My friend Kristin was staring at a painting when I walked up to her. That looks like a woman’s hat, she said, nodding to a fuzzy mix of flowers on a canvas before us. As soon…
The many sides of African American art
Posted in Art
Auction Finds Posts
The two yellow boxes were extremely bright among the mix of dull and unremarkable items on the auction table. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but the color caught my eye. I picked up a…
I was visiting Vancouver, Canada, some years ago when I wandered into an interesting antiques shop. That was before I began haunting auctions, but even back then I had a hankering for the old. Browsing…
Looking for objects of love
Posted in Dolls, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, jewelry, Photos, and Sewing
Young people in every generation think they were the first to discover love and romance when they get that first-time-all-is-right-with-the-world feeling. As they mature, they realize that they weren’t the first. People have been loving and living…
I get a lot of requests from readers about the value of their matchbook covers. Please read my blog post about how to determine what you have and the market value. There was a…
As soon as I saw the tattered edges of the pages spilling from the old scrapbook, I knew instantly what it was. Not photos, but other mementos of someone’s life. We all have them –…
Brothel tokens – fake or real?
Posted in collectibles, and Tokens
I hadn’t seen Barbara’s tokens yet, but I loved the cute round linen pouch with the multicolored needlepoint rooster they’d come in. Inside were three tokens that she had bought from a female vendor, and…
A songbook of minstrel tunes
Posted in Music, and Performers
The face of the soft-cover book was tattered around the edges and stained with water. I was a bit put-off by it at first – not because of its dirty appearance but because of its title.…
An almost full-service hair salon
Posted in Beauty Products, furniture, and Style
At auction, I’ve stumbled across vintage hair dryers, straightening combs, curling irons, and even plastic curlers for a doll’s hair. Blow dryers, too, end up on the tables from time to time. But at auction over…