This is the easy way to tell what is still available. Just click on the link below. Otherwise, look at the bottom of the post. If the item is sold it will read GONE! SOLD!
ADDRESS: The Estate Store of the Community Warehouse 3969 NE MLK Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97212
The Estate Store
Hours: Open 10am to 4pm Thursday through Monday. Closed Tuesday & Wednesday
Garage Sale
Hours: Open 10am to 4pm Thursday through Monday. Closed Tuesday & Wednesday
PHONE: 503-445-1449.
E-MAIL: Ed at communitywarehouse dot org
West Side Donation Center: Open Tuesday-Saturday, from 11:00 am – 4:00 p.m. at 8745 SW Canyon Lane, Portland (off Canyon Road in the West Slope area).
Not in Portland but want an item? We can ship most things to most places most of the time. Shipping costs for furniture are often prohibitvely expensive! If you still think you want it, contact Ed to see if we can ship what you want where you want and how much it will cost you.
In the Portland Metro area and wondering if an item is still available in the store? Contact Ed.
I can’t decide if I should attribute this to the Arts & Crafts movement of the early 20th century or the Art Nouveau style of the late 19th century. Let’s consider the pragmatic solution to be calling this a turn of the century (plus or minus 20 years) piece and move on.
It shows a frog and lily pad in a hand hammered copper basin that is reminiscent of a flower. The edges are crimped over to create a nice rolled (and not sharp) edge. It’s the sport of detail that speaks of craft pride. The radial lines were punched with a largish chisel however the fine detail of the frog and lily pad were done with smaller punches, or possibly even a nail.
Given the small size of only about 3 3/4 inches in diameter I‘m calling it a pin tray although it could be used as a coaster.
Unfortunately this piece is entirely unmarked although I’m sure there was once a good story behind it. I’ve seen pieces sort of like this that were called trench art, but without any evidence I think that’d be an unwarranted naming.
I looked around my personal collection of old catalogs and didn’t see this particular tray, but some that were pretty close. As such it seems that this piece likely dates from around the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th century.
It’s a cast iron pen or pencil tray with the face of a plains Indian in full regalia at either end. Since it is cast iron it is in great shape even though some of the copper or bronze finish has won off over the years (see photos).
It is 11 inches long, and 3 inches wide it is marked on the back with 659. From other examples I know that this was made by the firm of Bradley & Hubbard, of Meriden, Connecticut and likely once bore a paper label. $65
School days, school days Dear old Golden Rule days ‘Reading and ‘riting and ‘rithmetic Taught to the tune of the hick’ry stick You were my queen in calico I was your bashful, barefoot beau And you wrote on my slate, “I Love You So” When we were a couple o’ kids
A nice pair of antique cast iron and wood school desks. Each has a shelf for books, a hole for an inkwell, a pen groove and the seats fold. Both are in pretty good shape and are roughly 28 inches deep, 21 1/2 inches wide and a maximum of 26 inches tall.
We know this table is old, but like my high school French teacher, it’s not about to say how old it is.
It seems pretty certain that this table was made in the 19th century. The drawer has hand cut dovetail joints and there are a number of nails visible underneath (and holes where others have been removed). Most of these are post-1880 wire nails, but one has a hand forged head and might be an early 19th century hand-made nail.
Overall it is in OK condition however the top has a plethora of water ring marks. None are bigger than a drinking glass so I think it may have been used as a bedside table.
I think if one looked at these marks long enough you could probably distill the story of a lifetime from them . . .
The table is 21 1/2 inches deep, 21 3/4 inches wide and it is 30 inches tall.
This is a first! I don’t recall ever having a couch like this here at the warehouse but it could have happened when I was sleeping on the job or before my time.
Anyway, this is a rather unusual sofa with a tall back and high arms (I’m sure there is a proper name for this style). The wood frame is birds-eye maple with overlain decoration. The upholstery is in excellent condition. I suspect it is probably a late 19th century piece.
It’s the kind of piece that would be awesome to put near the wood stove or fireplace since the tall back would help conserve heat. You can sit in it in different ways which is nice if you don’t have an external heat source or want to use it in clement weather.
It is 42 inches tall on the high side, 32 on the low, 65 inches wide and 30 inches deep.
Sometime we sell sterling silver in bulk. I’m not sure what our customers do with it though. Maybe they make jewelry or silver ingots that they stock pile for when the paper dollar collapses, what ever it is it’s a modest, but nice part of how we pay for things.
