Cracker Barrel Ornament

[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 … Continue reading

Sea Captain Pipe Rest

[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 … Continue reading

“Hawk” Ashtray

[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 … Continue reading

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 … Continue reading

Maine Statutes Dish

[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 … Continue reading

Round Box

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Tim Carvell, has ended. Original price: 50 cents. Final price: $35.] On December 17, 1948, the Humboldt twins entered the world, Jerome screaming, Luke laughing. This pattern held. Jerome grew up … Continue reading

Praying hands

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Rosecrans Baldwin, has ended. Original price: $1.50. Final price: $26. ] The North Americans refused accusal. Constructed great cities and gave their names to them and let them crumble and then … Continue reading

Grain Thing

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Joanne McNeil, has ended. Original price: $1. Final price: $20.50.] Among the many misconceptions that prevail about my great-grandfather, Hartford Townes Hastings, the most infuriating is the idea that he was … Continue reading

Russian Figure

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Doug Dorst, has ended. Original price: $3. Final price: $193.50.] Figurine of St. Vralkomir (glass cover not included) This is an icon of the fourteenth-century Saint Vralkomir of Dnobst, the patron … Continue reading

Metal Boot

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Bruce Sterling, has ended. Original price: $3. Final price: $86.] In early 1861, before the Union blockade closed the port of New Orleans, four ships arrived from distant Naples. They bore … Continue reading

Halston Mug

[The auction on this Significant Object, with story by Mimi Lipson, has ended. Original price: 39 cents. Final price: $31.] From AW: The Lost Diaries Wednesday, June 13, 1979 Halston was having a birthday party for the Dupont twins, so … Continue reading