freshvintage

Delayed Gratification

I bought and photographed this $25 worth of junk in MAY, but I haven't had a chance to share it with you. Why did I wait so long? Well, it was a combination of things:

1. I thought the junk I bought after this junk was better, so I kept writing about the newer junk instead.
2. My in-laws came to visit in May. They are unbelievably high maintenance, so I didn't have time to post this stuff while they were here. I could barely go to the bathroom by myself with them here.
3. Sheer laziness.
4. I couldn't think of anything funny to write about this stuff. And I'm all about the funny.

Anyway, here's the unfunny post about my May junk...

The white metal step stool has a permanent home in a corner of my kitchen. Can you see the small copper pan on the middle step?  It's already been surrendered to my copper-lovin' neighbor.

Here's a small pitcher with brown glaze. It is marked USA on the bottom. Does this look familiar to anyone? I'm trying to figure out the maker.

Look at these teeny-tiny bird clips, called Multiclips. They were made in Germany. I'm assuming that there were originally a few more bird clips in the package, but I only ended up with two.

The wooden box is from the Chocolate Shop in Los Angeles. There is a picture of a Dutch girl on the top of the lid, and on the inside.

You know that I always fall for vintage office stuff:

Okay...a quiz! Does anyone know what type of spoons these are? I think I already know the answers, but I'd like to hear your guesses. In case you can't tell from the photo, the center spoon curves up one side.

P.S. I am completely and totally kidding about my in-laws. They are the best in-laws I've ever had. And the best part is that they know I am just kidding, so I am only putting this note here for my readers' sake. And a little bit so that my in-laws don't take us out of their will.

To Grandmother's House We Go

My sister Erin and I went to our Grandmom's house in Northeast Philly on Sunday to help clean out her basement and attic. She has the most organized junk I've ever seen. Everything was labeled in rubbermaid containers and boxes. I thought I was going to open this shoebox and find some Chinese stars or maybe a small dagger:

Nope, it was just this:

Whew. We're safe.

We focused on removing the junk and donating it to thrift stores. For the most part, this was not fun vintage junk. It was just stuff like old mugs and vases and gifts that her five children, 16 grandchildren and 32 great-grandchildren have given her throughout her 89 years. Erin and I would hold up a bowl or a vase or a mug, and ask if she wanted to keep it or donate it. Her response was usually, "One of you kids gave it to me". She didn't want to offend us, but what the hell was she going to do with 30 coffee mugs and 347 clear glass vases? Most of it went to the thrift store, but I did keep a big pasta bowl that I gave to her ten years ago.

She gave me her bowling ball & bag:

My grandparents were avid bowlers. Granddad was even on Bowling For Dollars in the 1950's - and won. My Grandmom warned me that the ball was for a left-handed female, so I probably wouldn't be able to use it. That's when I heard the story (not for the first time) about the nuns in her school who used to call her Boobie Gibbons because she was left-handed. (Gibbons was her last name - they weren't calling her a monkey.) As was typical in those days, they forced her to write with her right hand. She is ambidextrous now. It's true - my Grandmom swings both ways.

On the way to her house, Erin and I spotted a flea market near the Tacony-Palmyra bridge. We made a quick detour, and searched for a parking spot. As we drove around the block a few times, we second-guessed our decision. The neighborhood wasn't so great. We eventually found a spot and hid all of our valuables under the seats. This was the fastest flea market visit ever because I kept imagining a brick going through my car window. At one point, I heard someone say, "If one more f*cking person bumps into me, I'm going to have to throw a bitch down". I slowly and carefully turned around to make sure that Erin wasn't the bitch who was to be thrown down, since she can be very fidgety at times. Luckily, it wasn't her.

After a quick sweep of the place, I ended up spending $13. I bought five glass floral frogs, a black & white metal hamper, a big picnic basket with plasticware, and a glass doorknob set. Lesson learned: bad neighborhoods can make for super flea markets. And lesson #2: if you want to make it home alive with your great finds, don't bump into anyone ever.

