Weekend Finds: Flapper Coat and Various Goodies Edition

 Good morning!

Well, it was a flea market weekend, and you know what that means! I bought some STUFF this Saturday, folks. While it seemed like a lot to be carrying around the flea market, when I got it home, it seemed like only a few things! Same deal with grocery shopping, I always feel like I've secured enough pantry goods to feed an army, and get home with two or three bags actually containing the spoils of war.

Wanna see my favorite thing I got? That would beeee...this coat:

I was at the Antiques shed on Saturday morning looking through the one Andy Devine in overhauls guy's wares when the black fur of this coat peeked out from under some old rosaries and a couple of scarves. "Hang on, lemme go see what that is," I said to my dad (a frequent war cry on flea market weekends), and I carefully extricated the coat from its display. The fur is real and a glinting type of soft black pelt, but what really sold me was the high, opera collar and slim fitted shoulders of the thing. I feel like Gloria Swanson!

Below, an in-the-field photo of me trying the coat on. As is always the case, there is never a mirror around when you need one, so I had to throw the coat on and have Dad take a photo. This is the expression I make after this exchange has gone down at least twice: "Here, just press the button!" "The white button?" "The one in the center of the phone, at the bottom, just press it." "I don't know if it's taking the picture or not!" "Watch out, there's people walking behind you, you know--" "Oh, it took it, but your mouth was open, hold on, we can get a better--" ((death glare)) AND THAT'S when the photo is taken. Still, look how it looks like what I was already wearing to the flea market!

"How much do you want on this?" I ventured, already kind of in love. "How much would my wife ask for it, or how much would I be willing to sell it to you for?" Andy Devine countered. What wife?! I don't know if he was using this as a hypothetical bargaining tool or what, "My WIFE would want thirty five...I'll take twenty five. You see there's a little splitting on the collar, but it's in good shape other than that." "You wouldn't take twenty?" "I DARE not," quoth the bard. Something about that phrasing pleased me so much I wasn't even mad to give him his full price and carefully pack the coat into a thin grocery sack (which I then toted across the whole of the fairgrounds for the REST of the day...my luck!).

When I got home, I admired the coat's lining, which looks like a sprinkling of constellations:

And the older-than-I-would-have-thought label. At first, I eyeballed the piece as definitely pre-1950, but when, exactly? Getting a look at that label and that collar, II revised my quote from the late thirties' to the late twenties' or maybe early 1930's. Imagine on a petite little flapperette, this would probably be an ankle-length garment! Taking to Google, I discovered McCreery and Company  began as a department store in New York City, opening its Pennsylvania location in downtown Pittsburgh in 1904. This store closed in 1938 (!!), making my second guess on the coat probably more accurate than the first. At any rate, how glamorous and romantic is the cut and collar! I hope we get a couple more days of frosty spring so I can wear this somewhere other-than-to-work.

In another barn, I found this Hopalong Cassidy napkin in a frame for $3. Isn't it interesting trying to conjecture where something like this came from? I thought maybe a fifties' parent had saved the pristine piece of party ephemera after a cowboy-loving child's Hoppy-themed birthday. The colors are so sharp, and the idea of a napkin making it sixty-some odd years without a scratch, was enough to make me snap it up.

Speaking of vibrant color, how about this over-the-TOP dinner linens set I found in the Swine barn? $10 for the table cloth and five matching napkins, but this may almost be too pretty to use. I've been collecting napkins and placemats (yup, just what I need, another collection) now that I have such a functional dining space in the kitchen, and when I came across these, well, I bought before I thought (but I regret nothing!):

While you're not getting the full effect of the print on my octagonal kitchen table, the tablecloth is a long rectangle bordered by roses and different scenic views of European countries:

Each napkin has four of these cities reproduced much smaller in each corner:

And then there's this mélange of European Union flags in the center. How many do you know off the top of your head? Most of the members of the United Nations are here!

This devil pin was in one of the sheds, and try as I might to find what I bet was a corresponding angel pin for the 1950's wearer's other shoulder (á la this set), I came up empty handed. Ah, well, maybe I'll come across one some time! I figure figural angel pins are probably far easier to come across than their, ahem, counterparts.

And last but not least, I was digging through a case of doll's clothes, marked 2/$5, when I came across THIS, and let out a shriek of delight rather than revulsion:

"What in the hello IS that?" you may be asking yourself (or me, which would also be fair in this context). It's a white fox fur for a doll! Among all the little print dresses and circle skirts for some fifties' Barbie, I found this swank little accessory. Crafted out of an unknown kind of real fur and with its own tail and snapping-clasp of a mouth, it's a twin to the horrible/fabulous black fur stole I found at Janurary's flea market, only in white and teeny tiny! And is it, or is it not exactly the right size and style for my 1920's handmade Virgin Islands doll:

Bien sûr que oui! And yes, I prefer that if I'm going to have one or two weird but antique dolls laying around, that they dress exactly as I do, haha.

Anyway! Enough about me! What did you find out in the world this weekend? Did you hit the flea market if you're a fellow Nashvillian? What's your favorite place locally to dig, dig, DIG for treasures or where do you have the most luck? Let's talk!

That's all for today, I gotta get back to the grind, but I will see you here tomorrow for more vintage tips and quips. Have a great Monday! Til then.