A woman who paid £100 for a locked trunk belonging to Agatha Christie has uncovered some of the author’s most personal possessions, worth £100,000.
Lucky Jennifer Grant bought the battered brown leather case at an auction held at Greenway House, Christie’s former home near Kingswear, Devon, and found another box inside.
The Agatha Christie’s fan, who is a keen follower of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, paid just £100 for the memento and kept it at her home in London as a ‘dinner party talking point’.
Jennifer Hawkins’ at home with John Benjamin and the jewellery found in the antiques box formerly owned by Agatha Christie’s mother
But when she asked her builder to force the two brass locks on the case, she was stunned to find a metal strong-box inside
Jennifer contacted the original auctioneers who had no knowledge of the strong-box or a key so Jennifer wrenched it open – and found a lost hoard of the Christie’s family jewels.
The box held more than 50 gold coins, a buckle-shaped brooch and what is thought to be Agatha’s mother’s diamond engagement ring.
In her autobiography, published in 1977 a year after her death, Christie described some jewellery of her mother’s that she and her sister Madge hoped to inherit.
She wrote of ‘my mother’s valuable jewellery’ and ‘my diamond buckle, my diamond crescent and my diamond engagement ring’.
Christie wrote: ‘They were all earmarked for the future on my mother’s demise. Madge was to have the diamond crescent, I was to have the diamond buckle.’
The larger trunk bought by Jennifer bears the initials ‘C.M.M.’ – the same as Christie’s mother, Clara Margaret Miller.
The jewellery found in the antiques box formerly owned by Agatha Christie’s
OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) — Linda Stafford has been going to garage sales for 30 years, and taking good-natured ribbing from her family all the while.
Now, the tables have turned.
Stafford has found more than $3,000 in bills dating from 1928 to 1953 in the bottom of a high-backed chair she bought at a garage sale — for two bucks.
“When we found the money, they could probably hear us screaming all over the neighborhood,” said Stafford, 57.
She made the discovery while trying to make room in her garage for more furniture. When one of her daughters, Mandy Rath, heard something rattle in the chair, they removed the bottom. Placed inside a compartment were two paper packets, one with $10 in coins, the other with $3,060 in bills.
Stafford remembers what she paid for the chair, but not where she bought it.
“I know that I’ve had it out in our garage for at least a year, maybe two,” she said.
But, Stafford was not sure how she would spend the money.
“Who knows?” she said. “I might spend it all at garage sales.”
One never knows for sure what they are buying till they get it home!
I can only guess what the chair looked like as there are no photos on the net, picture above is mine!
the following is an extract from an article published in “Lectures Modernes”, of Paris in July, 1903:
“About twenty years ago, an American deaf mute, Andrew Clemens really sought to use in decoration (picturing) the multicolored sand which is found in abundance in the vicinity of McGregor, Iowa, and succeeded, before his lamented early death, in developing the idea to a high degree of perfection. His brilliant conception, however, seemed in danger of being forgotten, when Mr. W.S. O’Brien, manager of the Union Telegraph office at McGregor, took up the problem in such hours of leisure as his professional avocations left him, and brought it happily to a successful solution. Let us visit, then, the studio of the Sand Artist. The equipment of the “mosiaste” is simplicity itself. His “palette” comprises a case of boxes in fan form, divided into compartments, each containing sand of a different shade, forty-one in all, and none of them artificial. A pencil of wood is his only “brush”. With a small spoon he transfers from the several compartments the sands into a glass bottle, the size and form of which he selects according to the object or combinations he wishes to represent, then by means of the little wooden tools, Mr. O’Brien arranges the sands just as a painter applies his colors on a canvas. He succeeds in this way of accomplishing many beautiful effects. The sand, once in position in the bottle, is pressed strongly but with precaution so as not to shatter the glass envelope; then the mouth of the bottle is cemented. This done, no shaking or shock can disarrange the varicolored particles encased in this hermetically sealed enclosure.
“One would imagine that the sand must be pasted or glued upon the interior surface of the glass that it could hold so firmly in position. Nevertheless we affirm after personal verification that the sand has not undergone any manipulation whatever. It is used simply dry and as nature gives it, just as anyone can pick it up from the veins in the “Pictured Rocks” near McGregor. Nothing more magnificent to contemplate than these layers and veins of sand combining all the colors of the rainbow, diversified, clearcut, distinct, separate. Upon these monster mountain mosaics of nature the sun’s rays play with marvelous effects, while in the midst of the hills are running and singing little brooks and rivulets, jumping like frisking lambkins over rocks and forming sparkling cataracts in their way down to their homes in the bosom of the great “Father of Waters” a the foot of the bluffs.