At a yard sale on Saturday, I spent fifty cents on this greenish-teal transferware bowl, marked WR & Co Tyrolean. I looked up the mark, and found that the pattern is called Tyrolean and the maker is William Ridgely & Company, circa 1834-1854. It isn't cracked or chipped or anything. Amazing.

At the next sale, I saw this: (cue singing from the heavens)

I took off the heavy lid, said a little prayer and turned it upside down. There it was...the holy grail of yard-saling: a piece of Le Creuset enameled cast iron cookware for three bucks. Holy $hit!

I initially thought it was a fish poacher, but it seemed too narrow (12" x 4" x 3"). You'd have to cook a skinny fish in that thing. No fatties allowed. The homeowner told me that it was fish poacher, but he used to bake macaroni and cheese in it. When I got home, I searched for "le creuset fish poacher", but didn't find any results. Then I looked on the Le Creuset website and learned that it is a Paté Terrine. Wow - this is just great. Now I can make my kids' peanut butter and paté sandwiches look so much more professional.

Actually, this will be coming to an eBay auction near you. The retail price of a new Paté Terrine is $130. But I don't know if a "vintage" piece of Le Creuset is worth more or less than new ones. Does anyone know if there is a way to tell the age of it? Unlike the newer pieces of Le Creuset, this one is all one color, and doesn't have the label on the front.

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OTHER STUFF
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Last year, I contributed some photographs (pre-D40) to a new book by C. Dianne Zweig called "Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes". I don't know which photos were selected, so it will be a surprise for all of us! It isn't available until October, but you can pre-order it now on Amazon. Dianne also wrote "Hot Kitchen and Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, and 50s", which I love. It has all of the kitschy stuff that I am always buying at yard sales and thrift stores. A definite must-buy.

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I'd like to give a big THANK YOU to reader Janet P. from Delaware, who emailed me with a tip on a yard sale a few weeks ago. It was a sale that wasn't on my normal yard-saling route, so I wouldn't have known about it. This was all she needed to write:

"I thought of you when I went to a garage/estate sale this morning...They have a pile of chenille bedspreads- the prettiest one was $15. There weren't a lot of shoppers..."

I hauled ass to Delaware and I bought a pile of chenille bedspreads! The top one is white with flowers, and the bottom are yellow, blue and green popcorn-style spreads. The white one needed an overnight soaking in Biz, but it turned out great. Thank you, Janet!

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Anyone who has read this far into this long-ass post gets to find out some top secret information. I'm starting another blog. Yes, it's true. I'm launching it in a few weeks. Oh, but what will be the subject? An in-depth look at cock socks from around the globe? Perhaps a haunting discourse on picnic baskets and the women who love them? What is your guess? (Family members better keep their damn mouths shut.)

Adamstown: Good Bathrooms & Bad Eggs

Renninger's in Adamstown, PA was small enough that Erin and I were able to hit Shupp's Grove on the same day. I found great stuff at both markets, but the atmosphere at Shupp's Grove is much nicer: shady trees and better bathrooms. I purchased a few more things than I photographed for this post, but the total for everything in this post is $160.

Do you see that red metal box in the middle of the photo?  It is FILLED with vintage decals. The box was probably used as the store display - it has dividers for different sizes and prices of decals. I'll have to write a separate post to share the decals with you. These are a couple of my favorites:

A vintage globe to add to my collection, a stack of Country Club Sweet Cider labels (these were for gallon jugs of cider), two sets of card games/flashcards, a small medicine cabinet and an old Order Book:

The man who sold me this Order Book had tons of neat journals, ledgers, photos and other ephemera, but his prices were a little steep. I would have bought a lot more from him, but he wasn't willing to budge on his prices. I settled for this book, which is definitely worth the $25 I paid for it (despite the fact that it is falling apart).

This isn't an ordinary Order Book. It is the diary of a Lancaster County Mennonite farmer that spans from 1896 to 1926. It contains his labor accounts, where he lists his farm workers, their hours and how much they were paid (one dollar a day). He has a page that lists the subscriptions to farm journals, how much he paid and when they run out.  But the best pages start in 1907, when he began writing a short sentence for each day of the month. Most of the farm-related entries are about tobacco, so I think that was his family's major crop. But there are also references to growing cherry and peach trees, corn, strawberries, blackberries, watermelon, sweet potatoes, pigs and cattle.

