Two Guys On The Road with Antiques

Sometimes I Feel Like the Brawn of the Operation, but I'm NOT Movin' It

2012-01-02T22:36:00.004-05:00

I often joke that while Perry is off buying dozens of boxes of Christmas ornaments, or canning jars, or fifteen wicker plant stands that I'm just the brawn of the operation....he bids, I load.

Sometimes it's a little scary, finding the good stuff in an unexpected place (the whole, we're professionals, we know what we want and how to find it, then WHAM, we're reminded that it's just chance and that sometimes merchandise almost finds us).Moving it can be even worse, especially if we're not prepared. Light fixtures and chandeliers have their own own special challanges, with all their breakable arms and prisms, but the modern glass straw chandeliers from the 1970's we found for a customer in Norfolk last fall are a special challenge.

EVERY glass rod has to be removed from the frame before moving. Yeah. Every one. Dozens of them.

Sometimes, several dozen.

Sometimes, even we quiver at the idea of trying, like this 48" long multilevel cascading glass rod chandelier we saw in Virginia Beach.

But, it was nothing compared to this one, at LEAST 6 feet around, from a bank lobby close by in Strasburg, VA, taken from underneath (it was too big to get perspective for the other view!)

Someone had to do it, but I'm glad it wasn't us!

Station Identification

2012-01-01T22:17:00.003-05:00

Two Guys on the Road With Antiques are Clay, a blogger and former bookseller, and Perry, an antique seller with more than twenty-five years in the business.

They're now based in the northern Shenandoah Valley after relocation to Front Royal from Norfolk, Virginia.

They can be reached at twoguysontheroad at yahoo dot com or on facebook.

Their blog was chosen by Antiques Magazine as a pick of the week shortly after they started it, but it took them nearly a year to find this out.

Clay's obsessed with vintage Pyrex, most of which he divested himself before the move (How many Pyrex double boilers does anyone need, anyway? Four is three too many), seventies reprints of thirties Pulp fiction, and trying to learn Russian because Icelandic has too many letters.

Perry keeps Clay in check, buys vintage Christmas ornaments despite the fact they've no where to store them and watches Downton Abbey with a zeal the boarders on mania.

But really, look at it:

Understandable, isn't it?

From the Stork Club

2011-10-15T10:27:00.003-04:00

In an earlier post, I included this picture of my grandmother at the Stork Club in New York.

She's with my grandfather (left) and her brother in law (right). And see the ashtray on the table? Pretty cool. Perry thought so, and when he saw this:
in a boxlot, he had to get it for me.

We assumed it was one of the ubitquitous ashtrays, but something bothered me about it: no indentations to put your cigarettes in. So I did a little research (google) and found an ebay page where one like it was identified as a wine coaster (and sold for over a hundred dollars).

I now use it as a change holder for dimes and quarters- they look extra shiny against the black.

By the way, the link for the Stork Club is for their official website, and they've got a facebook page as well.

What's up...

2011-09-27T19:12:00.003-04:00

Well, we're seriously on the road since we last blogged. We've moved from Norfolk Virginia- where we were hard presssed to find nice things to sell- to Front Royal, Virginia, where we've got a home base that takes us to West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania to find things.

Like these four feet tall ceramic monkey statues

And this pair of 19th C. English hand chased cartouche form brass sconces with heraldic crests.

Plus there's the views:

Blue blue skies and Kodachrome green fields... just wait til leaf season, when the foliage turns!

I'm posting this at the library since we still haven't gotten internet connected where we're staying- it's run run run all the time, to auctions and flea markets- but our facebook page is much more active now. Friend us as "TwoGuys On TheRoad."

2011-09-23T07:08:00.001-04:00

Test message from my phone

More Mid Century Modern Shopping and a New Facebook Group

2011-07-28T20:01:00.005-04:00

Today was all about staying home and getting some paperwork done, to get ready for the onslaught of shopping we normally do on Friday and Saturday because of estate and yard sales, but we did manage to spot some neat things while we were out yesterday. As always, click any image to enlarge the picture for a better view, or click any link to see more related information on the internet.

A 1950's glazed ceramic ashtray, priced at $2.98 at a local thrift store, not my kind of thing, but I love the finish.

A modern, probably 1970's hanging light fixture or chandelier that was described as "Brutalist" on the tag in a local antique mall, I don't know if I'd classify it that way, but at $48.00, it seemed like a good buy and was a really good size for a foyer or small dining area. I'm also fond of the patinated metal often used for these, similar to what Artisan House did with the pieces they had signed Curtis Jere.

In the same antique mall in Virginia Beach, a great chrome and leather? Barcelona chair, no price tag that I could find, I think I'll go back and check.

At the only estate sale I managed to go to this afternoon, and needing some repair, but priced at $10.00 this 1950-60's desk was a great buy.

The base only of a 1950's aqua pottery lamp with a pattern of incised giraffes. Priced at $3.98....I seriously thought about this, but I'm trying to cure my lamp disease, so I passed and moved on. But it's still calling to me.
Another 1950's lamp, this time with a new shade that I think was too traditional, but still only priced at $19.98.

A 1960's iron mesh magazine rack that I passed at $6.98 because I have too many, I may go back and get this tomorrow if it's still there, I could sell and ship this with ease and I think there must be someone out there who can use this. Or maybe I can, I really like the scale of this.

WANT! A 1961 copy of Betty Crocker's Hostess cookbook, with recipes but also with pictures and descriptions of menus and table settings. This didn't have a price on it, in a thrift store where all the books are priced less than $3.00, but also where they have a "we can't sell it if it doesn't have a price tag" rule. So I took it to the counter and asked them to price it, I'll have to take my chances that I can find it again, they won't hold anything either. And yeah, I totally want the house on the cover!!

A 1960's laminated Asian influenced modern cabinet that probably originally held electronics, there is perforated masonite on the back, priced at $69.00....I have no place to put this, except storage!, so I passed but I'm already regretting that.

Okay, so it's not mid century modern. Or even kitsch. It's newish bedding with a Disney inspired Tiki pattern. Who doesn't love tiki Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, or Goofy? This was a comforter at a local thrift store priced at $14.98. I. Have. No. Storage. Space. So. I. Walked. Away.

A set of five decorated 1950's bar size tumblers with aqua and gold sunburst, I'm selling these for $16.00 for the set, plus shipping if anyone is interested.

A set of 7 decorated tumblers from the 1950's with aqua and gold abstract boomerangs, I'm also selling these, for $22.00 for the set, plus shipping.

Not my thing, but Clay is a huge Pyrex collector although he prefers Flameware. Still, this is a great color and it was only $2.98....I often see these at local antique stores priced somewhere between $15.00 and $20.00, so this was a bargain for someone.

That's it for today, but I will mention that I started a Facebook page today for a group called Mid Century Modern Tidewater. I made the Tidewater distinction basically so that anyone local could know they could buy a piece of furniture or something large I saw and passed on since they're close, but I'm hoping to have anyone participate who would like to. There are lots of other Mid Century related groups on Facebook, I'm keeping the rules pretty loose for this one, I just want to have fun and share finds with others, so if you'd like to join and tell us about your high end designer Paul McCobb or Saarinen furniture, or your kitschy souvenir ashtray, or your Grandma's 1960's cookbooks, we'd love to have you! Heck, tell us about your vintage vacation in the 50's or 60's or 70's and we'll be in heaven, we love those stories!

Thanks for reading!

Pan Am

2011-07-25T18:55:00.011-04:00

One thing about the mid century modern stuff we've been getting- cultural context. As much fun as it is to see glasses or chairs or tables that we find in old magazines, it's even MORE fun to look for them on television shows.
We got to Mad Men late in the game, but after seeing this preview for ABC's new fall show Pan Am, we're going to be there right at the start.

Jet Age and airline collectibles are something Perry's had to talk me away from- it's dangerous territory (though I'm pleased as punch with my set of Eastern Airlines cutlery)- so I've been content with books on the subject, my current favorites being Come Fly With Us!: A Global History of the Airline Stewardess by Johanna Omelia and Michael Waldock and The Art of the Airways by Geza Szurovy.

The Art of the Airways is just that, a lovely coffee table book on airline advertising posters. Come Fly With Us is a dynamic hodgepodge of pop culture academic history and retro fashion, documenting the evolution of the flight attendant both occupationally and culturally- not to mention lot of great photos of the flight attendants in uniform.

Back then, stewardess was thought to be a glamorous occupation- that's why they're doing the show of course- and even Barbie got in on the act, seen here in a 2009 re-release of a 1966 Pam Am stewardess outfit.

Now, as stylish as the Pan Am outfits were, they paled in comparison to the Braniff stewardess outfits, designed by Pucci.

Note the bubble headpiece of the stewardess in green- that was their outdoor wear, the bubble to keep their hair from rain.

There was even a set of these outfits for Barbie, two of which sold in 2008 for more than $1500 apiece.

Now I Know Paul McCobb Designed Dinnerware

2011-07-24T15:54:00.005-04:00

It was a short buying day for us today since we try to take Sundays off, but there was a moving sale that was today only we thought we shouldn't miss (which ended up being a bust) and an annual community sale run for a local synagogue where we've found great stuff in the past.

We were in line in the already sweltering heat by 9:15 for the community sale which started at 10:00, and enjoyed seeing familiar faces of people we don't actually know well but often see at sales and markets in the area....and made a new friend of a woman who told us she decided to come to the sale because the air conditioning at her church was broken and she couldn't cope. understandably since we're still in the grip of 100 degree days in the heat wave that's blasted a large part of the country for the last few days.

Like all resale venues this year, there seems to be...less...of everything for sale than there was. I ascribe it to the continuance of the economic recovery-until people start replacing and buying new stuff, they won't be getting rid of their "old" stuff, so there's less hitting the resale market than I'm accustomed to seeing.

