The first time I recall seeing a flip book was in the 1981 movie “Ragtime.” I remember watching with the amazement of a kid as the immigrant Tateh held the book in one hand and with…
Category: Ephemera/Paper/Documents
1906 raffle ticket to help buy an artificial leg
Posted in Advertising, camera, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, Home, and Lighting
When I saw the pink raffle ticket in the glass case at the auction house, I figured it was like any other ticket. Who hasn’t bought a raffle ticket to help out a church, group…
“Blacula” movie poster recalls ‘70s blaxploitation films
Posted in Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Movies
One wall at the auction house was plastered with movie posters, but I saw only one that I actually wanted. It was for the movie “Blacula,” a black Dracula for those movie-goers who in the…
The receipts looked like nothing more than fountain-pen scribbles on a sheet. Looking closer, though, I could read the names of some of the products that were sold by this wholesaler in 1900. I love…
The man’s grainy photo looked as if it was straight out of a newspaper. He stared out unabashedly, a bowler hat set squarely atop his head. His picture was in the center of a mugshot card along with his…
Using scantily clad women to sell ointments
Posted in Advertising, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Medicine
When I first saw the trade cards, I assumed that the women in deep necklines and sexy poses were selling exactly what they were showing. Usually I ignore such images at auction, leaving them for…
Memorial cabinet cards in remembrance of a loved one
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…
Daily schedule for 1970 TS Bremen Caribbean cruise from NY
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and travel
I had never heard of the TS Bremen, but when I saw a schedule for a 1970 cruise to the Caribbean, I quickly picked it up. Cruises are still big business, and I was curious…
Before me were small sheets that had been cut from newspapers, stacked side by side in a thick double pile. The cartoon atop the left stack was titled “Believe It or Not!” and I recognized it as…
The small embossed pictures were in no sensible order in the box on the auction table. I suspected that they had been removed from an old Victorian scrapbook where they had been carefully placed and perfectly…