Historical society hosts pleasant weekend yard sale

Sylvia Kasparie offered an old wooden Kraft Cheese box, her handmade paper jewelry and thousands of antique postcards for sale during the Carson City Historical Society Labor Day yard sale at the Roberts House Saturday and Sunday.

"I probably have more postcards than anything else," she said, seated in the shade under a plum tree. "I have over 50,000 postcards."

Many are from the "Golden Era of Postcards" - 1909 through 1911. She has them meticulously filed in alphabetical order and stored in plastic envelopes for protection. Most sell for about $2, but some are worth much more. Once a man bought her original Eastman postcard for $120.

Kasparie was one of six vendors at the sale, a fund-raiser for the historical society and its carriage house project. The "carriage house" is scheduled to be built behind the Roberts House and used as a meeting spot and archive library.

"Right now, if we call a meeting and half of the members come, the speaker has to stand in the doorway between the dining room and the parlor and talk out of the sides of their mouth," said Paula Cannon of the historical society. "It's very awkward."

The group also holds elegant teas to support the project. The next one is Sunday. There are three different ticket prices: $12, $15 and $18.

"The more you spend, the more you get," explained Cannon in the cool kitchen of the historic Roberts House. "For $12, you get scones with toppings, fruit, some bread and tea. For $15, you get tea sandwiches along with everything else, and for the $18 one, we go all out - starting with champagne."

Next on the calendar after that is the final reception for the Hans Meyer-Kassel art show upstairs. Meyer-Kassel, 1872-1952, painted scenes of steamships with yellow stacks in New York harbor and did chalk-pastels of Nevada's hills with brilliant blue accents.

The pieces on display are all owned by Carson City collector Bob McFadden, Cannon said.

Meanwhile, out under the plum trees, Kasparie had a young visitor at her booth. Molly Ellery, 11, of Genoa was looking through the postcards with pictures of cats. Kasparie gave her a few to keep.

"I have a cat at home that resembles a lot of the postcards," said the girl.

She shook Kasparie's hand.

"Thank you very, very much," she said.

"You enjoy them," Kasparie said. "That's got you started for a collection."