Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in Art, Black history, and Photos
One of the truly satisfying results of my auction finds are the pieces of African American history that I come across on the auction tables. From photographs to vintage records to books to artwork, each…
The shark seemed to be taunting us auction-goers for weeks. I first saw it on a very high shelf at one of my favorite auction houses. The thing was a monstrosity. I tried my best to figure…
The little child’s piano just grabbed hold of me when I walked through the door of the auction house. Someone with a marketer’s eye knew what they were doing. It faced me like a yearning…
Posted in African American women, Art, and Black history
In the 1948 Pyramid Club catalog I got at auction, the women artists appear to share the listing with the men. Their names are right there, seemingly in no particular order and with no ranking. …
Posted in Art, Black history, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
The advertising art seemed to magically appear – again. Two weeks before, one of my favorite auction houses had propped stacks of the illustrations on racks against a wall. A white guy raising a glass…
Posted in Art, Black history, and Carvings
I dragged my sister to an antiques mall just south of my family’s home in Macon, GA, over the holidays to see what was there. I’m always curious about how or whether antiques are different…
The man was an island of calmness standing there behind a display of three chalk-like Santas positioned on top of a vintage sled. You could almost miss him amid the bustle of Christmas shoppers at Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem,…
Posted in Art, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
Flipping through a box of newspaper display art, I was thrilled as I stopped during a walk-through at one of my favorite auction houses. I’d been a newspaper reporter and editor and reporter for years, but rarely made…
A small knot of people had gathered in front of the tiny vendor’s booth at the Columbus Avenue Christmas Market in New York. On the wall facing me were shards of blue and white pottery,…
“Have you heard of this artist,” one auction-buyer asked as he walked up to another who was checking out books on an auction table. His friend had never heard the name Stuart M. Egnal before, and neither…