While I was disappointed that I didn't find more since this has been a great source for us in previous years, I really like the people who run the sale and enjoyed seeing them. I did buy a couple of nice pieces of silverplated holloware that I'll show later, but my score of the morning was a set of four sandwich size plates that have a blue and green mid centuryish design on the top. They were taped together so I couldn't see the bottoms, but I liked the decoration and design and thought they'd look good with my new collection of mismatched everday dinnerware, so for $3.50 for the set, I took the plunge and bought them.

Once I got them home and pulled off the tape, I saw that the mark on the back looks like this:

I didn't realize the prolific and talented mid century modern designer Paul McCobb designed dinnerware patterns as well as furniture, but with his massive body of work, it's not surprising. I did a little research and found some other pieces online for sale, the pattern after some research appears to be called Eclipse, the Contempri name seems to be the shape that the blanks are decorated on (other Contempri pieces I found online have different decorative patterns or are completely plain with no decoration), made by the Japanese company Jackson Internationale.....

Several pieces are on display in the Brooklyn Museum, a great group photo from the Modish 20th Century website shows an array of some of the pieces available:

Great, now I have something else to look for. In the meantime, it's time for a sandwich, and I have the plates to serve them on.

A final note, in the weird way that our lives sometimes go as antique dealers, we came home early to find our next door neighbor (and I mean the person in the apartment next to us on the third floor) has decided to suddenly travel to Scotland and backpack for five months, so she was having a short yard sale to sell ALL her stuff....we bought a great pair of designer inspired painted wood and cane armchairs that one of our Richmond customers will love. Clay opened the door and pointed and said "Do you want those?", with a huge smile because I had already scoffed that we'd be able to find anything we could use and had already decided to skip the sale.

Go figure.

I'm Back and tonight is All About Mid Century Modern

2011-07-23T20:13:00.014-04:00

We've been away from the blog a while, working on some other projects and moving along with life, but we've decided we'll really try to be better and keep up with some posts again. This one is longer than they'll typically be since I have a backlog of photos to use up (and clear off my computer!), but I decided today to share some of the cool mid century modern stuff we've been finding.

It helps that we've cleared out a lot of stuff at home (with a mammoth yard sale last weekend helping), and made room to help make the transition of doing more of this at home ourselves. I'm still finding my feet with some of this, I like it all, but quickly it turns into a kitsch fest if you're not careful, and at any rate, I like a lot of things from the 60's and 70's that may not technically be "mid century". What can I say, like lots of other folks, I really like a lot of the stuff from MY childhood, the only 50's things floating around then when I was a kid were leftovers from ten years earlier. yeah, I'm 50 if you're counting!

Anyway, in my normal post-a-thon fashion, I'll just get going with a slew of pictures, remember, you can always click any image to enlarge the view for a better view and click any hyperlink to get more background or related information.

A 1973 wallpaper sample book, the kind you ordered wallpaper from. I LOVE the patterns of the papers, many of which are flocked and with foil backgrounds. I found this at a yard sale close to home for $3.00 and yeah, it's a keeper. I don't know what I'll do with it, but I'm thinking maybe I'll copy the samples and use them as drawer liners or mats for framed prints.

A pair of steel frame early 1970's split rattan wrapped end tables with glass tops that we found a month or so ago, and sold that same day to a local shop since we didn't have room for them. These look like they should have come from the set of Kramer vs. Kramer.

A pair of 1950's obelisk form ceramic lamps that were in a shop in the Northern Neck, not something I had a place for, so we passed on them, but I've thought about them ever since and regretted the choice, I love the color! They didn't have the original shades, and while I know some folks like those just as much, I tend to prefer putting new shades with cleaner lines to update the look a little, maybe linen short sided drum shades.

I'm not typically a step table kind of guy, but this one wowed me with the lattice pattern on the base and shelf support. Blonde finish on what looked like oak, we got this at a yard sale for $10.00 but didn't have a place for it, so we sold it shortly afterward to a dealer from North Carolina who was buying some inventory for her new store.

"Mini-me, we do NOT gnaw our kitty." Can't you just see Dr. Evil sitting in this chair, spinning around, thinking of world domination? From a local thrift store for $10.00 (I'm a cheap buyer, but even for me, this was a breath taking buy, I paid and quickly ran to the car to drive away before they changed their mind.!) Original black vinyl, brushed steel tulip type chair base, comfortable. Sold that same day to a shop, and I still wonder if I should have found a spot for it. It's sort of the one that got away......

Not a great picture since I had to stand in the tub to take it and the lighting was bad, this 29" round mid century metal wall sculpture looked like the ones made by Curtis Jere (which is really the company Artisan House with a made up "designer name", but I'll talk about that another time, but I couldn't find a signature. I didn't care, I loved it anyway, especially for $21.00, and it's hanging in our bathroom.

My big purchase today, a pair of 1960's textured tumblers in aqua for 89 cents each at a Salvation Army store. My grandmother had a set of these when I was a kid, and I loved them, the clear ones look like a drink in a frozen piece of ice (especially if you're a weird kid like I was and put them in the freezer to enhance the effect). The aqua ones look like something I imagined a drinking glass would look like on a spaceship. I'd love to have more, for now, two is enough to use at dinner.

At a community yard sale in Virginia Beach this summer, I found this awesome early 1970's tabletop size sculpture, again in the style of Curtis Jere, but with no label. Surprisingly high quality, it's sitting on a Dorothy Draper style chest in the bedroom. Yeah, I had to keep it, best of all, it was $3.00. *insert big smile here*

A pair of 1960's wall sconces. Funny about these, a lot of times you just have to go with your instincts about the age of something, do research, look in catalogs and try to date items or at least similar items. But, this time, the lady running the estate sale in Chesapeake, VA told us she gave these to her mother as a gift in 1963, they had been hanging on the kitchen wall since then, when I took them down, the paint was faded around them. Not something I have a place for, these are for sale, although I haven't gotten around to figuring out where, we may set up an Etsy page for this kind of stuff since we're finding much more than we can handle at home.

A fantastic abstract painting that I passed on at a local thrift store, and I've kicked myself ever since. It was a little more money than I usually pay for thrift store items, but once I thought about it, I would have GLADLY paid that for it at an antique or consignment shop. Duh. Even as a professional buyer, it's easy to forget to where all your hats at the same time.......

I LOVED this chair, and have been looking for one, or preferably a pair, of orange tweed club chairs. This fit the bill, great lines, fabric in wonderful condition, a great color, slim tapered legs...and then I sat on it. And a cloud of disintegrated foam cushion wafted up through the fabric and made me sneeze. It would have to be completely torn apart and redone, so I left it there. It was only around $20.00, I hope someone with the time to take on the project found it and gave it a good home.

A ceramic faux finished Spartan warrior head that was originally a lamp, there is a groove in the back where the tube shaped bulb would have nestled, and places in the bottom where the cord could have come out. The kind of thing my grandfather would have sold in his 1950's Kentucky general store as a "tv lamp". I have a thing for that odd intersection of 50's modern and ancient world style, I guess they were influenced by the "sword and sandal" movies of the time. I may make this into a lamp again, and think it would look great sitting in a bookshelf and lit, for now, it's sitting on the top of the chest in the bedroom and standing guard.

A fantastic heavy iron 1950's iron outdoor table that I found at a Norfolk yard sale not long ago for $10.00. Definitely a keeper, and definitely planned to soon be another color. I occasionally post photos of stuff I've found on the Mid Century Modern Facebook group and the consensus there was that it should be orange. And I'm fine with that.

You can't buy everything you see. Or want. But this mid century 1950's riverfront house in Norfolk we went to this morning for a moving sale slowed me down for a serious look. The owners are moving away, although they love the house, because they have school age children and want to be in a better school district, what was funny is that when they mentioned moving to Virginia Beach, I asked (perhaps without tact), "why would you do that?"...and then discovered that they are moving to the ONLY area of Virginia Beach that I like, a forested area, close to the bay that has the most amazing walking/biking path as part of the nearby state park and most of the original 1950's and 60's homes, unpretentious and very NON McMansiony...so I felt better. And I hope this amazing house goes to someone who can appreciate it and doesn't just buy it for the lot with the expansive river view and put up another soulless brick mansion with too many Palladian windows.

A large framed painting of blue horses stampeding. Seriously large, like "over the fireplace" large. And who doesn't want blue stampeding horses over their fireplace? This is one of those things, it was at a thrift store, it was cheap, and I love it. But just don't have room for it. And after a lifetime of being an antique dealer, I just avoid most art for resale, it's too subjective to sell quickly. It's still there, taunting me every time I go in. Damn.

I always see things in vintage decorating magazines and books, and this lamp pops up all the time, typically sitting on a low slung console or credenza in a modern setting with a vaguely Asian motif. I bought it thinking I'd find room for it and got a great buy, but it was just too big for anywhere at home and I'm in a new "no more stuff in storage" mood, so it had to be sold. Fortunately, we sold it to one of Clay's old friends and his wife, who loved it as much as we did. Marked on the back in incised lettering Austin Productions 1961, a company I'm familiar with from my days as a store buyer, and one that is still in business making all sorts of decorative statues and figurines.

I love parsons tables. I love lattice. So what was not to love when I found these, other than my lack of space to use them at home. Found at a local sale, sold already to a dealer who is one of our best customers who repainted them so that they're both the same white color now. These look like they came straight out of a 1971 Better Homes and Gardens design book.

Clay has a fascination for older amusement parks and tourist attractions that he's written about often, I joke that he should have been born thirty years sooner so he could have stayed in all those campy hotels and eaten bad fried food, but then he wouldn't have the internet and he does love him some internet. This is a silver colored metal overlay on black ceramic tray with a silverplate reticulated gallery sold as a souvenir of the now sadly defunct Cypress Gardens in Florida, one of his favorite places to find memorabilia for. There's a whole shelf full of Luray Caverns stuff too, but I digress. This is in a shop we often go to and has been there at least a year, it's not even expensive, but every time I offer to buy it for him, he declines and says "that way lays madness", because he's trying to avoid another serious space sucking collection. We'll see. I think it's $8.00. I'd pay that to quit asking him about it.

