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?

Nothing Lasts Forever-Reflecting on Old Antique Friends

The antiques business is one that is constantly changing--dealers never conquer it--let alone even figure it out.  Dear Husbola and I are no different.
Just for fun and I use the term very loosely-- as the New Year is almost upon us-I started to make a list of the antiques shops that we have sold in and no longer sell in.  It is quite a list--actually it is quite a long list.  We have been involved in the selling antiques since 1989.

Shops can be good shops-but they might not be a good fit for a particular dealer and their style of merchandise.  Road projects can kill a shop.  Letting in reproductions and crafts can kill a shop faster than a cancer.  Good dealers retire and are hard or impossible to replace. Shows are the same way.  Shops can go out of business in a flash--and shows can just fade away.

Our list is not meant to be a negative comment on any location or shop.  We look at it that we were old friends for a while and then just grew apart and are in each others' rear view mirrors.  Those shops marked with an asterisk are no longer in business:

*Prairie du Sac Antique Mall (so long ago--I think this was its name!)
*Hoff Mall Antique Center, Mt. Horeb WI
*Middleton Antique Mall
*Delafield Antique Center
*Watertown Antique Mall
Gurnee Antique Center
Delavan Antique Mall (now Lauren's Antiques and Art)
Lake Geneva Antique Mall
Geneva Street Antique Mall
Ridgefield Country Church Antiques

Where are we now?  Happily selling in Odana Antiques Mall in Madison and On The Square in Walworth.  Our show selection is changing.  One day shows are golden--but there are not many of those.  We are selecting shows better with an eye to up front expenses and the best use of our time.
This business can be great fun.  Stocking shops and shows can be challenging and tiring--but it always keeps our interest.

You just sometimes have to say good-bye to old friends.

Thank You General Mills for Wheaties Macaroons

Regular readers to this blog know I love old recipe books.  Even better are old recipe boxes.  To me, leafing through a collection of vintage recipes is much better than browsing an old photo album.

Our kitchen is a collection of mid century vintage--mostly items from the 1920s-50s.  We bought a house with a built in 1951 stainless steel Chambers stove and a similarly aged Hotpoint refrigerator.  The frig has gone to Icebox Heaven--but the Chambers keeps on chugging along. On the shelf behind this workhorse sits one of my prize keeper finds--a 1930s General Mills Bakers' Service recipe box--stuffed with the original recipe cards.  I found this treasure in an antique shop in Sandwich Illinois--and it is as fascinating as any vintage history book.

This box is in fabulous condition with the original decals and contains a couple hundred cards of the most fabulous recipes and tips that would benefit commercial operations.  There are several score of rye bread recipes (Milwaukee Rye bread, rye pretzels, Jewish rye and raisin rye)  How about a piece of prune rye bread?  Are you interested in tips for  "Dough Control in Winter Months"? or "Fighting Mold in Bakery Products?"

A few more of my favorites?  Wheaties Macaroons, (it is General Mills after all!) Log Cabin Cookies--(also called Rough and Readies) and Prince of Wales Cake. (maybe a particular favorite of Wallis Simpson??)

A particularly quaint recipe can be found in Index 10, Card No. 27 "Indians or Brownies." Not so politically correct, but oh what a recipe.  Now remember--this is for a bakery--so you have to start with an 18 by 25 inch pan.

1lb 8ozs Gold Medal Cake Flour Softasilk
2lbs 8ozs sugar
6 ozs. cocoa
14ozs butter
12 ozs corn syrup
12 whole eggs
4 ozs water
1lb 4 ozs pecan nut meats
1 oz salt
2 ozs vanilla

Sugar,cocoa,butter,salt corn syrup and vanilla--beat for 5 minutes.  Add the rest.  Bake at 400.  (but it does not say for how long!)

It is 1930 all over again.

Remembering Moravia on a Cold Day in November

Today in the beautiful midwest--it is particularly raw and windy.  I think the door has slammed shut on autumn.  I am always a little sad when that happens.  I decided to list a few things on ebay--you can check them out under my username sellinglikecrazy.  I also decided to relive a small piece of our recent trip to Moravia.

One of most favorite adventures was a visit to the castle of Trebesice, home of Alberto di Stefano and Eugenio Percossi.  These two men opened their home to our small group for a delicious lunch an tour of the grounds.  What a place.

These two men have transformed the beautiful castle and the public can stay--IF you are an artist.  They attract artists who they wine and dine and then the artist is to create a piece of artwork that they leave on property.  So the castle is an incredible collection of styles and art pieces--a real visual treat.

 They treated us to a beautifully decorated table and an incredible multi course lunch.

What does all this have to do with midwestern antique chatter?  Nothing.  Just my nostalgic trip back to Moravia on a nasty blustery day.

Grand Cafe Orient Prague versus Starbucks

Dear Husbola and I have been blessed to have traveled to the Czech Republic many times over the last 22 years.  It truly is one of our favourite places--and holds many serendipitous travel memories--and is a virtual jewel box for any antique lover.

When we think of cafe society--we automatically and romantically think of Paris.  All those movies and all those books that mention Les Deux Magots, Le Fouquets, Cafe de Phares or Cafe de Flore.  But--Dear Readers--they won't be able to keep you down on the midwestern farm after you have seen the cafes of Prague.  The likes of Grand Cafe Orient, Cafe Savoy and Cafe Slavia have a personality that rivals Paris in spades.

 We Americans think the coffee craze and coffee shop mentality began with us?  Not so!  Prague intelligentia and artists and writers have been frequenting cafes forever--and there are no faux IKEA look sofas and children's play areas.

The Grand Cafe Orient was a find for us on this recent trip to Bohemia--and we returned twice. This cafe has always been on the upper floor of a popular corner (the Black Madonna building)--but remained closed until the 1990s over some legal wrangling.  It has reopened and is the only totally cubist decorated cafe in Prague.  It is a cubist lovers dream--from the chairs, lights, coat hooks to door handles.  As you recall-cubism is where forms are abstract and often geometric and angular.  Think art deco on steroids.  They serve light snacks and the ever present cakes (nothing recharges the tourist batteries like coffee and cake in the mid afternoon!)

On this particular sunny day--we took the lift to the second floor and really gasped at the fabulous decor.  Dear Husbola promptly ordered his favourite Algerian coffee (espresso, egg liquer and whipped cream) and I ordered a more mundane cappachino.  It is served in the traditional cafe style on a silver tray, with a small glass of water and a mini macaroon.  Bliss!  Best of all--this cafe did not appear to be on the normal tourist trail--and there were many tables of locals having business meetings and their light refreshment.

So for a little while, Dear Husbola and Lady Antique Dealer were transformed into Franz Kafka and His Sort of Non Wife Dora and steeped ourselves in wonderful Prague cafe life.