Owl & Twig

The Field Guide

How to identify, date, and value the things you find. Written from what passes through our hands, one estate sale at a time.

Doorway into the Owl and Twig Vintage booth at The Rabbit Hole in Waterford, Michigan, under a hand-painted owl sign FeaturedSeller's Desk Find us in Waterford: our new booth at The Rabbit Hole The Rabbit Hole in Waterford Township is doubling its floor space and adding 23 new vendors, and Owl & Twig is on the lineup. Booth pieces are sold in the store only. Reopens September... September 16, 2026
A Comptometer Model ST Super Totalizer key-driven calculator Seller's DeskThe Comptometer: The Adding-Machine Patent Dorr Felt Won in a Year, While Burroughs Waited Three By Matthew Partsch · Owl and Twig Vintage · October 2, 2026 William Burroughs filed for his adding... Oct 1, 2026 Seller's DeskThe Cash Register: Two Patents, Two Partners, and a Smithsonian Replica James Ritty patented the cash register twice, with two different partners, and the machine the Smithsonian calls its... Oct 1, 2026 Seller's Desk25 things only 1990s kids remember, and what they sell for now The fifth entry in the decade series: a 25-item panel for the 1990s, the hard date behind each... Sep 30, 2026 25 things only 1980s kids remember, and what they sell for now Seller's Desk25 things only 1980s kids remember, and what they sell for now The fourth entry in the decade series: a 25-item panel of 1980s objects, the patents and court cases... Sep 28, 2026 Seller's DeskHow to search every vintage marketplace at once: Prowl, SearchTempest, Gem and the alert apps compared No single site searches every place vintage gets listed. Here is what Prowl, SearchTempest, Gem, Swoopa and Flipify... Sep 26, 2026 Seller's Desk25 things only 1970s kids remember, and what they sell for now By Matthew Partsch · Owl and Twig Vintage · September 25, 2026 A child born in 1968 slept... Sep 25, 2026 Seller's Desk25 things only 1960s kids remember, and what they sell for now Twenty-five objects from an American 1960s childhood, dated and priced: a Sting-Ray banana seat, a shoe phone, and... Sep 22, 2026 Seller's DeskCheck protectors: the desk machine built to make a forged check impossible By Matthew Partsch · Owl and Twig Vintage · September 20, 2026 A check protector does one job:... Sep 20, 2026 Seller's DeskThe Knuckle Buster: A Field Guide to the Manual Credit Card Imprinter The manual credit card imprinter predates the plastic card it was built to press. Three US patents mark... Sep 20, 2026 Seller's DeskThe vintage postal scale: the rate chart dates it, not the maker's mark A postal scale's manufacturer mark proves who made it, not when. Its own printed rate chart, checked against... Sep 20, 2026 Seller's Desk25 things only 1950s kids remember, and what they sell for now A 5x5 panel of twenty-five objects a child of the 1950s handled without thinking about it, each one... Sep 19, 2026 A pair of 1950s white and gold porcelain Christmas angel figurines marked Made in Japan, from Owl and Twig Vintage stock. Seller's DeskNippon, Occupied Japan, U.S. Zone: what the mark on the bottom actually proves The marks collectors treat as the hardest dates in the category were each required for a few years,... Sep 15, 2026 Seller's DeskHow to pack vintage for shipping A milk glass owl can survive sixty years of estate sales and then die in the back of... Aug 15, 2026 Seller's DeskFacebook just gave Marketplace sellers their own app. Here's how to use it Meta launched Seller, a standalone Facebook Marketplace app, in July 2026 — plus a free Facebook Verified badge.... Aug 3, 2026 Seller's DeskProwl: search twenty-four vintage marketplaces at once Prowl is a free sourcing tool for vintage hunters. One search box, 24 marketplaces on one screen, live... Jul 24, 2026 Prowl: one search term, twenty-four vintage marketplaces Seller's DeskProwl: one search term, twenty-four vintage marketplaces Prowl builds one search term for twenty-three vintage marketplaces plus an eBay Sold window, all on one screen.... Jul 11, 2026