I had seen the mural before as I drove down Parkside Avenue in Philadelphia, where one block held the once-stately old mansions of some of the city’s elite and middle class. I was driving down…
Month: March 2016
Panther Bobby Seale fires them up at black history showcase
Posted in Black history, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
Bobby Seale looked at me stonily, wearily. He had spoken for an hour on the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966, and then had spent another 60 minutes signing his 1996…
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them identify their items or determine their value. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can…
The four cardboard boxes were so small that they almost disappeared among the large items on the auction table. You had to squint to read the writing on them, but I knew what they were…
A boxy cash register to keep employees honest
Posted in Antiques, Businesses, and Equipment
The wooden box had seen better days. Someone had ruined its beautiful natural wood by painting it white, and now the aged paint was peeling in spots and the brass plate on top was tarnished.…
I like the three little —– over there, my auction-buddy Janet told me. I had been wandering through the auction house and hadn’t seen them. So I went back to check and there they were, the…
The big red soda machine stood against a wall in the middle of the long hallway of the school building, looking out the double doors to a wide yard and just beyond, a main highway.…
The dresses were decidedly not for the common woman. Whether African American or white, she could never in her lifetime wear the beautifully tailored 1890s wedding gown handmade by Mrs. G.W. Wright or the couture…
As soon as I saw the item, I figured out what it was. It was designed to be a machine to help us, but looked as if it would do us harm. It was a vintage version of a…