Totally Toklas
One of the coolest e-mails I received about my story on Seattle's Jewish Problem came from Gary Clark, a retired city worker and avid "metal detectorist."
A couple years ago, Gary, a member of the Cascade Treasure Club, was out hunting for treasure with his metal detector, waving it around a construction site on East Denny Way, between Broadway and Harvard, on Capitol Hill. Off went the metal detector and in the dirt Gary found this:
He knew he had something cool. It appeared to be a watch fob, it had a picture of George Washington on it, and it was inscribed: "Compliments of Toklas Simgerman & Co * Seattle, W.T."
The date stamped on the fob was 1888.
Wondering what exactly he had, and how much it was worth, Gary sent a query and a picture of his find to Western & Eastern Treasures, which describes itself as "the world's leading magazine for metal detectorists since 1966." In the September issue he received his answer:
Gary thought that was cool. He had a remnant from a Seattle clothing store that came into existence when Washington was still a territory. And it was potentially worth a whopping $200 (way better than the dropped pennies one assumes are constantly setting off his metal detector).
Then Gary read my story and learned that Ferdinand Toklas, the "Toklas" in Toklas Singerman & Co., was one of Seattle's early Jewish merchants, and also the father of Alice B. Toklas, the writer and partner of Gertrude Stein. He thought that was even cooler. Yesterday Gary brought the fob by The Stranger offices and my ace intern Sage Van Wing snapped the above photograph. I held the fob for a moment. It was light and nice to look at, and I couldn't imagine why anyone would have ever dropped it in the dirt.
A couple years ago, Gary, a member of the Cascade Treasure Club, was out hunting for treasure with his metal detector, waving it around a construction site on East Denny Way, between Broadway and Harvard, on Capitol Hill. Off went the metal detector and in the dirt Gary found this:
He knew he had something cool. It appeared to be a watch fob, it had a picture of George Washington on it, and it was inscribed: "Compliments of Toklas Simgerman & Co * Seattle, W.T."
The date stamped on the fob was 1888.
Wondering what exactly he had, and how much it was worth, Gary sent a query and a picture of his find to Western & Eastern Treasures, which describes itself as "the world's leading magazine for metal detectorists since 1966." In the September issue he received his answer:
Gary thought that was cool. He had a remnant from a Seattle clothing store that came into existence when Washington was still a territory. And it was potentially worth a whopping $200 (way better than the dropped pennies one assumes are constantly setting off his metal detector).
Then Gary read my story and learned that Ferdinand Toklas, the "Toklas" in Toklas Singerman & Co., was one of Seattle's early Jewish merchants, and also the father of Alice B. Toklas, the writer and partner of Gertrude Stein. He thought that was even cooler. Yesterday Gary brought the fob by The Stranger offices and my ace intern Sage Van Wing snapped the above photograph. I held the fob for a moment. It was light and nice to look at, and I couldn't imagine why anyone would have ever dropped it in the dirt.
posted by Eli Sanders at
9:15 AM
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