I'll Never Be Able To Talk the Talk

The spring show and selling season is upon us--and with gusto.  If sales so far are any indication--this could be a very good selling year.  Let's hope so--in spite of my inability to Talk the Talk.

I read some antiques journal and magazines--and have added some flea market styling type magazines to make a decent attempt at figuring out what people are buying in the vintage and antique markets these days.  Is it all white or chippy shabby white?  Is is sort of Belgian browns and creams and chocolates?  Is it big pops and snaps of color?  Or lots of bright discordant hues as a hodge podge?

I am not sure there is a consensus this year-- nor am I sure there are any real "style mavens" anymore.  I remember somebody named Martha was able to get half the country to buy yellow ware one year and green jadite the next simply by publishing photos in a magazine.  Or "The Woman Who Used to Live in Chicago and Her Name Starts with an O" who could get people to buy a particular type of brownie made in Geneva or get people to make a book an instant best seller.

I do know that sometimes I hear other dealers use language that just makes me smile when I hear it--or even chuckle under my breath.

"This has just  FABULOUS detailing!"
"What KILLER hardware there is on the piece."
"Isn't this a DELICIOUS color of yellow"
"AWESOME AWESOME original surface!"
"What a PRECIOUS frame on a SCRUMPTIOUS print."

Oh my.  I've tried--I really have tried.  Dear Husbola has tried too.  Can't do it.
I hope that our inventory speaks for itself.   I hope that taking care with display and attractive pricing can make our goods for sale all those things--fabulous-killer-delicious and awesome.

Ok Ok--really--the layers of original paint on the cabinet doors IS killer--and the assortment of enamelware--filled with fresh flowers will be precious--and the old painters bucket and brushes ARE awesome!

Come see these and other treasure at the Blumen Gardens Show in Sycamore IL April 27-28.

Sunday Afternoon Art

I continue my love affair with paintings that are best described as "Sunday Afternoon Art".  These pieces were created usually by ladies in the late 1800s as good leisure occupation for Sunday afternoons.  Women in the middles and upper classes who did not have chores to do on Sundays were taken with  the natural world and particularly horticulture--and would paint flora and fauna simply for their own enjoyment.  Sometimes these paintings were signed--but most times they were not.

Yes they are sentimental.  Yes they are "old fashioned".  Yes they are fabulous.

These beauties are a complimentary pair, unframed and in terrific original condition.  These were usually framed in heavily ornate frames--that I think actually can detract from the very talented depiction of nature.  They can stand well on their own.

I am accumulating many of them for the Blumen Gardens Show in Sycamore  Illinois on April 27-28.

Paris Apartment Chic

I love all things vintage french.  There is something about the french and design--and you can just tell when something is made in France or has french design influence.  If it is handpainted and toleware--all the better.

At a recent auction--buried on tables of dreck--was a diamond in the rough--this fabulous vintage french bouillotte lamp with a metal tole shade.  I saw it--or maybe Dear Husbola saw it first--and my heart started beating faster.

This great handpainted french lamp is marked on the bottom.  It was made in France in the 1940s-ish--and all the gold is handpainted.  These signature items were marketed in high end stores--particularly Neiman Marcus and Marshal Fields.  For as long as I have been selling on ebay--the mid 1990s--these have been in demand.  So in demand--that at the recent Northern Illinois Antique Dealers Show in Rockford--we sold another one--different style--in the first hour.  Love these lamps.

You can see this lamp on an ebay.com auction under our selling name sellinglikecrazy.

Spring is in the air--daffodils are popping up, daylight savings time starts Saturday night,  midwestern weather promises to be in the 70s next week--and diamonds show up in the dreck at auctions. I love spring!

Dinner With Tony Bennett and Nobody Else

Dear Husbola and I just returned from a twice yearly trek to downstate Illinois to attend a weekend full of shows and visit a passel of shops. (Where we just came from--they say "passel" instead of  "many")  We thoroughly enjoy traveling three hours south of us--because it feels like a million from home.  All in a nice way.

Last night--after going to two antique shows, and an Amish grocery store--we decided on dinner at an Italian restaurant we have eaten in before.  Last November, Dear Husbola chowed down on eggplant parmesan and I remember a glass of good white wine the size of a small cistern.

Oh boy--what a difference a few months makes.  We should have taken it as a clue that last year the parking lot was jammed when we arrived.  This year--two other cars.  On a Friday night.  In a town where fine dining is most often Denny's.  Hungry and hopeful--we went in anyway.

Two of three dining rooms did not even have lights on.  But we were greeted warmly and given a seat.  Actually our pick of several dozen tables.  The server was pleasant but when I asked to order some wine--we were told that the bar had moved out at the first of the year and with it the liquor license.  OH NO--Italian food without a little wine?  The framed articles about their interesting chef were missing from the walls.   Well--the hot breadsticks were good dipped in olive oil, the lettuce salad limp but serviceable --and the lasagna had good flavor, but I am not remembering any noodles.

But, Tony Bennett was singing hits from the 50s throughout the dining room, we had a car full of antique treasures for resale, I was with my charming Dear Husbola who 95% of the time puts a positive spin on things, and we were planning our attack at the biggest antique show for the next morning.

