Gerstner and Sons Toolbox Shows Off Tools
FG owns a H. Gerstner and Sons toolbox from the 1950s at sixteen inches, tall, nine inches wind, twenty-five inches long, found in a Goleta garage. Its origins go back …
Piero Fornasetti and Practical Madness
HH sent me a box with a distinctive classical Renaissance PalladianPalladian print superimposed upon it, with a unique perspective, I see a near illegible signature beginning with “F” and ending …
Why a Fruit Bowl Lamp?
JP’s fruit bowl lamp at about twenty-four inches tall looks like a strange combination for us to see today. It’s a bowl of fruit sculpture and a lamp; Why? This “period …
Midcentury Modern Kitsch Chalkware Lamp
SS’s husband picked up a chalkware lamp at a garage sale. The figure shows the full body of a young gondolier with pink lipsticked lips, dressed in Venetian bloomers and …
Whatz it Worth Event
If you live in, or plan to visit, the Santa Barbara area, join me for a public Whatz it Worth event at the Music Academy of the West on Sunday, …
Olden Days Beaded Handbag
These days an average woman’s handbag measures roughly sixteen by twelve inches. We fill them with a cellphone or tablet, make up, money, ID, vaccination record, dog potty bags, wallet, …
Mystery of a Loved Ewer
LD owns an ewer and basin she has known of for her 80 years. She writes about her parent’s life stories, and she asked me to piece together the ownership. …
Bricks Go Back Thousands of Years
JF sent me a photo of his lovely entry hall. He added a piece he found at a thrift store, a series of antique drawers, actually old wooden boxes. I …
Saarinen Solved Furniture Problem
TP asked me to research what she thought might be a Saarinen design in a consignment store find. I eagerly researched her pedestal table and four tulip chairs. The question …
What to do with a piano
My mother was a concert pianist, thus I have been intimate with all types of pianos, and appraised pianos for years. Many of my clients DO own an upright, a …