As I was packing up the most recent shipment I ran across these items and decided I didn’t want them to be melted down yet. This isn’t all a factor of my over attachment to the past. The value of sterling is pretty good, but I think these are worth more than just scrap value. As such I’m offering them here first and if they’re still around the next time we get a request for sterling maybe then. . .
First up is this lovely little set of four drink stirrers/straws. The handle is a hollow tube, they are about 8 1/2 inches long and weigh just over 1 troy ounce. SOLD
Then there’s this set of six Wallace sterling spoons with a design patented September 27th 1882. They’re cute little spoons and have a monograph of MLB on the reverse. They are teaspoon sized, just under 6 inches long and altogether weigh 4.11 troy ounces. $125
These are my personal favorites, they’re mid-19th century coin silver spoons. They were made in Boston by Palmer & Bachelders around 1850. They have the characteristic fiddle-back shape that was so popular in the 1800′s, especially between 1840 and 1860. These spoons are about 6 inches long, bear a monogram of JLBRats, it’s actually JHB, I misread that. . .and have a combined weight of 3.31 ounces. $90
This is a great 19th century piece with hand cut dovetail joints in the drawers and a beveled mirror.
There are a few minor faults, like some sun fading of the finish and minor de-silvering in the mirror.
Generally though this piece is in surprisingly good condition. The case work is in good shape and all the pieces are still solidly attached to one another attesting to the quality of the construction when it was made well over 100 years ago. All five drawers work smoothly too. the angle of the mirror can be adjusted by tightening a thumbscrew on the back which is also easy to undo if you want to remove the mirror for transport.
It is 48 inches wide, 22 inches deep and about 65 inches to the top of the mirror.
Once upon a time we were so poor that we couldn’t buy a shmata (שמאַטע), we were so poor we didn’t have a pot to . . .
Well, you know how that goes.
Times have gotten better.
This antique Dresden China chamber pot is about 9 inches in diameter and 5 1/4 inches tall.
Here at the Estate Store we try to test things to make sure they work before offering them to the public. We decided to forgo testing this time and leave that up to the end-user.
This antique mahogany mantle clock by the New Haven Clock Co. still ticks merrily away and keeps time while doing it*. It will also count the number of hours or strike a single stroke at the half hour.
This has the Harmony Duo-Strike movement. This means that instead of just striking a plain old single tone it makes a ding-dong tone.
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*As always with old clock like this it takes a little bit of foresight to get it properly level but it works well once level.
This is a nice old oak library table attributable to the Arts & Crafts period of the early 20th century. The table is made from solid oak and can be disassembled for storage or transport.
The top is quite nice but does have one small drying crack along one of the sides. The lower shelf and legs are in good shape but there are minor flaws too. For example there is a crack extending from one of the shelf mortise holes to the end of the shelf due to the tension of the driven tenon-peg (which are replacements made of pine). There is also a small tension crack in one of the upper upper mortise and tenon joints of the leg.
The table is a little bit wobbly due to a slight warp, which means it should sit nicely in any 1920′s or older Portland home (I’ve yet to see one that’s still entirely level).
After a hundred or so years I dare you to find anything that’s perfect. This piece isn’t but it’s pretty close considering the age. It is solid oak, is relatively stable and retains the original finish and none of the flaws are damning ones.
Personally I think the Gothic arch style cut-outs at the ends of the shelf are a great touch too.
It is 51 inches wide, 36 inches deep and 30 inches tall. The lower stretcher/shelf is just over 12 1/2 inches off the ground.
Thanks to one of our regular volunteers and sometime estate sales service provider Peggy for getting these to us.
There are four antique studio portrait photographs. Three of them are set in a protective case but the covers are gone (except for one loose one).
One of the pictures does not have a case. Unfortunately this one is a photo of one of the gentlemen, it is on glass and some damage has happened. I don’t know much about antique photos, but I believe this is an Ambrotype.
The others are probably tintype photos. They all have protective glass panes over the image and I’m not even slightly tempted to try an extract them to find out.
There are two pictures of women and two of men. Both of the photos of the women have been ‘enhanced’ with retouched or added gold jewelry (earrings and necklace). On one of these the gilding has decayed to a sort of brown color, on the other is still in good shape.
At this distant time we don’t know the relationships, if any, between the persons pictured. It seems that the smaller photos are contemporary and bear enough similarities in mounting* that there is a good possibility that they are supposed to be together. They measure 2 3/8 inches by 3 inches in the cases. The woman of this pair has been sold.
The bigger ones are significantly different from each other and from the smaller ones. The larger picture of a woman measures 3 1/4 inches by 3 3/4 inches in the case. The possible Ambrotype, without case, measures 2 7/8 inches by 3 1/4 inches.
Although I suspect there is some sort of group relationship among the people pictured I can’t prove it so they are for sale individually. I would consider making a deal for the lot however.
*If you own a copy of Nineteenth Century Photographic Cases & Wall Frames by Paul Berg and care to look these up for us send me an email and I’d be happy to add your info, with acknowledgement, to this post.
This old pitcher has four decorative landscape painted panels on each side as shown in the slide show below. They’re pretty well done and the effect is a slightly European flavored take on Asian ceramic painting.
It stands about 9 1/2 inches tall and has a mark (RILTI) that I’m not familiar with. It looks like late 19th century ironstone and has some flaws that suggest this is best used as a decorative item (two cracks originating on the rim and glaze crazing).
The donor of this item handed it to me and said: “I don’t know what this is, maybe you do.”
I knew it was a rifle sight with adjustable elevation and windage. I thought that was a pretty good place to begin research.
Until I actually started. . . There are far too many old rifle sights out there. There is a mind-boggling number of contraptions designed to get a projectile to hit a particular spot at a particular distance. Eventually I figured it out though (thanks to a 1903 Springfield rifle bearing a later version of this sight).
This is an antique Buffington rifle sight, originally outfitted with the ‘trapdoor’ Springfield rifle.
The rifle itself was the first breech-loading rifle issued to the United States Army beginning around 1873. The weapon was modified numerous times* over the years including 1873, 1879,1880, 1884 and 1888, and 1889. Production stopped in 1893. This particular sight was introduced in 1885 (on the model 1884 Springfield).
Apparently it was quite popular with marksmen, but generally despised by the average soldier (continuing a long military tradition . . .).
It is in great condition, works smoothly and bears the letter ‘R’ indicating it was originally installed on a rifle rather than a shorter carbine. In the event you have a 1884 or later Springfield and you’re wondering how to use this sight, simplified directions for use can be found here (about 1/4 of the way down the page).
$85
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*The simple story is that at the end of the American Civil War there were a lot of rifles. As muzzle-loaders they were obsolete and solutions were looked for to update them without huge additional costs. The solution was to retrofit them with a breech-loading mechanism. By 1873 revisions to the weapon included reducing the caliber and improvements to the breech mechanism.
Fabulous old ceramic rolling pin. This is a smaller size piece (6 1/2 inches wide, 2 3/4 inches in diameter) so I’d guess it was used for yummy little pastries rather than pies. I’d also guess that the glazed clay pin would stay nice and cool for rolling out mpre touchy doughs.
It is decorated in a faience/majolica style glaze with rendition of the famous blue onion pattern. It is in good condition with some glaze crazing. Unfortunately we don’t have the handle for this piece, but you could fashion one out of a 3/4 inch diameter dowel.
It’s unusual for us to get something like this with all the pieces.
This vintage urn-shaped samovar (for tea or coffee) is copper with a brass spout, legs and hardware. The interior is lined with a metallic silver material so ones tea won’t taste like the container it came from.
It was made in Italy and has raised lettering on the warmer that reads Victoria suggesting that it is from the late 19th or early 20th century.
It is approximately 15 inches tall and appears unused.
If the weather forecasters are right this looks to be a long, damp and chilly winter here in the northwest. Long winter nights are great for drinking tea, but getting up to continually refill your cup is kind of annoying. Now you won’t have to get up as often.
Dating to about 1900 this Italian faience wall plaque features an angelic cherub. It is 10 1/2 inches in diameter and has the Cantagalli rooster factory mark on reverse. This is one of many pieces by Cantagalli that were modeled after the works of the Renaissance master sculptor Luca Della Robbia. Alas it is not a piece by the master himself (nor even by the later pottery with the same name).
There are three minor chips, two are on the angel’s wings, the other is on the far right edge (see photos for detailed example shot). Otherwise it is in decent shape and it is a nice example of the genre.
This is a cute little 19th century two hole tea caddy box with inlay marquetry and figurative veneers. It’s seen a fair amount of use and minor abuse. There are missing pieces of veneer, one burn on the lid and a hinge has been repaired but it still has a some life left.
It is 7 inches wide, 4 3/4 inches tall and 4 1/4 inches deep. Although we don’t have the key for it we do have the interior lids, which are much harder to come by.
The moment I saw this I flinched. Memories of Sunday Mass at the crack of dawn came flooding back and the long forgotten fear that Mom would want me to be an altar boy caused my guts to roll.
In retrospect I realize that I probably didn’t have to worry. My older brother’s witty comment years earlier (to the archbishop) likely got me on the Catholic not suitable blacklist before I was even born (He said something like “You’re wearing a skull-cap (actually a Zuchetto); do you have one with a propeller too?”). The archbishop laughed it off but I’m sure that it was reported and somewhere in the unknowable mass of a 2000 year-old bureaucracy there was a notation, in triplicate: operor non fides suus pius.
Although I could be wrong, I think this is one of those little trays that the altar boys held under your chin during communion in the event any crumbs dribbled out of your mouth. It’s be disrespectful to lose bits of the transubstantiated savior and I suspect he’s hard to get out of the carpet.
This one has a 7 inch diameter brass tray and a 7 inch long handle. On the back it is engraved with a dedication reading “Presented By Nativity Service Mothers Cincinnati 13 Ohio”.
It’d make an interesting service piece for your annual winter solstice dinner.
When I first saw this I thought “That’s one bad-ass citrus reamer!” Then I read the fine print.
This is an antique Columbia Meat Juice Press made by Landers Frary & Clark of New Britain, Connecticut. The idea was that one would put a piece of meat in the press and squeeze the heck out of it, thereby extracting the juice for cooking, or for immediate consumption (the belief being that raw meat juice makes you stronger or something*).
Yummy!
Unfortunately this press was not patented so I can’t directly date it. A very similar press was patented in 1884 and I’ve seen others dated to the 1890′s. This piece is probably a contemporary, so I think it was made somewhere around 1900 plus or minus a decade or so.
Depending if the screw thread is fully extracted or wound down it is 6 1/2 inches to 11 inches tall. There are four pieces (screw, base, upper and lower reamer sections) and all the pieces are in good condition.
One could use it for extracting juices from particularly recalcitrant fruit.
I like the idea of testing it on political figures on TV. It would add a level of gravity to a show called “Meat The Press.”
*Originally promulgated by That which does not kill you et al.
This great little cast iron bank shows two late 19th century patent dates (March 1, 1887 and February 15, 1888). Given the stuff it came in with I’m sure it is actually an antique and not a modern copy. I estimate that it was probably made around 1900.
It has embossed decorations on all sides and four cast legs on the base. There is a slot in the top where you can drop coins in and inside is a little diverter to make it hard to shake the coins back out when you need bus fare.
It stands 4 1/2 inches tall 3 1/2 inches deep and 3 3/4 inches wide and is in excellent condition. In looking at some of the old catalogs in my personal collection this bank probably originally sold for $1 to $1.50.
It was locked when it came in, but I managed to crack the combination which brings my professional safe cracking career record to 2-1*.
To be honest it wasn’t that hard to do so I wouldn’t recommend actually storing anything truly valuable inside.
*The first safe I opened for the warehouse was stuffed full of all sorts of valuable stuff. Although it was donated to us and hence the contents were probably ours in the eyes of the law we returned the items to the family of the donor. This shows that the law is an inelegant creature that deserves to be ignored periodically.
The next safe I never did manage to get into. I tried and tried but never got it to open. I even considered peeling the safe but one look at the asbestos fire insulation between the shell and the interior convinced my that it wasn’t going to be worth the effort. I still presume it was empty.
It’s a late 19th century (probably 1880′s or 1890′s) counter display cabinet for thread. This is a six drawer model that (miraculously) still retains the original finish. In stead of plain wood sides this is one of the ones that has relief decorations made of some sort of pressed-board material (possibly Lincrusta Walton?).
It’s in good condition, the interior drawer dividers are gone and someone damaged (and sort of repaired) the pressed panel on the back. We’ve put a close-up photo of it below.
UPDATE: I knew I forgot something . . . the measurements of this item are 25 3/4 inches wide, 19 1/2 inches deep and 22 3/4 inches tall. Sorry ’bout that.
Happy Saturday morning. Last night we had a special sale and gathering here at the Warehouse. Things went well and a fun time was had by most.
This is a set of three ‘cupid’ photographs by M. B. Parkinson. They were originally published in the late 19th Century. The model is not actually cupid (surprise!) but a girl named Josephine Anderson* (who continued modeling as an adult).
We have Cupid Interested (above), Cupid Awake and Cupid Asleep. ‘Awake’ and ‘Asleep’ are framed in circular oak frames 14 inches in diameter (8 1/2 inches inside). ‘Interested’ is in an oak frame with a heart-shaped cut-out. The outside dimensions of this frame are 16 inches by 18 3/4 inches.
For now I’m thinking that they should go as a set.