Methinks next November when we return, there will be a booth at Denny's with our name on it...

Northern Illinois Antique Dealer Show Feb. 18-19 2012

Didn't we just put away the Christmas decorations?  How can it be time for the NIADA Show--but it is.  February 18-19 at the Forest Hills Lodge in Rockford Illinois.  It is the 52nd annual show--and we are doing it for the second year.  So this is a week of unpacking inventory, setting up vignettes, making small repairs and testing lamps and making price tags.

We will be taking a wonderful decorative mix.  Our booth will focus on good, affordable vintage and antique decorative items that are "room ready."  Some fabulous paintings and lamps and lots of quirky one of a kind items.

This is a medium sized show--with good quality dealers and is really well run.  If you are looking for furniture or smalls--this show is for you.  Don't think postcards and Roseville pottery.  This collection of dealers creates good displays--it is a terrific show.

Lately I am obsessed by paintings of houses.  Something about vintage house paintings gets my imagination rolling.  Beyond the obvious of whose house is it--  why was this painted?  A family member? An itinerant painter who came calling one day and painted it for $1.00?  Where has it been hanging for so long?  What was the journey it took to get to my workroom and now be part of a blog post? This was someone's HOME it isn't just a house.   If anything makes me remember that we are just caretakers of "stuff" and someday everything I am living with today will be in someone else's hands--it is looking at long ago painted house paintings.

These are two house paintings that I recently acquired--and they will be coming with us to the NIADA show this weekend.  On the reverse of the first one--it is signed by the painter--Estella G*****, from Ottawa Illinois.  It is a colorful oil in a drop dead gorgeous cream and gold gesso frame.  The second one is a well done oil  on a small piece of rough canvas--original frame--and backed by an old advertising board. 

This weekend these paintings will hopefully move on to new owners who will love them.  And the journey continues.

Who's Herbert and Why Did the Girls Send Him Valentines?

In the past year, at one of those farm auctions Dear Husbola and I love so well, we purchased a large box of excellent condition valentines.  We date them to about the turn of the 20th century--and each and everyone was carefully preserved and each is a little work of art.  All were different --but the common theme is that they were all inscribed to Herbert.

Herbert must have been quite the guy.  Who was he--and why did girl after girl send him a valentine--each and everyone addressed in a childish scrawl?

"Let me whisper to thee Dear, Let me say it in thine ear, That my heart is all thine own, Thee I love and thee alone"
"An offering of Love"
"And now the woods are gay, with carols clear, The singing birds proclaim, that spring is near and I with faithful heart do love thee dear!"

Valentines were quite the art.  Many of these have a three dimentional feature to them--lacy hearts that pull out.  Glued on bits of German scrap art enhance some.  Little buds with children popping out or butterflies with wings that fold out.  Colorful and delicate and charming.

Now--the bigger question--why did Herbert keep them all those years?  At the auction of his estate--all manner of things was being auctioned--goods from a long life--and yet--here was a delicate box of valentines from his grade school years.  Where they all from the same girl?  I wonder.  Were they all from the woman who eventually became his wife?  Maybe.  Where they all from the same girl who he WISHED had become his wife--now there is a plot even the writers of Downton Abbey would envy.

Coming up for us is the Northern Antiques Dealers Association Show near Rockford Illinois at Forest Hills Lodge Feb. 18 and 19th.  It is a beautiful show and the perfect cure for cabin fever.  Why not come out for it?  Dear Husbola, Herbert and I will be there.

Ex Libris Collecting---What????

On our recent trip to th Czech Republic--we became aware of a European collecting frenzy that was never on my radar before--Ex Libris Collecting.

Ex Libris  literally means the bookplate used to describe a book's owners.  Yes--those paper stickers that you sometimes see inside the front cover of a book are collectible, desirable and sometimes worth some serious money.

I vaguely remember receiving a package of bookplates from my mother as a birthday gift when I was in early grade school.  They came in a heavy cardboard box with gold trim and had adhesive on one side like postage stamps and on the other--a colorful collection of drawings and the words "This book belongs to...".   I know I exited the birth canal with a book clutched in my tiny hand--so it was not at all unusual for my mom to give me this rather grown up gift when I was young.  I remember sitting at my desk and carefully--Oh So Carefully spelling out my name in cursive and getting ready to install the plates in my books.

Ex Libris collecting is REALLY big in the Czech Republic.  Most antiques shops have boxes of them at the front desk--and they are used and have been removed from books or are just "extras" that are available for purchase.  These plates can be really artistic gems--made to order by the book owner or even designed by famous artists--as one of a kind special works of art that say "This book is mine--please return it if it gets lost".  Some have quirky artwork, some use coats of arms or monograms.  They are collected and put in albums much like stamp collecting.

Libraries use them as invaluable tools to trace the ownership of books.  In the CZ, since 1992, restitution of real property and personal property has been going on with great vigor.  Items that were confiscated by the Germans and Russians is still be returned to families.  Ex libris plates allow libraries to be rebuilt and "lost" books to be returned home.

Some of these ex libris plates can be worth big money.  I wonder if my 1960s version with the childish scrawl are worth anything?