A couple years ago, I was browsing the art offerings at one of my regular auction houses when I spotted a watercolor saturated with the color orange. Among the dense bright color were a young…
Auction Finds Posts
Christmas cards not from the heart
Posted in Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Military
Last week, I sent out my usual batch of Christmas cards with the sweet little expressions of joy and cheer. This year, I chose cards with Merry Christmas and Happy New Year on the front…
When I first saw the two heavy metal contraptions on the auction table, I was floored as to their name or purpose. They had ridged corn-cob rollers that resembled the top of a wringer washing…
A Christmas sleigh ready for a loving touch
Posted in collectibles, and travel
The old sleigh looked as if it had been left unattended in a barn for years. Its red leather was dirty and hard. The elements had battered its wood, leaving gaps, nicks and holes. It looked…
I had combed the auction floor desperately searching for something imaginative, hoping that I’d find an item that would force me to consider its uniqueness. I was doing a walk-through before a Decorative Arts sale at…
Lawn jockeys aplenty
Posted in Black history, and collectibles
As I stood there looking at the black lawn jockey on the auction table, I could sense that someone had walked up next to me. The auction-goer watched as I fingered the metal figure. He…
I was standing around waiting for some items to come up at auction when I spotted a stack of magazines on a table. They were vintage copies of Look magazine from the 1940s and 1960s,…
From Brownie books to black children’s magazine
Posted in Black history, Books, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
When I first saw the books and their titles in the glass case at the auction house, my first thought was of cameras. The images on the covers, though, were of strange little characters with…
A real estate sale of public housing
Posted in Architecture/Buildings, and Home
The auctioneer probably felt that he was on a roll. The first three properties up for auction from the Philadelphia Housing Authority stock had drawn bids of more than $100,000. One had gone as high…
‘Birth of a Nation’ souvenir book
Posted in Black history, Civil War, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, and Movies
I had missed the book lying quietly and innocently there on a shelf in a glass case at the auction house. It was overshadowed by two noisy shelves above it with Shirley Temple photos, Shirley…