A really cool 1960's china cabinet I spotted the other day for less than $200.00....not as cheap I tend to like buying stuff like this (I'm lazy, if I'm moving something big, I either want it to be something to keep, or so cheap I can make some money on it fast---being an antique dealer is not the same as being an antique collector and to paraphrase, baby needs shoes....so I want to make my work time productive....I've seen way too many antique dealers who don't value their time and end up never making money as a result.) So, it's still there, waiting for the right person.

And here's anther one. From a different store, also priced under $200.00. I liked this one better, but it was already sold. Because you always find things in odd coincidental order like this.

A 1950's warming carafe, again with that odd juxtaposition of neoclassical and modern design. Bought at a yard sale, with the original lid, stand, and even candle warming holder. I brought it home, put it in the cabinet, realized I would never use it, and in a purge of needing space for stuff I WILL use, put it in the box of stuff to sell online if I ever get around to it.

A very nice 1960's Broyhill Contemporary Classics dresser and mirror we spotted a couple of weeks ago, priced at $69.00..Sadly, we have no room, but if they'd had the tall chest, I would have brought it home.

A set of six 1950's decorated tumblers with original, if worn, blue abstract designs. I buy odd tumblers like this all the time that I like, sets are pretty hard to find, especially six that are still together. I'd keep these, but I have an addiction to tumblers already and just cleared out the cabinet. (Hi, I'm Perry and I buy to many drinking glasses.) So, these are for sale, waiting for a new owner with either more cabinet space than me, or one who has already realized that trying to manage their addiction is futile.

Yellow. Glossy Vinyl. With a HUGE yellow knob on top. Who doesn't want an ice bucket they could never lose? I love these, and remember when they were really popular in the late 60's and early 70's. Clay found this one recently, we've already sold it to a customer who has a store in Richmond. A store that sells crystal chandeliers and French chests and gilt mirrors. But like us, she loved the color and style.....we joked that she just has exquisite taste for recognizing how cool it was.....like we did.

Another one of the myriad of 1950's ceramic lamps with metal sprouting fronds that we seem to find, with no room at home for another lamp. So this will be for sale, I really liked the pale blush pink color of this one, they normally tend to be too bright for me.

A 1970's heavy iron table base, with a glass top that surely was added later (and is the wrong size, but I can find a better one without too much trouble), I love the design of this and think I might paint it a bright color when I find the right top. Teal? Apple Green?

Clay already wrote about these, but my all time favorite Jetson era tumblers. He was dumbfounded when I filled it with iced tea for the photograph, apparently, he had tried photographing them several times to no avail since the design didn't show up. Hmmmmmmm. Time to kick that high IQ into gear......

More 1950's bar glasses, I think you might be required to listen to Dean Martin Or Johnny Mathis is you drink a highball from these, I'll have these for sale as well. And, I think you should always drink Scotch from an argyle patterned glass.

1950's bar glasses. With Roman coin motifs. I REALLY want to keep these. And have no room for them. So we'll see, but they'll probably end up being sold because after purging the kitchen storage area and swearing that I'd kill Clay if he added a single thing to that, it would be wrong to sneak these in. Unless I can find a place he won't look.

Okay, so if Superman had a chandelier, this would be it. Early 1970's, high quality gold plated brass, with glass faceted giant prisms that slide down into metal frames. Found in Virginia Beach, sold to a Norfolk dealer the next day.

A great heavy iron 1950's bar stool with original green vinyl seat upholstery, found at a local moving sale in Norfolk for $10.00, already sold.

A 1950's metal gazelle candleholder. Biggish. With a great patina. In storage, waiting for me to make space to bring it home. Because it's too cool not to.

Another great 1950's lamp we recently spotted in Yorktown, priced a little higher at $75.00 than we're used to seeing them, but in this case, worth it since it had the original two tier fiberglass shade. I have no more room for lamps, so it's still there, waiting for a new home.

So after the kitchen purge, I decided I'd really like a small lamp to sit on a bookcase that holds lots of serving gear (and the blender! and the toaster!) that would give us some ambient light, and keep us from having to put on the overhead light when we're not working in there. And the first yard sale I went to yesterday had this great lamp, from the early 1960's, with the original fiberglass insert/woven cane shade. In perfect condition, seriously, it looks like new. For $5.00. And now I have light in the kitchen. Without blinding myself to get a glass of water.

And finally, a great turquoise fiberglass arm chair that we found at a moving sale in Virginia Beach, With the original manufacturing label from the Sturgis Posture Chair Co. For $10.00 Already sold to a customer (and I really wish I had a place to keep this, it was really comfortable!) Best of all, the lady selling this had a restored 1960's travel trailer that she let us take a tour of that I was captivated with, she had even made a folding dining table out of a surfboard.

The label on the bottom of the chair. Because some people might be able to identify their chair that has a missing label. I always hope that happens.

That's way more than I planned on writing tonight, and with the power outage in the middle of the post from the thunderstorm we had, I have no more to say. But not to worry, that won't last.

Thanks for reading!

Atomic Glasses

2011-07-19T23:27:00.006-04:00

We've got a pair of these vintage drinking glasses that we love to use:
Recently, we had a younger friend come over, someone with an interest in science and physics and I asked him to get me one of the Atomic glasses. He looked on the shelf and in the sink and told me he didn't see any.

It was one of those "oh, I'm old" moments I seem to have more and more often; his atoms don't look like mine. That is, the model of the atom he learned about when he was in school is different from the model I learned. I'm familiar with, and still like, the Rutherford model, which isn't too dissimilar to the design on the lower left of the glass. Our friend learned the more accurate atomic orbital model, which can look kind of Playdoughy and certainly not as stylish.

I love the wonderful Atomic Age/Space Age designs on the glass, an artifact from an era where we'd conquered the atom, and Space was next, the macro-cosmic Saturn a funhouse reflection of the micro-cosmic Atom.

How to photograph this beauty was always a puzzle to me- I think I may have posted about it before, even, but with photograph that wasn't as good. Perry figured it out the other evening while sitting at the computer and drinking rootbeer from one of the glasses- the dark of the beverage provides the perfect contrast for the symbols.

NEON!

2011-07-18T23:53:00.000-04:00

We had a yard sale this weekend- a marathon project that, honestly, we're still a little zoned from. I'll be putting up some commentary and pictures about it in the next day or so.
In the mean time, work continues as well.
Today, in our running around, hit one of the local antique malls- Barrett Street Antiques in Virginia Beach. First: some regional background. Downtown Norfolk used to look like this, with lots of neon:
(image snagged from Norfolk Public Library website)
It doesn't look like that anymore. Times change, and so do zoning ordinances.
But if you're in the Tidewater area and want to see some great vintage neon, Barrett Street is the place to do it.

Of course, the sign I liked the most was outside, and unlit. But still the best one there!

If you're going to have a shop...

2011-06-05T01:25:00.001-04:00

This weekend we hit several estate sales as well as some new shops.
In Williamsburg, we'd seen this shop setting up over the past few weeks:

I've blurred the name because I don't have anything nice to say about it.

Ok, I can say it was clean. And well lit.
That's about it.

It's an old 7-11 and they've made it their own- to the extent that they've kept the back wall of coolers and turned them into display cases.

But the quality of their stuff was, as a friend put it, "furniture from a Yonkers living room with the plastic slipcovers pulled off."

The three things that caught our eye when we were in there- a pair of Oriental style etageres, a ice-cream parlor style set of table and chairs, and a tole lamp- were all marked NFS- not for sale.

Nothing makes us more annoyed than to see something put out but not on sale. If you're going to have a shop, sell stuff. Especially a shop like this.

If/when Perry and I ever set up a shop, we'll sell you anything in it if you want it enough, including our shirts.

Catch Up

2011-05-24T22:19:00.005-04:00

Well, despite our best intentions, we're not posting as frequently as we'd like to. That said, we have been busy. Here's highlights of the past couple of weeks (click the picture to enlarge it):

We picked up a new client, a mid-century modern dealer from out of state. We'd all ready sold the patio set, but had a nice selection of stuff for her from our warehouse, including an assortment of lamps, a terrific chair, an end table, a couple of wall art pieces, and a three piece set of red Samsonite luggage from the early seventies. Of the three pieces, only the overnight case had ever been used; the big piece still had the price tag on it!

We picked up these wicker wrapped end tables at an estate sale.
Estate sales and yard sales have been fun lately.

At one early morning yard sale, we got there just as it started and Perry started a pile of stuff. Two ladies from a local consignment store showed up a few minutes later and started eyeing Perry's selections. The fellow selling things told them that the stuff had been reserved, and when they realized it was Perry's, the warm spring morning got a little chillier. They left without looking any further.
About half an hour later, we encountered them leaving a yard sale empty handed as we were walking in. The nodded and smiled, but they were still annoyed at him. But they'd gotten to this one first. After they walked away, Perry bought a Italian whiter ceramic woven bowl.
As we crossed the street to the car, the ladies passed us in their car, having driven up the street to turn around, and sloooooowly passed us, scowling at Perry and his prize.
Really.

This weekend's score was this pair of Buenilium hammered aluminum candelabras.

Though this amethyst colored crystal pitcher, that we sold this morning, was a close second, providing a nice companion to these purple stemmed wine glasses, something we'd sold to the same customer two weeks ago.

Of course, it's not all work, work, work. Occasionally we have a little fun (while working).
And of course there's the food, this time from Tammy & Johnny's in Melfa, Virginia, on the Eastern Shore.
Some of the best fried chicken we've ever had, amazing cole slaw and potatoe salad, corn puffs, and for dessert, a miniature Smith Island cake.

She's a Wonder...

2011-05-13T21:12:00.003-04:00

So, Clay, what were you and Perry doing while you weren't blogging?

Well, we were buying lots of crazy stuff.

Like this:
It's a Wonder Woman doll from Mego's World's Greatest Superheroes line, from the mid seventies. It was a great buy- only $10, and I sold it on ebay for $70.

Nice turn around for a toy, huh?

