Promoting Through Time

QUESTION: I have an old clock with advertising for Jolly Tar Pastime Tobacco on it in raised letters. I’ve had the clock for a long time and never saw another one like it. Can you tell me anything about it?

ANSWER: You’re the lucky owner of a Baird advertising clock. You’ve no doubt seen pens and other items with printed advertising on them. But in the 1890s, a clock advertising a company was a novelty. Clocks promoted foods and beverages, household products, even medicines, such as Monells Teething Cordial for Children. They even advertised pet food like Clarke’s Patent Buffalo Meat Dog Cakes, endorsed by Queen Victoria, herself. Each clock says something different on it.

Born in Philadelphia in 1860, Edward Payson Baird went to work for the Seth Thomas Clock Company in 1879. In 1887, he left Seth Thomas to form his own company, the Baird Manufacturing Company, in Montreal, Canada,  to produce cases and doors for advertising clocks to house Seth Thomas movements. While he made his cases of pine or oak, he used papier-maché for the doors, with embossed letters around the clock face promoting the virtues of one product or another. Baird had numerous clients in the United States as well as in Canada and  Great Britain.

Baird used papier-maché for his clock doors because of the ready availability of wood pulp in Canada. By 1890, he moved his operation across the border to Plattsburgh, New York.  When economic circumstances forced him to close his Plattsburgh factory in 1896, Baird shifted his base of operations to Chicago, where he produced clocks with embossed, stamped tin advertisements. However, by that time interest in advertising clocks had begun to wane, so he concentrated his efforts on manufacturing parts for the fledgling telephone industry.

While some advertising brands, like Coca-Cola, are instantly recognizable and still exist today, many other products and brand names have long since disappeared. Baird clocks are the only clocks made from papier-maché that have advertising on them. Most resemble a figure 8. The top doors are 18 inches wide, while the bottom ones are 12 inches wide. While Baird clocks are 30½ long, Baird did make smaller 26-inch models. 

Baird also produced 18-inch-diameter gallery clocks. For the most part the dial on these clocks  measures 12 inches and the hands are straight, with a few exceptions. All Baird clocks have two doors unlike many other clocks produced at the time with only one door, giving access to the dial and pendulum.

A Baird clock in good working condition, with its original dial, glass, movement, and paint job, can sell for around $3,000. Some exceptional pieces sell for over twice that and higher. And well known brands, again like Coca-Cola, can sell for even more.

Looking for Value in All the Right Places

QUESTION: I’m a novice at putting value on furniture and other old things. Can you tell me the best way to do this?

ANSWER: Putting a value to an antique or collectible isn’t as simple as black and white. Finding out about the value of an object involves several steps.  First you need to authenticate it—that is, find out if it’s real or fake. Then you need to determine the value you want to research. And if you discover that you have something valuable, you need to consult a certified antiques appraiser.

While there’s no fixed value in antiques and collectibles, there are two types of value you need to consider—replacement value and retail value. Which type you need to research depends on whether you’re planning keep or sell the object.

If you’re keeping it, you want to find its replacement value. Replacement value is the retail price you would pay to buy an object that’s identical to the one you own. Though that sounds simple enough, it isn’t. The object has to be exactly the same, including its condition. Then you’ll have to purchase it from the same type of source—an Internet antiques store, eBay, an antiques shop or show, or flea market. The retail price of the object will be different at each of the venues. So, unless you purchase it at exactly the same type of sales outlet, you may have a problem.

In the end, you’re the one who determines which price applies. Most beginning collectors use the highest price. While this may boost your ego, this may not be the best value. What about averaging all the prices? That won’t work, either. You’ll just have to consider the most likely place to which an average person might go to purchase the item.

Traditionally, insurance companies have considered the retail price asked by a dealer at an antiques show or at an antiques and collectibles mall as the replacement value. But, let’s face it, who pays the asking price? Smart collectors don’t. The object is to buy pieces at the lowest price possible, so that they’ll gain value right off. A lot of novices are turning to eBay to determine the replacement value. But this isn’t good, either. Any of the auction sites are just that—auctions. That means that buyers bid against each other, often sending the price higher than it should be. If you’re going to use eBay to determine value, you’ll need to study several months worth of pricing data.

