Boosting antiques from my own garage sale

[MorningGlow]

Actually pilfering stuff from what my mom brought to our village-wide garage sale yesterday! She's still boggled by what I consider worth keeping, when she wants to get rid of ALL of it.

I kept three "pictures" similar to what I almost bought at an antique store a few weeks ago--two are 5" x 7" and the third is a little smaller, with forest backgrounds printed on a piece of paper and black silhouettes of women in hoop skirts painted on beveled glass. They were my grandmother's--thought they had been done away with long ago. They kind of look like this (this pic found online), but this pic doesn't have the paper backgrounds:



Also pilfered the coolest compact--I REALLY have to find my digital camera and upload a pic--round, off white, with a color drawing of a rodeo in the center. VERY late '40s early '50s!

[alphafemale]

1. I occasionally watch Antiques Roadshow and am stunned at times.

Great show. It's fun watching those people about pass out sometimes.

I'll never forget that "Navajo?" blanket that the family had been letting the kids drag around the yard for camping and used on their pony and it turned out to be worth a half million $$$$ or something.

[MorningGlow]

2. Woah. Seriously?

I have never watched that show. I know my mom likes it, though, so you'd think she'd learn. Then again, this is the woman who, with her sister, threw nearly everything my grandparents owned out the attic window when they downsized from the family home to a ranch in the '50s. Stuff from their hometowns in Italy, porcelain washbasins and pitchers (several, from what I hear), family photos, antique furniture... Every time I think of what my grandparents might have had in their attic I just :cry:--not because I want the money, but because I love antiques.

[alphafemale]

3. I was a little fuzzy on the details but here it is.

Very kewl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlkYn39i4Fw

[MorningGlow]

4. Oh wow, that was incredible

Thanks for finding the link! You've just gotta be happy for someone like that--he seemed like a decent, down to earth kind of guy. I got a little teary-eyed myself when he started crying!

It's really interesting how such a "plain" blanket (simple design) can be underestimated by laymen; we always tend to think the fanciest stuff is the most valuable. But when the appraiser pointed out the fine weave, it made sense.

That reminds me of a cousin of mine (actually my mom's cousin--her generation) who was a garage sale queen. She would troll yard sales and buy crap for 10 cents and 25 cents and actually use it. One day she brought home the UGLIEST necklace you've ever laid eyes on--a thick gold snake-type chain about 1/2" around. Got it for a quarter. Turned out to be solid gold, worth hundreds.

It was still ugly, though.
:rofl: