Grandmother’s tray serves up poignant family history
J.H. of Santa Barbara owns a handled copper or brass tray passed down to her from her grandmother, who arrived in Portland, Ore., in the 1890s from Odessa in the …
Bronze tabletop pagoda houses much history
D.L. has a fine little Asian ornamental bronze figure standing at about 30 inches. It is in the shape of a Japanese pagoda with seven stacked six-sided tapering roofs. Each …
Copper plaques rich in meaning but not valuable
J.H. purchased two copper plaques in Quebec in the 1960s. One ended up living in her husband’s law firm in Santa Barbara for 50 years; the other, in a sunny …
A Mysterious Glass with Teeth
P.A. from the 805 sends me pictures of a unique handled glass mug which she found at a garage sale for $2, which she tells me comes from Seattle. It …
Do you know the history of this local artist?
H.N. from Santa Barbara has an oil portrait of a dark lady in a dark hat, richly dressed, along with a wonderful story of a collection’s survival. Over a series …
Value of 19th Century Art
Dr. Elizabeth Stewart discusses how much nineteenth century art is worth in today’s market. She also describes what is popular in the current art collecting market.
No butts about it: ‘Tobacciana’ collectibles gaining value
M.C. asks “What is this?” in the subject line of her email. To which I respond, after seeing a photo of the object: “What’s the classic image of Audrey Hepburn …
Menorah
J.E. sends me a treasured many branched Hanukkah menorah that she found (or, I should say, found her) in a thrift store in Santa Barbara. She discovered this treasure in …
Swimming in dollars? Estimating the value of ‘fish-course’ flatware
G. J. has a “fish-course” set of silver plate flatware that dates to the last quarter of the 19th century. I have seen many of these elegant services, and they …
Mauchlin Ware Eyeglass Case
Scotland was the center in the mid 19th century of what we call The Cottage Industry: people are always amused when that old paisley shawl really did come from a …