Back to School

Last night was the first night of the eight-week class I am taking at the county's Night School. It is called All About Antiques. Each week, an expert speaks about different areas of antiques.  The topic of last night's class was Attending an Auction and the speaker was one of the employees from Brigg's Auction. They have a lively auction every Friday night, with two huge rooms of everything you can imagine. Each Wednesday, they post pictures on their website of many of the items that will be for sale in the upcoming auction. Our class will be taking a field trip to Brigg's next month. It should be fun, since a few of the women in the class have never been to an auction.

Upcoming topics for the class include Early American pattern glass, primitives, art, jewelry, antique dolls, and presidential campaign memorabilia. If we own any of the items related to that week's topic, we are encouraged to bring them to the class to discuss with the expert.  At the end of the semester, there is a "Share and Tell" session where we can bring in some of the items that we collect and talk to the class about it. It is an obvious oversight that the list of scheduled topics is lacking a discussion on handmade erotic antiques, so I will surely be sharing the peter heater with the class. Well, not actually sharing it, since we are all women.

During the class about antique dolls, I won't really have any items to bring in because I don't own any old dolls. I used to own a turn-of-the-century Kestner doll that was dressed like a nun.  It was given to me by my 90-year-old next-door neighbor at my old house because she said that none of her children wanted it.  Her aunt was given the doll in school in 1903 as a prize for winning a competition. The doll's habit was probably handmade by the nuns at her school. My neighbor knew that I sold stuff on ebay and at antique markets, so she told me to take it and see if I could make some money. I told her that I would sell it for her, and give her the money, but she flatly refused. I held onto the doll for a few years, and then finally decided to sell it on ebay because I would get creeped out whenever I would accidentally find it in the attic while I was rummaging for something else.  And I wasn't comfortable making someone else's family heirloom my own.

I took about 20 pictures of the doll for my ebay auction. I took off all of the five layers of clothes and her veil and took pictures of her from every angle. I'm afraid of the people who are going to find my blog in a search engine because of the previous sentence that I just wrote. Anyway, I wanted to make sure that I covered every base, because I could tell from other auctions that the people who buy dolls can be fanatical.  Within one day of posting the auction, I had 50 people "watching" the auction, which means that they had selected the auction to be added to their ebay Watch List. The most watchers I had ever had for any of my auctions was 15. I had so many questions from potential bidders about her wig, her feet, her shoes, her teeth.  I learned much more about dolls than I ever wanted to know. She ended up selling for $260. [Edited to add: My sister, Erin, just reminded me that we refer to this doll as Sister Mary Jackpot.]

I never told my neighbor. I still feel a little bad about selling it, even though she told me to do it. That damn Irish Catholic guilt gets me every time.

Comments

[Thimbleanna]

How fortunate that you have an All About Antiques class in your area. I'm sure you could probably teach a topic or two! I'll be watching your blog for news of your class...among other things.

[tammy g.]

I wish I knew more about antiques in case I ever come across a "jackpot"...but, honestly, I am never interested in what something is "worth"...if I like it, then I buy it & don't ever think about resale value. 'Course, I don't own a shop or sell on eBay.
I get the "creeped out" feeling you mentioned. Some of those Victorian dolls are freaky scary. I only have Barbies & cute faced dolls - no, "spooky-staring eyed-Betty Davis/Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte" in my home, thank you please. My mom has some & I wouldn't def have to sell them if they came my way. Ewwww!

[Leigh Ann]

LOL! Irish Catholic guilt is the worst. It is a proven fact as told me by a therapist.

Cheers! LA

[Chantal]

I love this story. I'm glad you sold the doll; your neighbour probably felt very good knowing she contributed to your life by giving the doll to sell to someone like you who knows where and how to sell it whereas she did not. "Sister Mary Jackpot", you girls are a riot!

[angie]

i would love to take a class like that!! how cool. and i love the nickname too!