The auction house website showed photo after photo of dusty vintage and antique typewriters. I didn’t raise a brow because I’d seen plenty of them – both dusty and clean – over the years. When…
Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in Advertising, African American women, collectibles, and Tins
Both the image and the product name on the metal tin poster surprised me. The tin featured a young black girl wearing a clean dress with a white pinafore, and a bright smile. She had red…
Posted in collectibles, Music, and Toys
First, I tried to get the boxy contraption to play, and then the auction-house staffer, who was just as curious as me about this instrument, tried it. As we watched the paper roll round a…
Posted in Animals, collectibles, and Figurines
I enjoyed the movie “Ratatouille” about the mouse (or maybe it was a rat) named Remy that was a Michelin-star chef, but if I see one of the little rodents in my house, I won’t invite…
Posted in collectibles, and dishware
Everywhere I turned at the auction house, I saw Queen Elizabeth II’s smiling face on a comemorative plate. It was both jarring and refreshing to see her happy and smiling, especially after observing the stoic-faced image of…
Posted in collectibles, Death, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
I was flipping through some cabinet cards at auction recently when I came across an unusual one. Cabinet cards normally bore a photo of folks dressed in their finest with the name of the studio…
Posted in Advertising, Asian, Carvings, collectibles, furniture, and Lighting
One week, the auction house had a larger-than-life figure of Jesus Christ that looked as if it had been taken from a church. A few weeks later, it offered a larger-than-life figure of an African…
Posted in Animals, Art, collectibles, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, furniture, Signs, and Unusual
The rattlesnake was showing its fang, but who could blame it. Someone had chopped off its head and made it into a keychain. The rattlesnake’s angry countenance was one of two on a shelf in…
Posted in Christmas, collectibles, and Personal items
When I saw the five binders in the glass case at the auction house, I assumed they contained postage stamps. I wasn’t that interested in anyone’s postage stamp collection – which seem to be ubiquitous at…