The farmer was a member of the Herr family, who are some of the earliest settlers of Lancaster County (and, more importantly, make a mean potato chip). I've been reading the journal to see if I can figure out if the farm is part of the Herr Family Homestead. There are some mentions of the Hershey family, too.

On each page (which is a month's worth of entries), there are a few references to attending funerals. This page from December 1914 has twelve burials. You can see that someone marked off each burial. I thought that it may have been the flu epidemic, but that didn't happen until 1918. Maybe they all had some bad eggs.

Fast forward 50 years to these ten vintage activity books:

This one is filled with blank pages, but the cover is my favorite:

I bought another Redman picnic basket, created by the Redmon Company in Peru, Indiana. You can see my others Redman baskets here, here and here. The basket had a pie shelf inside, along with these bingo cards. The seller told me to keep the Bingo game because someone else was supposed to pick them up and never did. Sure thing, lady!

Here are a few of the 115 assorted metal stencils that I bought at Renninger's. Most are numbers, but there are a few letters, too. They have a tab on the bottom, so they can stand up on a shelf. Tre industrial chic, no?

This is my big purchase for the day - a wooden rack. It may have been used as a baker's rack. Or it could have held shoes or textiles in a factory. My mother-in-law, Mary, has one in her kitchen, and I always loved the way it looked. I totally copied off her. It is in my family room because I don't have room in my kitchen.

It is a little impractical because the shelves are made of widely-spaced dowels. Mary suggested getting glass cut to fit the shelves.  For now, it is holding a couple of quilts and a chenille bedspread.

The old cast iron casters are in great shape, but the wood could use some conditioning:

I thought about using the rack to store wine. But then I remembered that wine doesn't last long enough in my house to necessitate any type of storage.

How would you use the rack in your home?

Craigslist Bait & Switch

Before I share some vintage finds, I'd like to thank my personal shoe buyer, Jenny, from Yard Sale Bloodbath for leaving this comment on my last post:

OK, this is blowing my mind. I was doing my usual thing, going through yard sale listings on Craigslist for Seattle and look at this:
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/gms/733884541.html

I KNOW THOSE DRESSES! (Because I was thinking that I should comment that it's a shame no drag queens came to your sale, or they would have been gone in a flash ...)

Apparently this person thought they were so compelling that they decided to use your photo in their ad. If I make it over there tomorrow I will attempt to find out what the heck they were thinking! Too strange!!

They actually used three photos from my blog. Think of all of the disappointed people who will walk away empty-handed. They only went to the yard sale for the sequins dresses, pin-the-tail on the donkey game and an old adding machine.

If anyone is near Ballard today, go to the yard sale and bust their balls, please.

Now, on to the twenty bucks worth of stuff that I bought at Goodeals and one yard sale on the way to my mom's yard sale last Saturday...

Set of 8 Pyrex mugs with creamer and lidded sugar bowl. This is the Summer Impressions pattern in Honeydew (aka lime green).  That's a Marx tin dollhouse in the background.

A little framed print, rectangular metal floral frog, small gray planter and a cardboard sign that says "Abide in Me". Anyone know anything about this sign?

I also found two sewing cabinet drawers and a BIG box of Shiny Brite ornaments. Here's a just a few of them:

 

Another fan. Are you sick of them yet? 

By the way, Erin and I will be shopping at Renninger's in Adamstown tomorrow (Sunday, Jun 29). Is anyone else planning to go?  Send me an email, and maybe we can get together. We're thinking about selling there in September, so we are going to scope it out.

Party Stunts

Thanks for your WWMD (What Would Mommy Do) responses about the Legos. Since I let Finn keep the Harry Potter Legos, I won't feel guilty when I keep the next box we find.  And so much for keeping the pieces together...half of them were spread out all over the playroom by Tuesday.

