Remember last Spring when I wrote a post about
expansion of our space in March 2015? The space we then occupied was the last of spaces previously rented by a fellow dealer, Emily, who specialized in primitives - the real kind - of very nice quality. Emily has since moved into a retirement home in an old mansion (apropos) in the northern part of the state, near one of her children. A living estate sale was conducted on her behalf in early October. Of course, Panoply attended, and the following are just some of the finds selected.
I'd have to say that my favorite item I chose was probably a German marked pudding mold of ironstone, in the shape of a sunflower.
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| German Ironstone Pudding Mold, Sunflower Motif |
The mold was one of five, and I eventually made an offer on the other four. Below is a photo of all five of the pudding molds. Only the two oval ones are unmarked (the pineapple and wheat stalks). The top middle one is Minton, and the one to its left (grapes with leaf) is marked London.
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| Ironstone Pudding Molds |
With her own collections and love of primitives, my sister J was particularly fond of Emily's inventory, and had purchased several of her items at the antique mall through the years. Sister M and I shopped one day prior to sister J's arrival in town, but let her have first refusal on items we thought she'd want. Among her choices were the rag rug and candle mats in the collage pictured below. I kept the cross-stitched hearts and Irish crochet handbag. In my post,
Crossover Collectible - Purse Ephemera, I have photos of women and children holding similarly styled bags from the early 20th century.
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| Rag Rug, Crochet Bag & Cross-Stitched Hearts, Silk Candle Mats |
Emily had many a doll quilt, of which M bought three and J bought one (sorry, no photograph). Sister J also selected a couple of the items in the photo below. Can you guess which ones?
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| Spools, Easels, Mirror & Scale, Chopper, Broom |
If you guessed the broom and chopper (nice patina!), you were correct. I kept the spools (thinking Christmas display), the forks-turned-easels (I have two already and they're so handy!). The top right frame of the photo is actually 3 items - a very cool, tiny mirror on one of the fork easels, both perched on an old postage scale. That mirror is an advertising piece for a hat shop in NY.
A few more items I chose of Emily's with a little less primitive style are pictured below.
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| Needlepoint Rug, Ruby Glasses, Wheeling Tiles, Children's Utensils, Napkin Rings |
Clockwise, starting at the top: the needlepoint rug is approximately 2' x 4', clean and beautiful; the ruby thumbprint glasses are juice-size (5 oz), by Anchor Hocking (Georgian); the two hand-painted tiles are signed and back stamped with Wheeling [WV] Cushion (late 19thC). Finally, the forks are child-size, and that's a set of 4, sterling silver napkins rings. No bigger than a dime each, the relief motif on the rings is the cow jumping over the moon - sweet!
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| Children's Sterling Napkins Rings |
I know I have said repeatedly that I do not have blue decor, and that I don't collect blue transferware, but I absolutely couldn't resist the handless cup with the aged to perfection brown tone below (no markings). My transferware collections are primarily brown, so it fits, right?? I also picked up the two little red transferware open salts. They are Enoch Woods and Sons' "English Scenery" (England).
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| Antique Transferware |
Yes, there's more. In the form of advertising, I brought home all of the items in the collage below, most of which are tins.
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| Advertising Items |
Starting from the top left corner and going clockwise are: an assortment of remedies in sample sizes - face powder (with the powder inside!) and salves for freckles, sweat, hemorrhoids and corns (oh my!); tins for typewriter and/or addressograph ribbons, all of which satisfy
my inherent Flapper girl with their Art Deco designs; Esso advertising plastic tag holders (originally for service station stock displays, perhaps? Regardless, one of my SIL's grandfather owned as Esso station, so those are for him.); advertising pinbacks for Budd's baby and Red Goose shoes, and Brotherhood of Railroad; and lastly, photo pinbacks with photographer advertising on the backs.
Sister J also bought a few more primitives, as seen below, excluding the crocks, which Emily had directed with "firm" pricing (read, she paid a lot for them, they are desireable, and family would divide if not sold).
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| Crocks, Irons, Bennington Pottery, Basket |
Mind you, we did show a bit of restraint with the collections of irons seen in the photo above. Those are all irons for laces (diminutively sized) and/or salesman samples. M and J bought just a few of the more unusually styled ones. The basket (large, nearly 2' in diameter) and Bennington milk pan both came home with J.
One last item sister J brought home from Emily's estate, along with a little backstory. The item (pictured below) is an authentic, antique bench seat for a horse-drawn buggy, circa 1800s.
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| Antique Bench Seat for Horse-Drawn Buggy |
The backstory that goes with it was told to the estate sale hosts by family present at the sale. It seems Emily, several years prior, had painstakingly restored the buggy seat. She had, apparently, left the rags she used in the basement, which later caught fire. Emily was still trying to put the fire out when the firemen arrived. Needless to say, all turned out well, and the bench seat survived. :)
Even up until the end of 2014, Emily was still on the hunt, and even visited us at the
barn sale we participated that fall. I actually worked with Emily's husband years ago (who is now deceased) when I was in Finance with a local natural gas production company and he was a Geologist. They were a team, and he would often stop by and speak of their weekend hunts and treasures found.
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| Emily and sister J |
Emily and her husband were wonderful, old school collectors before the days of internet and popularized TV programming (even Antiques Roadshow) - now gone from the collecting world. They will be very much missed, yet long remembered for their discerning taste in their primitive collections. Friendships struck in the antiques business are real, and grow deeper with each year. Fellow collectors are like family (or are, as in my case, blood relatives!).
Who's your family when it comes to vintage treasure hunting?
As always, I appreciate your visit!
Rita C. at Panoply
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