Ring Lost in Maine, Found in Finland

Deep in a dark forest in Finland … While that sounds like the beginning of a scary story, it is actually a tale with a happy ending. Forty-three years after she lost it, Maine resident Debra McKenna has been reunited with a white gold class ring that was a gift from her high school boyfriend […]

Storing Barbie Dolls

Store Barbie dolls without the metal earrings. Eventually the metal will discolor the ears.  

A New Decade and New Looks for Fashionista Barbie

Barbie is not resting on her fashion icon laurels. With her hands firmly on her tiny waist, she is adapting to changing tastes. In the last five years, Barbie’s maker, Mattel, has introduced more than 170 new looks, embracing body diversity, reflecting permanent disabilities, different skin tones and hair colors and textures, and even a […]

Fabergé Miniature Sedan Chair Sells High

Wow! A Fabergé miniature sedan chair sold for $598,453, four times its highest estimate, at Cotswold Auction Company in Gloucestershire, England. The 3-inch-high gold, jade and rock crystal chair was made between 1899 and 1903.  

Cash Register

Q: Can you tell me when this cash register was made and what it’s worth? There is a paper that tells who it was built for and who sold it, but it doesn’t give the date. It has number “349817” in the corner of the paper and says the register is size 14 and has […]

Vintage Posters Promoted “Exotic” Travel

Collectors are attracted to travel posters for a variety of reasons, including their fun-filled tourism themes, rich colors, stylized graphics, the particular artist, or fond memories of the time or place depicted. Swann Auction Galleries of New York City recently offered an assortment of rare and important travel posters. Sale prices ranged from $50 to […]

Picture Perfect Memories

Dear Lee, I spent the long Christmas and New Year’s time off sorting through a box of family pictures from years ago. I started throwing them in the box to label later after I stopped doing my elaborate scrapbooks in the 1970s. So here are tips for proper identification of pictures. They include daguerreotypes, stereotypes, tin […]

Cameo Glass Is Historic, Beautiful

A recent Skinner auction in Boston sold pieces of cameo glass that appeal to collectors. Cameo glass was initially created in the first century by Roman artisans who cut away bits of opaque white glass to reveal a darker glass. Cameo glass experienced a revival in the late 1800s and early 1900s because of the […]

Comic Book Price Sets Record

The finest known copy of Marvel Comics Superhero Universe No. 1 set a world record when it sold for $1.2 million and became the most expensive Marvel comic ever sold at auction. It was originally bought from a newsstand in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in the 1940s.  

Carlton Ware Tea Caddy

Q: I found a piece of Carlton Ware in my attic and am wondering if it is worth anything? It’s about 4 3/4 inches tall and 2 1/4 inches wide. A: The Carlton Works began operating in Stoke-on-Trent, England, about 1890. The company operated as Wiltshaw & Robinson. In 1958 it became Carlton Ware Ltd. […]