The fortunes of the Louisiana black bear faded, however, with the species losing more than 80% of its habitat by 1980.
The buildings bear fading advertisements for rugs, stoves and beer -- goods these places once housed.
A poster on the wall bears a faded black-and-white picture of employees in the building who once formed a marching band.
At 8 West 28th Street, cardboard and papers block the second floor windows; the third-floor window bears the faded sign "Girdle Factory for Sale".
But as memories of the bear market faded and the leadership of the agency changed, the bond-based strategy lost favor.
Among the books in the four boxes that were not written by James or Wharton was a little book, from 1884, called "Bibliothèque de la reine Marie-Antoinette," whose flyleaf thrillingly bore the faded signature of Edmond de Goncourt.
Unlike the dwarfing monumentalism of the Louvre Palace, where the caramel weight of a faded empire bears down on every square centimeter, this new Louvre-on-a-coal mine is as light and airy as a Nordic cloud.
Those Melmac dishes bore pathetic designs — a faded rosebud, a sheaf of wheat — intended to recall fine porcelain.
Her hotel suite is of the discretely expensive kind, though there's no sign of an entourage, nor does the slight figure wearing faded jeans bear much resemblance to the woman who performed at the 2004 Oscars ceremony wearing $2m diamond-encrusted slippers.
After an excellent first season with the Bears, at age 36, he faded.
Up close, though, warped and faded mahogany doors bear the toll of the Florida sun.
