Early staddles were made of wood, but stone proved to be not only far more durable but also more stable when it came to holding up under the weight of the finished structure. (While stone is the most obvious choice, there are a few extant examples of cast iron staddles.) The stones themselves were made from whatever was available and thus appear in a variety of sandstone and granite, as well as other stone. Interestingly, the design of the stones varies regionally, both the base and the top, with the bases ranging from cylindrical to triangular to rectangular with varying degrees of tapering and the tops also exhibiting regional variations and even designs.

The key requirement is that the top is flat enough to support the corner of the structure soundly while also overlapping the base stone in a “mushroom cap” far enough to make a “squirrel baffle” of sorts, preventing any climbing rodent from making the transition from the base to the side of the structure and the hay or grain it contained. Elevation has the added advantage of increasing air circulation and preventing the damaging effects of moisture. If such buildings required steps, either a more temporary and portable option, such as a section of log, was used or the top step was simply omitted, assuring a gap large enough to deter rodents was still present.

For collectors, evidence of the stone’s age and wear consistent with a long-time connection between the base and the top are key to value (perhaps because they are also key to detecting fakes). Staddle stones with good age (collectors even like to see evidence of moss or lichen) can easily fetch several hundred or even a thousand dollars.

In the United States, the most iconic example of a catafalque is the Lincoln Catafalque, which was created for Lincoln’s funeral in 1865.  This pine platform covered with black cloth remains in the Exhibition Hall at the U.S. Capitol’s visitor center, but has been called into service regularly (with new cloth and some additional supports) since 1865 for all those who have lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda.  Lincoln’s funeral train traveled back to Springfield, Illinois, stopping at a number of cities along the way, so many catafalques were no doubt built for the ceremonies held in those cities, but the one in Washington is the one created for his funeral service there.

But she’s not apt to start collecting bird calls soon – and not just because of my sanity, but because various hunting calls are actually one of those classic examples of when it’s important to take a closer look. Many of them are commonplace, of course, and mass-produced, but certain ones could finance a college education! You’ll find handcrafted calls for a variety of birds in the antiques marketplace, including goose, turkey, and even crow, but duck calls are, by far, the most prevalent.

American Indians had likely used mouth calling for generations, but mechanical calls came into being around the mid-19th century with the first patent recorded in 1870. Several family names became associated with the production of mechanical calls – yes, before the Robertson family of Duck Dynasty came along. Fisher, Beckhart, Turpin, Perdew (see above) – and many others – are apt to show up at yard sales for pocket change, but a Perdew call, for instance, can bring anywhere from $200 to $8,000 or more at auction, depending on type, age, and condition. These are the kinds of little yard sale finds that the database can turn into big money, so when in doubt, it definitely pays to search!

This happened last month when I was working on a sale of photographic material.  In the midst of fairly normal albumens and daguerreotypes was the odd little bracelet pictured above – a bracelet with three tintype images of Civil War generals (all Union – Meade, Rosecrans, and Sherman) strung with blue glass beads and set “in tagua nut.”  Because I can never just leave well enough alone, I went off to find out just what tagua nuts are.  Turns out, tagua nuts are the endosperm of a genus of South American palm trees, and for small little things that grow thousands of miles away, they actually appear fairly often in American material culture, for the simple fact that they resemble elephant ivory, both in appearance and in their ability to be carved into durable useful objects.  Elephant ivory has been long been fashionably ambiguous, either because it’s difficult or expensive to procure or just ethically distasteful.  Tagua nuts solved that problem and show up in a number of places that one would also find ivory, including cane handles and clothing buttons.  “Nutty,” but true!

While you might not learn about the events in history classes today, a search of the database will still retrieve beaded pouches designed to carry an American Indian’s ration tickets. Forever woven into the history of many pieces of silver and art are stories of bribes for shelter and aid in fleeing the Nazis. There are Civil War documents with blood stains and bullet holes and we can’t scrub our history of Charleston slave tags or real photo postcards of lynchings. You can find photographs of the dead at Gettysburg, Wounded Knee (see above), Little Bighorn, and on and on. There is an indelible record of the awful things we have done to each other and the planet: engravings of the Boston Massacre, written accounts of life in Confederate prisons, pictures of hillsides obliterated by clear-cutting and objets d’art from the horns and bones and fur of creatures nearing extinction.

That is what makes the field of material culture so interesting and important: words lie. The founding fathers were conscious of the records they left, the boys writing home from all the fronts in all the wars were trying not to scare their wives and mothers, the writings in newspapers were opinions and hyperbole just as they are today. But objects, well, objects are…objective, and by studying them, we can reach different kinds of truth about the past.

A Seat of Distinction
By Elaina C. of Xenia, Ohio
First Place: Child’s Division, Age 12 and Under

“Bang, bang, bang!” The carpenter hammered my intricately carved front legs on. I was filled with pain as he did it, for having one’s body parts screwed and hammered together is not a comfortable experience. The carpenter, I
discovered, had a habit of humming and talking himself as he worked and usually said things like, “Where did those nails go?” and, “Beautiful work, if I do say so myself!” What the carpenter didn’t know was that I could hear every word he said.

