Auction Aftermath, and Finds

After storytelling and sightseeing on Thursday, we still had time to visit the auction. It's probably a good thing that a) we didn't get there earlier, and b) we were in my car, because we filled the car to the roof in the short time we were there.

As usual, I got everything sorted and mostly packed away before I thought about taking pictures, but here are a few of what it looked like afterwards:

First, the rejects, otherwise known as heading to a consignment auction:

There are usually quite a few items included in box lots that we did not want, all mixed in with the things we did want. So once we get it all home, it's time to sort and decide what's a keeper and what's not. This trip resulted in eight or nine boxes of things we can't use, so these will be sent to another auction.

The carload ended up sorted and priced into 4 large totes, plus one metal cabinet not pictured that I will need to repaint, a dozen wood birdhouses that Larry is working on, and three boxes of tools and hardware also not pictured. 

A few of our finds will remain at our house--some things I just buy for me, you know? Like this amberina bird by Viking:

And some are chipped and not worth selling, but I like them well enough to give them a home here. After all, it doesn't seem to take long for my hubby to chip almost any dish he gets his hands on--he forgets that our cast iron-porcelain sink and tile coutertops are pretty unforgiving. But this little bird box and the two plates in the following photo are just so pretty a little chip or two doesn't diminish them in my eyes:

A few other recent finds:

The amber candlesticks (probably Cambridge glass) prompted me to turn the table from crystal to amber for a few days.

This lovely dresser was painted a dark brown enamel; under that was silver and then black paint. Larry stripped and stained it and I just love it. We're using it in the house while he refinishes the dresser that was mine when I was a child. I'm not sure I want to part with this one, though!

Red alarm in the kitchen! My 30's red kitchen items seem to be multiplying! I found the little teapot last year in Virginia and had it for sale for a while, but decided to bring it home. The red pitcher was a find on one of those Facebook buy-sell-trade sites, and the shakers came from various places. The cookie jar I've had since I was 18; it belonged to my first husband's great-aunt and I bought it at the estate sale when she passed away. It still makes me smile to think of her, that fiesty little lady who lived in her own home and kept a boarder until she passed away at 97.

I think I am finally caught up from last week's activities, except for the garden things that are going on and the work that has started again on our cabin room. More on those later this week. 

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

Vintage Thursday: Booth Pics at Antique Mall of Marietta, OH, and a New Booth

It's been a while since I posted photos of our Marietta booth, so here's a quick look:

I added a lot of Pyrex and mid-century kitchen things here. They seem to be good sellers in this location.

New additions: the Cavalier cedar chest, handmade quilts and a small maple bookshelf.

It is funny what will be in the booth for quite a while, then suddenly sell. We had a large green bench here, and a coal scuttle; both had been in the booth for months and both sold at the same time.

Recent additions in this area: the "Gone with the Wind" style lamp, pitcher and bowl set and the old brass fire extinguisher.

Top of the cabinet focuses on retro kitchen items. The rolling pins started selling again when I put them in this rack. The old cabinet needs to come home with us sometime and get a redo but we haven't had time to do that yet. I thought someone might buy it as-is to fix up; think again.

Looking down the aisle along one of my areas.

 Some additions here include the tall handpainted pitcher, the McKenna whiskey jug, and the blue pottery kitchenware that some people believe were made by Cameron West Virginia Clay Products and others claim they were made by Cronin Pottery in Ohio. Also new here are the Belleek Irish teapot and the brown clay teapot.

Yesterday evening we drove over to Athens, Ohio to check out a new antique mall that will be opening at the end of the month. We liked the look of the building and its location, so we rented a booth there! We need the space, believe it or not; with both of our locations full to overflowing we still have sheds full of things to be sold so we are glad to have one more outlet for selling. We will start moving in next week, and I'll post photos of the process (if I can remember! I can be so bad about forgetting to take pictures!).


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

Vintage Thursday: Imperfect but Beautiful

Regular readers know of my love affair with glass. I have far more of it than any one woman needs, and yet I cannot resist buying it when I see a bargain, or a glass bird, or almost anything in red glass. Fortunately, my booths give me an outlet to sell some pieces when I get overly enthusiastic, but still, a lot of glass ends up living in my house.

