Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
I was fishing through a box lot of small items from auction when I saw six strange-looking cards whose fronts were make-believe wooden planks. The images looked like caricatures and the wording was oversized. The cards were…
So you bought it, the auction house assistant noted – not asked – as he eyed the solid wood African figure I had straddled across a shopping cart near the door of the auction house.…
Posted in Black history, Music, Performers, and Plays
A couple years ago, I picked up a studio photo of Louis Armstrong with his first band the Hot Five from the 1920s. Armstrong was at the piano and seemed to be talking to the…
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Music
Fridays 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…
Posted in Culture, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Women
I saw the title of the drawings under frame on the auction table before I figured out exactly what they were. The title was pretty comical in this 21st-century era, but I found it intriguing enough…
Posted in Advertising, and travel
I approached the old sign in much the same way that I approached most of them: I was innately curious about what it was selling. As I got closer, I saw that it was not…
I was going through some dusty and dirty containers of old Edison cylinder records from the early 1900s when I saw a name I recognized. It surprised me because many of the tunes, singers and…