The next morning was dismal and rainy. Since the workshop was dark already, the carpenter lit some candles for light. Suddenly, a candle toppled to the floor and a pile of sawdust caught on fire. The carpenter untied his apron and beat the fire with it. The flames died down, and flickered out. The carpenter rushed over to me and examined me closely. Thankfully, there wasn’t a burn in sight.

At sunrise, the carpenter burst into his workshop and cried, “What a beautiful chair you are!” All day he hummed happy tunes, and his work was fast paced and efficient. “You’re going to be done this evening.” He said with a smile. Everything from my maroon upholstery to my clawed feet had been made with carefulness. Both the carpenter and I were pleased with the way I turned out. “Today is the day you are to be delivered,” the carpenter told me as he marched in at 5:00 the next morning. You would think he would be sad to part with the best work he had ever done, but he was actually happy to let someone use such a beautiful specimen for a good reason. I wondered who would own me. Would I live in a house with children? Would it be noisy or quiet? I certainly hoped I would be well‐kept. But neither he nor I would know until later what a wonderful purpose I was destined for.

At 7:00 that morning, I was delivered to a little house in Philadelphia. I was glad Philadelphia wasn’t far away, for the bumping of the wagon was loud and uncomfortable. When we got to the house, a quiet, red‐headed man was there to greet us. “Thank you very much for delivering this to me,” he said. The next evening, Thomas Jefferson sat down in me, and, at his desk wrote the opening line, “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another…”

1916 Briscoe Touring Car

One of the most common questions in the antiques marketplace is, “What’s hot right now?” At Prices4Antiques, we always see lots of searches in our transportation category, especially for cars and other motor vehicles, and as hot as it’s been, it sure is pleasant to think about cruising the roads in a classic car, the windows down and the radio up! We’ve seen searches for the 1955 Ford Fairlane Sunliner convertible, Ford’s 1964 Lincoln Continental (convertible again, of course), the 1953 Ford Customline, Mercury’s 1965 Comet Caliente, and, for those looking for a more leisurely pace, the 1916 Briscoe Model B424 touring car. These were the top five items viewed in our transportation category’s motor vehicles section this week, but people searched for thousands of other antiques and collectibles at Prices4Antiques.

To search the Prices4Antiques antiques reference database for valuation information on hundreds of thousands of antiques and fine art visit our homepage www.prices4antiques.com

Dr. Daniels Veterinary Medicine oak display cabinet

One of the most common questions in the antiques marketplace is, “What’s hot right now?” At Prices4Antiques, we always see lots of searches for country store items, the kind of things that lined the counters and shelves of old general stores, and in the past seven days, we’ve seen searches for a National Cash Register Model 542 register with an oak base, a Nelson Baby Powder tin, an Enterprise Manufacturing Company countertop coffee grinder, a Coca-Cola barrel-form dispenser, and a Dr. Daniels’ veterinary medicine cabinet. These were the top five items viewed in our country store category this week, but people searched for thousands of other antiques and collectibles at Prices4Antiques.

Browse more country store antiques in our price database.

A Civil War Union regulation artillery shell jacket made by the Cincinnati Depot

Begun as Decoration Day in the wake of the Civil War, Memorial Day has become a day to remember all who have died in service to their country, but for many collectors, this sacrifice is remembered every day through the artifacts they gather. At Prices4Antiques.com, we see many searches for military- and service-related objects prized by buyers, including amazing things like a Japanese tank crew helmet from World War II, a U.S. one-pound Ketchum hand grenade from the Civil War, a complete set of cast-iron armor for a German machine gunner in World War I, and a Noble Brothers six-pound Confederate cannon from the Civil War. One need only to look at an object like a Civil War lieutenant’s frock coat found next to the body of an officer on the battlefield at Spotsylvania to be reminded of the cost of centuries of protecting freedom.

A. Maspoli & Co. signed George III inlaid mahogany barometer

Based on a CDC report on the dangers of mercury, dealers of antique weather devices face an uncertain future.

No one would argue that mercury doesn’t belong in food or children’s playthings, but dealers of antique barometers, thermometers, and even clocks think that legislation prohibiting the sale of objects containing mercury may be an overreaction, likened to cracking a nut with a sledgehammer. Still legislation exists in many states banning the sale of some (but not all) devices containing mercury. Those states include Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, and California. The problem is that the legislation is often either unclear or worse, contradictory. Oregon, Maryland and Michigan have laws controlling mercury thermometers but not barometers. Since sometimes these two items are found together, it’s unclear whether it is permissible to sell them or not.

Rhode Island has attempted to quantify legislation, and bans the sale of mercury containing items based on the amount contained. A few states have regulations banning items they define as “mercury added products”. This, according to one agency is any formulated or fabricated product that contains mercury, a mercury compound or a component containing mercury. Illinois law states that after July of 2004, no mercury added novelty products may be offered for sale. It is unclear whether a barometer would be considered a novelty item, but what is clear is that the ambiguity of language as well as the variety of legislation from state to state makes it a risky business to deal in antiques containing mercury, particularly on the internet.

-By p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer.