I spied the bronze bust on a top shelf as I approached the stall in the antiques mall, but forgot it as soon as I entered and headed to see what was in the back…
Month: April 2018
Before me were small sheets that had been cut from newspapers, stacked side by side in a thick double pile. The cartoon atop the left stack was titled “Believe It or Not!” and I recognized it as…
The small embossed pictures were in no sensible order in the box on the auction table. I suspected that they had been removed from an old Victorian scrapbook where they had been carefully placed and perfectly…
Oversized figures of Christ, African female & Marlboros
Posted in Advertising, Asian, Carvings, collectibles, furniture, and Lighting
One week, the auction house had a larger-than-life figure of Jesus Christ that looked as if it had been taken from a church. A few weeks later, it offered a larger-than-life figure of an African…
Did you see the memory jug, my auction-buddy Rebecca asked as I was examining items in the back room of the auction house. To be honest, I had no idea what a memory jug was…
From $170,000 to $600,000 – record-breaking African American art sale
Posted in Art, and Uncategorized
The audience seemed to be ho-hum as artist Charles Ethan Porter’s beautiful yellow sunflowers went for $40,000. I didn’t observe much stirring when William H. Johnson’s jitterbug dancers sold for $90,000. But when Elizabeth Catlett’s…
Artifacts tell their own story of Martin Luther King’s life
Posted in Black history, civil rights movement, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Photos, and theater
One artifact was a photo of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, two men who sought freedom for African Americans in their own ways. Another was a large pinback button from the Southern Christian…