What is your most prized piece of ephemera? Why?

[martyweil]

I'm interested in hearing about the most prized, show-stopper item in your collection.

I'd plan to feature a few of these in upcoming posts on the ephemera blog, so if you're opposed to my referencing your comment, please say so and I won't.

[Rita Holcomb]

I don't have an image of my favorite and most prized piece of ephemera, but I can try to take one..............

It is a bit odd. A "twist" of tobacco that my Great-grandfather brought from Tennessee to Texas when the family immigrated in 1885...................

[Gary Roberts]

What a tough question. I'm torn between the Jos. Harm Trade Catalog, c1910 that offers Dutch, French, English and US woodworking tools. Complete with translations of the name of each tool. This one catalog has proved to be a gold mine for information on turn of that century woodworking practices across multiple geographic boarders.

On the other hand, there is a trade card that I bought many years ago. It's the card for a stair builder from Chicago. The card was from the collection of the Otis estate, of Otis elevators. I picked it up at Brimfield. The card contains a graphic of a curved staircase. What's interesting is that the card is printed in Cameo.

Then there is a piece of correspondence between a traveling salesman and the iron manufacturing firm from England. Tons of bits and pieces of information are contained in this two page letter that are yet turning up connections for researchers.

and of course there is....

[Frank DeFreitas]

My most prized piece of ephemera always seems to be the one that I've misplaced.

[Bernie]

I find my 200 year old sheet music just amazing because of its age but I have just uploaded some images of decoupage on handsaws with their story below.

Around 2001 I found bags of scraps (all Vic chromos with some 1950s/60s butterflies and moths) in an antique shop in the small town of Woodbridge, Suffolk. They had been in a fire for they smelt of smoke and there was water in the bottom of some of the bags but for a few pounds I purchased the lot. As it turned out there were loads in good collectable condition and they went straight to my album. Some were irredeemable. But what to do with those in between with damaged edges? Decoupage was the answer, overlapping good edges on bad and finishing off with good duplicates. If I didn’t want to do this in my album then what to mount them on?

Rusting in peace in the shed were my father’s saws, not good enough to be classed as collectable but with my father’s name stamped in the handle I didn’t have the heart to throw them away. And so the 2 elements came together.

For me these pieces represent my father’s life work in the building trade, my beloved Suffolk that I had the good fortune to move to after accepting early retirement and the evenings of enjoyment with my lovely wife sorting the hundreds of scraps and arranging them on the saws. They form an eye-catching display in our living room - a talking point for visitors giving me an opportunity to introduce them to the rest of my ephemera.

You will see the reason I choose these - altho next week I may come across a forgotten piece somewhere in my study...........

[Alana]

Mine would be my old 1930s and 1940s full Sears catalogs. I have sold quite a few of them, but I have always loved these old catalogs. Just an amazing walk down memory lane.

[Rita Holcomb]

Rita Holcomb said:

I don't have an image of my favorite and most prized piece of ephemera, but I can try to take one..............

It is a bit odd. A "twist" of tobacco that my Great-grandfather brought from Tennessee to Texas when the family immigrated in 1885...................

[Leslie]

I have an autographed photo of Burr Tillstrom and Fran Allison (aka Kukla, Fran and Ollie, and yes, Kukla and Ollie signed it too!). I actually got it for free. I was a member of a Yahoo group that was trying to raise some money for the organization it represented. One of the other members offered to give them the photo. No one replied to her (which I thought was very rude). I wrote her and made and offer. She said it had too much sentimental value to sell, but she wanted to give it to someone who would love it and keep it. And I have.

[Ray Kirchmeyer]

It would be hard to narrow it down to one specific piece but I would have to say a collection of items relating to the Buffalo, New York Fire Department dating from the 1920's to the 1960's. My grandfather was a career firefighter and I inherited a collection of photos, badges, department memos, uniforms, etc. It's an interesting look at how firefighting techniques and equipment evolved over 4 decades.