Significant Objects

Rooster Oven Mitt

6. November 2009

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Victor LaValle, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $51.99.] Who the hell goes to Portugal? In my family? The question arose as my sister and I were going through my grandmother’s things—her effects. She’d died of old age at Queens General Hospital and she’d been longing for [...]

Amoco Yo-Yo

4. November 2009

3 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Mark Sarvas, has ended. Original price: 25 cents. Final price: $41.] When I was seventeen, I was expelled from high school. My father, reasonably enough, gave me a choice: Get a job or get out. The only job for a 30-mile radius was the night shift behind [...]

Felt Mouse

3. November 2009

0 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Meghan O'Rourke, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $62. ] After my mother died, a stranger emailed me. He told me that my mother had been the most important person in his life. They went to Catholic school together. He was unpopular, she was popular; [...]

Cracker Barrel Ornament

30. October 2009

5 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Maud Newton, has ended. Original price: 59 cents. Final price: $24.50.] This astonishing “Cracker Barrel” artifact appears to be a souvenir of modern vintage, representing a down-home North American restaurant-and-country-store chain that upholds Christian values by refusing to hire gay people. In fact, the object dates to [...]

Swiss Medal

29. October 2009

2 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Kathryn Borel Jr., has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $16.] Marc’s room smelled like half-open tins of chewing tobacco. He liked Skoal butternut, and I loved it too. Not to chew — I was only seven — but I loved the way its manky smell [...]

Alien Toy

20. October 2009

1 Comment

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Nomi Kane, here. Original price: 49 cents. Final price: $37. This story is the second in a three-part series produced in collaboration with The Center for Cartoon Studies. ]

Sea Captain Pipe Rest

6. October 2009

2 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Michael Atkinson, has ended. Original price: 34 cents. Final price: $21.50. ] … Somebody’s grandfather’s pipe stand, back when men smoked pipes that they cared to buy handcrafted out of specific hardwoods, made by Europeans, maybe old artisans they found in narrow-street shops while away at war [...]

“Hawk” Ashtray

2. October 2009

9 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by William Gibson, has ended. Original price: $2.99. Final price: $101.00] In 1969 my friend’s dad was a Pentagon technocrat. My friend said that when his dad came home with a new tie-tack, it meant there was a new weapon in the works. Not that there would be [...]

Maine Statutes Dish

28. September 2009

4 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Ben Katchor, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $42.] This beautiful, but slightly worn, example of early 20th century porcelain “bookware” was manufactured and distributed free-of-charge along with newly printed copies of the “Maine Revised Statutes Annotated” — a dreary compendium of state laws. This example, [...]

Motel Room Key

23. September 2009

4 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Laura Lippman, has ended. Original price: $2. Final price: $45.01.] Her husband saved everything. He had a box, for example, of cigarette lighters, useless plugs taken from every car he had ever owned. He saved ticket stubs and playbills. He had three hand-knit sweaters from an elderly [...]

Hawaiian Utensils

16. September 2009

3 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Stephen Elliott, has ended. Original price: $1.99. Final price: $4.24.] I bought these Hawaiian utensils, a wooden spoon and fork, while living in Alaska in the mid-eighties with my first wife. We were living outside the Eskimo village Wales on the western edge of the state, three [...]

Uncola Glass

15. September 2009

11 Comments

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Jen Collins, has ended. Original price: $2. Final price: $20.50.] For my 9th birthday, I begged my mother to take me to the iron-on decal store at the Meadow Glen Mall. I had seen some older boy wearing a sweatshirt with a glittery rip-off of the Superman [...]

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Rooster Oven Mitt

Amoco Yo-Yo

Felt Mouse

Cracker Barrel Ornament

Swiss Medal

Alien Toy

Sea Captain Pipe Rest

“Hawk” Ashtray

Maine Statutes Dish

Motel Room Key

Hawaiian Utensils

Uncola Glass

* S.O. v3 — for Girls Write Now

S.O. v1 — the EXPERIMENT

S.O. v2 — for 826 National