Walnut 2012 ~ Part 1

{gorgeous green wicker hamper}

I cannot believe it has been more than 2 months since our trip to the Walnut Antique show AND it has taken me this long to do a post! Well, it has been a busier (and terribly hot & dry!) summer than I expected ~ or maybe the older you get, the more quickly time passes? I did take quite a few photos this year, so I will break them up in a couple of posts ~ the first being a theme of one of my favorites ~ drawers, cabinets, containers & organizers ~ or things that one can hide all their junk (or in my case, treasures) in! I really do love drawers and cabinets ~ if you'd like to see more go here.

I now wish I had looked at the price of this metal bucket for gathering olives or grapes ~ I love the look of these and just recently saw them for sale in an ad from Tuesday Morning for $50! The double decker metal grocery cart also caught my eye, but it was already sold ~ thereby preventing me from even considering it!

This large slatted wood bin would also make a great storage place for toys, quilts or just about anything ~ perhaps an ill-behaved child? We were interested in it as it was sturdy and made very well ~ the woven wire, canvas handle and metal hinged corners were nice touches. Not showing are the heavy duty wheels ~ a great industrial piece!

Then there were the drawers & cabinets ~ the dealers at Walnut always have lots of these to offer and drool over. Since I don't have ANY space left in my house, nor do I usually have a vehicle large enough for any of these pieces, I have no choice but to just take photos and dream about what could have been!

{primitive piece with surprisingly ornate handles ~ a nice juxtaposition}

In the right setting, this Tom's Toasted Peanuts cabinet would be so cool! It had just the right amount of paint loss and variety of colors on the fronts ~ plus it would hold lots of stuff. Wouldn't it be great in a boys' room as a place to keep clothing or books stashed away?

Now this was just a sign with an illustration of a hoosier cabinet, so I had to include it since it sort of fits the theme and I did like the sign.

My favorite and most impressive of all was this amazing four-sided revolving millinery store cabinet. I would DIE to have such a piece, but it was expensive, large and in pretty bad shape. I cannot imagine what it must have been like when it was first made ~ it had most recently been used in a hardware store to contain small pieces and parts, so much was taped over and broken or removed to accommodate the hardware.

In the top photo, if you look carefully, you can still see a few of the drawers have spool racks in them ~ the bottom photo shows a bit of the lovely craftsmanship and detail of this once most lovely piece of furniture. I'll bet some lucky person took this piece home and perhaps it will be restored to its original beauty ~ or at least cleaned up and enjoyed!

{carved wooden strip detail}

Above is a spool shelf I saw at Walnut. While I wasn't wild about this specific piece, I did like the detail of the doorknobs used as finials. One of my big purchases this year was 144 wooden spools ~ I plan to design a long spool shelf for behind my sofa, so I have been gathering research in addition to the materials needed. Now, I just need to carve out some extra time and figure out how to coerce my boyfriend into helping since he is the furniture maker in the household!

{beautiful antique boye sewing needle store display}

The last two combine two of my favorite things ~ organizers and sewing items. I am always drawn to these items and am amazed there is such a great variety, most of which is still affordable ~ it really makes them hard to resist! More to come........

Vintage School Days

Was looking through some old photos the other day and came upon this one ~ it must have been a First Day of First Grade photo from 1968! I believe I was sporting what was called a skort ~ a conglomeration of a skirt and shorts ~ pretty stylish, huh? I'm not sure if that outfit is technically a skort as I do remember it was all one piece ~ it must have buttoned up the back and the belt was just for decoration.

I'm guessing this was 1st grade as I was 6 years old in 1968 ~ too young to be carrying a purse, but I do have both my Dr. Dolittle lunch box and a sticker-decorated notebook (yes, we did have stickers back in the olden days!), along with my sweater. And, best of all, no Instagram needed!

{image from here}

Just in case you were wondering, here is a much better view of my Dr. Dolittle lunchbox ~ I don't remember it being pink! Too bad I don't think I have mine any more ~ they are selling on ebay for around $50 now!

Afternoon at an Antique Mall

{wonderful vintage thread display}

Most years when we travel to Walnut, Iowa for the annual AMVETS Antique Show, we usually stop in at the Enchanted Frog in Lathrop, MO to break up the trip a little ~ plus, who can knowingly drive by an antique mall and NOT stop?!

While the photos above aren't the greatest as they were taken through a glass cabinet, there was a large collection of Iroquois beaded pieces ~ pincushions, picture frames and even moccasins. As I have a small collection of this type of beadwork, I have found out that these were made by Indians to be sold at places like Niagara Falls as a souvenir. While I see these now and then, it isn't often I see so many at once!

I am always attracted to the graphics of the past as well ~ on this visit, it seemed like there were peacock motifs everywhere ~ above are two of the nicer examples. The color and design of the honey tin was also appealing ~ being a designer, I appreciate the time and effort that went into creating the beautiful packaging.

Despite its tattered appearance ~ or because of its tattered appearance, I really loved this Robin Brand candy label ~ the color was beautiful and it had just the right amount of dilapidation to appeal to me. I would guess that the candy label is from somewhere in the late 1800's to early 1900's ~ an era whose graphics are always so beautiful. But, I am also attracted to the more streamlined graphics popular during the 20's through the 40's as shown below on a powder box.