“The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. True beauty in a w……oman is reflected in her soul. It’s the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows & the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years. ~”
— Audrey Hepburn
I sell my things on OnlineAuction.com!
http://www.onlineauction.com/index.php?page=auction:view_item&auction_id=1371370
The engraving, by watchmaker Jonathan Dillon, is dated April 13, 1861, and reads in part: “Fort Sumpter was attacked by the rebels” and “thank God we have a government”.
The museum said it agreed to open the watch to find out if the message really was there after it was contacted by the watchmaker’s great-great-grandson, Doug Stiles of Waukegan, Illinois.
The American Civil War began when Confederate troops opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861.
Forty-five years later, Dillon, the watchmaker, told The New York Times that he was repairing Lincoln’s watch when he heard that the first shots of the Civil War had been fired.
Dillon said he unscrewed the dial of the watch and used a sharp instrument to mark the historic day on the president’s watch. He told the newspaper that, as far as he knew, no one had ever seen the inscription
http://watchist.com/uncategorized/secret-message-in-abraham-lincolns-pocket-watch/
August, 26th 1965
I arose to the soothing call of my rooster that calls to me from my peaceful slumber to wake my days and begin me upon my work in the field. Yet, as the drifting ageless sun kisses the belly of the earth, my mind drifts back to her. The woman who dwells as keeper to my dreams. Those careful eyes that yearn from the windowsill, yearning to be somewhere far away. Her long black raven locks dwelling carefully upon her shoulder blades as she sits so thoughtfully, constructed upon the floor looking carelessly outside from the second story. An elegant creature as familiar to me as the beginning of my days. I feel my way from my short bed and carefully grasp the small switch beside myself to bring a better light to my weak eyes. I was perhaps unlucky in comparison to others for I need spectacles to get around. It flickers on with a few short flicks before working as usual and immediately in continuance, I begin my usual routine. Breakfast was a milky white rice base with a mask of brown sugar and sesame seeds, I lapped it up quickly, while I was scanning the letters I had received the day before. I received few, as always, just an ensemble of common letters from neighbors and family but one letter struck my eyes. It was written with the most passionate penmanship I could imagine and so dreadfully familiar I could hardly contain myself. I opened it briskly scanning over who had sent it and found it was indeed, the letter I had been waiting for. It was to a’ Junjie Shen, myself, then signed and kissed by a beautiful, Meifeng Wuan. I scented it, it’s innocent orchid linger stung my nerves like a honey bee in pursuit of an elegant magnolia. After a few divine moments of an appeasing stream of day dreaming I hastily opened it, though I perseveringly careful of its delicate state. The letters of her desperate words clung smoothly to the modest white paper with sweet lustrous desire. The message was direct but meant to be twisted in whirl of drama and a mess of exasperated feelings. She wanted to talk, perhaps, not today but maybe tomorrow. I sighed rather with impatience than relief. It was unusual for a cabbage farmer, like myself, to be so quickly impatient but women had always baffled me. Especially this one, I had known this women my entire life but she was everywhere. I tucked the letter softly away before rising to go out in the fields. The day went by rather slowly, I had worked hard all day and my skin was at its usual hot and sweaty state. I was tired but I had this sudden pricking desire to go gather some wildflowers. The sun began to sink into the jagged hills, blazing the skies and clouds in a majestic ray of absorbing colors. Clouds that bled into an agony of maroon before wasting submissively away into a deep purple of suffocated remorse. A soft wind picked at my ears as I headed home, I walked steadily breathing in the sweet summer air, the ferocious bouquet of wildflowers tamed in my strong hands. I ended the day with my eyes touching the delicate cream vase that held the wildflowers I had gathered, they still beamed with villainous charm. I was satisfied.