I blame this passion entirely on my mother. My mother had windows lined with little glass pitchers, mostly crackle glass, in every color of the rainbow and almost every shape that a pitcher might come in. Many of these pieces were West Virginia glass, although I did not know that when I was a child staring at the kaleidoscope of colors cascading onto the floor when the sun shone through the pretty glass. I just loved the colors and sparkle; that was enough for me.

I have not changed much over the years. There were times when I was into pottery, it is true, and I still like handmade pottery pieces. But my real love is glass, with 30's and 40's kitchenware a close second.

Here are a few pics of a recent glass arrangement in my house:

 These were taken in our log room, the old one, not the one we're currently working on:

 The table belonged to my parents, and it was where all 13 of us children gathered for meals. It's been beat and battered, but it has 4 leaves and can extend to about 12 feet long. The square pedestal dishes can be stacked and they make a lovely display for fruit, cookies, or flowers. They're by L.E. Smith and came from the Marietta Antique Mall--a real bargain. Sometimes bargains can be found in antique stores.

The ruby pitcher was an eBay find. Sometimes things sell cheap on there for no real reason, and this time I was the lucky bidder.

This ruby bowl came from the Riverbend Antique Mall where I have my other booth. It is quite large, but it has a couple chips in the rim. That doesn't bother me; I just love its shape and color. This was made by Anchor Hocking in the 40's, and is the pattern called Oyster and Pearl, I believe. For $5.00 I was happy to give it a home.

This jar is older than it looks. It's Early American Pattern Glass, and I forget the maker and pattern name, but it is heavy and sparkles just beautifully. It was in an auction box and I was so sad to find it had a large crack in it. But I've kept it anyway, just because I enjoy its shape and sparkle.

Another L.E. Smith piece, I found this at another antique mall in Richard Westfall's booth. Yellow glass is another of my favorites, and this tall beauty fits so well in my house. The tall piece behind it came from a flea market and I think it is quite old, but there is no marking or anything that will help me discover its maker. The rose bowl in front is a real sparkler in the sun, and was in another auction box lot. Sometimes $2 can buy the neatest treasures. The double-handled biscuit jar belonged to my mother, and I have always loved it. It too has a large crack in it and is very fragile, but the sun shining through its pattern is so pretty-and when it falls apart, I'll probably glue it back together and keep it anyway.

Not glass! But I do like this little silver teapot with its crooked finial.

This is a look under the table at its massive legs. (The Victorians would be shocked!) It was a banquet table and is 5 feet square without any leaves in it. I believe it is mahogany. It's scratched, dented and dinged but it holds many memories for me, and is quite at home in our log room.

So there you have my scratch-and-dent collection for today. Perfection is nice and certainly carries more dollar value when sold, but the chipped, cracked, dented and scratched have their own value perhaps not in dollars but in beauty and memories. After all, which of us can say we're perfect? I know my hand is not raised!

Linking today to Colorado Lady's Vintage Thingies Thursday, Open House Party, The Thrifty Groove, Home-Sweet-Home, and Treasure Hunt Thursday.

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

The Story of a Toothpick Holder

It was nestled in a box with many of its kind--ruby button, blue hobnail, a luscious pink, a pristine milk glass. I thought it looked interesting with its swirling colors of purple and white. As the auctioneer began calling for bids I decided to jump in. I was sure the pink one would sell on eBay, and I knew that slag glass, the name for the opaque swirled colors sometimes found in art glass, was also popular with collectors. And who doesn't like ruby red?

I almost dropped out as the bidding zoomed quickly to ten dollars, but I raised my hand one more time and the box of brightly colored glass was mine.

"I paid too much for it," I muttered to my husband. 

"You'll do all right with it," he said.

"Well, I figure I'll at least get my money back," I replied.

The box got shoved on a shelf and waited until I had time to get around to it. This week it was time. I pulled the box out and began taking pictures so I could list the best of the lot on eBay. I noticed a piece of dark yellow paper sticking out of the swirled one, and pulled it out.

"Congratulations," it read. "You're in the gold business." Really? How could that be? This was glass, not gold. I read on, and the rest of the story fascinate me enough to send me online looking for more information. Here is the story I found, one straight from tales of lost treasure, schemes of riches, and western ingenuity.

At the turn of the 20th century, Colorado was home to a gold rush of sorts. There were mines, particularly in the Cripple Creek region, that were producing enough ore to attract big-time players. The problem was that this gold, probably unlike the nuggets found in streams and rivers, was embedded in the rocks in which the veins were found. Various methods were tried to free the gold from the other minerals, most without success. Several large gold mills, as they were called, were built to process the ore using different techniques. None was very successful until the Golden Cycle Mill was built. The plant had another advantage over the other mills--it had better railroads running into the hills to transport the ore to be processed.

