Uncovering Our History Through The Relics Left Behind
Posted in Glassware
During the years I’ve been going to auctions, I have picked up a group of small glass items for their aesthetic rather than useful value. They are bottle stoppers. I have three beautiful cobalt-blue stoppers…
I was at a flea market recently and watched as a woman with her daughter, who looked to be about 12, walked up to a table. The woman spotted an item that she recognized, and…
Every now and then, I find packed among a $2 lot of glassware some interesting souvenir or collector’s plates. The ones inscribed with lovely scenes that are meant for display, not for food. I’ve picked up plates of…
Posted in Crafts
I was on my way to look over some vintage items in the cases at one of my favorite auction houses recently when one of the auctioneers stopped me. We have a nice old African…
Posted in Kitchen
My friend Fatimah is starting a catering business, so I’m helping her to find exquisite dinnerware at auction prices. That won’t be hard because lovely dinnerware come up for auction pretty often. Most of the…
Posted in Photos
The group of photos were on a back table at the auction house against a wall, almost hidden among much taller items. They were black and whites of African American soldiers. Several showed 10 soldiers…
Posted in Home
A couple months ago, I was about to leave an exhibit of Massachusetts furniture at Winterthur Museum when I came across a copy of a 1955 article from the Boston Herald. It was hanging on a wall,…
Posted in Music
I spotted it from across the room. An African mask, chalk-white, elongated face, hanging on a wall at one of my favorite auction houses on Sunday. I had seen several like it the day before,…
Posted in Home
The auctioneer was holding up a straw broom, describing to us auction-goers its history and other qualities. My mind was wandering until he said it was made by students at Berea College. A black college…
Posted in Uncategorized
At an auction recently, I came across a deck of Old Maid cards, 45 in a box. This was the second time in the last six months or so that I’d found a deck of the…