August 28th, 1965
The sun rose high in the bloody red horizon, stretching with soothing palms and lacing the hills in golden tremor. The atmosphere was sickly wet with humidification and battered at my back like a persistent child. This thought of rain suspended me and I debated whether to prepare the crops for a blessed bath of perspiration or bluntly watch the phenomenon. I sat reposed in my armchair for a few minutes after eating my breakfast, taking time to watch the sun rise high in the sky before setting to my work or if that ever was to even take place. Unfortunately, after several hours of patience I came to the conclusion no rain would come. Disappointed that no ‘much needed rain would come today, I grasped my hoe and went out onto the baked hot earth with a bucket of water in tow. I picked where I had freshly begun the day before and sought to water my adolescent cabbages, it’s small innocent leaves had already begun to wilt in the sun’s fiery glare. I could feel the smooth warm soil beneath my finger tips as I smoothly wrapped them close towards the cabbage’s stem, I grasped from the bucket a small tin cup and flourished it with cool water. My palms rolled over the smoothness of the tin and the biting wisp of succulent water that went dripping into the cabbage’s famished roots. It was in this moment that you could feel the power rising in the plant, the plant suddenly becoming sharper and keener on its surroundings. The plant was alive. At this exact moment, you knew it was so. As the day grew hotter I continued on watering the young cabbages, making sure to water each individual one at least once. Not too much or the plant would become sick, just a small trickle to get the plant through the sun’s rising temperature. As my eyes encountered row after row of cabbage after cabbage I remembered her. I could remember running down the rows of cabbages with her, feeling the soft soil beneath our dirty bare toes. I had left home long ago but the memories of that woman…that girl, she was always in my mind. The shrill laughs filled my thoughts, bringing me back to a time before the great drought, before the misery, back to a place where everything was at peace and filled with hope. We didn’t have a vast variety of food to eat, just the simple things. This was all before the great drought that claimed so many. I lost my mother in the drought and my sweet Meifeng was taken far away by her family and sold to be someone’s husband. Bad memories simply followed, bad memories…until the revolution occurred. Thus, it brought a time as this. A time of landlords becoming equals and now a time where Meifeng can leave her husband. She can leave him and be with me.
Jessalyn Fain age 16
School assignment, part of a great story! I wanted to share it on my blog with you!
Check it out! My friend Anna Aka Letsplaytagsales on OnlineAuction.com is on The Fortune Seller on Tru TV! Anna has been selling on OnlineAuction.com. The images above are examples of the things Anna sells! Thanks to Anna, I am the proud owner of the Mah-jong set!
February 12, 2011 · Posted in TruTV
truTV heads into this high-stakes world with one of the best in the business in the all-new series BIG BRIAN: THE FORTUNE SELLER. Each week, this fascinating and exciting one-hour show will follow estatesale supervisor Brian Elenson and his hard-working crew as they try to turn a house full of junk into a goldmine. The series is set to premiere Tuesday, March 22, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), following two all new episodes of the hit truTV series HARDCORE PAWN.
The average home has thousands of personal effects, from earrings to grand pianos, antique tin toys to priceless baseball cards. When a homeowner needs to liquidate in a hurry, “Big Brian” is the man to call. His company, 2 Much Stuff 4 Me, handles estate sales like no other. When Brian comes into a person’s home, he follows a careful three-step process: 1) Find anything of value; 2) Sell it to the highest bidder; 3) Donate or destroy anything that’s left over. Brian’s work isn’t done until the entire house is broom-clean from basement to attic.
Brian has a big, bold personality that’s as loud as his voice, but he also has the extensive knowledge of antiques and collectibles that make him a top estate salesman. Assisting him in his estate sale endeavors are Brian’s three trusted crew members: Assisting him in his estate sale endeavors are Brian’s three trusted crew members: Vinny, the picker, who will crawl into any space to find a treasure; Anna, Vinny’s girlfriend and the team’s jewelry expert who is sensitive to spiritual presences; and Joe, the tough guy and security enforcer.
Room after room, negotiation after negotiation, Brian and his crew work hard and fast to get the most money they can for the clients. Together, they conduct more than 200 estate sales a year featuring thousands of unusual items and hidden treasures, each with a story to tell. From a trio of stuffed Bengali tigers to a sketch that may have been penned by Picasso, Brian has seen – and sold – it all.
http://www.onlineauction.com/store/letsplaytagsales
http://www.onlineauction.com/index.php?page=news:view_news_item&news_id=361
The verse Roses are red echoes conventions traceable as far back as Edmund Spenser‘s epic The Faerie Queene (1590):
She bath’d with roses red, and violets blew,
And all the sweetest flowres, that in the forrest grew.The modern cliché Valentine’s Day poem can be found in the collection of English nursery rhymes Gammer Gurton’s Garland (1784):
The rose is red, the violet’s blue
The honey’s sweet, and so are you
Thou are my love and I am thine
I drew thee to my Valentine
The lot was cast and then I drew
And Fortune said it shou’d be you.
Valentine Dated 1911 …1909ventilo
Forgotten masterpiece to ‘fetch £2m’
 The late Sir John Gooch outside Benacre Hall |
A 13th Century masterpiece which for years hung unnoticed on a landing in a country house has been described as a “once in a lifetime find” by art experts.
