The huge eyes were the first thing I saw as I entered through the outside door into the furniture room at the auction house. They were staring straight at me, situated on either side of a gargantuan nose affixed to a board behind the trio.
Then I realized that the mesmerizing eyes were actually seated on two bar stools. The eyes appeared to be made of plastic and the nose of plaster.
They were obviously arranged and placed firmly in the sights of anyone who entered the auction house. I’m sure this ensemble attracted many others as it had me, because it was among the most unusual items I had come across at auction recently. This grouping, though, was probably the most unique.
Here are some of the others:
These mannequins looked as if they were waiting for a bus. In reality, they were only waiting to be bought.
These horses’ heads seemed to be crying to get out of the planters as two cherubs hung on indifferently nearby. An auction staffer had apparently placed the metal heads in the planters for show (or maybe being a bit mischievous). What was that thing to the right of them, wrapped in a 1941 Texas license plate? Given the holes I could see from the side, it looked like a hand-made wine rack.
A heavy solid brass rotary phone in the shape of an elephant was primed and ready to be plugged in. This novelty phone was said to have been made in Taiwan in the 1950s. This is a French-style phone.
A sculpture of an agonized or angry face that looked like the ancient Greek god Zeus.
These were items that did not turn up at auction, but I found interesting. The Marvin Gaye album melted and shaped into a bowl caught my eye first as I strode past a vendor’s booth at a local mushroom festival in September. The album was Gaye’s “Super Hits” from 1970, and had been formed into a wavy conversation piece by a company called Half-Baked Vinyl Bowls & Varietals.
Only damaged vinyl records with good labels are used, according to the company’s biz card. Next to the Gaye album was Van Morrison’s “Moondance,” also from 1970. I found several websites with instructions on how to melt vinyl records, including a suggestion that you use the thicker records from the 1960s and 1970s.
