. So I combed through…
A fierce skeleton soldier armed & ready
Posted in Health & Medicine, and Military
I had just passed the Blues Brothers Jake and Elwood in their trademark sunglasses and black suits singing their hearts out when I rounded the curve in the room at the auction house and saw…
Rubbing the Apollo’s fabled ‘Tree of Hope’
Posted in Architecture/Buildings, Black history, Music, and Performers
The real one’s on the stage, the young man behind the podium in the lobby of Harlem’s Apollo Theater was saying to me. I was enchanted with the figures carved into the slick surface of…
Reader asks about gospel music publisher Lillian Bowles
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Music
Fridays 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…
The red room in the auction house was filled with beautiful antique furniture, but the sunshine-bright color of the statue standing in a corner overshadowed it all. The life-size figure stood there like a sentry, taller…
I didn’t see the young woman when she left the starting block, but I couldn’t miss her elegant glide as she slid the round granite curling stone down the white sheet of ice. She resembled a…
Reader asks about Ring & other boxing magazines
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Reader questions, and Sports
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…
Life-size Black Americana calling-card holder
Posted in Carvings, collectibles, and Figurines
The wooden carved statue with the brown painted face looked more boy than man. He wore a gray coat with striped pants and a servant’s half-smile. His open left hand was extended as if he…