 I had trembling knees when I first realised what it was |
| Richard Charlton-Jones of Sotheby’ |
The painting of the Madonna and Child enthroned with angel, by Italian master Cimabue, was discovered by Richard Charlton-Jones of Sotheby’s.
The Old Masters expert had been cataloguing the works for a house sale at Benacre Hall, near Lowestoft in Suffolk. They are being sold as part of the estate of Sir John Gooch, the 12th baronet of the property, who died in April last year.
Despite measuring just 10 inches by eight, the gold ground panel is expected to raise £2m at auction, Mr Charlton-Jones said.
Staff at the hall had no idea of the painting’s significance or value.
But Mr Charlton-Jones said the discovery was so rare it would probably never be repeated.
He said: “I had trembling knees when I first realised what it was.
The picture is thought to have been acquired by Edward Sherlock Gooch 6th Bt of Benacre in the early 19th Century.
full story …. read these links!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/645263.stm
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE4D81F30F933A05755C0A9669C8B63
please click on this link to read more!
MARK OF THE LUKUTIN FACTORY, MOSCOW, 1843-1863
Russian Works of Art
24 November 2008
London, King Street
A lacquer papier-mâché tea-caddy
mark of the Lukutin Factory, Moscow, 1843-1863
Rectangular, on four knop feet, with gilt and brown finely painted decoration in the chinoiserie style, the hinged cover and sides with flowers, fruit, foliage and scrolls throughout rectangular reserves, the back and front incorporating a crane at each centre, its neck arched around the key-hole, the cover with a scene in relief of a lady reclining on a sofa, playing a stinged instrument, a man beside her playing pipes, each with painted faces, with pots of plants on either side and a bird on a perch behind, the interior of maroon lacquer with two covered compartments, La Musique inscribed inside the hinged cover, marked inside the cover, with key
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5151470
You can find my items on OnlineAuction.com …. thanks for reading my blog!!
| [Woman with roses in her hair, wearing jewelry and off the shoulder dress] | |
| Creator | Anderson & Bickel |
| Date | ca. 1855 |
| Decade | 1850-1859 |
| Part Of | Lawrence T. Jones III Texas photography collection |
| Series | Series 1: Cased Images |
| Place | Galveston, Galveston County, Texas |
| Notes | [Imprint in velvet case lining] Anderson & Bickel, Artists, Tremont St. Galveston. Case with circle motif, excellent condition |
http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/jtx/id/963
Valentine
Sale 9052
The John Gordon Collection of Folk Americana
15 – 19 January 1999
New York, Park Avenue
AMERICAN SCHOOL, 19th century
Valentine Folded, illustrated and inscribed watercolor and ink on paper
http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=1420698
"The powers of the mind are memory and imagination: without memory, we have no past; without imagination, no future."
J Bardens
Learning to live authentically in a world that expects perfection
A gaggle of musings and meanderings
Peterborough and Douro Ontario Portrait Photographer
Old World Charm Meets Modern Comforts. Come and Experience the Beauty and History of the Keweenaw.
155a Northcote Road London SW11 6QB Tel 020 7228 6850
... Making Broken Beautiful
393 bushwick ave Brooklyn NY SELLING ON INSTAGRAM @reuseamericany . Open Wednesdays - Sundays 12-5pm We Buy Furniture Every Day +1 (305) 984-1051
Tips and tricks for all your automotive troubles
The Universe is Made of Stories, not Atoms
sharing vulnerability and wearing clothes
DA2697
Just a couple guys running a small farm in the Cascades.
Express yourself. It is later than you think.
A pretty place for personal style, cooking, DIY, and home inspiration.
Designing delightful reading experiences, both innovative and traditional.
Sharing my creative journey...
"People buy tickets to theatres, not movies." -- Marcus Loew
the intersection of graphic design + picture books
Having fun Hunting for vintage treasures!
Creating a beautiful life, one stitch at a time
Unique Destinations, Weird History and More…
I'm K Murphy. I design.
Where Vintage Designer Fashion Meets the Runway
Reflections of a Female Seminary Graduate
Updates, Fashion Finds, News about Nelda's and things we love.
Fine vintage clothing and accessories from 1920s - 1980s
I love my vintage everything!
All your friends are here!
Blogging about Costume Jewelry, Gemstones, Clothing, Shoes, and Accessories
Inspired vintage for you and your home.
1909ventilo's Blog 
