Weekend Finds 1: Your Picture on My Wall Edition

Good morning!

Well, if it wasn't a whale of a weekend! The flea market was everything we expected AND MORE, PEOPLE. My dad and I were almost giddy with excitement about an hour into shopping, as we clutched bulging plastic bags of goodies and wondered whether a trip to the car to free our hands was necessitated by the sheer VOLUME of things we'd managed to procure up to that point. We practiced some measure of control and left before we'd quite spent ALL our money, but boy, the little gems we brought home with us! I've divided this into two posts, because the objects I bought fell so neatly into two categories that it seemed a shame to mix them all up. Part the first: photos I bought.

Yeeeeeah, I know. Should I start building an addition out into the backyard simply so's that I have walls to hang all the fabulous pictures I have on them? I had beaten my framed-items addiction back from full-blown junkiehood ("Look at this forties' guy doing a handstand! I HAVE TO HAVE THIS!") into mild preference-over-other-knickknacks ("Wellll....between the framed poodle print and the poodle figurine....I'll take the print."). This weekend proved not-so-pretty, however-- I was head over heels for some of these prints and their low, low prices flicked me over the edge from considering to consummating the purchase. Photo number one is particularly nice:

This was hanging in one of the stalls in the swine barn at the very back of the fairgrounds. I particularly like those two locations (even though "Antique Alley" is usually where I find the most clothes) for their good bargains and miles of tchotchkes and deals. Example, this photo, which really should have been in the $35-$45 range at bare minimum retail in an antique store, was $20. Curved glass gilt frame, about fifteen inches tall, and interesting subjects...come on, people!

Subject one's Barton Fink hair was really the first thing that drew me to the photograph. Upon further inspection, his sister is also completely adorable. I was telling Matthew this weekend that it's funny to think that the people in this photo were once just "Oh, that picture? that's Bud and Annie! You know, Louise's kids." and there was someone who you could ask and who could probably tell you a lot about the kids in the picture. In present time, whoever knew the provenance of these photos is probably long gone or forgotten. The subjects of the photo, and anyone who knew them when they were this age, are most likely extinct in year of our Lord 2013, and isn't that weird to think about? The photo goes from being a photo of two people, as a record of their images more than a picture unto itself, to being a historical article, with two anonymous figures in it. Remind me to date and caption any extant photos of myself in print!

I guess the feet didn't come out or were blurred in the original image, because when the photo was hand tinted, the artist did a pretty good job of drawing in stockings and shoes on both children (sorry for the reflection, the light was not cooperating this morning):

After watching Hemingway and Gellhorn, I secretly became interested in the machismo-fueled sport of fishing for enormous, sea-bound prey. I know, bad vegan, but how crazy is it that there are these prehistoric-sized creatures swimming around out in the middle of the ocean, and you can take one on! This looks to be a souvenir photo taken on board during one such fishing expedition at the moment the prey was triumphantly hauled up onto the deck. I love the fish-eye lens effect of the picture, as well as the man's face being completely in shadow while fish stares bleakly into the camera. Wild! Poor guy. This was $2 at one of the outdoor stalls near the food pavilion. How could I say no?

Last but not least, this was in the same booth as the Bud and Annie photo. I spotted it just as I was buying the other photo, and added it as a last minute, "You're spending money, so why not spend more money!" addition to my purchase. GROUP. PHOTOS. ARE. SO. COOL:

This looks to me like sometime in the thirties', though there's not a social club insignia or name of a building anywhere in the picture to clarify what the occasion was or where this sitting took place. I am getting a little a lightheaded looking at all the gorgeous women's outerwear in the below closeup:

The sporty berets and enormous fur collars of the women's clothing is really what seals this as more thirties' than forties' to my  eye. Do you think they're all employees of that same business? I wouldn't say graduating class, as there are both older and younger people in the photo, nor would I call it a social organization because there are both men and women in the picture, and those are usually gender specific. What do you think? (PS: the belted overcoat on the guy, second from the right in the below photo. How snazzy!)

Well, that's part one of the spoils of this weekend. Which photo do you think is the most interesting? Did you hit the flea market or any good sales this weekend? If you collect photos, where do you find your most rare and beloved specimens? Let's talk!

That's all for today, kiddos. See you back here tomorrow for more finds! Til then.