If your goal is to sell your object, the price varies depending on retail venue. Traditionally, people sell items through garage sales, flea markets, eBay, and antiques shops and shows. You’ll need to research the potential value in all those categories. Each one has hidden costs, so the price represents only a portion of the amount paid. Auctioneers charge a commission to sell objects. Antiques dealers have to mark up their wares to make a profit. Flea market dealers have to do the same, albeit not as much, to make a profit over space rental fees. Ebay sellers have to add on numerous fees. Only garage sale sellers can charge the least amount and still make a profit. If you base your object’s value on their pricing, you’ll never get anywhere, even though some price their items based on what they see on eBay.

About the only way you’ll get the full value from an item is to sell it privately. However, while private buyers will pay the highest amount, they have to want the object. Most private buyers have been collecting for some time, so the list of what they want is usually short. Most of the time, they’ll already own the item. Further, finding a private buyer is a time consuming and difficult process. The best example is trying to find a buyer for collectibles from the 1939 New York World’s Fair. While there are certainly many collectors of these souvenirs, finding them is another story.

Two-by-Two to the Floating Zoo

QUESTION: When I was little boy, my grandfather gave me an ark, complete with all the animals, each made of wood. I’ve kept it all these years and wonder about its origin. There are some words in German on the bottom. What can you tell me about it?

ANSWER: You’re very lucky to have such a wonderful toy and to have kept it intact all these years. The problem with toys with lots of pieces is that those pieces tend to get mislaid or lost.

Many religions prohibited frivolous play on Sunday, the Lord’s Day. The only toys they allowed with those religious in nature. And what could be more religious than a toy ark. Children spent hours loading and unloading the animals from the ark, marching the birds and beasts in columns two-by-two.

But these toys were anything but playthings. Their exquisite carvings elevate many of them to the level of folk art and their prices to locations high in the stratosphere. But for those collectors with the means to purchase them and the space to display them, the world of ark collecting can be colorful and satisfying.

Often referred to as “Sunday” toys back in the 19th century, arks came into popularity around the 1850s.  The people of the village of Erzgebirge started making them as a cottage industry. Some families built the arks while others handcrafted the animals and still others painted and added details to finish the pieces. German arks feature lathe-turned animals which later have details carved into them.

The British also made arks but started a bit later. Arks became a popular thing to make to raise money for war relief during World War I. Makers painted them red and green and affixed a war-relief emblem to them. At the same time, German prisoners of war in England built arks with stockade-style roofs. Even the folks in Ireland got in on the act and attached a white dove to the ark as a sign of peace.

Toy arks come in all sizes. Larger ones can be up to 30 inches long and contain over 400 animals, plus 8 human figures representing Noah’s family—Noah and his wife plus three sons and their wives.

It’s hard to tell the age of antique arks since most aren’t marked. However, specific construction characteristics can provide some clues. The shape of the bottom is one. Flat-bottomed arks are older. And those planed by hand rather than machine are also older.  The amount and style of the decoration can also be a clue. Earlier arks tend to have less detail and decoration.

The frieze—the decorative border immediately below the ark’s roof line—can also be a clue to its age. An ark with a more elaborate and colorful frieze is more likely to be newer than one with a simple one. Some makers used a strip of decorative paper as the frieze.

Early arks had fewer and simpler animals since it took longer to make them. As tools improved, ark makers made more animals. The animals that came with German arks were always made of wood that a craftsman first turned on a lathe. The marks of his cutting tool appear on the bottom of each piece. All these clues apply to arks made before 1900. After that, construction became more standardized.

The number of animals was directly related to the production cost of antique arks. As there became greater demand, craftsmen built larger arks with more animals. Antique arks, especially ones with all their parts, amount of detail, and in excellent condition, can sell for as much as $40,000. Most smaller ones sell for somewhere between $250 and $800.

Oh Happy Days!

QUESTION: I found a box of old McDonald’s Happy Meals toys in my attic that once belonged to my kids. Do these have any value as collectibles or should I just toss them?

ANSWER: You may or may not have hit upon a buried treasure in your attic. Depending on the age and condition of the toys, they may be worth a little or a lot.

Of all the McDonald’s collectibles, Happy Meal toys and related display memorabilia remain the most popular. Each Happy Meal has a specific and variable number of toys, including a special U3 toy which meets particular standards for children under three. The boxes and bags in which the food came in are also collectible. Display items include counter boards, banners, posters, and signs.

