This Week’s Vintage Finds #102

Hi everyone! Thanks for being patient with me and waiting an extra day for this week’s vintage finds. Sometimes life just takes over and blogging deadlines get pushed back. I hope you enjoyed my drive through the Helderbergs yesterday. What a lovely day my sweet husband and I had together. Speaking of which, just this past Friday, we took a spin out to the small town of Fonda (NY) to attend a barn sale (see photos at end of post). We left late in the morning, so we knew we might miss all the “good stuff,” (which we did), but we hit a couple sales along the way and experienced another lovely day.

We also hit a Goodwill Superstore, which I’d never even heard of. That’s where I found this really neat, vintage “Sterling” brand fan. I scooped it up right away; it’s my first fan ever. I like the smaller size and there’s no cord to deal with (it’s been snipped off). It will fit nicely on a bookshelf in our family room (cost: $6.00, value: $20-25.00).

At one of the garage sales we stopped at, I bought two pieces of transferware. This coffee pot is newer, but since it’s in the popular Blue Willow pattern and the seller’s had it priced well, I snapped it up (cost: $3.00, value: $20-25.00 on eBay). The pattern depicts a romantic legend, which you can read about here. Martha Stewart has an interesting video, All About Antique Blue Willow.

The mark has quite a modern appearance so it can’t be mistaken for an antique. A large quantity of Churchill Blue Willow was given away and sold at discount as part of a promotion at our local grocery store a while back. I imagine other stores around the country joined in as well. I often see the mugs and tea cups for sale at garage sales, but don’t buy them as they have held little retail value. Serving pieces, however, like this one, are an exception.

The second piece, this beautiful (6″ diameter) red transferware bowl, is much older than my coffee pot, but it has some issues. You can see some of the browning on the interior and there’s some brown crazing on the outside as well. I’m going to try a special dealer “trick” to improve it’s appearance, and of course, I’ll keep you all apprised (cost: $3.00, value: $30.00+).

The mark on the bottom is not one I’ve ever seen before. Sounds French, right? I’ll have to do some additional research.

Another Goodwill find, this rattan-wrapped wine bottle, will go nicely with one I bought last year, now sitting on our fall mantel (cost: $1.50, value: $15-20.00).

I’m a sucker for a good cross stitch, even though their popularity seems to have waned. I like this one because it contains a fair amount of browning, almost a tea-dyed affect that I find attractive. I plan to paint the frame black and keep this one for a while (cost: $6.00, value: $20-25.00 after painting).

Seems like I’ve been buying a lot of vintage sewing notions lately, doesn’t it? I’ve been busily framing some of the older packets of buttons, snaps, and other doo-dads to sell at the shop and the Shaker Craft Fair that I’m in right now. In fact, I sold out at the craft fair and am working hard to restock. One of the reasons I bought this collection (at Goodwill) was because it contained a roll of about 100 yards of vintage black seam binding, but somehow it didn’t make it into this photo. Up top are two pieces of nice black leather that will be very useful to me someday, I’m sure (cost: $2.00 for entire bag).

Speaking of sewing notions, I found this old film tin with a few notions, for sale at a new [to me] thrift store, Treasures, up at 60 West Avenue in Saratoga (cost: $1.00, value: $4.00 for the tin). I only had about five minutes to breeze through and definitely want to go back soon to do some shopping.

I just love old tomato boxes. I use one to hold my tools and assorted supplies whenever I visit my shop to restock my booth. I remember my grandmother grabbing one off the shelf whenever we would walk over to the grocery store. She’d place her purchases in it, and we’d walk home with the makings of our supper slung over her arm (cost: free, value: priceless, to me).

I rescued this Tetley Tea tin from the garbage heap at the big estate sale my sweet husband and I attended a few weeks ago. You remember the one, they announced five minutes after we arrived that everything in the tent out back was FREE. Yea, I’m still finding free stuff that I forgot to show you, like this tin. It would make a nice planter, don’t you think?

Another freebie–a pair of calipers. I find them fascinating, all industrial looking at the top and then so curvy at the bottom. Seems like they’d be very useful in an artistic assemblage of some kind.

Final Find: Well, I’m used to seeing cow creamers, but I’ve never come across an elephant one. They must be rare. Must be worth some good money. Although it has a “Japan” sticker on the bottom, so probably not. I just thought he was cute and that someone would love him and want to take him home (cost: 50 cents, value: $8-10.00).

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Thanks for the feature, Kathy–

Thanks for the feature, Brooke!

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Bye for now,