2011-05-11T21:29:00.000-04:00

Yes, that's a cannon.

At the end of the barrel is a yellow smiley face. We were originally behind it, and we weren't quite sure what we were looking at. Then Perry pointed out the tamping rods on either side- not too visible in the picture, but we were going nearly seventy- and we realized we were looking at a cannon.

Perry then executed a thrilling maneuver of changing lanes and speeding up so I could document it.

Because in Tidewater, with it's Army, Air Force, and Navy bases (home of Seal Team 6!), you see all sorts of military stuff going down the highway.

But a cannon- that's crazy.

Sparkly!

2011-05-10T20:18:00.003-04:00

This is Winston.
You can't see it, because of his fur, but he's wearing a custom made collar with metal spikes and Swarovski crystals. His owner, Pat, uses the crystals to bring a little sparkle to... unexpected things. Like her truck:

We ran into them while visiting a client. As usual, the best part of the day involved a dog- Winston's probably one of the best behaved dogs we've ever encountered.

We're REALLY Back and Tonight, It's All About the Silverplate

2011-05-08T20:16:00.014-04:00

Yep. We're really back. This time we mean it.

Clay and I have been talking at length about the blog, our business, and what we want to do in the future with both, and we both agreed that we really missed writing the blog and sharing stories with all of you out there, so we decided to start there. I can't promise we'll write every day like we used to, but we'll do our best to get something posted often, even if it's just a photo blog of what we found that day. Just remember, it's often pictures taken in parking lots as we find items, and they are often "as found", the dealers we sell items to usually do the cleaning up to make them shop ready.

One thing we ARE going to do differently is list prices of what we're selling items for since we get so many email requests for that information, but please remember, we're really wholesalers with a pretty loyal customer base and lots of stuff sells the same day we buy it, even before we'll have time to get the pictures posted. Now that I've said that, if there's something you're interested in and it doesn't say sold here in the blog, let us know and we can work out a way to get an item to you.

And yeah, there will be more news later about our future plans, but right now those are still being worked out, so we'll keep everyone posted when we have more details.

Since Clay has spent part of the evening in the bathtub (I only WISH I were making that up!) polishing silverplate, I decided to start with the silverplated holloware we found this weekend at various flea markets, estate sales, and yard sales. (And yeah, as odd as his chosen place of polishing is, he cleans the tub when he's done, so it's a win-win for me.) Most of the items shown here are mid 20th century and American in origin.

As always, click any image to enlarge it for a better view.

And here's an itemized list, (the other items shown in the photo will appear in a later post, I promise.):

An ice bucket with insulated liner, ~~$14.00~~ SOLD

A shallow chased design bowl, ~~$8.00~~SOLD

A high quality Edwardian Federal style coffee pot, ~~$28.00~~SOLD

A reticulated edge cake stand (an unusual form for silverplate, I've never seen one like this...) ~~$14.00~~SOLD

A c.1890's dessert or cake basket, often called Bride's Baskets because they were common as wedding gifts, ~~$35.00~~SOLD

An engraved Federal style biscuit box, and in this case we mean "biscuit" in the English sense, these are typically used to serve cookies at tea. ~~$16.00~~>/s>SOLD

A fruit basket with chased grape designs around the border, ~~$8.00~~SOLD

That's all for folks, but it's a start.......Looking forward to hearing from you all again!!

Atomic Style

2011-05-08T20:12:00.005-04:00

So, day two of back to blogging.
This weekend has been a busy one- several estate sales (buying, not running).

Lots of great stuff found- including most of the silver plate from Perry's post yesterday.

But I think my favorite item- which has already found a home- had to be this Eames era patio table and chairs.

Still very comfortable actually.

One of the estate sales we went to was odd- I recognized several books on the shelves as books that the bookstore I used to work at carried. No big deal, right? I mean, they could have come from any bookstore. Then I found the name of the person whose house it was- R.C.

R.C. was a customer of my old bookstore, and I felt a little weird shopping at his estate sale.

Fortunately, I found out that he'd moved up north to be closer to his children- not all estate sales are post-mortem.

We're Back.

2011-03-17T21:21:00.005-04:00

We're back. For those of you who may have come in late, we're Two Guys on the Road with Antiques.

For the blog, Clay mostly writes and Perry usually takes the pictures, but they've been know to switch on occasion. Or not.

After a few weeks off from writing the blog while we pushed the reset button, we've gathered steam and are moving forward - as easily as one can get these days with gas prices the way they are.

So, let's get this new start off with something really interesting: an inkwell. Perry feels confident it's from the 1890's- and so did the dealer we sold it to. As always, click the image to enlarge it for a better view.

It's ormolu- the fancy word for gilded bronze. "Ormolu" struck me as a good name for a spaniel or a Collie, one of those dogs that you'd have to yell for them to come back to the house; it wasn't something I associated with dachshunds. Perry just looked at me when I said that blankly.

The thing that's really nice about this - aside from the detailed figural dachshund- is the fact that the crystal inkwells themselves are not only still intact, but they've got their original lids as well, uncommon for something this old and fragile.

It's rare, hard to find item, and one I'm glad to have as our first item back for our blog followers to read about.

Yeah, we're still out there buying and selling stuff.

... back for a minute

2011-02-22T23:36:00.001-05:00

We had an interesting week- well, we've had several interesting weeks lately but this week week was particularly fun.

At an estate sale we picked up a set of Agatha Christies in faux blue leather. They're the perfect thing to look nice in a den and they're even somewhat readable.
Then at an estate auction we picked up some yard decorations. Concrete yard decorations.

My muscles had forgotten how much fun it is to move concrete.

Tomorrow we're going to another auction- at Randy's Auction Gallery. He's run a couple of awesome estate auctions we've written about before ( here and here ).

Here's footage of Randy at work at the December 5th auction:

Thank You and Good Night.

2011-01-12T18:29:00.003-05:00

Well, it's been almost two weeks since we've posted here last; not because we didn't have anything to post, but because we've been so busy.

I've decided to go back to school and become a teacher, a long time dream of mine. As such, I'm getting a job away from the antique field until school starts later this spring.
Since we're going to be so busy, we're stepping back from eBay and the blog, I'd like to say indefinitely, but it's probably permanently.

We've met lots of great people online over the last years or so- thank you for reading and making this an enjoyable experience for us. It's been fun!

2011-01-01T19:25:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

We had a slow down on blogging during December, but now that the chaos is behind us, we're gearing up for some great stuff that'll make for awesome blog posts.

Keep watching!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2010-12-25T06:50:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! I can't always verify how old something is, but I can say that the Santa doll shown in the photo was new on Christmas day 1960, it was from my grandparents on my first Christmas. He still comes out every year to visit.

We're expecting snow tomorrow, so we missed a white Christmas by one day!

2010-12-24T23:31:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas, y'all.

More Items on eBay

2010-12-20T20:11:00.004-05:00

Back again with more stuff just listed for sale on eBay, check our listings on our eBay page if you're interested, click any image to enlarge the photo for a better view (there are additional photos with the listings, along with detailed descriptions).

A large, mid century modern, flying saucer metal and brass swing arm desk or table lamp, measuring13 1/5" tall, ~~$47.99~~, SOLD.

5 3/4 yards of 56" wide, heavy, textured, high quality unused upholstery fabric, originally over $35 per yard, the whole length, $37.99.

A pair of vintage 1960's Syroco wall bracket shelves, with plate grooves on top and metal hangers on the back, with the original label, $17.99 for the pair.

More to come when I get a chance to list, it's the week before Christmas! Thanks for reading!

2010-12-19T22:13:00.002-05:00

So, one of the oddest things we've seen in our travels is this headstone rubbing:

This was at the December 3rd estate sale we went to here in Norfolk.
It turns out, the grave belonged to one of Perry's ancestors. Seriously.

I asked him if he wanted to get it. He said no, as interesting as it was, it wasn't a particularly close relative.

New Stuff on eBay

2010-12-17T18:40:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone!

Clay's been doing all the writing while I've been working on other projects, but I'm here for a short post today and to mention that we've been discussing for a few days that we're going to start listing the items here that we're putting for sale on eBay the same way that we do in our other blog, Two Guys Get Medieval.

Tonight, I've only listed a couple of items, but both are cool :-) You can see them both on our eBay page. , just click the link and it will take you there.

First is this great vintage folk art tin man statue that we found last weekend at an estate sale, unmarked, but with great character. Measuring 24" tall, he previously lived in someone's garden, but I'd like him on a shelf indoors. $24.99

And secondly, a great vintage 1950's mid century modern table lamp made of black ceramic with abstract gold leaf decoration, measuring 16" tall to the base of the socket, so the finished size will depend on what shade and harp you use, but in good physical condition (although we never vouch for old wiring-PLEASE everyone have those old lamps checked before you use them, no matter where you bought them!), $15.99.

We'll be posting more, so stay tuned, and thanks for reading!

Station Identification

2010-12-10T23:49:00.002-05:00

Two Guys on the Road are Clay, a blogger and former bookseller, and Perry, an antique seller with more than twenty-five years in the business.
They can be reached at twoguysontheroad at yahoo dot com.
Their ebay store is here.
And they've got a couple of other blogs out there, the most recent is Two Guys Get Medieval, where Perry enjoys two of his favorite hobbies- medieval history and antique shopping.

2010-12-09T23:52:00.002-05:00

Well, the thrift store we blogged about Tuesday has changed their sign.
We're not sure if it's because they've got an event coming up (SANTA!!) or someone expressed moral outrage at their sign.

I like to think it's because of Santa and they'll be putting their Junk sign up again soon.

Yes, that's what it says...

2010-12-07T20:56:00.001-05:00

(click the pic to see the whole thing)

Delusions of Grandeur or Too Much Fun?