We had another family yard sale outing on Saturday. It was a good day because I didn't have to steal anything out of my kid's hands and try to explain what "I'm selling it on eBay" means to a three-year-old and a five-year-old. 

Insulated Oak Picnic Cooler:

Big, old ArcticAire Fan:

Dominion fan:

I also found a set of four linen bird napkins, The ABC of Wine Cookery, a green wooden dove-tailed explosives box, and two small floral frogs, still in the package with Woolworth price tags.

I like to party all the time, so I couldn't pass up these party games and books.

Pin the Tail on the Donkey game from 1954:

I love that this Party Games envelope says "Games and stunts to entertain your friends". Stunts? What is this, Jackass? The envelope contains detailed instructions on how to properly staple your testicles together.

Return of the Legos

Last Saturday morning, my husband and kids joined me on my yard-saling trip. Usually, I only bring Maeve with me, or I sneak out by myself before anyone wakes up. Before we left, I gave each of the kids a buck. We hit a few yard sales before they were both able to find something that they really liked.  And what does Finn find?  An unopened box of Harry Potter legos. I immediately had dollar signs in my eyes. Dammit. This is exactly why I don't like to bring the kids. I know...I sound like a mean, horrible mommy. But, believe me, my house is already FILLED with lego pieces. We have enough friggin' Spongebob legos to build a life-sized Krusty Krab.

I knew that this box was worth some dough from my previous Lego experience. And it was only two dollars! Finn wanted to buy it, but the evil side of me reminded him that he only had one dollar. I told him that he could buy it if he could successfully convince Maeve to give up her dollar. Oh - too late. She had already found something girly that she wanted to buy. And so the good side of me gave him another dollar and let him buy the Legos.

As soon as we got home, I looked it up on eBay. The same unopened Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Lego set recently sold for $105. By the time I looked up the price, Finn already had the box open and started to build. By the end of the day, he finished putting together the entire set. That's okay, though. The opened box sells for $50-$60 on eBay. (I'm not selling it anytime soon. I'm not that evil.) 

Luckily, I found some things for me, although they probably aren't worth half as much as the damn Legos.  Here are my fifteen dollars worth of finds...

I love this whitewashed bushel basket with the floral lining. The homeowner said it was from the 1950's. I also found a box of old sheet music for two bucks.

Read it and weep...FREE! The homeowner told me that I could have this box of old sewing notions.

With one stipulation...

Her grandmother had lost a sentimental treasure in her sewing stuff.

If I happened to find a tooth, could I please return it to the house?

Um, yeah sure.

Thankfully, I never did find one.

UPDATED TO ADD: About the Legos...I'd love to hear what you would have done. Let him keep the Legos? Or trade it for something else?  Let me know in the comments. 

Short Changed

I went to an early morning multi-family yard sale a few Sundays ago and found a cute blue doll highchair for four bucks. I told the homeowner that I wanted to buy it, and handed her a $20 bill. I know - big bills are a no-no at yard sales, but this stop wasn't planned and I was not prepared with small bills. She looked at me worriedly and said that she didn't have change. I guess I was their first customer.

OK, then, let's brainstorm about this. I couldn't come back for it later, because I was going to be away all day, so I suggested that she ask the three other family members who were also selling at the sale if they had $16 that they could lend her. They all said that they didn't have any money. WHAT? I'm convinced that they were pissed at her for something, because I found it awfully hard to believe that these people who live in a nice house with nice cars couldn't scrape up a few bucks to help her out. It was either an enormous display of yard sale-induced passive-aggressive behavior, or they were really, truly poor (hence, the yard sale to make money).  I bet they were secretly mad at her because she was selling something that they really wanted to keep in the family, like the box of lidless, tomato soup-stained tupperware or the adorable collection of wicker baskets filled with dried flowers and mauve wooden ducks. Heirlooms, for sure.

Alas, I walked away empty-handed and a tad bit annoyed.

A few days later, I visited the blog of my yard-saling friend, Antekin Dona. Lo and behold...she bought the damn highchair from the same yard sale! Bitch stole my dolly furniture!

