Geisha Bobblehead

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Edward Champion, has ended. Original price: $1.50. Final price: $56.] The resilient ruffians ran away with the geisha’s canes just after she refused to perform a classless act. While it was … Continue reading

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

BBQ Sauce Jar

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by (Slate contest winner) Matthew J. Wells, has ended. Original price: 75 cents. Final price: $54.] Booth 106 was the regular table of Evelyn Nesbit — it’s where she was introduced to … 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

Coconut Cup

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Annalee Newitz, has ended. Original price: 25 cents. Final price: $10.] At this point most people realize that getting marketers involved in space travel is a bad idea. But fifty years … Continue reading

Rainbow Sand Animal

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Sloane Crosley, has ended. Original price: 99 cents. Final price: $57.66.] Alec Baldwin never had a Bar Mitzvah. The non-fact of this, the bloated lack in the calendar of his mind, … 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

Duck Tray

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Stewart O’Nan, has ended. Original price: $3. Final price: $71.] Every evening when Henry came home from work, without fail, he set his briefcase on the marble-topped table in the front … Continue reading

Kitty Saucer

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by James Parker, has closed. Original price: $1.25. Final price: $15.53 ] “You know, of course,” said the periodontist, as he bore down with his scalpel, “that Nancy Pelosi is insane?” Floyd … Continue reading

Smiling Mug

[The auction for this Significant Object, with story by Ben Greenman, has ended. Original price: $2. Final price: $32.08.] This object is best known from its appearance in the 1939 film No News From the Navy, a comedy starring James … Continue reading