Every now and then, I come across an item among an array of stuff in a box lot that surprises me. What a surprise I got recently when I pulled an old bug sprayer out…
An old-fashioned bug sprayer
Posted in Greeting cards, and Home
Tag: auction
The southernness of Tanya Murphy’s art
Posted in Art, and Black history
The first time I saw the artworks of Tanya Murphy, they felt very familiar. Their earthiness took me back to my southern roots, her old photographs on top of old photographs, sealed in a shellac that…
From the estate of Lena Horne
Posted in Art, Black history, and Performers
The email asked only one question: “Did you get anything in the Doyle New York auction of Lena’s estate last week?” Instantly, I knew who Lena was, but I was surprised to learn that items…
The two chairs seemed to shimmer under the lights in the auction house. They were silver with rivets along each side and thin curved legs. They were metal, industrial steel, according to the auction house bid…
1942 program with Noble Sissle & Gypsy Rose Lee
Posted in Black history, and Music
I wandered into a room at the auction house a week ago where guns were being sold. I had zero interest in any of the guns but was more curious about who would turn up. …
The magic of artist Feliciano Bejar
Posted in Art
The five disc-headed sculptures sat atop the table like sentries, their metal bases constructed with parts that looked like gears. Their faces were glass prisms, more like optical lens, one squeezing out the other. These works…
A slave freed to join the Union army
Posted in Black history, Civil War, and Military
Bill Fox slid the slightly faded and folded document carefully from the clean white envelope with my name on the front. He was just as excited as me about what we had before us. It was…
A taste of black history
Posted in Art, Black history, and Photos
One of the truly satisfying results of my auction finds are the pieces of African American history that I come across on the auction tables. From photographs to vintage records to books to artwork, each…
The shark seemed to be taunting us auction-goers for weeks. I first saw it on a very high shelf at one of my favorite auction houses. The thing was a monstrosity. I tried my best to figure…
Giving the props to ‘True Grit’
Posted in Movies
I finally went to see the movie “True Grit” over the weekend. It’s been around since December, so I figured I should go before I’d have to watch a rented copy on my small TV screen at…