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…
Category: Carvings
So you bought it, the auction house assistant noted – not asked – as he eyed the solid wood African figure I had straddled across a shopping cart near the door of the auction house.…
Janet & Sherry the auction hunters: Day 1
Posted in Art, Carvings, collectibles, history, Personal items, and travel
My auction buddy Janet and I were headed to an auction recently when I broached the idea of the two of us becoming auction hunters for a day: Pretend we’re on a TV show where…
I can’t seem to escape wooden carved masks at auction these days. They keep turning up and I’m not quite sure why. It’s working out for me because I’m on the lookout for items to offer…
African wooden masks and carvings seemed to be cropping up more often at the auctions I attend. I wondered if people were shedding their links to the motherland and re-decorating, or families were discarding leftovers…
Some years ago, I was at a gallery in the Washington, DC, area, and almost bought an etching by artist Joseph Holston. I don’t remember the image in the etching but it was apparently something…
This time, the woman pirate was standing alone at the auction house. The week before she had towered over the Blues Brothers, replicas of the famous movie characters who had been immortalized in plaster. Someone…
Wow, I thought as I saw the dusty stone African figures on the auction website. It was déjà vu, because I had seen an exact piece like it at another auction a week ago. It…
I was visiting Vancouver, Canada, some years ago when I wandered into an interesting antiques shop. That was before I began haunting auctions, but even back then I had a hankering for the old. Browsing…
A crop of tiki cups
Posted in Carvings, collectibles, and Music
The tiki image seemed to be here, there, everywhere on the auction tables, and the breadth of them sparked a memory for one auction-goer. Rich’s aunts and uncles had drank from tiki cups and danced to the music…