I never know what I am going to encounter while out buying furniture for my home or the store. Sometimes I have to leave a beautiful piece of furniture behind. This installment is about when furniture has been moved outside. You have made the decision to part with piece of antique furniture. It’s okay. You […]

I am not an expert in anything. I have however been around a fair amount of time and have learned a few things. In fact, I am still learning everyday in this business.. In the world of antiques and collectibles, I get asked a question a lot. “How do I know it’s real?” There are […]

I am moving my blog posts/articles from our store’s site to this one in order to preserve them for future viewing. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.   Welcome to Five Katz Antiques blog. For my first blog entry, I wanted to put forth the most common definitions […]

Five Katz Antiques was opened June 15th, 2015, and closed on June 18th, 2022. We celebrated our 7th anniversary just prior to our closing. It was a 1000 square foot retail store featuring antiques, oddities and vintage items as well as a variety of new items including vinyl records, Case knives, Fisher Price, Tonka and […]

A long time ago while working in the photography store, A customer and I were chatting, and they happened to have photos of a Santa sleigh with flamingos and a large Pillsbury Doughboy Styrofoam figure in it. I asked what the story behind this was, and they said someone in the neighborhood had the doughboy […]

For this column, I thought I would take the space and talk about one of the bane’s of my existence: computers. I know some of you just love computers and what they do. I get it. I do. Because I used to be that way. I used to source my own parts and build my […]

The toys you lost, the toys mom gave away, the toys that broke, that went missing. Our lost youth. The feeling of nostalgia that hits you like a truck out of nowhere when you come across a toy you had in your youth. Whatever it was, it takes you back instantly, even if you had […]

Growing up in Erie, Pennsylvania, few buildings were as iconic as the former Koehler Brewery – Erie Brewing Company’s buildings. The brewery closed in 1978 after a 90 year production run. First built on the site in 1855 subsequent additions took place over the years. Jackson Koehler started brewing in 1890 and his beers were […]

In 2003 We took a trip to Philadelphia and while there I spent a day photographing  Eastern State Penitentiary. It was a prison built by the Quakers that in it’s time was well outside the city limits and quite advanced in its construction. Opened in 1829, it was the first prison in the United States […]

I love frustrating people sometimes… In this day and age of social media, tracking aps, data tracking, phishing emails and text messages, search engine tracking, targeted advertising, mailing list sales, location tracking and not to mention cameras absolutely everywhere, I do my best to stay off everyone’s radar. I have to tell you it’s not […]