weirdest items collected

[archeobabe]

What is the weirdest items has anyone collected over the years?  I will start with my own collections:  fosslizes bones, rocks, shark teeth, bison bones and horn cores, projectile points.   I have an interested in archaeology and paleontology since the seventh grade.

I carried a piece of limestone rock that that I found in a pasture during a fishing outing with my parents, grandparents, aunt/uncle, and cousins.  I carry it for at least quarter of a mile. It weigh approximately about 20 to 30 pounds. That piece of limestone has fosslized bi-value clams and sea lilys imbedded in it. It started my rock collection and I still have the rock.

I still collect items that deals with archaeology and paleontology.  There is a lot of history that one piece of stone can tell you.

[Teresa]

If you could see the inside of my house you would know that I decorate with ...ahhhhmmm..
Lets just say older earthy things.. lol
Every room is cowboy and Native American. I have collected "things" for a long time..
In fact, I had a lady call me the other day..  a client who works for a native western magazine and wanted
to come and take pics of the inside of my rooms to possibly use them in the magazine.
Cool huh?
 
Here is one room in my house.. the dining room. and then a close up of the curio shelves in that room.

[Jo McDonald]

How cool that the lady wants to feature your home in a magazine.  Congrats !!  Hope that works out.

[archeobabe]

Are the pots in and around the curio cabinet made by Native Americans.  I also collect Native American statues.  I have one that was made in 1976.  It is a bust of a elder with the flag as a headband and the sunflower.  I don't remember what county was on the front.  Can you gave the name of the publication so I can get an issue when it comes out.  I also collect magazines:  Arizona Highway - 1940s through 1990s,  National Geographic - 1914 through 2002, True stories of the old west (some of the front page art is wonderful to look at).  The Arizona Highway has photographs that would look great on canvas.

[sixdogsmom]

Are the pots in and around the curio cabinet made by Native Americans.  I also collect Native American statues.  I have one that was made in 1976.  It is a bust of a elder with the flag as a headband and the sunflower.  I don't remember what county was on the front.  Can you gave the name of the publication so I can get an issue when it comes out.  I also collect magazines:  Arizona Highway - 1940s through 1990s,  National Geographic - 1914 through 2002, True stories of the old west (some of the front page art is wonderful to look at).  The Arizona Highway has photographs that would look great on canvas.

Not many collect stuffed cats! It looks almost lifelike~ 

[W. Gray]

I do not know if one can classify mine as weird: maybe odd, or unique, but the collection will never be worth anything.

I used to be quite active in model railroading and traded railroad passes with other model railroaders.

A pass was a credit card size custom multi colored printed card complete with the model railroad logo and name entitling the bearer to a lifetime free ride to anywhere the model railroader's passenger train went.

I had passes made by a Boston printer who specialized in these things and each was serially numbered. I traded these by mail with other model railroaders. I had quite a collection from every state in the union, some provinces in Canada, and a handful from other foreign countries.

My railroad company was the Sibley, Six-Mile, and Western Railroad, route of the Osage Warrior, a crack passenger streamliner running through the Blue and Missouri River valleys of west central Missouri. The road at one time reached seventeen by nine feet before being dismantled prior to our move a few years ago. At the new house, I was not able to negotiate a right of way.

I sent a complimentary pass to Harry S. Truman and received a nice response from him. I also sent one to Louis Fineberg. Fineberg acted under the name Larry Fine and I received a nice response from him. He was the bushy haired fall guy of the Three Stooges.

Each of the cars on the Osage Warrior had an Osage chief's name. The area northeast of Independence, Mo., was a principal home of the Osage before an 1808 treaty moved them to east and southeast Kanzas including "Elk County."

Both the Osage and the Missouri Tribes were moved into Kanzas to pave the way for Missouri becoming a state. Most Kansans know their state was named after an Indian tribe. I doubt if a handful of Missourians know their state was.

The name Six-Mile comes from the area where Fort Osage, northeast of Independence, was located. When I was young, there was a church not far from the fort with the name Six Mile Baptist. I tried hard to find out the significance of that name but no one could tell me. I did not learn what it meant until just a few years ago.

Congressional, or survey townships are six-miles long by six-miles wide. The people who later settled around Fort Osage just named their area six-mile for lack of anything else.

[Teresa]

The magazine was one that I wasn't familiar with ( can't even remember it actually) and I won't hold my breath. My little house has way too many flaws to be featured in a magazine, I am afraid. But It was nice that my decor was noticed .
I had a photo shoot with the Buffalo Soldiers and all the horses, one time and I was supposed to be featured in that magazine too, but it never panned out.. so I don't let too much of that kind of thing go to my head.. LOL
But like I said, it is a compliment anyway. 

Yes, most of  the pottery is made by different tribes. Some of it isn't authentic.. but lots of my stuff is.

The cats ( I have 3 ) are so lifelike that my real cat Sheeba hisses at them every single time she walks by them. 
One of them actually has batteries that makes her tummy go in and out like she is sleeping and breathing.

[archeobabe]

Are some the pots have the potter's name on the bottom and are the pots from the pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona.  When I took a class in Museum Studies the class did a exhition on the Southwest jewelry and pottery.

[Diane Amberg]

I used to collect more than I do now, but I add to my shells, rocks, fossils and mineral collections when we travel. I love antiques and my house looks a bit like a museum.  I used to collect old coins, old ironstone and pewter, salt cellars, antique bottles, crocks, old wooden kitchen utensils, Halloween and Christmas ornaments and cookbooks. I have a lot of British Royal Worcester Evesham china, Victorian fruit knives and interesting sterling pieces like sardine forks, pickle forks, sugar and jam spoons and similar. I have a lot of my mom's paintings and her pottery pieces from when she had her pottery shop long ago. I have 20 old Hummels. I have 12 old different sized milk glass hens and roosters on nests and a rabbit on a nest. I have a few old wedge wood pieces. I have a good bit of old New Mexico and Arizona silver and silver and turquoise jewelry. Newer pieces include a squash blossom silver and turquoise necklace and a concho belt.  Some is pueblo work. One necklace was the tri council pueblo pow-wow craft show winner that I bought from the artist. ( Are you bored yet?)  I enjoy bits of old ivory doodads from old sewing boxes.  I have a carved griffin piano leg from a G.M.& O. railroad parlor car.  I have a big box of old fancy buttons and some antique marbles.  I also have some 1830- 1832 framed botanical specimens  from Chester County Pa. We had a huge collection of them that we donated to West Chester University after Mom died. She had framed some of the duplicates. I sold a number of things when we moved here in 1989, so there would have been even more. I love to dig around antique shops and flea markets. Sounds like I live in an antique shop. Yes, I know, I'm being a blabbermouth again.

[Teresa]

NOt at all Diane.. I love to rummage through old places with old things too. I have found many a treasure stuck away in a niche somewhere away form the main items.

Yes some of my pottery is signed and has the tribal mark on it. and yes.. a few pieces are from Arizona. ( Those weren't in the picture I put up though. )