Golden Cycle eventually bought out or drove the other plants out and became the largest processor of gold ore in the region. At one time it employed over 1000 workers, but then World War II came along and took most of the work force. The mill closed down during the war and tried to re-open when the war was over, but only 300 workers returned. Labor issues arose, there were strikes and finally the mill shut down for good in the 1950's. 

That sounds like the end of the story, doesn't it? But the thing was, there was thousands, and some thought millions, of dollars worth of gold left in the old tailings dump, gold that could not be removed by the old processes. However time had brought along improvements in the extraction process and there were some who thought they could make their fortunes from the old dump. Funds were raised, the town of Colorado Springs got behind the project, and in the mid-1970's the Gold Hill Recycle Project was born.

What does this have to do with a little toothpick holder found at a West Virginia auction, you might wonder. The project was a far-reaching one--it intended to not only recover the gold from the dump, but also to develop a tourist attraction at the site of the old mill. Artisans were recruited to come to a crafts center and make things from the mill leavings. There was a lot of sand in that pile, and that sand, they found, could be made into glass. The selling point was to be that each piece of glass was to be crafted with sand that contained a certain percentage of gold dust. Indeed, the tag on my toothpick holder went on to say that it had been crafted from the gold-bearing sands of the old Golden Cycle Mill.

Two of the artisans who worked at Gold Hill Recycle, I've been told, were Don Jones and Joe Hamon. Don and Joe were good friends and both used the same mark on the bottom of their glass made at Gold Hill Recycle, according to one of my source- the letters GHM under what looks like a mine entrance. Joe Hamon was raised on Oklahoma and later moved to Colorado, where he owned and operated his own glass studio. He was one of the glassmakers for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian so if you bought pieces at either of these places, you may own a bit of Joe Hamon's work.

I have not yet discovered when (or even if) he worked at GHM, but I did learn that he was the son of O.C. Hamon, and according to this website: "The Hamon family has a number of paperweight artists in its lineage. The more prolific branch when it comes to paperweights was the West Virginia bunch, most notably Robert Hamon. Robert’s uncle O. C. Hamon of Fort Smith, Arkansas was the first Hamon to get involved with glass. O. C. began working with glass in 1916 and spent his career at various glass companies, including his own. O.C.’s son Joe was raised in the glass business and started his own company in Durango, Colorado in 1964. Joe retired in 2000 and passed away a few years later." 

Robert Hamon, I learned, was one of West Virginia's most respected glassmakers, and his work truly is amazing. You can see samples of it on this website. His studio was located in Scott Depot, WV, not far far from where I live, but he passed away, unfortunately, in 2003. 

About Don Jones, the internet is remarkably quiet. I found one glass artist of that name, living in Florida. Is it the same man, doubtful since he would be quite elderly by now, or is it one of his offspring? The end of this story has yet to be written. Some of what I've written here is sketchy, based on messages to me from buyers on eBay. These toothpick holders are quite collectible these days, it seems. 

I knew only a little of all this when I listed the little beauty on eBay. As I went to bed, though, I thought perhaps I should just keep this interesting link to history. But when I opened my eBay account in the morning, I found it was already sold. So it is on its way to its next step in the world, to Oklahoma where some of the Hamon family once lived. It seems a fitting place for it, don't you think? I made a copy of the worn tag before I mailed it, though, and maybe one day I will stumble on another piece of Hamon glass.

And then, it seems that perhaps the Hamon Glass Studio may still be in operation in Scott Depot, at least according to Yahoo! Travel.

About Don Jones I have come up dry. Should you know anything about him, or about any of this story, I'd love to hear it. And I'd also be happy to hear any corrections to the information I've included in this story, as I seem to have followed some winding trails to this story. 

You can see a slide show with more information about the Golden Cycle Mill, and about the subdivision that now rests on what could potentially be millions of dollars in gold, at this website. Oh, and if you search eBay for Hamon glass, you will find that are actually a few reasonably priced pieces available for bidding. Just in case you've become as fascinated with this story as I am!

Linking today to A Vintage Green, Treasure Hunt Thursday, Show and Tell Friday and Open House Party. Have fun visiting these great sites to see what's going on in the world of country living, vintage, crafts, and cooking. All good things!