The McDonald brothers opened their first drive-in in 1948, and by 1954 they were well on their way to franchising success. A 1950s McDonald’s item could have a hefty price tag.

A beginning collector could amass hundreds of Happy Meal toys in a short time. In a typical year, McDonald’s produces nearly 100 different toys and issues millions of each. Recent ones sell for $1-2 each, but a manufacturing variation or a recall may create a toy with a higher value.

Because McDonald’s produced millions of these toys, they must be perfect to have any value. Loose ones thrown in a box have little or no value since the paint rubs off and parts disappear. Paper items need to be clean and unmarked to bring top dollars.

Figurine Happy Meals toys are the most popular, especially those featuring well-known characters. Special packaging can also increase their desirability. The idea behind Happy Meals is to get the little ones to collect a particular set. Parents usually order by character needed rather than by what the food offering may be. This keeps the kids dragging their parents back for more.

Happy Meals featuring books, buckets, or little-known characters are of lessor interest to collectors.  But there are exceptions. The four small soft-cover Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit books from a 1988 Happy Meal, in mint condition with the mint Happy Meal box are worth about $80 as a set since this Happy Meal was distributed only regionally.

So depending on the age and condition of the Happy Meals toys in your box, they may not be worth all that much.

Beauty and Collectibility Are in the Eye of the Collector

QUESTION: How do I determine an artist’s most collectible works? Are they the ones that sell for the most money? And, if so, are they the ones I should be collecting?

ANSWER: Collecting art can be tricky. More than any other collectible, the popularity of certain artists and their works ebb and flow with the trends in the art world. An artist that’s extremely popular one year may fall to the bottom of the heap the next.

An artist's most collectible works usually depict subject matter that has gained popularity among art collectors. If more people collect the works of a particular artist, those works will go up in price and value. In this case, outside forces play a large role in the determining what type of  subject matter looks like, not necessarily the artists, themselves. One year, it could be landscapes and seascapes, another year city scenes, abstracts, portrait, or interiors. The only way to discover  what an artist's most collectible works look like is by talking with dealers, collectors and others familiar with that artist's body of work.

The farther a particular work departs from favored subject matter, the less collectors of that artist’s works will be interested in it. You might compare this to a musician who becomes famous for one or two songs because his or her fans insist on hearing those songs over and over regardless of what direction that musicians career takes. That doesn't mean that artists or musicians have only one or two noteworthy moments in their careers, but rather that tunnel vision of fans affects what’s perceived to be popular or collectible. The same holds true for writers who become successful based on a particular style of writing or subject matter. When they deviate from that, their fans find someone else to read.

Art work featuring the best, most collectible subject matter usually sells for the most money. But determining whether or not a work falls into the "most collectible" category based purely on how much it sells for isn’t how the art business works. Instead, an individual piece of art must be evaluated by experts in terms of the artist's entire output, his career evolution, and with respect to what was going on around him at the time. Price does not enter into that evaluation—it’s the consequence.

Works of art can also sell for high prices even though they may not fall into an artist's"most collectible" category. For example, a piece might be valuable because an artist produced it during an important time in art history. It then becomes more collectible by fans of the movement rather than by fans of the artist.

As for what art work you should or should not collect, follow the golden rule of collecting— collect what you like. If your tastes center around pieces that don't have that "most collectible" look, fine. Go ahead and buy them. Just know the artist's market well enough so that you pay the going rate for that type of art, not the going rate for the most collectible types.

Also, pay attention to collecting trends in the art world. Subscribe to publications that offer news about recent auctions or sales of art. Know which artists are hot and which are not. And know if a scam may be afoot. One woman hid her late artist husband’s work from the public for a number of years so that it would appear to be rare and pristine—translation: never appeared on the market before. She thought that doing so would raise the prices of the works when they did appear. When she did begin selling his works, she did so in dribs and drabs, so as not to flood the market with his works, thus lowering the price.

Tips for Buying Antiques at Garage and Yard Sales

The ordinary garage/yard sale is an American institution. Every Saturday morning there’s one or more going on somewhere in the country. Collectors find it hard to pass them up since they’re the entry-level market for antiques and collectibles.

Most people who cruise the yard sales every weekend are casual shoppers, driving from one to another. If you’re a serious collector, you know how to find antiques and collectibles hidden among the plastic kitchenware and cheap florist vases, but you need a plan.

