1930s Refrigerator Market Boom
In the 1930s, the early years of refrigeration, the refrigerator market boomed. Inventors became busy with new ideas for many types of units for the home. A whole slew of …
Gluckmann Equals Big Bucks
MV’s dad asked his daughter to send me a photograph of a 20 x 24″ oil on canvas signed on the back (signed verso) by Grigori Gluckmann (Grigori Efimovich Gluckmann, …
Marie Dorothy Dolph Pioneer Painter
An entry in the Wyoming State Museum of Cheyenne meant the world to EF, whose mother turned 98. A friend of hers found two paintings in a thrift store marked …
Listen to the Voice of the Object
Dr. Elizabeth Stewart tells a deeply personal story about the importance of listening to the voice of an object, especially with all the noise surrounding this pandemic time. If the …
Lompoc Telephone Battle
Lompoc telephone and business history interconnect in the early 20th century. KM of Montecito sent me a photograph of George Washington Moore Sr.. This Lompoc rancher/merchant also fathered the man …
The Voice of the Object
Dr. Elizabeth Stewart shows three objects and asks: Does that object speak to you? Does it mean anything to you? She encourages you to let the object tell who used …
When Silver Plate isn’t Plate?
Many people are going through storage units these days. I know because I get calls about objects people rediscovered. One of my clients found an old set of silver. The …
Busy days for those of us in the STUFF World
I’m swamped these days with calls asking the value of objects heretofore ignored. Either folks need to sell, or want to pass to heirs now, or are moving houses or …
Autograph Book Equals Hidden Treasure
This week I found an autograph book I forgot about, completely. In this limbo period of lock-down, I’m doing what I suggested to many of my clients. Go to the …
The Amazing Stevengraph
NH sent me a silk textile weaving, generically known today as a Stevengraph. Its history began in the Middle Ages, in a faraway place along the Jona River in a …