Old Money Alexander City, Half Price Day

The house at 1542 Lake Circle in Alexander City sits back from the road in one of those wooded neighborhoods where the lots are generous and the money is old and quiet. The context photo tells you everything about the setting: moss-covered stones, mature hardwoods, a low-slung mid-century ranch that turns out to have been designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. The estate sale company's listing called it worth the drive just to see the architecture, and I believe them.

By the time I got there it was half price day, well after opening, and the place had been picked over pretty thoroughly. The artwork of Bonnie Graves — the resident artist whose paintings apparently covered nearly every wall — was already gone or priced beyond what made sense for me to carry out. What remained were the kinds of things serious buyers leave behind: paper, books, a few small objects, a record or two.

The haul reflects that. There's an August 1928 issue of Better Homes and Gardens with a ten-cent cover price and a full-color illustrated cover that holds up remarkably well for its age, alongside a couple of issues of Look from the 1960s. A vinyl LP by The Friendly Brothers — If You Are Naked Put On Some Clothes — is the kind of regional gospel record that turns up once in a while at Alabama estates and tends to find its people online. On the art book side, there's a volume on Philip Henry Gosse, the Victorian naturalist, and what appears to be a puzzle with a Georgia O'Keeffe poppy reproduction on the box — large format, bold red, unmistakable. Rounding things out: a small wrought-iron and silver-plate candlestick, a delicate porcelain nativity grouping, and a silver-tone metal rose wreath that reads decorative but has some weight to it.

Not a deep haul, but a considered one. Items will be listed across our shops over the coming days — keep an eye on the new arrivals if any of this sounds like your kind of thing.