Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in Advertising, Auction, collectibles, and Medicine
When my buddy Janet and I started going to auctions years ago, we’d wait around for hours until the last of the box lots were sold. By then, many of the buyers had gone home, overwhelmed with…
Here I am again with a guessing game of items that I found interesting at auction. I wasn’t sure what to make of one of them until I read the sticker that the auction house…
Posted in Black history, Culture, dance, and Performers
“My uncle used to come up here and party,” the man said to me as we headed to the Cotton Club in New York. He and I were among a group of people who had…
The suitcase looked to have belonged to a military man. It was a dull green canvas with four narrow wooden slats fitted around it like belts. It sat there unassumingly on the concrete floor near…
Posted in Books
The auctioneer was trying mightily to sell the six or so stacks of old books on the counter behind him, one stack at a time. But he was hawking them to a stubborn crowd. There…
Posted in Black history, and slavery
Last October, a reader named Bob came across one of my blog posts about an auction of Nazi paraphernalia. In the post, I was pretty adamant about not-never-ever having any inclination to buy such artifacts.…
Posted in furniture
I was walking through the furniture room at one of my favorite auction houses recently when I noticed something: Several pieces of furniture – seemingly more than usual – were showing off the work of a…
It’s been a couple months since David Raine started marketing the artwork of his father, Philadelphia artist Earl Wilkie. When Wilkie died in 2009, he left behind a legacy of paintings, sculptures, sketches and poems,…
Posted in Military
It’s not often that weapons other than guns and knives come up for sale at the auction houses I go to. But recently, a medieval-looking item found its way to one of the tables. I…