2010-12-05T22:51:00.005-05:00

Saturday, we went to an estate auction.
As we approached the house, Perry ventured the opinion that someone had delusions of grandeur. This wasn't unwarranted; usually when we visit houses with columns out front, the house is... well... inversely impressive inside relative to the number and height of the columns outside. And Perry was quick to note the columned exterior combined with the chain link fence driveway gate.
Thankfully, the formula failed this time.
The house was reminiscent of the Winchester House in San Jose- built arounda pre-existing Cape Cod style house, it was a sprawling building that had acquired many additions over the years, and during the course of the day- the auction started at 10:30 and lasted until nearly four- there were always fun surprises- not counting the awesome stuff for sale.

The house was a production of the seventies- wood paneling and shag rugs were in abundance.
Even on the stairs:Outside was impressive as well, with a 15 foot deep diving pool, and matching cabanas with showers and changing rooms

And there was another little outbuilding that was made for dining outside during the summer, with a complete kitchen on one half and on the other half was an ice cream parlor, complete with freezer bins and soda fountains.
AN ICE CREAM PARLOR. AT A HOUSE. Where only one child grew up.
Someone took their summers seriously.

But it was inside that had the most unforgettable thing:
That small window to the right of the chair? It's a projection room, with a separate dedicated room for the projector, along with hooks on the opposite wall of the viewing room where the long gone screen had hung. These people had a real home theatre, pre-VCR era.

Take that media rooms.

Tomorrow I'll write about the auction itself.

2010-12-02T21:24:00.003-05:00

The other day, I posted a picture of some vintage spice containers we encountered.
Tonight, Perry cleaned out the kitchen cabinet.
Here's part of what he found
Six cinnamon, four nutmeg (more than a lifetime's worth according to Perry), five basil.
Among others.

2010-12-01T23:55:00.000-05:00

How's this for snazzy:

It's a little something the Duke of Windsor gave to Wallis Simpson. Several of their pieces are going up for auction this week.
Like this crazy piece:
What's crazy is the history behind some of these pieces- some of which they may or may not have paid for. Check out the Daily Mail article at the above link.

2010-11-28T22:49:00.002-05:00

I missed a post yesterday- curse Netflix and their video on demands!
We set up our trial membership Thursday evening, and since then we've watched two documentaries- one on exploitation cinema and another on the MPAA's ratings board- three movies, an X-Files episode (X-Cops, filmed like an episode of Cops) and (much to Perry's annoyance) a couple of South Park episodes.

One thing I'm sure I won't be watching anytime soon is American Pickers- the whole first season is available to watch on Netflix on demand. I'm sure this makes fans of rusty bicycles and oilcans happy.

2010-11-26T16:50:00.002-05:00

Well, we'd intended to do a little shopping today, staying out of the crazy places, looking in smaller out of the way stores, then tonight we'd planned on going to an auction.

Perry's son stayed with us last night and as the morning was winding down- him getting ready to go back home, us plotting our travels, we heard a noise. "Was that a plane or a truck?" I asked. We couldn't figure it out until Perry heard shouting from the street- it was a car wreck. I stepped out onto the porch to get a better view and his son's SUV had fallen victim to a rogue Kia.

We ran downstairs to see what was going on and our downstairs neighbor's minivan has been plowed into by a black compact car. A large man was sitting on someone in the passenger's seat. The person being sat on was lead away by a police officer once they showed up.
Yes, I took the picture. Just call me Jimmy Olsen.
By time we'd gotten done with everything, including the police, insurance, and towing, it was too late to do... pretty much anything. So we worked a little on the internet.
In our pajamas.
Because we can.

2010-11-25T23:56:00.002-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

These were seen in an antique shop on one of our trips into Pennsylvania. Funny, when these things were on the shelf in the kitchen when I was a kid, it was because mom had gone to the A&P. I realize everything is collectible to someone, but this is something else.

2010-11-24T22:19:00.003-05:00

Perry has outdone himself in listing on ebay tonight.
Thirty listings.
Thirty outfits for Barbie and her friends from the Fashion Avenue line.
I stacked them tall, with a Pepsi can for reference.
We picked these up at an auction today and Perry got them online tonight - click here to see the individual outfits.

2010-11-23T23:07:00.003-05:00

More Dude Ranch Modern- this time a set of chairs with their seats done with a DRM vintage pattern:
A nice set of four, and, as usual, it goes with nothing we've got, so I've got to be content with just taking photographs.

2010-11-21T23:08:00.001-05:00

Shipping ebay stuff- we've been busy the last couple of days, especially with the Medieval-ish stuff Perry's been listing.
So'm I'm brain dead.

More coherent post Tuesday.

2010-11-20T23:53:00.003-05:00

This week we took a found a new Mid-Century Modern dealer in Richmond after visiting one of our regular customers.

Not only did they have great stuff, but surprisingly low prices as well.
I loved this Oriental inspired lamp:
But this UFO style lamp is more my style:

2010-11-19T23:53:00.002-05:00

Wacky time on ebay this week- we were selling a piece of jewelry and someone bought it.
Someone lived in Russia.
We don't ship outside of the continental US, because of tracking issues, and the fact that we only ship in the US is part of the listing.
So we asked someone if they had an US shipping address. They didn't reply to that. Instead, here's what they said:

Hello twoguysontheroad,

My eBay User Id is XXXXXXXXXX and I won the following auction:

Title: Byzantine or Renaissance Style Pendant w cabochon stone
eBay item #: 270662213407
Winning Bid: $18.99

It is great that I have won your wonderful item.i have a small jewelry and gem shop in Moscow. I can be your permanent and big buyer.I buy about one hundred EBAY items per month and probably I will return to you every month for the next items. But please pay attention to the following:

0 PLEASE URGENTLY SEND ME A TRACKING NUMBER AFTER SHIPPING MY ITEMS

1 Shipping address can be changed after winnig the auction . Please look at the shipping address in Paypal receipt after my payment .You must ship my items to Paypal shipping address that you can find at the receipt. This is according EBAY and PAYPAL policy and protection.

2PLEASE DO NOT MENTION ANYWHERE IN A SHIPPING DOCUMENTS REAL NAME OF THE GEM AND DO NOT MENTION WORDS GOLD AND SILVER !!! PLEASE NAME GEMS AS AN MANMADE STONES OR SOMETHING LIKE THIS! .PLEASE DO NOT ATTACHE AN INVOICE WHERE WILL BE MENTIONED REAL NAMES OF THE GEMS AND WORDS GOLD AND SILVER PLEASE USE WORD BIJOUTERIE PLEASE MENTION TOTAL SUM OF THE SHIPMENT INCLUDING SHIPPING COST LESS THAN 100 USD If you can not do so please urgently contact me. Probably I will give you another address to ship or we will have an agreement of partial shipment in order to reduce total sum of the shipment or we will find another solution. Above mentioned measures can protect items from stealing and avoid problems with customs. But almost every time we can find another solution if you can not follow my shipping instructions . Please do not send items before solving all problems .

2Please do not send items by expedited post services like DHL FEDEX UPS et cetera WITHOUT SPECIAL CONFIRMATION FROM MY SIDE !EMS or USPS EXPRESS MAIL with tracking is the best post service in my case

3Please contact me any time you want by mobile phone +8675309 or by mail XXXXXXXX@gmail.com or through ebay message system If you did not receive an answer maybe your email was not delivered Please send message again several times Please every time when you use EBAY message system send a copy of the message by ordinary email to XXXXXXXX@gmail.com or send me an sms alert of the message Again thank you very much for your great item ! Hope for fruitful cooperation and long term partnership

I tracked and won this auction using Auctiva's BuyingManager!

My address is:

YYYYY YYYYY
P.O.BOX
MOSCOW, MOSCOW
RU

Thank you for the opportunity to win this item. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely, XXXXXXXXXXXX

Right.
Being the sort of person I am, I entered his gmail address in facebook- that came back as a facebook page for ZZZZ ZZZZZZ. And when I looked at the details of the ebay transaction, the account was in the name of WWWW WWWWW.
This guy has four different names.
That started the alarm bells.
And his requests;
0 (I love that he used zero in an ordinal context)- Send him a tracking number after sending him the items is all well and good, except USPS doesn't track outside of their jurisdiction. Once another country's postal service has it, that's it. That's why we don't even ship to Canada.

1- Sellers are only protected for loss through paypal IF the package is shipped to the address that came with the paypal payment and is registered with paypal.

2- Customs fraud is NEVER a good idea.

2a-Actually, for international shipping, DHL, FedEx and UPS are the best possible choice because they track the entire trip. Hmmm.

3- This isn't the same email address associated with the ebay account.

I did however love his offer of long term business, I wonder if he has a bank account in Nigeria that he wants me to help him cash out.

2010-11-18T23:00:00.003-05:00

From The Onion:

Rare Autographed Portrait Of Jesus Purchased At Estate Sale

November 18, 2010 | ISSUE 46•46

STROUDSBURG, PA—An oil portrait of Jesus Christ bearing what turned out to be a rare autograph of the Son of God was purchased for $65 at an estate sale last weekend, religious relic experts said Tuesday. "Careful examination of the signature's authentic Aramaic cursive loop on the 'J' and 'C,' plus the distinctive early-A.D. touch of underlining the name and adding a couple of jaunty diagonal dashes, confirms that it is indeed genuine," collectibles appraiser Mike Shankman told reporters, describing the signed message that reads "Gary, best of luck!" "These are actually a lot rarer than you'd think. What a great find." As of press time, one Greek Orthodox antiquarian had offered a conflicting appraisal, saying that while the signature was definitely that of Christ, the Savior may have been amusing Himself by autographing a painting of singer/ actor Kris Kristofferson.

The Onion's one of our favorite distractions, they do some of the best news parody ever; my first encounter with it was faxed to the bookstore I worked at back in the late nineties, the headline was "New Cambodian Barnes & Noble", and they actually created an urban legend with their expose on how Harry Potter Books Spark Rise in Satanism Among Children.

2010-11-17T21:56:00.003-05:00

We've started another blog- Two Guys Get Medieval.
Perry's a history buff who's been involved with a medieval re-enactment group in the past; circumstances have kept him from being as active in the last few years, but in the wake of watching Pillars of the Earth among other things, he's become interested again.