Generally, garage/yard sale ads appear in local papers on Thursday and Friday evenings. Mark those that mention antiques or collectibles. Don’t waste your time noting those that don’t advertise antiques. After all, you must complete your rounds in just a few hours, at least by 12 Noon.  

As you read the addresses, map a route starting with the sales closest to your home or those with the earliest starting times, then move on to more distant ones. The purpose is to get to the good sales before someone else snaps up the antiques.

Every town is different when it comes to finding antiques at good prices at these sales. You’ll usually find more antiques and collectibles at the lowest prices in older, middle-class neighborhoods. In many cases owners of these homes have lived there for years and years and have stored a mass of castoffs in their attics and basements. These people are usually not trying to get top dollar for their things. They just want to get rid of them.

By contrast, the owners of homes in upper-class neighborhoods are usually quite knowledgeable about antiques values. At their sales they set close to retail prices on any antique or collectible, so you’ll seldom find much to buy at such sales. Remember the cardinal rule of collecting: Buy low, sell high.

As many sellers get more savvy with the Internet, they look up their items on eBay to see what they’re going for. But they don’t take into account that this is an auction, as well as entertainment, so prices can be higher than they should be.

At these sales possession is nine-tenths of the law, so to speak. The unwritten code of the yard sale is that whoever has his or her hands on an item first has dibs on it. You need to be able to pick things up quickly and hold on to them. Take along a large sturdy plastic tote bag or a box, into which you can drop anything that interests you. This way, you can pick up and carry much more than you could in your arms alone. Then examine your finds carefully, put anything that isn’t promising back on the tables, pay for the items you do want, and move quickly to the next sale.

To be honest, you probably won’t find an antique or collectible of outstanding value at a garage or yard sale. You’ll find china, glassware, pottery, and kitchen collectibles, all of modest value. Every once in a while, you’ll come upon a piece of furniture—a bed, small table, brass bridge lamp, framed mirror, or whatever. Inevitably, these finds must be refinished, polished, or rewired.

Every collector has at least one story of a spectacular discovery, a real treasure bought for a pittance. To make sure you buy the real thing, take at least one of the current antiques and collectibles price guides with you—you can leave it in your car. Otherwise, unless you have a phenomenal memory, you’ll have a hard time remembering the thousands of ever changing retail values of items you’ll run across.

Some collectors learn this lesson the hard way. Many novice collectors go to yard sales without taking any price guides along. You might find an item you think is priced well, but you don’t know for sure. If you had brought along a general antiques and collectibles price guide, you’d have been able to decide if the price were too high or if you should make the purchase. If you left the sale to check on the price back home, you might return and find that the item had been sold. 

Clean Out and Clean Up

Garage and yard sale season officially starts today, April 1. No, it’s no April Fool’s joke. As the weather gets warmer, people start thinking about doing some Spring cleaning and getting rid of a lot of junk that’s piled up. I thought I’d take a break from the usual question-and-answer format to offer some tips on setting up and selling at a garage or yard sale.

It’s time to get rid of that old waffle iron, those old copies of National Geographic, your teenager's baby clothes, grandma’s costume jewelry. But before you do, you should do a bit of planning.

From now until the end of October, depending on the weather in your region, Americans will hold more than 10 million yard and garage sales. These sales are the bottom rung of the antiques and collectibles market. It’s the entry-level position where items, long hidden in attics and basements, see the light of day and join the thousands of others in the giant stream to flea markets and antique shops and coops.

Since garage and yard sales began in the mid-1960s, they have become an estimated $1.5 to $2-billion -a-year business. For some buyers its entertainment on a Saturday morning, for others it’s serious business finding inventory for their booths and shops.

Sellers get rid of a lot of junk they don't need and in the process make a few bucks. The average garage sale takes in about $150 to $200. And it's all free. These sales are one of the great unregulated sectors of the U.S. economy. No one cares about child labor laws, sales tax, or product guarantees. And generally, everyone has a good time.

Of all the items sold, dressers, beds, tables, especially smaller ones, are always in demand. More buyers are looking for antiques and collectibles, many of which end up on eBay. Antique mirrors, furniture, art, rugs, pottery, and glassware often sell at garage sales for a fraction of the price they’d sell for in a dealer's shop.

Fabrics—curtains, blankets, quilts, and tablecovers, all expensive in stores, sell well, especially if they’re  custom-made.

