What a sweet little vanity jar I thought as I saw the squat white container adorned with pink roses and trimmed in yellow and lime green. It looked like one of those Nippon trinket boxes that…
Category: Beauty Products
“Wind Song” perfume as lure for women to buy ‘54 Chevy
Posted in Beauty Products, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Personal items, Vehicles, and Women
The first image I saw was a small bottle of perfume, its top enveloped by a large printed bouquet of ribbons on a card. Beneath it, I read three words that were incongruous with the…
Curling irons for a man’s moustache
Posted in Beauty Products, and Personal items
I went straight to the curling irons as soon as I saw them on the auction table, surrounded by trays and trays of items that looked like someone had emptied out an antiques store. In fact, they…
Readers ask about straightening combs, ice cream maker & toilet chair
Posted in Beauty Products, food, and Home
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources for them to determine the value of their items. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but I can do…
Bell push, snuff box & other pretty little things
Posted in Beauty Products, collectibles, Glassware, Personal items, and Trinket box
The color was the first thing that struck me. The round chartreuse item seemed to glow in the glass case at the auction house. I wasn’t sure what it was – it resembled a door bell, but it…
1963 March on Washington record album
Posted in Beauty Products, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Music
I hadn’t seen much on the auction house website to entice me, but I went to the auction anyway, not expecting to find anything I’d want to take home. The bidding had gotten started when…
Christmas stocking stuffers buried in box lots
Posted in Beauty Products, bottles, Carvings, Christmas, collectibles, Dolls, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Holidays, jewelry, and Personal items
The woman was as gleeful as a little girl with her boxes of Barbies and doll clothes. She couldn’t wait to get them home and go through them, she said. You never know what’s hidden…
Hair perm machine leads to black female inventor
Posted in African American women, Beauty Products, and Hair
The monstrous machine with the painfully looking tentacles was the first thing that captured my eye when I entered the auction house. It looked like a lamp with a round dirty globe, but I wasn’t…
The joy of being a woman
Posted in African American women, Beauty Products, Clothing, and Women
It’s a sheer pleasure being a woman. Some of the best stuff in the world is made – not made, but designed – for us, and we partake of it unabashedly. We are some of…