Sunday, October 4, 2020

Google Is Amazing

Months ago, when I was unpacking boxes of things after our move I came across a box of curios that had been stored in the china cabinet we no longer had. Hubby Tony and I decided to keep a few of them, and I offered the rest to other parts of the family. They took some, but there were a handful of items that went completely unclaimed. 

Before I packaged them up for Goodwill I decided I would see if they had any value. I called a local antique mall and got the phone number for an appraiser. Before I could make the call the world went into COVID quarantine, so I shoved the items into a box and put the box in a corner of the spare bedroom. Eventually it got buried under other things and I forgot all about it.

Fast forward to now. The other week I thoroughly cleaned that corner of the bedroom and the box reappeared. Before I got rid of it I still wanted to know if there were any gems among the doodads. I tried to get hold of the appraiser, came up empty handed, and then wondered what I could find out online. One morning I sat in front of the computer and started a research project.

The first item was a sweet ceramic figurine we had received from Tony's great aunt when she passed away. On the bottom was a logo that I couldn't read, and the name "Marie" underneath it. I typed "vintage figurine purple dress marie" in the search bar and hit Enter. Immediately my screen was filled with photos of my figurine!

Based on the information provided on a couple of the website results I learned that Marie was made by Royal Doulton. Her number (HN1370) was the very tiny letters on the bottom, and she was worth about $25

I listed the figurine for sale on Facebook. It took a couple of days to get a response, but eventually I mailed her to an older gentleman who told me he wanted it because Marie had been his mother's name.

11 comments:

  1. And I so so much pre google. But, someone always knew what they were getting.

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  2. You're right, Google is amazing. Congrats on the sale of Marie.

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    1. I'm glad she was able to go to someone who would appreciate her.

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  3. Isn't that fun, doing such research!

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  4. Royal Doulton is an English ceramic manufacturing company dating from 1815. Their works are much sought after.

    God bless.

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    1. I was familiar with the company; a previous boss was a ceramics maven and used to share details with me on a regular basis.

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