Significant Objects

Umbrella Trinket

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Bruce Holland Rogers, has ended. Original price: 29 cents. Final price: $21.50.] By my third visit to Dr. Peragua, I had decided on what I was going to steal. There were lots of candidates. His office is full of keepsakes from his travels to meet shamans, whom [...]

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Fake Banana

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Josh Kramer, has ended. Original price: 25 cents. Final price: $76. This story is the first in a three-part series produced in collaboration with The Center for Cartoon Studies. ]

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Ornamental sphere

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Charles Ardai, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $20.50. ] The telegram arrived too late. The morning mail had brought the box, wrapped in a double thickness of brown paper and covered with fibrous packing tape I’d had to dig out the heavy Wüsthof cook’s knife [...]

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Ocean Scene Globe

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Stephanie Reents, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $33.00. ] 1. The transparency of glass is cruel. 2. When the beige palm of the sky descends, there is no warning, no chicken calling, “The sky is falling.  The sky is falling.” 3. A sphere has no beginning or end, and [...]

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4-Tile

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Toni Schlesinger, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $88.] “I have something for you,” she says. “For me?” he asks. “For you!” she says. “Wait, waiter, I’ll have a pale gold drink.” “For you?” asked the waiter. “I’ll have one that’s blue.” He coughs. “I’m so excited.” “Here it is.” She [...]

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Porcelain Scooter

[The auction for this Significant Object, with song (MP3, and lyrics, below), by Teddy Blanks, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $2.38. This was part of a special collaboration with Design Observer, where it was co-published here.] CLICK BUTTON to listen to “Figurines” by Teddy Blanks. Please wait while the audio loads. // < ![CDATA[ [...]

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Idol

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Andrew Ervin, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $51.] Several weeks ago I was biking around the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, or what’s left of it, and shooting photographs of the rebuilding process. I have been hearing the same two descriptions over and over [...]

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Tin Ark

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Rebecca Wolff, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $19.50.] There was this family, and their eight-year-old son developed a tumor on, or in, his jaw. They had it removed, and treated with radiation and chemotherapy, but a short while later it came back. They had [...]

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