He's started collecting supplies to become involved again- material for historical clothing (garb), reference books, and other props. We're finding more than he can use, so we're making it available on ebay.

I'm sort of along for the ride, as my idea of the middle ages is less historically accurate and more...HBO.

In the meantime, Perry's putting up with my learning Russian. Really.
He's already learned the word for apple- яблоко.

2010-11-16T23:21:00.003-05:00

Sometimes we see things that ... just... boggle the mind.
Like this:

A taxidermy bobcat and prey, in this case, a flattened chipmunk on the log to the right.

In what kind of world does this seem like a good idea?

2010-11-15T21:34:00.002-05:00

When we saw this monster of a flower, it looked to me like something left behind at a UFO sighting. It's a trio of calla lillies in aluminum- Arthur Court, from 1991.

If we could have made them work with what we're doing, I wouldn't have parted with it.

2010-11-14T22:34:00.000-05:00

We hit a lot of estate sales, the best ones are in Mid-Century Modern houses.

This weekend we saw one of the coolest ranges we've seen.
The stove top retracts!

It's a Frigidaire Custom Imperial dating from 1959. I always get a kick out of Frigidaire stoves since it's a heating device from a company named "frigid air."The font for the dials is pretty cool.

As well as the clock and timer, which has a flattened Sputnik feel to it.
The oven glass is stenciled with an overlapping circle pattern, designed with a "flair."
We asked the woman running the estate sale if the range was for sale- she said it conveyed with the house. Hopefully who ever buys the house will realize what a gem they've got and not replace it.

2010-11-13T22:14:00.006-05:00

I'm been on hiatus for a week or so.
That's sounds classier than "I've been lazy."

We've been busy. Between workstuff, Perry's been preparing for his next big hobby- canning.
He hasn't actually started canning yet, but he's collecting the canning jars.

On our travels this week, we hit a treasure trove of them at a thrift shop.
That's a third of them.
There's more:
Three waxed seafood boxes with thirty-two jars each PLUS seven in the small box.
He ended the weekend with a hundred and eleven jars.

To go with the three hundred or so he's gotten so far.

Seriously.

I'm looking forward to whatever he's going to be putting in these jars. But in the mean time, they're taking up a lot of space in storage.

2010-11-04T23:25:00.003-04:00

At a distance, it looked like a vintage Holiday Inn sign.
But as we approached, we realized it was a restaurant; luckily it was lunch time.
Sugar -n- Spice used to be a drive in, see the amazing metal awning- now, it's just a sit down style eatery.
Trying to eat healthy on the road is a challenge, and places like this make it worse. Good hamburgers, but they're served with a side of coleslaw. And french fries. AND onion rings.

Fortunately, the walk walk walk at the flea markets helps us burn most of it off.

2010-11-03T23:22:00.001-04:00

No posts for the last couple of days- I've been sleeping off the post-Halloween sugar coma.

We'll be putting some pictures up tomorrow, as well as a real blog post.

Thanks!

Happy Halloween

2010-10-30T23:43:00.005-04:00

I've been accumulating Halloween pictures for a while, meaning to do a special post when I got the chance. Well, tonight's a pretty good night for it.

Now, we all know THE classic Halloween treat is candy corn:
We saw this treat in Cumberland MD, last year.

The majority of these collectibles we photographed north of the Mason-Dixon line, where the Halloween collectibles seem... more important. We don't come across the vintage stuff as much in the southern shops we hit.

This 8mm home print of Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed- from Hammer Studios, distributed by Warner Brothers- is what horror fans had to keep themselves happy in the era prior to vhs,
Here's a couple of Frankenstein collectibles I'd love to add to my collection- except that they're too darn expensive. The Pez dispenser is $300 at an antique mall in Williamsburg, Virginia.

And I found this tumbler I'd been wishin' and hopin' for at Renningers in Pennsylvania back in the fall. The vendor had it for $125, and would have taken $95 for it, but I just couldn't justify a purchase like that.

2010-10-30T23:21:00.002-04:00

We don't "do" Halloween here, we're usually too busy. That and between my Frankenstein collection and my Creature From The Black Lagoon collection, it's always kind of Halloween.

But I do have have this: (click the picture to enlarge)
We picked it up a while back; I'm pretty sure we had something similar to it when I was a kid.

Tomorrow: my BIG Halloween post.

2010-10-29T22:42:00.002-04:00

More Dude Ranch Modern mania.
Today it was a set of curtains, fifties vintage.
Click to enlarge the pictures for better detail.

Again, I wish there was a way I could work them into the scheme of things in the Theoretical House.
But no, that way lies madness - or at least a lifetime pass to Tweetsie Railroad.

2010-10-27T23:33:00.004-04:00

It looks like the color's been washed out doesn't it?
This black and white flamingo statue from the forties captivated one of our customers who collects flamingos.

2010-10-26T23:14:00.003-04:00

Life's been... busy around here, so it's taken me a couple of days to get these pictures up.
First, the Sputnik light fixture.
It's sixteen pronged, made of brass.
And this is the Maitland Smith magazine rack. It's a heavy, sturdy thing that actually makes me want to subscribe to more magazines.

2010-10-24T22:01:00.003-04:00

I've missed the last couple of days, sorry.

Yesterday was wasted running around- we check the listings for estate sales and lately we've been disappointed.

When we actually find estate sales, they're ok.
The problem is that people have started listing yard and garage sales as "estate sales."

And when you've taken a thirty minute drive to an "estate sale" just to find baby clothes and vhs tapes on a card table in the front yard, it's annoying.

HOME!

2010-10-21T22:22:00.003-04:00

We're home. LONG drive back. We kept hitting places until the truck reached critical mass.
This is what critical mass looks like:
The truck, not me.

Close ups of some of the fun stuff will be posted over the next few days, including a vintage mid century modern Sputnik chandelier and a designer wrought iron canterbury/magazine rack.

Before I started doing this, I couldn't imagine a designer magazine rack. Now, thanks to Perry, when he tells me who the company is, I recognize the manufacter's name.
(In this case, it's Maitland Smith.)

Who'd a guessed?

2010-10-20T23:04:00.002-04:00

I really wish I could pick this stuff up.
Except I don't. In my mind, I want industrial, modern.
But there's this little piece of my heart that will always be eight and fascinated with cowboys and Indians. It's that little piece that guides my fixation with Dude Ranch Modern.

So when I saw this fifties vintage lamp, I knew I had to add it to my collection of photos. You know it was some little boy's bedside light, during the Eisenhower era, sitting on the table, keeping away the monsters under the bed, it's warm glow lulling him to sleep, his six shooters capguns in a gunbelt and cowboy hat on the bedpost.

Or maybe I'm over thinking it.

2010-10-19T23:32:00.003-04:00

Insane, madcap day of buying.
In another hotel, this time Country Inn & Suites. MUCH nicer tonight.
Pictures will be up soon- once we're back home.

2010-10-18T23:56:00.002-04:00

We're in North Carolina tonight, in one of those soul crushing hotels that pop-up by off ramps like mushrooms in a cowfield.
Apparently there are some places where smoking rooms still exist and clever hotels charge extra for the non-smoking ones.
At least it has wi-fi and a hot tub.

Pullman Chrome Carafe

2010-10-16T22:15:00.009-04:00

Here's today's score- a chrome carafe with cork mounted stopper.

Not just any chrome carafe though.

It's a Stanley Super Vac Thermos. It's an all steel vacuum bottle- which, if the stories are to believed, is unbreakable, as opposed to Thermos brand vacuum bottles with their glass liners that you have to treat gingerly.

On top of that, it's not just ANY Stanley Super Vac Thermos- it's a carafe from the Pullman Train line.
We've been playing the "how old is it game?". The Pullman company ceased operations in the late 1960's. Perry guestimates from the unblemished shiny finish that it's probably from the 1940's or 1950's....sometime after WWII.

No matter how old it is, there's one almost identical to it in the Smithsonian. Actually, I think ours is in better condition.

I'm going to email the manufacturer-since they're still in business - and ask them on Monday.

In the meantime, this is going on the bedside table with a Howard Johnson's tumbler.

I feel thirsty already.

EDIT: I read the Smithsonian page a little more in depth- theirs dates to 1935. So we're going with that for ours as well. Perry had been thinking about his guestimation and realized that post war it would have probably been made of plastic. Me? All I know is it's shiny.

Music is Always Good, Retro Music Inspired STUFF-Even Better

2010-10-14T14:40:00.008-04:00

We're all about buying and selling *real* antiques when we find something outstanding like 18th century French tables or Italian chandeliers and silver, but just as happy to find cool, retro modern stuff like this great pair of 1960's laminated decorative wall panels with hand colored musical instruments, especially in this condition. I can almost hear Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin singing in the background. At the very least, I want a martini.

And because we (a) have too much stuff and (b) don't use these colors at home, I've listed them for sale on eBay here. (If you're just interested and want to see all our current listings, you can click here.

And yeah, Clay gets credit for spotting these, he looked like the Cheshire cat when he walked up to me holding them.

2010-10-13T22:59:00.002-04:00

More Dude Ranch Modern hotness.
I love barrel shape and the brand designs.
The brown glass with wooden holder seems to be a thing with this sort of glass- it's reminiscent of a set I wrote about in August.

2010-10-12T21:29:00.002-04:00

Perry had to talk me down over selling these- I didn't want to let them go. They're not geographically precise, but have a sweet look.
That's my foot there for scale. Can you see these in a den, perhaps on a paneled wall over a fireplace?

Of course, our walls aren't paneled, nor do we have a fireplace.

2010-10-11T21:56:00.003-04:00

It was a busycrazy weekend.
A grand tour of estate sales in the Tidewater area.
One of the cooler pieces we picked up was this 60's era metal wall decoration:

2010-10-08T22:39:00.003-04:00

I have fun tricking Perry into watching horror films. It's the set details that grab his attention.
Right now, The Devil's Bride is playing on Turner Classic Movies.
During one scene, Perry was happy to point out some Staffordshire dogs on a shelf.
Like these:

Sometimes We Sell, Sometimes We Buy, Sometimes-Both at the Same Place

2010-10-07T19:53:00.003-04:00

We're always buying and selling, I'm sure that Clay is weary of my joke that our business is a revolving door and as long as it keeps spinning, I'm happy.

