I spotted the shelves of birdhouses from a distance at the auction house. They were arranged neatly in a cabinet near a wall – some of them alike, several reminding me of an abstract painting.
I walked over to check them out and stood admiring them when a couple joined me. “Aren’t they cute,” the woman said as a statement rather than a question. “I have a friend, wherever there’s a post in her yard, she puts one up.”
I’m not into birdhouses and you won’t see any in my yard. These were indeed cute but most were rather crude. “They look like kids did them,” I said, and showed them the back side of a house presumably made of reclaimed wood. It was inscribed: RSR. Jr, 4/93, age 4, 1st birdhouse!
“Of course,” she said, acknowledging the child’s hand in it. “Early American,” the man remarked, attaching an historical period to it.
Several of the birdhouses were signed: Bekka 2000, MLH 1994. Another was inscribed with a name on the roof – Wood Pecker Pad – along with a totem symbol on the front. Another showed the hands of an adult: It had real straw beneath the entrance opening, painted flowers and tiny wooden shutters at the faux windows.
Over the many years I have gone to auctions, birdhouses have come up from time to time. Once, I even came across vintage accessories called water or cage feeders.
Here’s a look at the birdhouses at this auction, along with three others I saw on the backyard lot of another auction house:
