Weekend Finds (Various and Sundry)

Good morning!

I realized yesterday in posting the moon that I had a backlog of things to show you guys from weekend finds. Didn't get a chance to take pictures of all my loot, but here are some pretty neat knickknacks I've picked up in the last month or so. Wanna see?

I have told you before and I will tell you again, Phoenix Flea Market in Old Hickory is a dark horse in terms of your Nashville, brick and mortar weekend picking options, but that is in your favor! It's right down the road from the Hermitage Goodwill, part of a sweep I try to do at least once a month that includes Southern Thrift in Donelson, and always features at least two or three little things I am excited to pick up. Yes, there are purses and baby clothes and all the other kind of stuff that comes with not being "specifically" an antique store, but there are also tons of antiques for really reasonable prices. Case in point: this Baret Ware "Desk Basket/ Cachepot" (I would have never guessed! Seriously, I think I might have called it a "letter bucket thing") featuring Raby Castle. According to the official website, Raby Castle is "one of England's finest mediaeval [sic] castles...Built by the mighty Nevill family in the 14th Century, Raby remained in the Nevill family until 1569 when after the failure of the Rising of the North, the Castle and its lands were forfeited to the Crown. In 1626, Sir Henry Vane the Elder purchased Raby and the Castle has remained in the Vane family ever since." Well! If I'm ever in Darlington, County Durham, I will have to pop over.

I think I was on a semi-Downton Abbey induced spree as I picked up this turn-of-the-century print on the same trip, also at Phoenix. I have placed an embargo on framed items in the house, as it's beginning to look a little like the National Portrait Gallery in some rooms, but this picture was so startlingly full-color that I walked by twice and finally decided to grab it. At $25, it was less expensive than an estate sale, but more expensive than a yard sale, and who cares, as usual, I have more money than sense:

I couldn't get a good enough picture of it, but the image almost looks three dimensional owing to the quality of the hand coloring. The scene just about leaps at the viewer as you stand in front of it. I bet that's the same quality that led some homemaker over a hundred years ago to choose it when it was originally for sale. Doesn't that blow your mind, sometimes? To think about the person who bought whatever vintage or antique thing you're considering buying, in a store however many years ago, going through the same decision making process you yourself are faced with in terms of buying the bauble? Crazy, right?

The details here are so neat-- the standing woman's pink voile wrap over a yellow and white striped gown. The blush rose red and deep blue of the mother and younger daughter's dresses. The far off backdrop of a river scene and the real palm fronds in the foreground! I love it all.

There was a bin of buttons in one of the booth that were about 80% nineties' airline promotional and political buttons, and then, for some reason, these four, which appealed to me for obvious reasons:

It's like they can see inside my MIND....ladies and gentlemen, Vinnie Barbarino, Liz Taylor, Judy Garland, and JCVD. Did I mention these are all about the size of your palm? 

Here's the dress I was telling you about yesterday from the same thrift store as the moon. Doesn't it look totally contemporary? I actually almost passed up trying it on because I thought it was a recent department store brand dress. 

Tag still attached! I just noticed.

Finally, the quality of the velvet detail (can you see the lines in the material?) and the eye-blinder of a rhinestone buckle sold me. As I was in the dressing room trying it on, I found this sixties' department store tag! Would you believe?

According to this news article from 2007, "Grover Cronin Dept. Store, Moody Street's legendary retail giant, was the local equivalent of Macy's in New York City. Folks flocked from afar to shop there - especially during the holidays." It operated from 1884-1989. I guess Grover Cronin was to Waltham, Massachusetts as Caster Knott's was to Nashville, Tennessee, a major local department store to rival Sears and Penney's. I ne-e-e-e-ever see these early sixties' kinds of dresses, or very rarely, at Goodwill, so I was pleased that I managed NOT to overlook it a third time, and managed to take it home with me.

Last but not least, I had convinced myself not to stop at the East Nashville Goodwill but then stopped by anyway, and the first thing I saw coming in the door was this freakin' amazing sixties' woven souvenir/tourist bag. I have one like this, except in brown straw and with the word "JAMAICA" spelled out in yarn on its lid (!!); this one features the same yarn-and-woven-straw flower detail, but the little southwestern style buckle and taupe and brown color scheme are k-i-i-i-i-i-i-illing me. $5.99. WIN.

How about you? Have you found any great baubles or trinkets in your treasure hunting lately? I really cannot WAIT to go to the flea market on Saturday.

That's all for today; see you kids back here tomorrow! :)