Household items are another favorite. Everything from a salad spinner to a potato peeler, new or old, sells, especially if priced under a dollar.

While the majority of buyers at these outdoor sales are women, men like to poke around, too. Tools of all sorts are popular with them. Antique tool collectors scour the sales far and wide looking for that piece to fill out their collection.

There’s even a market for old sports equipment—ice skates, tennis rackets, old baseball gloves— anything from the early days of a sport, especially if they’re in good shape.

To make sure a garage or yard sale is profitable, the seller must plan carefully. It’s a good idea to go to a few sales in the neighborhood to see what others are selling. And it’s just as important to watch the crowd since many of them are regulars who will end up at future sales.

It’s important to check local ordinances. Some municipalities don't care. Others have restrictions on sales. Many require a permit which is often free. Some restrict the number of sales per year.

Good weather is important. While the seven-day forecast can’t always be trusted, it’s a start. But plan for any contingency. Setting up a backyard canopy is good in any case as it will draw visual attention to the sale.

Ads for the sale need to be specific. While a seller doesn’t have to list every item, listing groups of items is a good idea. But don’t say ‘Antiques” if there’s only one or two pieces. And unless the ad states "No early binds," eager shoppers will show up way ahead of time. And don’t fall for some sad story on a Thursday evening about how the person has to work on Saturday and can’t come to the sale. Could they just have a peek? The answer is no. Being fair to all buyers is the mark of a good seller. A telephone number in the ad is helpful for directions and for people to see if you have what they want.

Attract buyers with  easy-to-read street signs, balloons, or streamers. Make all signs legible and the lettering dark enough to read while driving by.

Prepare everything ahead of time. Most of the action occurs in the first hour or two. Price all items. No buyer should have to guess how much an item is. Ask friends to help out and make sure to have plenty of dollar bills and coins on hand for change. Many buyers stop at an ATM machine before setting out and come armed with $20 bills.

Offer several boxes of smaller items that buyers can rummage through. Perhaps group these items by price from low to high in separate boxes. This stimulates buying. Also, a table of giveaways keeps people lingering. Some sellers serve coffee, always good at the beginning and end of the garage and yard sale season..

For those selling antiques, it’s important to know how much they’re worth before selling at some ridiculous price. But remember, this is the lowest place in the antiques market, so even valuable items can only go for a fraction of their value. A good rule of thumb is to send valuable pieces to auction. 

Be flexible on pricing; especially at day's end. Sometimes, it's better to get rid of an item than make money on it. One seller smashed an old crock against a tree rather than sell it for $1.

Next week: Tips on buying at garage and yard sales.

Sweet Storage

QUESTION: My mother has a cabinet and has been wondering what it is. Whatever you can tell me about it would be grand.

ANSWER: Your mother’s cabinet is often referred to as a jelly cupboard. However, it seems that this name may have been a more recent reference invented by antique dealers to give these rather primitive cabinets some panache.

Before the advent of built-ins, the only means of storage in 19th and early 20th-century kitchens was separate cabinets. These held pots and pans, foodstuffs, preserves and such. One of the smaller cupboards, often one that stood in a corner, was the jelly cupboard, created to store jellies and preserves and jarred vegetables.

During the late 18th century, many a colonial kitchens had a large hutch/cupboard that featured an upper section with narrow shelves for holding pewter plates and spoons. The lower section held shelves enclosed in a single or double-doored cabinet in which wives stored foodstuffs.
Often a large serving shelf separated the two sections.

But between 1800 and 1825, smaller cupboards with a single door came into widespread use. These varied in styles from extremely primitive affairs, used in rural kitchens, to more refined ones for upper class kitchens. The specifics of such pieces varied from maker to maker and from region to region, but all were meant to store jams and jellies, which had become a staple in American homes.

Typically, jelly cupboards featured two drawers above double doors which opened outward from the center. But the variations were endless since the makers of these cupboards customized them to their needs.

Inside, the cupboards had shelves set only high enough apart as to accommodate jars of jellies or preserves.  This allowed makers to permanently affix more of them into the interior of the  cupboard. Most had wooden latches but better ones featured metal hardware and locks. Most people didn’t lock their jelly cupboards but may have locked the drawers in which they stored spices, tea, and sugar, above the cabinet portion. Early on, tea and sugar were both expensive commodities and had to be protected.

