Before the weather started to chill, I went out and bought a pedometer. I wanted to measure the number of miles (or mile) I walked along the uphills and downhills of my neighborhood. I didn’t want…
Category: Children
Little girl’s dresser set with a sweet little note
Posted in Children, collectibles, Home, Trinket box, and Uncategorized
How cute, I thought when I saw the small porcelain dresser set on a tray inside a glass case at the auction house. There was nothing fancy about it: It was gilt-trimmed like many of…
A lovely doll steamer trunk with a Victorian feel
Posted in Children, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Personal items, and travel
When I first saw the small trunk sitting atop a glass case, I thought “treasure chest.” It was black all over with stained wooden planks and tiny round nail heads both decorating and holding the…
The big red soda machine stood against a wall in the middle of the long hallway of the school building, looking out the double doors to a wide yard and just beyond, a main highway.…
A (Spool) Pet that never needs feeding
Posted in Advertising, Children, and Sewing
They were paper cutouts of six animals attached to empty thread spools. All I could see of them in the glass case at the auction house were their faces and two front feet. Their tails…
Reader seeks identity of Hazelle’s African American marionette
Posted in Children, Dolls, Reader questions, and Toys
Friday at Auction Finds is readers’ questions day. I try to guide readers to resources to help them identify their items or determine the value of them. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but…
1968 inlay puzzle of a black child drawn as his natural self
Posted in Children, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Games
The images of the African American boy were partly hidden beneath a black cloth doll on the auction table. I immediately moved the doll aside so I could get a closer look at the images…
Treasures in a little girl’s keepsake chest
Posted in Children, and collectibles
The mahogany box with the little treasure chest on top was closed, so naturally I had to see what was inside. That’s what you do at auctions, because you never know what’s hiding inside shuttered boxes. As…