It's always fun to do both, but I get a special kick out of doing both at the same place. While selling to one of our regular customers earlier this week, we noticed that she had gotten in this wonderful table.

As soon as I started examining it, we were told it originally came from a very high end dealer (well, very very high end, even the high end dealers are scared by her prices), and that the store where we found it had gotten it from one of their customers, the original purchaser at the high end shop, because her new house didn't have room for it.

I knew right away it was French, as soon as I looked at the construction, I could tell it was 18th century. Walnut, with the original drawer and hardware, and original two board top, c.1780-90. Primitive country French pieces like this are pretty hard to find here in the States, and bring huge prices everywhere. And especially hard to find in this condition.

We snapped a photo and showed it to another customer the next morning, who, of course, bought it.

It's not hard to guess what we picked up and delivered today.

2010-10-05T23:52:00.003-04:00

This is a pair of reticulated blanc de Chine lamps with wooden and brass bases. Stylish, and a good size... (click pic to see both)

I asked Perry what "blanc de Chine" meant and he told me "white China."
Well, yeah, I figured THAT much. He gave me a much more detailed explanation, and after my eyes glazed over and a thin string of drool seeped from my mouth, he gave up and told me to look it up in wikipedia. He was pretty much on target, actually.

Cupcakes!

2010-10-03T21:13:00.002-04:00

No post last night- Perry was with his son and I was at Monsterfest, a Monster movie festival held every October in Chesapeake. They have movies all night after panels and discussions during the day. One of the movies last night was the Bela Lugosi/ Lon Chaney Jr Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman.
The talented Lindsey Mays created cupcakes in honor of the event:
Frankenstein...
The Wolfman...

She's also a cloth artist as well, making plush dolls inspired by monster movies- I purchased her Invisible Man at last year's Monsterfest.

2010-10-01T23:44:00.002-04:00

We saw this beautifully creepy statue today in North Carolina.

She was part of a fountain- for some time if the erosion to the top of her head is any indication.
That didn't make her any less attractive- or unusual.

We passed on her, no room in the truck after a whirlwind spree in what was the furniture equivalent of a candy store.

2010-09-30T22:31:00.003-04:00

It rain rain rained all day long- and since we're on the road it was even longer than usual.
We had to take a long detour JUST to get out of Tidewater, since there was a huge back up on 58 because of a tree blowing over. (As I'm writing this, I get a message that there was a tree down in our neighborhood, smashing a car. Glad we're here.)
Hope everyone is safe.

2010-09-28T22:40:00.004-04:00

Selling on ebay is great, but it has its pitfalls.
We had one of those last week.

We'd sold a book- a book about illuminated manuscripts for $7 plus $4 shipping. Shipping covers the postage and a bubble-lined mailer. Usually the combination of mailer and postage actually exceeds, by just a little, the $4.

With the payment there was a note:
Note to seller
Please add Brodart dust jacket cover, wrap book in bubble wrap and ship in small box to protect from bumping in transit. Thanks so much!

I read this message to Perry off my phone- it's a fancy phone that does email- at dinner. He looked up from his meat loaf and asked if I was joking.

I wasn't.
One thing I learn from working retail all those years: Some people say "Please" when they mean "Now."

We don't do the Brodart dust jacket covers- like the ones in the library. It's more of a time issue, but they're not free either. Neither are boxes or bubble wrap. We keep an ample supply of mailers lined with bubblewrap, and our customers are happy.

But we didn't think it would satisfy a customer with such a request, as we told him:

Sorry, I can't offer any of the special services you requested, so I've refunded your purchase so you can find a dealer who can help you. Best wishes, Clay

Full refund. As a matter of fact, we still got charged by ebay for the sale, so he got back all his money and we took a loss.

Clay,
I don't understand. Please explain; do you have the book as described (VG hardcover)? What "special services" are you unable to offer?
I still want to purchase the book. Please explain how you would ship it to me.
Thanks.
NAME REDACTED
PS - Please "cc" your reply to nameredacted@whatsamatta.u
I will be at work today 8 - 4:30 EST

Demand, demand, demand. First, he questions if we have the book or not. The bold and underling? That's from the original. You can almost hear him stamping his feet.
Next, how will we ship it? (Presumably the way he indicated in his first note). Then the "cc". He's got a lot of needs.

So we told him this:

Hi NAME REDACTED,
Your Paypal payment came with instructions that the book needed to be shipped in a Brodart cover, bubble wrapped, in a box.....none of which I can offer you. I ship in bubble wrap padded envelopes via Media Mail only, with no special packing, even if I could offer services like this, I certainly couldn't do it for an $8 book with a $4 shipping charge. At any rate, those special terms were not part of my listing, and hence, not part of the terms of sale.
I do have the book, and have already relisted it, but I prefer not to sell it to you since I feel that i would be unable to offer you the services you require. You may forward this message to whomever you need to forward it to, since I have already refunded the purchase, i consider this issue closed.
I'm sure you can find the book from another vendor that will be able to provide the special services you require.

Me

We relisted the book. We tried to close the transaction on ebay, in an attempt to get the fee refunded. Ebay won't do this unless seller AND buyer agree to it. He refused.
Since we don't think he'd be happy with our customer service no matter what, we've blocked his bidder ID from ever bidding on any of our auctions ever again.

Perry and I both agree: people like him are why we've stopped working for other people and started working for ourselves.

Good-bye, Gloria

2010-09-27T21:20:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite items I've acquired over the last couple years has to be this studio photo of Gloria Stuart.
We've figured it to be from 1938, because it's marked "Columbia Pictures" and, to the best we can tell, the only movie she made for Columbia was The Lady Objects.

I loved her for her work with Frankenstein's James Whale in the Universal features The Old Dark House and The Invisible Man. In The Old Dark House, Whale had her dressed all in white, to better show up against the dark backdrop of the story. He wanted her to look "like a white flame."

Perry wanted me to find a picture of her from Titanic, where she plays the old Rose, but I prefer to remember her this way.

Deocrating is Harder Than It Looks

2010-09-25T22:49:00.004-04:00

We've been spending some time working with a client in the transition from their current 800 sq ft house to their new 4000 sq ft house- helping make design decisions, choose paint colors and wallpaper, and of course, finding additional furniture.

Last week, we spent some time fabric shopping, looking for fabrics to cover many of the items we've found for them.

This is a pretty new experience for me, there are LOTS of choices out there.......

This was after going to Lowe's, where we looked through what seemed to be an endless amount of carpet samples to find appropriate floor covering for one room in the new house.

Perry's in his element on this thing. He helped decorate the client's current house, since then she's married and had a baby and has been happy with it for over seven years. It made sense that she called to ask Perry to help consult on this one too.

I'm learning on the fly. Fortunately, (according to Perry) I've got some taste so I'm picking it up pretty quickly, but it's still a new world to me. Although, I recognized the Dorothy Draper chest we found earlier this week.

Then next thing I have to learn is blogging on the run- the above pictures were taken with my new phone while we were in Richmond and sent directly to the internet. I'm sure I can blog via phone, eventually, but it might be a challenge- I have a VERY small keyboard.

Still, it's all been fun!

2010-09-24T23:59:00.000-04:00

Another chest for our client, this time from Drexel.(click the pic to see the whole thing)

2010-09-22T19:27:00.003-04:00

Awesome Dorothy Draper chest, for our decorating client in Richmond.(click the photo to see the whole thing)

We'll be keeping the gilding, but painting the chest red.

2010-09-21T21:05:00.003-04:00

No post last night- the internet had gone down- again.
Today was a road day- to Richmond and back on a decorating job.
We took these to the client:

Hand blown classical style glass urns. They look great on our client's living room mantle, and they also look good on bookcases flanking the fireplace. Not sure which it'll be til the dust settles.

I'll post "after" pictures when available.

2010-09-19T23:31:00.002-04:00

We opened an internet shop on Bonanzle back in January.
Bonanazle is kind of like a virtual flea market.
We did it mostly as an experiment, to see how it compared to ebay.
As a test, I set up a single item for sale- a box of maps of Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings.
It sold last week.

I think as an experiment, it was a failure.
Bonanzle is nice, but it lacks the critical mass of ebay.
I don't think we be using it again.

2010-09-18T20:47:00.004-04:00

No post last night- sorry. Perry was enjoying a well deserved evening of quiet.
That means I was out of the apartment.
Once a month the Chesapeake Public Library, in Chesapeake, Virginia, has a program called Fantasmo Cult Cinema where they show cult movies on a big screen (comparable to a small movie theater, like the kind they had in malls in the eighties before the OmegaPlexes became de rigeur.)

Last night's double feature was Tales From the Crypt and Vault of Horror- from the early seventies, both based on fifties horror comicbooks.

A pair of cheesy, slightly campy anthology horror movies with... sort of an all star cast.
For England.
In the early seventies.
Like Joan Collins (pre-Dynasty) and Tom Baker (pre-Doctor Who).
The thing that held my attention the most, however, wasn't the acting. Or the scary.
It was the sets.
This is the Vault of the title- five men take an elevator down and it doesn't stop at the ground floor; it goes all the way to the sub-basement. The door opens and the enter the room, like something out of a private club. The door shuts, sealing them in.
To pass the time, the tell stories about nightmares they've had.
One of them has nightmares about his home and his wife.
Note the chrome fireplace and the tufted leather chairs.
She's slightly messy and he's pathologically neat, to the degree that there's a sense of menace when his order is disrupted. See the magazine on the arm of the chair? That would make him quite cross.
Things go quite wrong when she places her drinking glass on the table, leaving a ring. That starts a cascade of events where she has to get everything back to normal before he gets home from work- at six o'clock.
Suspense is built by this gilt wood sunburst clock:

It was like that the entire movie- seventies stylistic goodness.
Which was annoying because I went for the horror but stayed for the design.

