Hey guys and gals, I got thinking about something my parents found and subsequently lost years ago, and decided to finally post online about it. Over the years I've found myself occasionally wondering what the items would be worth today if they hadn't sold them in a box for $1 at a yard sale in 1983.
The house I was born in was built in the 1830's. It was an old farm house in Southern Maine. In about 1982, when I was about a year old, my father was pulling up the old floorboards on the back porch of the house as the old ones were rotting. When he got about halfway done pulling the boards, he saw something in the dirt. It turned out to be a velvet (what remained of it) book full of photographs made out of what my mother described as "thick metal plates"...tin types? Anyway, though photography was still in its infancy when these 12-15 photos were taken, Im sure an old, even really early photo cant be THAT valuable in itself....it wasnt the photos themselves that was so amazing about this...It was who they were of and what my father found lying next to them...
The photos were all of the same somber, creepy 19th century farm family in front of a new version of our old farm house. However, in 2 or 3 photos there was a very, very short gentleman (about 3 1/2 feet tall) in some sort of military garb...I think my mother said there was a rope sash across the breast of his coat. In every picture he was in he was held up by a pair of home made crutches...Heres the crazy part: the tiny crutches in the pictures were lying next to the photo book...
The only thing I know about the family is their name was Sawyer, and years after they accidentally sold the photos and crutches for $1 a woman at a local historical society told my mother, in regards to the vertically challenged gentleman (who appeared to be middle aged by the way) that he was known as "General..." (something)... My mother couldnt remember the last name she said...clearly this man wasnt actually a General...or she thought it could have been "Captain" which seems more likely that he worked on a ship here in Maine...Probably an honorary title...but why the regalia?
I just think its very cool that a pair of crutches in a few tin photos from 150 years ago were there with the photos themselves.
What do you guys think, if u had to throw out a number, something like that would be worth at the right auction today? Very unique and bizarre.
Anyway, theres my story.
Chris W.
