The book looked much smaller than I had imagined. I guess I was expecting something with more volume and heft, given its enormous importance in the lives of African American travelers during the 1930s-1960s. The…
Month: March 2015
Patent date isn’t exactly the year an item was made
Posted in Equipment, history, and Reader questions
Fridays at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them determine the value of their items. From time to time, I get emails from readers mistakenly assuming…
The first thing I saw as I walked into the church community center was a huge wall with multicolored images featuring a man’s brown face surrounded by puzzle pieces that appeared both cacophonous and distinct. As…
The inherent humor in a pair of clown shoes
Posted in Clothing, and Personal items
The oversized shoes in the checkerboard pattern stood out like the proverbial sore thumb among the drab human foot-sized shoes. The toe was as large and round as the moon, and the heel a slender…
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…
Surprisingly, disinterested buyers had left two small pieces of furniture in two separate locations on outside tables at the auction house. The first one I spotted was a kitchen buffet in honey-colored wood with red…
Woman tries to reclaim her home in 1930s Jim Crow South
Posted in Black history, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
“I am a poor Colored Woman trying to have a home for living in my old age My husband and I have put all our life earnings in this place and now it is taken…
Emilio Casarotto – artist behind buxomy female figurines
Posted in African American women, Art, and Women
Friday is normally the day I answer reader’s questions. But today I have an answer to a question I asked in a blog post a couple years ago. I wanted to know the name of…
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…