Wednesday, March 8, 2017

LURE OF A COUNTRY AUCTION (part 8 )




MOST UNIQUE PURCHASES

I’ve ended up at times with some unique purchases at auctions.  Sometimes I bought them on purpose and sometimes they were in the bottom of a box of things.  Once when I got to the bottom of a box I had bought I found a glass eye looking back at me.  I still have that glass eye, it is a real prosthesis I believe.  It is blue and has great detail including bloody veins here and there in the white of the eye.  It wasn’t meant to be a gross looking eye, it was just meant to look very real, and it does.  I’ve often pondered how it got into my box and I hope that it didn’t fall out of some poor soul’s empty eye socket while he was browsing through the merchandise.
As long as I’m on body parts, I’ll have to mention that once I bought a box of jewelry and in the bottom of it was a gold filled tooth in a tiny box with a string tied around it.  I still have that tooth as well.  I don’t know if it is valuable or not, but maybe.
One time near Wisconsin Rapids I bought a box with some letters in it.  I knew they were in the box and that is why I bid on it.  The letters had the red, white, and blue edging indicating that they were airmailed and they were tied together with a purple silk ribbon.  It wasn’t long after I got home that I began reading those letters and learned that they were from a man in the military to his wife at home.  They were from WWII era, and were both sad and very special.  I couldn’t understand why a family member hadn’t kept them.  It bothered me.  So I did some research and located someone in the family and gave them a phone call.  Turns out the letters were not supposed to be sold.
The daughter of the owner told me that the auctioneer they had hired was shady and had gathered up all the items out of their basement for the sale, including several boxes in a corner of that basement which were not supposed to be sold.  Everything became mixed up on the wagons.  Family members tried to bid back some of the things but had overlooked the letters.  I gladly made arrangements to return them to the family.
I have an antique oak secretary that I treasure.  It was purchased at an auction near Marshfield and was in a bit of bad shape when I bought it.  The desk lid was not attached to the secretary and was in five pieces.  I was able to glue it back together and enjoyed refinishing the whole piece.  The hardware on the five drawers was missing and I found new brass handles that matched the period.  I soaked the handles in vinegar and water for a day or two to give them a tarnished look and I was happy with the way they turned out.  The secretary has a door with glass on the left side with four shelves, a drawer at the top on the right, then the desk section with the drop down lid, and then four more drawers under the desk.  There is a mirror on the top right side.  Inside the desk area is a cubbyhole, little sections to place small items.  I found a piece of newspaper behind the cubbyhole and dated it from the late 1890’s.  I also found a violin peg in one of the drawers.  On the back of the secretary is the stamp of the maker, from Rockford, Illinois.  Sometimes I enjoy researching the history of an item I buy at auction as much as the piece itself.

ROCKS

Grandpa instilled in me a love for rocks.
He stored them in jars filled with water,
Out in his yard, under an oak tree, on a rock table,
For us kids to pick up and ponder.

My father took me arrowhead hunting.
In springtime after a fresh rainfall,
We walked through newly plowed fields
In search of treasures, big or small.

My aunt and father loved agates too.
They walked with their eyes to the ground,
Along the driveway or in the garden
Looking for shiny polished pocket rocks.

Grandpa said rocks look best when they are wet
And he was right; they do look prettier that way
So I keep searching, marveling how rocks became rocks
And put my favorites in my pocket like my father did.



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