The envelope seemed too flat-pressed to be holding anything at all, much less anything of value. It had been weighted down by other papers on top of it, and you could practically hear it screaming…
Category: Ephemera/Paper/Documents
Reader asks about Lois Mailou Jones’ Paris art book
Posted in Art, Books, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, 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…
Jackie Robinson’s “42” & the fear of change
Posted in Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, history, Movies, and Sports
Some years ago, I picked up a lobby card for the 1950 movie “The Jackie Robinson Story” at auction. The card showed a smiling Robinson, Ruby Dee as his wife Rachel, along with other actors playing Branch…
Mystery of the “Gotta Quit Kickin’ My Dawg Aroun'” song
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Music
I had seen the piece of sheet music in a back room of the auction house, slightly ajar in its frame, the masking tape holding it in place having lost its glue. The front cover was…
Readers ask for numbers & meanings in dream book
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Reader questions, and Uncategorized
I was cleaning out my emails recently when I came across several from folks asking me to look up numbers and interpret dreams based on “The H.P. Dream Book” of numbers. I don’t believe much in…
I’m not much of a boxing fan. I find the sport too messy and too barbaric. But a friend who is the owner of the famed Blue Horizon boxing venue in Philadelphia keeps trying to…
Readers ask about Sugar Ray’s Café postcard and theater lights
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Lighting, Performers, Plays, Postcards, 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…
A box that holds more than just recipes
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, food, and Kitchen
The small box was nondescript – plastic with a black and chocolate brown-muddled grain – and looked like many of the others that turn up in box lots at auction. It was a recipe box,…
Readers ask about African mask & shadow puppets
Posted in Art, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Performers, 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 the items that they own. I’m not able to appraise their treasures, but…