Jade Bird

Hi Ya'll,

I know my blog is about old books and vintage paper but if you're following you know that I'm having to make my way through other items before I can get to all of my books.

I've been out antique-ing for the past three days trying to find furniture and stuff that I've come upon in this old estate. I wanted to find similar items to the one's we're selling to get an idea of the proper price of each thing. I'd love to hear from other's of you who have had to make a tough decision of whether to have an estate sale or try to sell stuff yourselves.

I didn't even know Ms. Annie who died and left this stuff to my brother but already I'm feeling emotionally attached. There's something about going through someone's lifetime accumulation of things that gives you a hint as to who they were. It's as if people who have passed on have left us clues as to who they were even if we didn't know them. All I can say is that the more I go through her things, the more I want to respect what she stood for or believed in. I think my brother is lucky to have known her and I wish I could have known her too.

I will write more about her book collection as time goes by. I'm not even in the middle of her books yet and I know I have some sets of books going on. I can't advertise them as sets until I know for sure the whole set is there. I think I will find the complete sets as I'm able to get to the crates in storage. So in the meantime, I will share parts of her story with you.

She loved everything Western. She was raised in California. She started her own glass company in California back in the day. After several years and being tired of the business and burnt out with the glass orders to fill...(very successful business) she hopped on a plane and flew to somewhere where she didn't have anyone looking for her. She ended up in Tennessee! Decided to live here!

I've come across several railroad items. No doubt she was interested in the railroad because her father was a conductor for Pacific Railways. He was born 1884 and died 1954. The reason I know is because I came across her father's death memorial certificate put out by the Pacific Railway. She told my brother years ago that when her mother and father split up, her father actually paid her mother a certain sum of money to get her. (Her mother sold her) and backed out of her life. Ms. Annie loved her father and traveled all over the world with him. He instilled in her a love of art and history. (Also a love of skeet shooting and horse racing!) But she also loved birds, wildlife in general, and cats!

In today's blog I want to show you a picture of a jade bird in her collection. It's very unusual to say the least. I've been researching this piece and I haven't found it anywhere. Ms. Annie picked things that are quite a mystery!

I've Been a Busy Girl

Since I last posted I've been busy! My brother brought me a few more items to try to sell and I've been back to the storage unit myself to bring more items out of the way so that I can clear that long path to my books! I had to put some stuff for sale on Craigs list to try to clean out my garage. I sold my old inversion table so that I can have room to set old furniture. I've had two antique dealers come to my house and buy a few things. That helped clear the clutter a little but I have a long way to go.

Right now I have an antique prayer chair and and antique chamber pot seat in my garage. I also have some antique oriental rugs. I've spent quite some time researching antique rugs to try to find an idea of the value of these I have. Not much luck with that research. We don't have a rug dealer in my town and apparently no rug appraiser either!

I ran an auction on ebay last week and sold 10 things. All of the women's antiquarian sewing books sold in bulk. They were a popular item and had a dozen people watching them! I put one of the old Oz books up and it sold for $17.50. I couldn't believe it! I put in my description how bad the Oz book was but the people were interested in the book's color plates which were still in good condition. So the lesson I learned is that if you have an old book that's really nasty, but the color plates or pictures are still in good shape, then this book will most likely sell. (If it's popular, rare or collectible to someone.)

The two antique dealers that came over told me not to change anything. They said even if I think something is too old, dirty, dingy, dusty...just leave it be. They said there are people who will take it in the poor condition I find it in and do whatever their project is. They said a big part of the appeal is that old, worn out look. So I've stopped being hard on items that I thought were beyond selling.

My sister sent me a link last week to a place called http://www.bonanzle.com/. I looked it over and liked it so much that I joined. It's like listing your items for sale in a place that combines ebay with craigs list. You can actually get a free account and click on a feature to show items near you that are for sale. The beauty in that is that you can find something you want to buy, go pick it up and not have to pay shipping! But you can still sell your items all over not just locally. Another good thing about it is that you can set up your booth, list your stuff for sale and leave your listing until it sells. In the meantime, you don't have to pay any fees if your item doesn't sell. When your item does sell, the fees charged are cheaper than ebays! So instead of listing my books here in my right column, I have added an RSS feed in my upper right column that leads to my booth at Bonanzle... and a widget too! Now if you want to see what I'm selling you can click on my inventory link or the widget and it will take you to my very pretty Bonanzle booth items! Cool huh?

I've only listed 7 items so far but I'm sure I'll be hanging out over there uploading more and more in the next coming days. Speaking of uploading more, I best be on my way to taking more pictures and getting them posted. Until next time....kat

American Heritage History Magazines

I have come across 4 or 5 crates of the American Heritage history magazines by now. The oldest issues are from 1958. To me they are more than a magazine because they came in hard cover. I sort of allowed them to take up my afternoon when I brought them out of storage and started looking at them. The first ones I found were from 1968. I said to myself "you were only 7 years old when these came out." And then I started reading the articles and looking at the pictures. They were intended to be great stories and pictures of American History (and they are.) But now they are two types of history because of the way they were written back in the 50's and 60's. It's because the writing style and the words used in some instances back then would be considered politically incorrect today. They take me back to ways I was taught when I was a kid that are no longer correct today.

When I was in school, we had nine planets in our solar system. All that has changed. I was disturbed when I learned that Pluto isn't really a planet!! Since I didn't like Science, I probably studied my heart out to get an "A" on a Science test that had something to do with Pluto!!

You know, it's sort of funny to me now but when I was younger, I didn't care at all about learning History, Geography or Science. I had to force myself. But I do care now. How did that happen? Last year was the first time I ever made myself sit down and read all of our Constitution and Declaration of Independence!

These old magazines have some of the most beautiful photographs and illustrations that I have seen anywhere. Many of them would even be suitable for framing!

One of the 1959 books even had a reprint article from the year 1900 that said "Don't let your Children read comic books, it will destroy their minds" I had to laugh. I always heard it was rock and roll that destroyed our minds....not comic books! I just had to share this part of my storage unit discovery with you. If you get a chance to read an old book or magazine....enjoy! Until next time, thanks for reading....Kat

Good Grief Charlie Brown!

Here's a picture of the Peanuts comic strip that I spoke about in my last post. I've found 3 of these so far in identical frames. I hope you're able to see how these frames are so decorative at the wood corners and then inside they are light blue velvet! All three that I've found are from 1973. Cute huh?