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

Vintage Thursday: Back to the Paint Job, and Banana Bread

I know, what a combination, right? I had to wait for the paint to dry so I decided to make banana bread while I wait. The black shelf is almost finished but the little cradle is done--because I decided to leave well enough alone.

After painting it pink, I thought I would dry-brush it with white and then do a little sanding and antiquing to make it look older. But then I thought I'd like to see it with the blankies in it. And you know, I like it just fine as it is so I'm finished. I think. What do you think? Should I do more with it?

I wanted a rough primitive finish for the shelf--you know, something that might have been on the farmhouse back porch, or perhaps in the cellar piled up with canning jars. That kind of look. I think I have something close. I am learning as I go and this time learned one thing that didn't work: Elmer's glue for a crackle medium. According to one site, the glue is supposed to produce awesome crackle effects. I'm sure she's right, and I probably did something wrong because I tried it on the top, and no crackle. I decided to back away from that idea for now and do some experimenting before taking on anything as big as this shelf with the glue.

So I moved to the next idea: using Vaseline to distress the paint. I rubbed it on places where I didn't want the white paint to stick and then painted. I used something very close to a dry brush technique to give the paint that old, weathered look I was seeking. You can see the places I applied the Vaseline.

Then I sanded it, and that removed the paint that was over the Vaseline. I think it worked pretty well and gave me something close to what I was looking for.

Next time, I will use either a blue or gray undercoat; I used flat black on this and I like the finished result all right but think the blue or gray might have been even better. Or green. Next time! All that was left to do to this shelf was wax it, so I did that and added a few things from around the kitchen to see how it would look on display. I think I like it.

My banana bread recipe card is probably 40-45 years old. I remember writing it down when I was first learning to cook as a young bride, and it was one of my first successful baking efforts.

Over the years I made it so often that I didn't need the card--that was in the days when my sons were all little boys with huge appetites. Now I make it so seldom that I need the card. With bananas the price they are today, I only make it when I luck into some on the markdown shelf. The recipe works as well today as it did when I was first trying to find my way in a kitchen.

Banana Bread

1 cup mashed bananas (takes about 3 medium bananas)
2 1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 tablespoons cooking oil
3/4 cup milk
(add nuts if desired--maybe a 1/4 cup? I added pecans today because I had some that needed to be used up)

Put all ingredients in a bowl and beat until well blended (about50 quick strokes) with a fork. Pour into a greased loaf pan (9x4) and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Cool slightly on a baking rack, then turn out of pan and place on the rack to continue cooling. Wait til it cools down to warm before slicing. Good, good, good! You can also bake the batter into greased muffin tins for banana muffins. The cooking time would be much less, probably 20 minutes or so.

Yum! And a nice reward after all that sanding, painting and waxing.

Linking today to A Vintage Green, Colorado Lady, Coastal Charm, Open House Party and Rurality Blog Hop. Have fun visiting these great sites to see what's going on in the world of country living, vintage, crafts, and cooking. All good things!

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

Vintage Thursday: What Not to Buy

The other day I mentioned sorting things for the consignment auction--things that we got in box lots and didn't want, and things I should never have bought in the first place. Here's the rest of the story, although these things, for the most part, turned out to not be mistakes.

First, this pretty set of Culver shot glasses in a carrying rack is pretty, isn't it? I thought so and bought it even though one of the glasses was missing. I figured it would be simple enough to find a replacement and  knew Culver is hot right now (did you know that? It is.) This is the Valencia pattern, gold with little touches of green in the diamond shapes. 

Finding the replacement glass was NOT simple. I looked on eBay for months, checked local shops, etsy, Google...no luck, except for one glass on Replacements.com. Now if you've ever been on the Replacements website you know their prices aren't cheap. And rightly so--their service is to provide that missing, hard-to-find replacement for the tea cup that was part of your great-grandmother's tea set and a prized family heirloom. I finally gave in, and with shipping, paid $23 for the shot glass. A shot glass! But now the set (that I'd bought for $5) was complete. Whoopie, right?

The story has a happy ending, however. I listed the set on eBay and it sold in less than 12 hours for $65.00. In this case, buying the incomplete set worked out in my favor, but that doesn't always happen. Lesson to self, think first buy later.