Another thing I always keep an eye out for are antique or vintage tools that I can use for various art projects. Not only can you sometimes find a great deal on a great quality tool, but many of these aren't even made any more. Below is a set of rubber stamps designed to be used for pricing in a store. These were fairly priced, but more than I wanted to pay ~ I thought the shape/format of the stamps was unusual though ~ rubber stamps are usually not mounted in this manner.

{vintage rubber stamps for making price tags}

{lovely pressed and perforated tin match safe with mirror}

{ancient (still accurate) barometer with great graphics}

As we found out later in the day, the barometer actually was still in working order ~ there was change ahead, but it was just a light rain this year, no tornado!

Fabulous Find ~ Plaster Pedestal

Today I thought I would share with you one of my favorite finds ~ a beautiful plaster corner pedestal discarded from a church. I bought this probably close to 20 years ago from Steve ~ an artist friend of mine with a great eye for the wonderful and unusual.

As I mentioned, it is a corner piece and while it is gorgeous and I so wanted to use it in my home, I have not been able to find a suitable corner for it in 20 years! I finally gave up and decided I needed to sell it ~ after all, if I couldn't find the right space for it in all of that time, so I doubt the perfect spot is going to surface now. I sure hated to part with this piece, but hopefully it will find a home that is more suitable than mine!

I had really hoped to find a crispy dilapidated saint to display atop the pedestal, but I never found an affordable one of those either.

So, does this sort of thing happen to you when you buy an antique? As a result of this instance, when deciding on a piece, I now make sure I have at least two places where it might work ~ if I cannot think of two spots, I am not allowed to get it. Unfortunately, I am VERY good at rationalizing and coming up with multiple solutions!

{beautiful detail with just the right amount of crispiness!}

Crown Center Antique Show 2012 ~ Part 2

As promised, another post on the Crown Center Antique Show ~ I did end up taking quite a few photos, so it made sense to do two postings. Shown above is a closeup of a store display/fixture that contained a variety of curtain fixtures to choose from ~ pretty ingenious and so well designed - the majority of this piece was made of printed/painted metal, so much of the wood grain visible is painted, not wood. Makes me wonder if the company supplied these displays to the retailer or if the retailer had to pay for them? These days, no one would spend the money to make such an item ~ everything is used temporarily and then tossed out.

{Boye curtain fixture store display}

Couldn't pass up a shot or two of this chest of drawers handmade from spools and cheese boxes ~ I love this sort of thing! Ingenuity and drawers ~ what could be a better combination?!

{old type drawer}

I love this type of drawer as well ~ for me, I use these as working organizers ~ I do the same with muffin tins. When I am embellishing the brooches I make or other craft projects, I often will keep buttons or beads in this sort of drawer so that I can see all I have to choose from. Since they are stackable, it makes it a little easier to see what you have at a glance just by rearranging the stack.

{old mirrored and wire wrapped glass bottles}

I assume these are wine bottles, but not really sure ~ I just thought the imperfection of the mirrored bottle in combination with the wire wrapping and printing was just beautiful. It was disappointing to see that one had been changed into a lamp ~ there goes the antique value!

{spectacular crystal and beaded chandeliers}

{Painting of priest in gorgeous frame}

This piece reminded me of Prior Phillip from the Pillars of the Earth series, which we just happened to finish watching last week ~ while I enjoyed the miniseries, I liked the book better. It is a bit of a disturbing painting, but I still like it and think it could look great displayed with other religious themed items ~ wish I had the wall space!

Crown Center Antique Show 2012 ~ Part 1

Time flies! The summer is more than halfway over and somehow I have gotten far behind with my posts ~ sorry for the delay. I suppose in some ways, it doesn't make much of a difference as I always do a post AFTER the event anyway and it isn't as if the antiques I post about will be out of style in a week or two! I do like to share what I see though, so I hope to do a better job of keeping up in the future. That said, here is Part 1 of some great items I saw while shopping at this year's Crown Center Antique Show in June ~ this year, nice weather ( a little hot), but no storms and most importantly, no flooding ~ both vendors and shoppers were happy about that!

First, some wonderfully beautiful tins. The first grouping illustrates gorgeous graphics and color, while the second tin shown is lovely because of the lack of color ~ I am always drawn to neutrals for some reason. I'd love to start a collection of sifters like those shown below ~ again, I guess it is the simplicity of color and patina along with the variety of graphics that appeals to me.

{good start for a sifter collection}

{cute child's Schoenhut piano with lovely graphics}

While I wasn't wild about the actual views that came with this set, I do think the box it was packaged in is beautifully designed. I was a bit curious as to what the Magic Lantern itself would look like ~ all that was being sold were the package of slides.

While we are on the subject of packaging, above is a set of stays (I think) that I was tempted to purchase just because I liked the way they look in their box. While I was sorely tempted, I held back and satisfied myself with a photo instead. Below is another example of some packaging I admired ~ very clever way to showcase the product while presenting it in a unique fashion. Since there is so little of this sort of thing done today, I guess that is why the old pieces are so intriguing to me.

I had to include the bowties as well ~ not that there is anything special about how they are packaged, but I just liked the variety of patterns and colors together ~ I am having a bit of remorse about passing these up ~ but then again, my dogs don't get invited to that many events that require formal attire, so I just couldn't rationalize the expenditure.

{any of these would have looked great on either my black or wheaten scottie!}

Stop by tomorrow ~ Part 2 will be posted ~ I promise!