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MG from Santa Barbara received a collection of mid 20th century hats from her grandmother. Notably one, a streamlined head-fitted cloche style with a large silk label: “Mr. John.” This …

“You don’t even know who I am” (a famous Disraeli quote). Christa and Elaine of a local estate sale company called to say “The Clearing House” sent them a 20-volume …

PL owns a series of nine books, Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, dating from 1916 to 1925 by the author Elbert Green Hubbard (1856-1915). If you know the …

PP sends a picture of a pinball machine with a label on the back “Modified by Wurlitzer Distribution Corporation, Pico Blvd, LA.” The card game related pinball machine is dated …

Just in the last 4 months, I received many emails asking for values of Japanese Kimonos, emails from all over the world. A great-uncle brought a black kimono back after …

JS sent me a photograph of a large oil portrait of a man with a red umbrella. It’s signed, somewhat illegibly, DeGroot, DeGroat or DeGroote. Those spellings are within reason …

J from Santa Barbara has this little box of what appears to contain instruments of torture. Is it some kind of medical thing? He asks. His great great Uncle came …

For 30 years I’ve visited people’s home environments, and I can tell their ‘material psychology’ by observing their home. Not only that, I can suss out a person’s attachment style …

Mechanically minded people, like NS, who collects typewriters, are inclined to the human scale. The typewriter is one of the first machines that allowed for a direct contact between one’s …

E.D. from the LA area sends me a photo of this paintings by Charuvi Schmuel (1897-1965) from the 1920’s, of what I believe is an image of Kinneret, an archaeological …