Then there is this gorgeous jar. Made around 1906, it still looked new and gorgeous in the auction box lot. It was full of stuck-together red candies and jammed into the box with some other pretty nice items. I checked the lid to be sure it wasn't cracked or the rim chipped (so often the case with glass jars) and all looked good. I won the bid and was thrilled to get this beauty along with another lovely cranberry-flashed, etched and footed jar and some other oddments.

But...

When I got it home and got the candy out, look what I discovered:

Yeah, a great big enormous crack going almost halfway around the jar. There's no fix for that. I was so sad. What did I do with the jar? You see it, in the first photo--it's on my end table where I can admire its sparkle (it really does sparkle beautifully) and remind myself to check more carefully before bidding. I will come out alright on this if and when the cranberry jar sells, so please go to eBay and buy it. Just kidding. Not really. Right.

So, on to the next "what was I thinking" item:

Punch bowls are so hard to sell. Everyone pretty much has one and who needs two? In my defense, I didn't really buy this one; it was added to another box lot I was buying. That lot has actually been a treasure trove as I continue to sell from the huge amount of good stuff the auctioneer threw into the mix. Two punch bowl sets were part of the additions. This one, in the Wexford pattern by Anchor Hocking, was made in the 50's-60's. It's huge and has a dozen cups with it. What it was missing was the base. (The other set went back to the auction.)

Now it would be perfectly useful without the base stand, but would it sell? Maybe, but probably for about half of what it might fetch with the stand. Once again I was on the hunt. I looked. And looked. And looked. And finally found one on eBay, that source of all strange and wonderful things. I paid $20 including shipping for just the base. Gulp. 

 But with the stand under it, look how gorgeous this is! Will I get my $20 back? I hope so. Where will I sell it? That's the next question. eBay is a possibility but shipping would be pretty high on this big set. In my booth, it might sell quickly, or eventually--there's no way to predict since there's no time limits like on eBay. So right now it's still here at the house as I ponder what to do with it, and where to store it! I am glad I bought the base, whatever I decide to do with it, because I just like things to be complete. I know, crazy but there it is. Maybe I should have just put it back in a box and sent back to the consignment auction, but I liked it too much. Maybe someone else will like it too.

I have this thing for buying single glasses because I know the pattern is collectible or I recognize it as something old. But the amount of effort in selling one glass is the same as selling a whole set of glasses, and the profit is a lot less. So why do I keep doing it? I ask myself that every time I come home from the thrift stores with yet another glass. This one, in the Capri Dot color and pattern by Hazel Atlas, is one of those "hot" patterns these days. Every piece I get sells quickly on eBay so naturally when I see I, I head right for it. But one juice glass? Why bother? Someone please whisper in my ear next time you see me with a single glass in my hand that is not full of wine or juice!

There are times when buying a single glass is worth the effort. Peanut butter glasses and others with the fired-on flowers, words, etc from the 50's and 60's are very popular  these days and people hunt for the ones they need to complete a collection. Other glassware such as crystal wineglasses might also be worth the effort but in the long run, buying sets is a better bet.

What other things should be on the do-not-buy list?

1. Stained or damaged linens. Unless you are an expert at repair and at removing stains, don't bother. They won't sell and you'll have a lot of effort in trying to clean them up. There can be big rewards for the person who is willing to tackle a stained vintage cloth and is able to restore it to perfection, but if you're not willing to do the work, leave them alone. I have a basket full of such items. I guess I have a learning curve ahead of me as I try to make these sale-able. There is an excellent website that gives many hints for removing stains called Vintage Tablecloth Club and I expect to be a regular visitor there when the weather warms and I can hang out laundry again.  Thrift stores and flea marketers might be able to sell these because their prices are generally lower than an antique mall or store, and buyers in such places are looking for bargains--at least I do! But for the person selling antique and vintage items in a mall or on eBay and looking for more than a dollar or two, stained and damaged linens are best left alone. I'll have a hard time remembering that next time I see a vintage tablecloth with just one little hole and an odd brown stain that I will convince myself I can remove.

2. Chipped, cracked, broken glassware and pottery. There are exceptions, but for the most part, people are looking for perfect pieces for their collections or for decorating purposes. The pretty vase or bowl may sell, but it will be worth much less than a perfect piece. Do I buy such items? Why yes I do--for my own use because I don't really care if a mixing bowl has a little chip in it. Around here, with my hubby doing dishes, it's going to get one sooner or later, guaranteed. But for reselling purposes, I have learned the hard way to stay away, no matter how pretty the item is. 

