“You know who I’m talking about,” my friend Renee was saying on the phone, “from the West Indies.” I had no idea who she was talking about. She was trying to get me to remember…
J. McDonald Henry print from my past
Posted in Art
Author: sherry
This must have been a week for folks to unload vintage console or floor-model radios, I thought when I saw two at the same auction house. Then a few days later, I saw another one. Usually,…
Can you guess what this Christmas gift is?
Posted in Christmas, and Guess what it is
The big square gift box still wore its wrapping paper covered in poinsettias and a big red bow. The paper was a bit faded, and the gift looked as if it had never been unwrapped. I…
Someone may have kept the two bright sunshine-yellow and forest-green road guides as a way to remember their travel adventure. They’d gone to the Delaware Motor Club office in Wilmington, DE, on June 25, 1947,…
1968 Phila. (Rizzo) proclamation targeting protesters
Posted in Black history, civil rights movement, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
The bright yellow sheet was hidden beneath a pile of nothing papers, and I wouldn’t have found it if I wasn’t in the habit of combing through documents at auction. It was in a cheap…
Should you collect the Tubman $20 bill?
Posted in collectibles, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and history
When I learned that Harriet Tubman would be the face on the new $20 bill, I rejoiced. She is a woman so deserving of such an honor. Then the collector in me asked a practical…
Retablo carvings on mirror tell stories of life in Peru
Posted in Art, Carvings, collectibles, and Figurines
From where I stood, staring across rows of heavy furniture at the auction house, I could barely make out the carvings framing the mirror. I could see that they were colorful and a little crude,…
Simple form leads to history of POW camps in U.S.
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, history, and Military
What an odd but interesting document, I thought, as I spied the blank form titled “Prisoner of War” inside a plastic covering on the auction table. I’d never seen anything like it before and wondered…
Guess what retirement plan is inside this box
Posted in Games, and Guess what it is
You couldn’t miss the sunshine-yellow box on the auction table. Maybe that’s what the maker had in mind when it chose such a brilliant color and a collage of leisure activities that reminded you of Florida,…
Cellophane tape holds together 1949 ‘Dear Jane’ letter
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Uncategorized
The sheet of paper looked like a puzzle. It was covered in a crazy patchwork of cellophane tape that had turned golden-brown with age. It was a handwritten letter that had been ripped into pieces and…