Notes from the house
Occasional writing on the objects we handle, the trade of sourcing, and the strange calm of restoration.
- March 4, 2026·5 min read
The strange calm of restoration
There is a particular quiet that comes over the workroom when an old object is being brought back. It is not silence. It is something closer to attention.
restorationessayworkroomcraft - January 16, 2026·6 min read
On the ethics of taxidermy provenance
The legal question and the ethical question are not the same question. We have written policies for both, and we would rather turn a sale away than confuse them.
taxidermyethicsprovenancepolicy - October 19, 2025·6 min read
A partial history of the coin-op fortune teller
For thirty years, the American arcade sold prophecy for a penny. Most of the machines are gone. The ones that survived have earned their aura the hard way.
automatapenny arcadefortune telleramericana - August 7, 2025·6 min read
Why obsolete PLC modules keep American factories running
The reason an Allen-Bradley PLC-5 from 1987 is still sequencing a bottling line in Ohio has almost nothing to do with nostalgia and almost everything to do with math.
industrialPLCautomationmanufacturing - May 22, 2025·7 min read
The last working stereopticon in Kansas: a sourcing story
It began with a letter on library stationery and ended in a barn outside Chanute. In between were forty-one phone calls and a great deal of driving.
stereopticonsourcingmagic lanternkansas - February 14, 2025·6 min read
How to date a 12AX7 by its getter flash
The mirror of vaporized barium at the top of the envelope is the closest thing a vacuum tube has to a birth certificate. If you know how to read it.
vacuum tubes12AX7audioidentification