The exceptions: old crocks and bowls with a primitive look to them will still sell, chipped or even cracked. Perhaps not for the best price but they do sell. Early American pattern glass (EAPG), like the piece pictured below, might also sell with a few defects because of its rarity and age. The celery vase below is in a pattern called Grasshopper. It's rare. This one was in a box lot at last week's auction. I'd bought the spooner that matched it (in perfect condition too) and was happy to have this vase until I saw that one of the grasshoppers on the side was missing its lower wings. That reduced that value of this piece from $85 or more to $15, if that.

That's just a little bit of what I've learned--and I haven't even addressed furniture, books, tools, and so many other collectables. The pitfalls are many, the errors are too, but what an interesting adventure I have stumbled into.

Just don't let me stumble into any more single glasses, missing pieces, or stained linens!

Linking today to Colorado Lady, From my Front Porch to Yours, and Open House Party. Stop by and see what they've been up to.

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

Vintage Thursday: Recent Finds

The holidays are a time to bring out the pretty dishes and enjoy their beauty. I am one of those who enjoys using vintage dishes every day but there are still some pieces that only come out for special occasions; not because I am afraid to use them but because there are foods we serve at those times that make good use of these dishes.

For example, this Kromex hors d'ourvres lazy susan. I wonder if this was a must-have in the 40's and 50's? I know that I have found it perfect for our gatherings. When I bought it, the lid to the center dish was missing but I was lucky enough to find a replacement at a local flea market. Knowing what the lid looked like came from eBay searching to identify another chrome lid I got in an auction lot. It too was the lid for a Kromex center bowl, but of a different type than mine. By searching for that one, I learned what the one I needed looked like and spotted it a few months later.

The dish rests on a chrome pedestal that is a turntable. The plate is a solid piece divided into sections. Similar lazy susans have several separate dishes that fit onto a tray turntable and around the center bowl. I like to use mine for crudites and pickles, but it could also work for cookies, nuts and candy, or a cheese ball and crackers.

I found this stainless pitcher last month. It has a simple style that fits right in at my table and it never needs polishing, unlike the silver one I have. Cold beverages make it bead up frostily on the outside which I think is really an appetizing look. Easy to clean, easy to use make this a great piece for everyday use. I like to serve our homemade cider from it. The diamond-point goblets were a gift fro my sister Theresa a few years ago and they add a real sparkle to our table.

I showed this photo of the new-to-me punch bowl yesterday. Don't you love the way the cups hang on the bowl? eBay can be a great place for good deals--if the shipping charges don't break the bank. I could not believe I actually won this set! It is complete with even its original ladle. I may have to make a grape punch in it just to highlight its purple and white loveliness.The square red glass plate with the cheese ball that is barely visible to the left of the photo was a gift from another sister (Julie). It finds a lot of use when we have company. The plate came with its own bead-decorated spreader.

Another eBay find is this ruby ball pitcher. Again, I got lucky because all the others I saw were far too expensive once shipping was factored in. Should I decide to sell this one I will still be able to make a good profit because for some reason I was the only bidder and the shipping was reasonable. As a seller, I have learned that shipping charges can be a major drawback to selling. I have begun selling at flat rates and while I lose some money on shipping some items, I gain it back on others--and the shipping for all is still very reasonable.

This isn't a dish, certainly! But it was an auction find that really pleased me. I've been looking for a nativity set that was like the one I remembered from my childhood. Imagine my delight when this one showed up at the auction and I got it for $3.00, complete with the stable. I will be keeping this set for a long, long time.

I meant to post this photo from my booth last week but missed it. I put together a blue/green glass display to highlight the beauty of these colors at the holidays. I do not think many pieces sold but I sure did like the look of my display anyway!

The little table ths display is on sold this week. We found it in the old log cabin we took down two years ago, the cabin we're using to add on to our house. Larry fixed one leg of the table that had started to rot from being stored on the ground in the cabin. We considered keeping it but just had no place to put it, so it's off to a new life in a new home. I believe the table is fairly old, and it is handmade.

I found these square pedestal dishes at the Antique Mall of Marietta where I have one of my booths. The price was certainly right--and the booth's owner showed me that the two pieces can be stacked for an eye-stopping centerpiece. These were made by L.E. Smith.

Those are a few finds for this week. I cannot wait to show you our most recent acquisitions, but I will have to put that off until they are moved, and that will not happen until we see some better weather.




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