Unusual Medical Antiques

There doesn’t seem to be any type of antique that isn’t sold at auctions, flea markets or shops. We were surprised years ago at a flea market when a dealer was offering a wooden artificial leg. It was sold an hour after we saw it. He said it went to a woman who wanted to […]

Hires Root Beer Signs

Advertising art is very popular today and prices keep rising. Collectors want old examples with good graphics, recognized products and great condition. A small amount of restoration is OK. Anything that mentions a product for sale is considered “advertising,” even labels on bottles and cans. Most companies keep the look of their ads the same […]

Fischer Puzzle Jug

This very elaborately decorated puzzle-pitcher was made in Budapest, Hungary. In 1839, Moritz Fischer bought a factory that had been operating in Herend, Hungary, since 1826. He started making dinner sets for Hungarians because the old sets from Europe and the Far East were no longer available. The company started making figurines in the 1870s. […]

Folk Art Flag

Folk Art, by definition, is a homemade or handmade piece by an untrained artist. It can be as large as a huge sculpture of found pieces of metal or as small as a peach pit carved and made into a pendant. A realistic duck decoy, a quilt with original designs, or a carved wooden bust […]

Kem Weber Furniture

Kem Weber (1889-1963) followed a strange path in his life, going from a farmer in Berlin to a famous modern architect and designer in the United States. He apprenticed in 1908 under a famous cabinet maker. In 1926 he was chosen to supervise the construction of the German Pavilion at the 1910 exhibition in Brussels. […]

Penny Toys

Children have always wanted to imitate the activities of people they see. So, toys have been made for centuries that are dressed to look like friends and, if possible, let them pretend to cook, play or work like grown-ups. In Germany, toy factories made small colorful tin toys from about 1880 to 1914 that could […]

Seeds and Seed Tape

It’s spring and time to plant the seeds that grow into vegetables and flowers that often are tasty salads for deer, rabbits, squirrels and other local wildlife. In 1790 a Shaker religious community started to sell packets filled with seeds saved from the previous year. It was a new idea. Seeds for farmers had only […]

Smoke Alarm Saved Us

Dear Lee, We have written about how to protect antiques when there are floods and storms and other disasters. But this is for a minor problem that can still cause stress, hard physical work, and much expense — a kitchen fire. Smoke alarms saved us, but follow-up was worse than we expected. 1) Thursday morning. […]

Market Report — Be Creative!

A Saturday journey to a store featuring décor created from architectural and hardware salvage in Amherst, Ohio, was a lesson in repurposing old into new. The eco-friendly trend of using old hardware, crystal door knobs, salvaged wood planks and architectural elements to express style and creativity was on display. The owner said people come in […]

Commemorating English Monarchs

Queen Elizabeth was born on April 21, 1926, but she celebrates her birthday on several different days. The English monarch’s birthday was celebrated on the actual date of his or her birth since 1788. But in 1936, after King George V died, the date was changed to the second Monday in June to commemorate his […]