My rage has finally subsided, so I'm ready to share some finds from a few thrift shops, antique stores and yard sales from last few weeks. And don't get your undies in a bundle - Dona knows I'm not really mad at her. (Ummm...right, Dona?)

I found another Laundripak suitcase, along with a trunk insert, folding clothes dryer, a bunch of Broadway memorabilia from 1942-43, linen dishtowels, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (my first one sold right away in the shop) and a fruit crate-turned scooter (imprinted with the name of the little town where my husband works):

Here's the pink folding dryer and the vintage blue & white linen dish towels...

The trunk insert was made by National Veneer Products in Mishawaka, Indiana. That company manufactured trunks between 1903 and 1925.

I found a zip-loc bag filled with souvenirs from someone's visits to New York City in the early forties. There are Playbills, hotel brochures, ticket stubs, napkins, postcards, a folded-up placemat and even the envelopes that the tickets came in. I searched for the wadded-up gum that she chewed and maybe a bit of earwax from that special day, but no such luck.

Check out the prices of the hotel rooms...a three-room suite for $10. That sounds like the hourly rate where these lovely ladies hang out.

Pert N' Perky

We just ended a fun-filled week-long visit from my in-laws. This is the first time my husband has seen his mother on Mother's Day since he moved here from Seattle nine years ago. It is always nice when they visit, because I become a tourist in my own neighborhood...we went to Winterthur (the DuPont Family's measly 175-room country estate), the Herr's Potato Chip Factory and the 1704 Brinton House. And the best part? They are antique dealers, so we have the perfect excuse for visiting lots of antique stores & yard sales while they are here.

We went to an estate sale in Wilmington, DE that I read about on craigslist. It was a small house, but we were able to find a few goodies, including the blue & white chenille bedspread and the blue tin picnic basket. My husband, Chris, gets full credit for finding the tin basket.  He went to the basement first, and when I walked down the steps a few minutes later, I found him holding the basket. "You like this, right?" I jumped his bones right then and there. The ten piles of vintage Playboy Magazines certainly helped set the mood.

I won these little hand-painted shop signs on eBay last week. I don't think you would find the green sign in stores today. It says "Child's Pert N' Perky Dresses".  It just doesn't sound right.

My favorite find of the week...five old ledgers from a general store in Bridgeport, PA. I bought these in a great antiques store called Royal Port Antiques in Salem, NJ. The store is owned by the nicest couple, Suzanne and Michael Cooke. In 2003, they bought and renovated a huge abandoned warehouse and turned it into Royal Port, which specializes in Early American antiques and architectural pieces.

Do you remember my brush with movie stardom when I sold an umbrella to a Movie Props Guy at Renningers? That's peanuts compared to the Cookes. Did you ever see M. Night Shyamalan's The Village?  Many of the houses in the movie were furnished with pieces from their shop. They also provided furniture for M. Night's new movie, The Happening. This one isn't a movie, but it is just as cool...Urban Outfitters, Inc. has a new home & garden brand called Terrain. It is basically an Anthropologie store with plants instead of clothes (Joy talked about it here). And, lucky me, the first Terrain store just opened about 20 minutes away. It is a sight to behold. Anyway, the Terrain designers just bought some pieces from Royal Port to use for their funky displays. Bottom line...go to Royal Port Antiques if you are ever in the Philadelphia area!

I talked to the Cookes about my blog, and convinced them that they need to start their own. I'm sure they've got tons of cool stories to share. Get on it, Michael!

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On a totally separate topic, I'd like to thank a few swell people who said some really nice things about me. I know, I know...some of them said these things months ago, but better late than never. Thanks to all of you!

Stash Studios

Reclaiming Miss Havisham

Sandra from Find and Go Seek

Special thanks to JUNKMARKET's Sue & Ki, and their manager, Tim, for interviewing me for their American Junk Club newsletter. It is really an honor for me. I've been following their junking adventures ever since the first time they were in Country Home. I don't have a link because the newsletter is available to club members only, but here's where you can sign up: American Junk Club.

