Match Safes: Hot Items for Collectors
• April 18, 2018

From around the 1830s through the 1920s, almost everyone carried the newfangled “strike anywhere” matches to light lanterns, stoves and candles. Proceeded by old-fashioned wood splints — which were dipped […]

Salesman Samples: Small Scale, High Value
• March 7, 2018

Peddlers hold a special place in early American culture. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, when there were few stores around, the peddler, with his horse and buggy, became a […]

Salt Boxes: Essential Yet Rarely Noticed
• December 6, 2017

Southern foods and salt are like hand and glove. There are many salty foods specific to the mountainous South: country ham, sour beans and sauerkraut, to name a few. Salt […]

Salt Boxes: Essential Yet Rarely Noticed
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Southern foods and salt are like hand and glove. There are many salty foods specific to the mountainous South: country ham, sour beans and sauerkraut, to name a few. Salt […]

The Antiques Addict
• August 23, 2017

Wood screws are one of the least understood clues in establishing the date and authenticity of antique furniture. They are especially valuable for dating country and primitive furniture. The stylistic […]

The Antiques Addict
• June 21, 2017

Attempts to control indoor temperatures began in ancient Rome, where Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, mocked the “skinny youths” who ate snow to keep cool rather than simply bearing the heat […]

The Antiques Addict
• May 3, 2017

There comes a time when any antiques aficionado grapples with some insecurity, the kind that comes with determining whether a piece is a legitimate antique or a clever reproduction. Forgers […]

Through the Looking Glass
• February 2, 2017

Although our Puritan ancestors scorned the pretense of personal vanity, mirrors were part of their early colonial households — if used only to glimpse their appearance before they wended their […]

Whirligigs: What Goes Around, Comes Around
• December 7, 2016

The whirligig, an object that spins or twirls, may have started as a farmer’s weathervane, but it evolved into a recognized category of American folk art. Simply put, a whirligig […]

’Twas the Time of Darkness
• October 26, 2016

The setting sun shrouded the typical early colonial home in darkness. For the ordinary American colonist, bright lighting simply was not worth the candle; the need for more light was […]