Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day, and I try to help readers figure out the value of their items. Occasionally, I get an item that I want to know more about. That’s what…
Month: January 2015
I was scouting out an auction house that sells lovely and sometimes unique furniture when I spotted a painting of a white-haired man slightly bent, his gaze intent. As I neared the piece of furniture…
For 17 years, Stewart Paul hauled around his handcrafted wooden tables, boxes and cabinets to craft shows in a big 1971 Plymouth station wagon. He dragged them around so much that they took as much…
Readers seek hat stretcher & Prohibition medical prescription
Posted in Clothing, collectibles, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Personal items
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. Sometimes I get inquiries from readers who want to buy items I…
Hefty price for a small dragonfly perfume bottle
Posted in bottles, collectibles, and Glassware
The bidding started innocuously with a price that was not unheard at the Decorative Arts sale. So when the sweet little amber perfume bottle with the gilt (gold leaf on metal) dragonfly started at $375, I…
I first came across the name of the artist Etelka J. Greenfield on a program for a 1948 exhibit at the Pyramid Club in Philadelphia. The club had been formed a decade earlier as a…
Antique embalming machine that’s unnerving
Posted in collectibles, Death, and Medicine
The machine seemed to have a twin. I had seen a contraption like it two months earlier in another room during a special sale at the auction house. Is it possible that two of these…
I had spent much of my time at the preview of the museum exhibit of African American art looking at the works on the walls. I recognized most of the artists, and had seen some of their works…
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…