2010-09-16T23:05:00.002-04:00

Perry was looking at who links to us at the site of the same name and he learned something awesome: we'd been linked to by Antiques Magazine.
Back on September 30 last year, we were one of their Recommended this Week items.
Pretty cool, considering at the time we'd been around for less than two months.

2010-09-15T23:37:00.002-04:00

Italian Staffordshire Dogs.
Crazy ol' word, innit?

Clay Doesn't Find ALL the Cool Modern Stuff

2010-09-14T20:03:00.005-04:00

While I'm scurrying around looking for Louis XV this or English mahogany that for customers we sell too, Clay follows his own design sense and scores lots of cool mid century modern stuff. Seriously, the guy has a great eye, and doesn't even realize it.

But today it was my turn.

While he was perusing the book shelves at a Salvation Army store in Richmond, VA today, I was picking through the usual assortment of stuff on the shelves and found this great 1960's Seth Thomas gilt finished stylized sunburst clock.

It looks like someone has replaced the works with a new battery operated mechanism, so I'll give it a whirl and see if it keeps time, if not, it's easy enough to get another mechanism at a craft store or maybe even take the clock face out of the center and replace it with mirror. What I like best about this is the unusual smaller size, about 2/3 the size these normally are, which will give me the chance to hang it more places.

Oh yeah, this is a keeper. Especially since it was $4.98 plus tax. I love a bargain like anyone else!

English Oak Tilt Top Table

2010-09-13T20:24:00.003-04:00

We've been busy with all our normal shopping and selling, both to other dealers and on eBay, but also finding items for our most recent decorating client.

One of the things we really need for them is tables, they're moving from a small house to a much larger one, so we were happy to find this today.

A late 19th, early 20th century bench made English oak tripod tilt top table in a great size, small enough to go next to a bed or sofa, large enough to pull up some chairs and have a small meal or play a game.

The lines of this are great, and the quality of the work and finish suggest that it's a period table at first glance, best of all, it's got the look without having to pay the price.....perfect for a young family with a small child and two dogs so they can use it without worrying over it. I normally shy away from tables this style, mainly because the older ones are either too fragile or too expensive, and the mid 20th century American ones are all the same dark mahogany color and mediocre quality, so I think we got lucky!

Best of all, to me, is this is something they can own for a lifetime....even if they ever switch houses, this could be used so many places and for so many purposes, there wouldn't be a reason not to keep it.

Thanks for reading!

2010-09-11T23:53:00.003-04:00

We spotted this nifty vintage 1940's toaster lurking in the garage at an estate sale today.

And Perry was just giddy happy and thinking we're going to take it home and make toast and potentially hazardous vintage wiring be damned.

Until we realized it was missing the crumb panel on the bottom. The idea of *actually* burning down the house was not so appealing after all.

I guess we'll just have to be with the old boring Black and Decker.

2010-09-10T23:18:00.003-04:00

We picked up these Satsuma Foo dogs at an estate sale today.
They're about nine inches tall, and as beautifully ugly in person as they are in the picture.

2010-09-09T22:53:00.003-04:00

1960s Mottahedeh ginger jars in traditional Asian export form with modern pattern in citrus yellow.
We've already found them a good home.

Back in a Retro Mood

2010-09-08T23:57:00.000-04:00

We've been busy with our usual buying and selling, including listing lots of stuff, mostly books on our eBay page, but did find this great American of Martinsville credenza today from the early 1960's. It's perfect for the client this is going to since she wants to paint one anyway and this one has a head start, I've always liked the quality of their case goods and remember how impressed I was when I toured their factory in the early 1980's in my previous life as a furniture store buyer. It's no surprise to me to find their vintage items now selling for high end prices on the internet luxury design site 1stdibs.com., even fifty years later the doors and drawers on this work like new-always a sign of good construction.

I don't know exactly where we'll use it on the job we're doing, but the client has a mix of period furniture and retro modern stuff already(think 18th c American inlaid mahogany AND a Knoll Tulip table) and this will work really well in her house. Plus, it's the perfect size to go anywhere, always a good thing.

We're headed out of town some time later this week for a road trip, we'll keep everyone posted about what we find!

Thanks for reading.

2010-09-07T22:34:00.002-04:00

We picked up this piece of Murano glass recently.
Perry estimates it is from the fifties. You can't tell from the picture, but it's about twelve inches across.
I'm learning to really appreciate Italian design.

Monkey Business!

2010-09-06T23:34:00.002-04:00

This weekend we picked up this Italian ceramic wall pocket from the sixties.

Perry nearly missed it in a shop we've visited before; I only noticed it because it's a monkey. Who don't love a monkey?

Not Chrome

2010-09-03T21:22:00.008-04:00

Yeah, I'm still around, although Clay has been capably doing ~~most~~ all of the blogging lately while I've been working on other projects.

We managed to avoid the wrath of Hurricane Earl, although we had spent the night in Williamsburg an hour away just in case it decided to come ashore unexpectedly, and while we were there today, we found this great painted Louis XV style maple chest with original polychrome decoration in a pastoral style (and in remarkable condition!), it had been a wedding gift from high end, now defunct, New York department store B. Altman around 1915.

Detail of the painted polychrome detail on the front of the chest.

Because I don't want everyone to think all we've been finding is chrome. And chrome. We like chrome, but we like other stuff too.

This is already sold to a decorating client in Richmond-a young family moving into their beautiful "new to them as a couple" house with their toddler son, so it will have a great new home.

I like that.

2010-09-02T23:17:00.003-04:00

We're in Williamsburg tonight, having gotten out of town for Earl- to Perry's son's house.
The plan is IF Earl gets nasty, we throw him (Perry's son, not Earl) in the car and we hightail it out of town to... West Virginia or Pennsylvania or someplace where we can shop without the annoying threat of rain and hurricane force winds.

So that's why I'm being lazy about blogging tonight.
I figure Earl will pass by without too much fuss and we'll be back in Norfolk tomorrow- just in time to prep for Saturday's Flea Market in Portsmouth.

2010-09-02T00:35:00.002-04:00

We picked up this lovely chrome shaker the other day. Perry figures it's 30's vintage, based on the red Bakelite handle. Maybe we'll find it a home- maybe we'll keep it...
The red Bakelite handle:

Detail of the grape vine decoration:

All I know is just looking at it makes me want a martini.
Like the kind they used to make at the Stork Club: (my maternal grandmother, my grandfather, and her brother-in-law in the picture)

Look-The Shiny!

2010-08-31T23:29:00.004-04:00

It's been chrome-tastic lately.

First, we found this pair of rectilinear chrome tube club chairs-
Made by high end contemporary manufacturer Thayer Coggin. There's a single one on 1st dibs listed as "contact dealer" in the price column- that's "antique dealer" for "if I make you ask, you have just told me you'll spend a lot for the item and I can charge more" (otherwise, honestly, why wouldn't they just list the price???). This pair is covered in the original dual color tweed, while the one on 1stdibs is newly upholstered in leather. Another pair of the same chairs recovered in leather were on the 1stdibs site last week when we found these, priced at $6800 for the pair, but they were sold and that picture isn't up anymore to link to.

Saturday we found this beautiful 1970's bentwood form chrome rocking chair:

Compare that to this chair on 1stdibs for $1,800.
Yeah, pretty sweet. Again, the same chair, the 1st dibs one is recovered in gray leather and priced at $1800. I admired that this dealer said "manufacturer unknown" instead of making up an attribution (and oh yeah, that happens a lot......).

Of course, the best news for us is that we bought them, ours are already sold, and we're ready to move on and find more cool stuff!

2010-08-30T23:58:00.002-04:00

I spoke too soon last night- I don't have the pictures ready.
We spent tonight packing shipments from ebay... and belatedly celebrating my anniversary in the antique business.
And by celebrating, I mean putting books in bubblewrap mailers.
In my pajamas, of course.

2010-08-29T23:02:00.002-04:00

We're exhausted. It's been a long day involving Chrome.
There'll be pictures tomorrow.

Thanks.

In the meantime, here's some culture:

2010-08-28T23:13:00.003-04:00

Occasionally we encounter a book that catches our attention at the store a little more than other books- something about it just says "special."

Today that book was Periplus. It was a project by the photographers of Magnum Photos for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
An example of the work can be seen here (I'm linking rather than embedding to avoid copyright kerfluffles).
The thing about this book is that neither Perry nor I could find any copy ANYWHERE.
Now, there's one on ebay.

2010-08-27T22:46:00.002-04:00

Done.
All hundred books are listed.
Several lots as well as individual listings.

Perry wanted to know if he could buy another hundred books.

2010-08-26T23:35:00.004-04:00

Still working on the books we picked up the other day.
Tonight, it's the Ace Doubles- two books in one. There is no back cover- just two front covers.

This isn't two sets of books- it's twenty-one different doubles.
Several of them have cover art by noted fantasy artist Kelly Freas.
And yes, we've put them on ebay- we've already had sales on the DAW books I wrote about Tuesday.

2010-08-25T22:43:00.003-04:00

It's not enough to just buy, buy, buy all the time.
Otherwise you run out of room.
So you've got to sell, sell, sell.
And when you do that- you've got to ship, ship, ship.

That was what we did today.
Bubblewrap mailers and packing tape are our friends.

Check out our ebay listings.

Books!

2010-08-24T23:03:00.004-04:00

We bought a hundred books yesterday.
100.
That's not an approximation. I haven't rounded numbers.
When we put the books on the counter, we did them in stacks of ten.
Ten of them.

That's why no post yesterday.
We had to look them up, checking prices.
Most of them are from a publisher called DAW, famous for their yellow spines.

Such fun.
Of course they're going on eBay.

Because Grace and Elegance Never Go Out of Fashion...

2010-08-22T22:47:00.002-04:00

We're... zombies.
It's been a crazy weekend.
So here's a clip of Jackie Kennedy, giving a tour of the White House for CBS.
Back when things were simple...