Pendulous Busts

My neighbor, Mike, gave me a tip about "two old cash registers" that he saw in front of a house about two miles away. Mike was already ranked high on my list of favorite neighbors because he owns a Tastykake route. Every so often, a few boxes of Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes or Butterscotch Krimpets fall off his truck and land right into our house. And since he started doling out junking tips, he is now unequivocally at the top of my fave neighbor list.

I knew exactly which house he was talking about, because the owners have been cleaning it out for a few weeks, and I've seen junk on their curb a few times. I immediately drove to the house, and spotted two old adding machines next to a bunch of trash cans that were packed to the gills. I took the adding machine that appeared to be older. I did some research, but I can't find the same type of machine. So, I don't know how much it is worth (and even if I did, I wouldn't tell Mike).

But that wasn't the best part of the trip. In one of the four trash cans filled with crap, there were piles and piles of medical journals.  Most of them were Journals of Obstetrics & Gynecology from the 1920s and 30s. I decided that I would only take them if they had funny pictures that I could share with you, my dear readers. You must know I love you...I will dig through the stinkiest trash if it will get you a laugh!

So, here they are...

I would make my husband wear this to bed if it would prevent him from pissing all over the toilet seat in the middle of the night:

WHO asked for this?  I sure didn't.

I hear that this one is a real page-turner (as long as your goiter doesn't get in the way):

But seriously, who would sign up to be in the Association for the Study of Goiter? If I was a doctor, I'd sign up for the Association for the Study of The Eradication of Periods or the Association for the Perfection of Breast Lifts. Goiters? Not in my top ten list.

Oh boy...where to start with these two ads? Make sure you click on the photo for the full effect. You'll see phrases like "vaginal jellies", "douche powder",  and my favorite...

"RAISES SAGGING, PENDULOUS BUSTS".

Party Girls & Out-of-Town Junk

In honor of my mother's birthday, we had a girls' day/night out last Saturday. Eleven of us piled into a rented mini-bus and went on a wine tour in Berks County. We hit Clover Hill, Vynecrest and Pinnacle Ridge. Erin and I made "Girls' Day Out" gift bags for all of the lovely ladies, which included chocolate, mints and condoms (you never know). I didn't take a picture of the bags, but this photo graced the front of it:

What a bunch of wild and crazy gals!!! That's me (Little Lord Fauntleroy) with my three sisters and two of my cousins. Pardon the Paris Hilton crotch shots. It's just a shame you can't get a good look at our Smurfette underwear.

We all stayed at Erin's house, which presented the perfect opportunity to hit a bunch of yard sales and new-to-me junk shops during the hour-drive to her house on Saturday morning. On Sunday morning, we made a "quick" trip to Jake's flea market (located 20+ miles beyond anywhere you'd ever want to be).

I'll admit it - it was actually worth the trip.  Here's $50 worth of junk from Erin's neck of the woods (Gilbertsville, PA and vicinity):

Yea!! Another Watt loops bowl to add to my collection. This is the biggest one I've seen so far.  I also bought the milk glass soap dish and tumbler.  It is a really pretty quilted pattern with beads. 

I'm totally digging the child's lawn chair. It is on the verge of breaking into a million pieces. Looks good as long as no one sits in it.

I bought five early reader books from the fifties. I'm guessing that Tom and Susan are the poor man's Dick and Jane.

The bucket once held some type of toys made by Amsco from Hatboro, PA.  Anyone know what was in there?

I found three of these old receipt books from Reliance Eggs in Souderton, PA.

This is Dorothy Mae Sass' history notebook from 1932. On the cover, she drew a ship (complete with a little sea monster in the lower right corner) with crayons. I only bought this because I love the name "Dorothy Mae Sass".

It is filled with pages and pages of class notes:

Here's my big find of the day: a four-foot-long mantel mirror. The guy who sold it to me at Jake's told me that he used to sell mantel mirrors for $100 a few years ago, but now he hardly gets anything for them because they are no longer in demand. Okay, maybe not in Bumf*ck, PA, but other people seem to like them. 

Last but never least...my favorite combo: paint-by-numbers and The Last Supper. 

Da Vinci was a dilettante.