Chapter 172

Whimsy

3/2/2008

There's a Folk Artist in All of Us   

One gets inspiration and whimsy where one finds it.

Forty years ago on the way home from Albany to Cortland I stopped at a backyard sale, serendipitously, and bought this bottle for Grandma. She liked bottles so I passed on the $1 ones and splurged $5 on this one with framed pictures inside. Wanting to establish my eBay selling credentials, I posted this item for sale in the bottle category as it's not really an heirloom. I started the bidding at $5 and was willing to take a loss just to get established.

Right away a Kentucky woman wanted me to end the auction and sell outright. Bids started quickly at $10 to $20 by a day later. I noticed the marking on the bottom and from internet research concluded it was made 1841-1909. By chance I added a listing in the Folk Art category not really knowing what I was doing. Soon 20 bidders had this entry listed on their "watch lists" and I began to expect bigger things as some collectors were paying $700 for some "Folk Art" bottles. I got really intrigued and did as much research as I could. What if the pictures were from the immediate family of the glass maker President, the prominent Mr. William McCully of Ireland and Pittsburg? I found his will in the genealogy pages and contacted some of the heirs. Still don't know.

At any rate, the bidding stalled around $30 but nudged up to $56 as the clock ticked down to the last couple hours. I thought that was it until all of a sudden the auction had ended and the selling price had doubling to $217 in the last ten seconds as three snipers had come out cyberspace. There were 269 hits- viewing the item. Seventeen bids from 10 different bidders. It was thrilling and was paid for 10 seconds later into my Paypal account by a Colorado collector. I shipped the next morning. Maybe this eBay thing will work out. I coulda asked $5 at a garage sale, been offered $2 and would have accepted or thrown in the landfill. Collecting, whimsy, and Folk Art in bottles is quite an interesting area. Look for my bottle on a future Antiques Roadshow episode for $10,000.

The extra money wont make a difference in my life, nor would having the bottle on a shelf in the garage, but the excitement and FUN was worth the effort. It was definitely worth more to someone else than to me. I have many more areas in which to reduce the clutter here.

As chance would have it, I was inspired by a squirrel today and composed this nature video. Leap-night my Mustang team took second place  in the championship.