The book was titled “Simms’ Blue Book,” but its color was a faded blue and its cover was pockmarked with stains. It looked perfect when I saw it on the auction-house website, and just looking…
Category: Books
Wow, I thought as I saw the bold figure of a lion drawn in deep dark colors that seemed to glisten on the page in front of me. I had asked the auction-house staffer for…
Black footprint in America came way before slavery
Posted in Black history, Books, and history
At auction some years ago, I stumbled across a worn, beaten-down and scruffy book whose title faintly included the word “Negroes.” Opening it, I saw that it was children’s book titled “The First Book of…
This is what a Beatles obsession looks like on paper
Posted in Books, collectibles, and Music
I knew before I walked into the auction house that tons of books would be up for sale. But as I got closer to the books, imagine my surprise when I saw that they were all…
A mixed bag of items people tag to buy
Posted in Auction, Books, Children, China, and collectibles
The small round orange and lime stickers pop up like weeds. You can see them on any number of items on the auction tables. They don’t usually bother me because I’m always curious about what people…
The thick and heavy photo albums lay among the even weightier Victorian family Bibles. Many of the Bibles and albums were in dark tones of browns and blacks tempered with gold leaf, except for two.…
Lynn & Leslie, Constance Bannister’s African American babies
Posted in Black history, Books, Children, history, and Photos
Leslie did most of the crying. She wouldn’t sit still for the shoot by famed baby photographer Constance Bannister that day in the early 1960s. Usually, her brother Kevin, about 5 years old, could get her…
Photo flip book about a 1906 horse champ named Dan Patch
Posted in Books, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
The first time I recall seeing a flip book was in the 1981 movie “Ragtime.” I remember watching with the amazement of a kid as the immigrant Tateh held the book in one hand and with…
As I flipped through the pages, the book reminded me of a high school yearbook, but this one had original – not reprinted – photos. In fact, the only photos in the book were of…