A Few of the Auction Finds

I promised a look at what we found at the auction. The dust has settled from the sorting and tossing operation that follows every auction that offers box lots, and the best things saved. The next step is more decision-making: what to keep for our home, what to send to which booth, and what goes on eBay. The booth things are already in the booth for the most part, so here's a look at what's going on eBay when I have time to list it.

 When I was a child these were my favorite books.A set of eight volumes, I believe, they contained stories of mystery, of fairies and castles and mermaids and monsters and more. I loved them. We all read them until the books disintegrated from so much love. They had belonged to our father as a boy so you know they were old. I've been collecting the different volumes and now have all but two. I also ended up with several duplicates! At the auction they had three of the books as one lot, and one of them was one I didn't have so I bought the lot. Now the extras, along with two other duplicates I had, are in my booth for sale. They are such treasures with their period illustrations and jackets. Some of mine are the old originals, others are later reprints but all have the same wonderful stories.

Another good auction find was two Hall teapots in the currently popular Red Poppy pattern. These will be on eBay. I like them, and I love teapots in general, but this particular pattern is not really a favorite of mine for some reason. Guess I'm just out of style.

 This teapot is in Hall's "New York" shape, which I do like. The things you learn when you look these things up.

I knew this was on old pitcher when I saw Near Cut embossed in the inside bottom glass. Made around 1900, this pattern is called inverted thistle because the design actually is indented into the glass. It was made by the Cambridge Glass Company. The gold on this one is in really good condition considering its age.

 Another EAPG (Early American Pattern Glass) cream pitcher in the pattern called Classic Medallion. It's difficult to see but there is a woman's face in the medallion on the side, which give the pattern its other name, cameo. This one was made about 1870 and is in near perfect condition.

A cute creamer was hidden in the depths of a box lot and turned out to be a mail-away item given away by Post Cereal in the 1930's-1940's era/ 

The embossed words are readable from the inside of the creamer.

This stuff actually came from last week's auction; I still haven't got it put away. The lamp is called a piano lamp and is brass with a marble base. It adjusts in several places. I liked the harp-shaped part! The thermometer is a cute reproduction and the heart box is actually a cedar sewing box.

Here's a photo of an unsorted box lot, and a good example of what can be found in these random assortments: a small cookie tin, some rose stalk protectors, a blower of some kind, a new glue gun with extra glue, barbecue tools and a grill cleaner, and 6 GlasBake honey pots or bean pots. The cute little glass pastel pots originally came with cottage cheese, I believe, and had plastic tops. They were made in the early 1950's. This is a complete set, as far as I can tell, of all the colors made. If they had had the lids, their value would be higher but even as they are they were a nice find. Also in this lot but not pictured was another 2 boxes; in those I found a crystal bowl by Jeannette in the Windsor Diamond pattern, a lovely wool granny squares afghan, 3 brand new Christmas table runners, and a whole bunch of nice, handmade teddy bears and dolls. Most of the dolls and the Christmas items will go back to a consignment auction.

I was pretty surprised to get these two cookie jars for next to nothing. While the apple jar is nothing special, the yellow crock jar is a real find. After some research I identified it as a Red Wing Pottery jar made in Minnesota in the 1920's.

They also came with a wood butter paddle. A better paddle was used to work the buttermilk out of the butter after churning. The butter had to be washed too, to be sure all the buttermilk was out of the butter would turn sour. So a bowl would be filled with cold water and the butter dumped in and worked until no more trace of white milk came out of the butter. Then the water was drained off, and the butter worked again until all the water was also gone. You could do some of this with your hands, but of course your hands are warm and that could soften the butter so it was better to use the paddle. After the butter was washed and clean, it was put into a butter mold or press to form it into a round or rectangular shape, and in that process usually any remaining water was squeezed out.

So there you have it: an assortment of information as random and varied as the box lots themselves!

Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.