Antiques | From Times Past Blog

Memories of Sales Past

April 24, 2012 By Johanne

This upcoming sale has made me think of some of the more unusual venues where I have held sales before. Places like: a house about to be bulldozed. You can understand that time is of the essence in a sale like that! The 16th floor of an apartment building. The challenge was doing this inconspicuously and getting the buyers through security. No problems thank goodness. A storage container : Have you watched storage wars? Well I turned one of these containers into a mini store - all organized and displayed, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Antiques, Just Stories Tagged With: antique, antiques for sale, buying antiques, from times past, Johanne Yakula

Antique Books

April 23, 2012 By Johanne

At the end of April I am hosting a private antique sale here in our city. The client is a grand niece of the owner who passed away recently at the age of 104 years of age! He was what is being called today a "hoarder". He never threw anything out (trust me) although it's nowhere as bad as what you see on television. He was, however, the best kind of hoarder because he collected books. We are not talking about garage sale books but true collectible books. He had a good number of books on a variety of topics that are pre-1900. He was such a serious collector that years before he … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Antiques Tagged With: antique, Antique books, antiques for sale, book, buying antiques, Johanne Yakula

Syracuse China

April 3, 2012 By Johanne

I received an email from a reader requesting some information about the Syracuse China Company because her Mother had a set of dishes that she prized highly. Unfortunately it is hard to give any good information when there are no pictures attached - pictures of the pattern, but most importantly the mark. The picture at left is one of the patterns in the "Federal Shape". The mark tells an appraiser how old it is, when it was made and where, whether it was made for local sales or for export - and a lot more. In this case the info I received indicated that the dishes were made in the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Antiques Tagged With: antique, Syracuse China

How do I sell my Set of China?

March 10, 2012 By Johanne

Many people contact me by email asking for advice on how to go about selling the sets of china that they own. Often the people have inherited the dishes and have no use for them. I recently received an email from a reader telling me they had two barrels full of china and silverware to sell. Once I had determined that the dishes was not extremely rare or of high value I gave then the following advice which anyone can follow when they are ready to sell their own: Things are always only worth what people are prepared to spend but here are some tips: 1. Take all your china out of the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Antiques, Appraisals Tagged With: antique appraisals, Antiques, buying antiques, Johanne Yakula, selling antique china

Dining Room Suites: Dinosaurs or Not?

January 27, 2012 By Johanne

I often get emails or calls from people who find out from my web site www.fromtimespast.com that I can help them with valuations of their antiques. Most of the time it is because the person is ready to sell their items and is not sure what they should ask for said item. First of all it's a great idea to do this. By this I mean doing your homework before selling something. You don't have to do this just by getting a formal appraisal. You can check out your local antique shops and shows for an idea. And, you can go on line and check out what similar items are selling … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Antiques, Appraisals Tagged With: antique, antique appraisals, antiques for sale, buying antiques, Johanne Yakula, old house decor

Anyone can make Big Money buying Art and Antiques

January 18, 2012 By Johanne

It's no secret among those who know me that I love books. I buy lots of books, I sign them out of the library and I buy them at Mandolin Books, our local used book / coffee shop. One of the books I recently bought had the above title. It was written in 1977 by Canadian author/doctor/politician Morton Schulman now deceased. Now, although this was written over 30 years ago I was curious to find out what advice he had to give and how it turned out. I read through the small book and had to agree with much of what he said. His pocketbook to invest in art and antiques was … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Antiques, Appraisals Tagged With: antique, antique appraisals, buying antiques, Johanne Yakula, selling antiques, shopping for antiques

Collecting Antique Christmas Decorations

December 15, 2011 By Johanne

One of the most pleasurable things about Christmas for me is putting my collection of ornaments on our tree. Only about 25% of them are more than 50 years old but each is special to me. That's because for as long as I can remember I have been writing the year and who gave me the decoration on the base of the ornament. It's like receiving the gift all over again. Every time we go on a trip I buy a Christmas decoration and write the year down. I have some from Hawaii, Louisiana, Georgia, London, Paris, Jackson (Wyoming), Quebec, Las Vegas, Ontario, British … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Antiques, Appraisals, Decoration Tagged With: antique Christmas decorations, Antiques, collecting antique ornaments, decorating with antique Christmas decorations, value of Christmas ornaments, what are my Christmas decorations worth