The little girl figurine was hiding down in the box beneath a large dirt-speckled doll in faded and dingy clothes, and two smaller dolls equally as dirty, one with eyes, the other with holes where…
Category: collectibles
Reader asks about “Balky Mule” tray with African American motif
Posted in collectibles, and Glassware
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…
Food auction & more at Amish Mud Sale
Posted in collectibles, Culture, and food
From where I stood under a tent in the shade out of the sun, I could see tables of brown cardboard boxes under another tent not too far away. They were different from what I’d…
Readers ask about degrading Occupied Japan salt/pepper shakers
Posted in collectibles, Figurines, and Reader questions
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…
Readers ask about Angel of Death matchbook & child’s rickshaw
Posted in collectibles, Reader questions, and Vehicles
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…
The cardboard box with the cut-off top was in the center of the table and reachable only if I stretched my arms. From where I stood at the edge of the table, I could tell…
A collectible Kodiak bear trap
Posted in Animals, and collectibles
A few years ago, I got three sets of animal traps among some items I bought at an auction. They were rusty contraptions, and one looked as if it still had a tiny bit of…
A theater troupe’s African American marionettes
Posted in Art, collectibles, and Performers
At first glance, I could not tell what was in the row of cardboard boxes that filled the long tabletop at the auction house. There appeared to be about a dozen of them, with strings…
Swan figurine by Laszlo Ispanky
Posted in Art, collectibles, and Figurines
I was sorting through a box lot of disparate items recently, not sure what I would find of value or interest. I removed item after item, fingering them carefully, and finally came upon a small swan…