Generally, most women kept their jelly cupboards in their kitchens during the 19th century since they prepared their jellies and preserves there and having the storage cabinet close by was more convenient. Towards the end of the 1800s, however, some placed in their dining rooms. This practice demanded better looking cupboards that often doubled as a place to keep foods while serving dinner.

Jelly cupboard makers responded by using better quality construction, better woods, and better hardware.

Surviving examples exist in a wide variety of woods. Though pine is probably the most common, cabinetmakers also employed birch, butternut, cherry, chestnut, maple, poplar, oak, and walnut. At times they used two different woods, such as pine and poplar, for their cabinets.

According to furniture historians, jelly cupboards used in kitchens were usually taller than those used in dining rooms, which tended to be shorter and wider. Kitchen cupboards were usually vertical affairs up to 72 inches tall while those used in dining rooms tended to be about 45 inches tall and perhaps 60 inches wide.

To cover up less expensive woods, jelly cupboard makers often painted them in decorative colors, including robin’s egg blue, gray, sea green, barn red, and sometimes pale yellow.

At their peak during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, makers dovetailed the drawers and permanently mounted the shelves. But some later models featured adjustable shelves. As late as the 1920s Montgomery Ward's mail order catalog offered a basic jelly cupboard, 34 inches wide and 60 inches tall, with a single drawer above two doors constructed of seasoned oak and with adjustable shelves for $9.95.  Sears Roebuck had similar models.

Though this jelly cupboard is one of the good ones, the primitive ones are easy to fake. It doesn’t take too much imagination, a few pieces of old weathered wood, and some old nails to fashion what looks like a charming old jelly cupboard. With even primitive ones selling for $400-500, it’s no wonder there are some great new “antiques” on the market.

The Little Beaded Bag

QUESTION: I recently purchased a little beaded bag at an antique show. It’s so delicate and finely done. Can you tell me how I might figure out how old it is and perhaps something about beaded bags in general?

ANSWER: After years of languishing in attic trunks and flea markets, antique beaded bags have become among the most sought after collectibles. This has caused prices, and thus value to soar in recent years.

Until the 16th century, women wore purses dangling from the waist. By the 17th century, flat tapestry or embroidered wallets were common. But by the late 18th century, the hand-carried framed or drawstring purse or handbag had appeared. Especially prized were French sable beaded bags made of beads so tiny it took about 1,000 to make a square inch. Designs included commemorative scenes like the first balloon flight in 1783.

In the early 19th century, women began carrying their indispensables—handkerchief, fan, perfume bottle—in little drawstring bags made of fabric. Often elaborately trimmed with beads or lace, they called them "reticules." So popular was the reticule that it became an absolute "must" for fashionable ladies of the 19th century.

Between 1820 and 1830, beaded bags supported by metal frames came into vogue. Coming primarily from France and Austria, the frames were made of everything from pinchbeck, an alloy of cooper and zinc made to look like gold, to tortoiseshell. Makers attached chains, often formed of decorative, ornate links,  to the frames.

Floral beaded purses flourished from the mid to late 1800s. At that time, milliners, perfumers, and trinket shops sold beaded purses,, but Victorian ladies, who prided themselves on their fancywork, often made their own from patterns found in Godey's Lady's Book and other fashion publications. They particularly favored floral designs of tulips, roses, lilies, and forget-me-nots in bouquets or strewn across a solid background of beads. Only the most experienced beaders attempted intricate landscape, Biblical, and figurative motifs. The finer the beads used, the more tapestry-like the appearance.

By the early 20th century, beaded bags had become increasingly fashionable. Frames were more ornate, often made of solid gold, sterling silver, nickel, amber, ivory, or celluloid and often heavily engraved or embossed, embellished with gemstones, filigree, pearls or enamel work.

The criteria for judging a purse's value include condition, rarity, bead size, complexity of pattern, and the uniqueness of the frame. Some of these frames are remarkably detailed works on their own, ornately executed in silver, wrought gold, or brass, and inset with tiny stones and pearls. Each bag has its own personality. Some are very regal and elegant while others are more simple, homespun pieces.

Dating a beaded bag can be a challenge since newer bags are often made with older beads. For instance, beads from the early 19th century might be used to decorate bags made in the 1920s. And while a bag's frame can sometimes provide clues to its age, not even this is foolproof.