You Call It Obsession & Obscure; I Call It Research & Important

Political collecting can be a strange area : not just because politicians are strange, but because the details may not transfer with time. Culture, pop

We've sold a number of these primitive antique fly traps -- but none quite this large. (I forgot to measure it, but it's at least a foot tall.) Nor did any have their original maker tag with instru...

While the graphics can be real beauties, they lie beneath layers & clumps of stuff that is not so beautiful and smells — like dirt and, yes, manure.

In order to be of any real value, the vintage and antique feed sacks must be cleaned.

But it is neither safe nor advisable to throw them into the wash machine. (Since the weave of burlap sacks is so wide, I rarely ever trust my washing machine with them. Even the gentle or hand-wash settings always seems to create pulls or holes, often starting at the threads at the seams. I just don’t like to risk it.)

Instead, you must hand wash them — and, due to their size, one at a time at that.

While the old feed sacks I cleaned today are made of burlap, you can clean other feed, seed, flour, sugar sacks etc. in the same way.

How To Clean Old Feed, Flour, Seed Sacks Found In Barns

Among the steps eBay is taking to try to bring back their antiques and collectibles presence, is a new series of Collector Events: Discover another world of shopping -- with items from around the w...

In 1972, the Ms. Foundation for Women produced Free to Be… You and Me, an illustrated book and record album set. Initiated by Marlo Thomas, the mission of the Free to Be… You and Me project was to provide healthy messages refuting and rejecting gender stereotypes while encouraging the positive and empowering post-1960s ideas of gender equality, individuality, comfort with one’s identity, and tolerance. Using her celebrity clout, Marlo Thomas got a number of her celebrity friends to create, write, and perform the modern day lessons to children in song and story form. No doubt the hope was that the parents and other adults in children’s lives were listening — and learning — too.

Valentine's Day wouldn't be Valentine's Day without the proverbial box of chocolates! These two boxes are pretty examples of sweet antique advertising ephemera. The first box marked "Overhauser's o...

Is anyone else annoyed by this season of Oddities: San Francisco?

Along with a new cast member (Lincoln Smith replaces Korrie Sabatini), the Oddities spin-off (which has fared better than the other spin-off, Odd Folks Home), has been tweaked for season two. Among the tweaks: lots of smirks, fake looks of horror and shock, and, I kid you not, actual “boing” and “doing” noises to emphasize them.

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I've been busy with articles again this month...

I also write regularly for the Dolls By Diane newsletter. This month it was all about wax dolls — from their history to some spook-tacular antique wax dolls, including 17th century wax anatomical models (like those by Anna Morandi Manzolini) and effigy dolls

This dreamy creamy white antique hand beaded bag is a square 4 1/2 by 4 /12/ inches, but it’s placed into the frame on an angle so that it looks diamond shaped. The German Silver frame is embossed with leaves — and the clasps are acorns!