Sentimental Value

From the July/August 2008 issue of Reminisce Extra

Leather Postcard Pillowcase

This pillowcase was made from leather postcards, about 1910, in Bellingham, Washington. —Roald Olsen, Washington, D.C.

Postcards could carry you to faraway towns, vacation spots and world events—all for just a penny.

In 1869, the first known picture postcard was mailed, in Austria. The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, in Chicago, catapulted picture postcards to the world.

In 1900, a new 3- by 5-inch leather postcard was introduced. The U.S. Post Office Department banned the leather cards about 10 years later because of new sorting equipment that could not handle the thicker cards.

The W.S. Heal Company was one of about a dozen companies that manufactured the cards from leather scraps. Leather endures, but colors fade, and brightness is important to value. Value: $4-$22 per postcard.

Leather postcards have turned into a folk-art form. This is an unusual pillowcase, with 24 leather postcards sewn together and edged with leather fringe. Value: $100.

 

Douglas House Mirror

This mirror (left) was a wedding gift to my grandma, in the mid-1860s, after she was wed in front of it at the Douglas House, once General George Washington’s headquarters in Trenton, New Jersey. It had hung in Trenton’s German Lutheran Church. —Edward H. Ristow Sr., Highlands Ranch, Colorado

Charles Lock Eastlake (1836-1906) was a British writer and designer who helped create the reformed or modern Gothic style. His furniture was his response to the eclectic Victorian conglomeration of the day. His published work Hints on Household Taste helped bring simplicity back to furniture styles. Furniture makers copied his easy-to-make designs and opened an era.

All Eastlake framework had vertical and horizontal lines only—no curves. He used the natural grain as decoration and no varnish. Minimal incising with fretwork and small areas of gilt or ebonized accent were added, although Eastlake did use tiles extensively.

Early Eastlake pieces were usually made of black walnut or rosewood; later, oak was added.

Even his larger pieces are rectangular in shape. If you can date your mirror to 1860, this is one of his early works. It appears to be walnut, has an overhanging molded cornice, columnar side panels and ebonized accents, and is in excellent shape. Value: $900. (If you can establish the date or prove the connection to the Douglas House, it would bring considerably more.)