Midcentury Egg Chairs

At least five famous mid-century modern designers made chairs that looked like large hard-boiled eggs with a cutout for seating space — Arne Jacobson (1902-1971), Milo Baughman (1923-2003), Peter Ghyczy (1940- ) and Charles Eames (1907-1978) are four of them. But the fifth and most famous was the Ovalia egg chair made in 1968 by […]

Satsuma Pottery

Satsuma pottery is from Japan. It was made in the 1860s and was sometimes purchased by American visitors to Japan and brought home. During World War I, American housewives who enjoyed hand-painting china could not get any from Germany, so they imported undecorated white Satsuma and made what is now called “American Satsuma” with stylized […]

Swinger Clocks

You probably have seen a “swinger” clock and never guessed how it worked. Most are small metal statues standing on a base while holding a long baseball bat, pendulum or other long thin rod that is topped by a clock or a globe. It keeps time and the pendulum keeps swinging but there is no […]

Figural Glass Bottles

“Figural bottles” are just what you would imagine, bottles shaped like living creatures or familiar objects. The earliest American clear glass figurals were made in the1860s. In 1866, Dr. Fisch packaged his bitters medicine in, what else, a fish-shaped bottle. Brown’s Celebrated Indian Herb Bitters was sold in a bottle shaped like a standing Indian […]

Antique Mixing Table

“Antique mixing table,” that’s what the auction catalog said. Meant to mix what? How did you use it? When was it made? Where did it belong in the house? An online search was no help. Today the name mixing table refers to the electronic consoles that are used to create music recordings. A search of […]

Terrestrial Globes

Home schooling and extra time spent with family because of the virus health rules have created a demand for maps, globes and more information about other countries. It is not difficult to figure out the probable age of a globe. And the older the globe, the higher the price might be. The first terrestrial globe […]

Civil War Photographs

By 1861 when the Civil War started, there were already several ways to take a picture. The first photos of a war were taken during the Mexican-American fight from 1846 to 1848. The Civil War (1861-1865) was the fourth. Matthew Brady was a determined photographer who collected his and other photographer’s war photos by buying […]

Vintage Plastic Radios

Vintage but modern looking plastic radios are popular with collectors today. The Art Deco design was popular when Bakelite was introduced as the first molded plastic used for radio cases in 1933. But Bakelite was either brown or black, sometimes with a marbleized look, and customers wanted more color. In 1937, Catalin was a new […]

19th-Century Mourning Art

Death was an important part of life in the 19th century. Life expectancy was 38 to 44 years and many babies died at birth or before they were a year old. Mourning and the rituals that accompanied a death were very important and lasted about a year. There was a funeral, attended by friends and […]

Figural Umbrella Stands

Umbrellas were invented over 4,000 years ago in China. They were needed for protection from sun, not rain. Umbrellas became fashionable in the 16th century when women used umbrellas for sun and sometimes for rain. There were few waterproof coverings and the hoodie wasn’t created until the 20th century. Umbrellas were hard to store, but […]