* Unfortunately Josephine Anderson of the cupid photos is not related to Josephine Anderson who was the sister of the great Mexican dancer Lupe Velez.
This neat old farm style table is 71 inches long and 51 inches wide. A normal dining table is about 30 inches tall so this one seems low even though it is actually 28 inches tall.
It is in good condition. There is a section that was added to the middle (i.e., a leaf) that is about 11 1/2 inches wide. It looks like a relatively permanent installation but I think it could be removed (by taking out screws) and attempting to undue the screw-thread crank mechanism that tightens the leaf in place (see pictures).
It’s a pretty decent piece. I even like the stout carved legs and the white porcelain casters too.
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics
For quite sometime I thought this was an example of a really weird plastic called Bois Durci*. But then I looked at the patent date. June 19, 1866 was a Tuesday and the vast majority of US Patents since 1848 were issued on Tuesdays**.
This led to a little more research and I found I had just wasted an hour reading about Bois Durci. Rather than Bois Durci, this is a product of one of the stubby early branches of modern plastics, a concoction called shellac molding compound.
Shellac is produced from a resin secreted by the female Lac bug and when refined and processed make a decent finish for furniture and flooring. It was the dominant finish for furniture in the late 19th century. Unfortunately it is readily dissolved by alcohol and so it’s not uncommon to see vintage vanity or dresser tops that bear a mark outlining the shape of a long-lost perfume bottle. As a furniture finish it was superceded by nitrocellulose lacquer in the early 20th century.
Shellac molding compound presumably is a mixture of shellac and other products (perhaps sawdust) and was invented by Alfred Critchlow who was an early partner of a company that was renamed in 1866 as the Florence Manufacturing Company. Originally they made protective cases for Daguerreotype photographs which were rendered obsolete by the innovation of the Ambrotype photo in the 1860′s. They then transitioned to making consumer goods, especially dresser sets such which included mirrors like this one.
Our mirror is 10 3/4 inches long and 4 3/8 inches wide. It is in good condition except for a transverse fracture at the base of the handle which seems to be a common flaw on these pieces.
The back of the mirror is embossed with birds and naturalistic forms with a classically inspired center image. Except for the crack in the handle it is in very good condition.
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*Bois Durci is one of the earliest man-made plastics. Officially the first was a material called Parkesine (patented in England in 1856) and it used the interaction of wood cellulose and nitric acid to create a moldable material that would come to be commonly known as cellulose. Bois Durci drew on this foundation (although given the vagaries of patent processes in different countries it was actually patented earlier, in 1855, in France).
At the most simple level Bois Durci was made of a mixture of blood, powdered wood and a coloring agent. It was heated until the cellulose broke down enough to be moldable (but not too much) and was poured into a hot mold. The top half of the mold was then added and subjected to great pressure from a steam operated press and ‘cured’ by gradually reducing the heat. The resultant product was hard, glossy and bore the imprint of the decorative mold.
Sometimes other materials (like eggs) were used as a binding agent in place of blood and the coloring could be influenced by the choice of wood used. Rosewood and ebony were the most common ones, which I find rather astounding. There’s something that seems intrinsically wrong about cutting down tropical hardwoods to make plastic consumer goods but I guess it’s a sign of how culture has changed in the last 150 years.
Bois Durci was commercially successful if somewhat expensive to produce and found great favor in desk sets, picture frames, medallions caskets and all sorts of other stuff (see here for some examples).
Mirrors of various sizes were also one of the products, including hand mirrors like ours, but not actually the same as this one.
**It’s a good geek party trick. Find something with a patent date and see if anyone will bet against you for $5 that the patent date on the item was a Tuesday. After you make $10 or $20 your friends will think you’re a crazy poly math.
There are people who deserve to be beaten with a stick (fustigated).
There are those for whom it would be too disrespectful to the stick. One of those people once had an interaction with this piece.
As you can see in the picture it is an old (late 19th century) china or pantry cabinet in a simple rustic style. This is a Victorian era set-back cabinet that was constructed for use in a particular room and later moved. What isn’t immediately obvious is that someone took a very nice one-piece cabinet, made of thick, solid hardwood planks and turned it into a two-piece cabinet. While not a criminal act by itself the manner in which it was done was significantly less than elegant, hence my derision.
It appears that they used a sawzall and just hacked through the thinnest part of the side, just above the solid plank top. Thankfully they at least used a blade with fine teeth so the cut isn’t jagged and ragged edged. This is by far the major flaw of the piece.
There are some smaller things that could use a little work, like replacement of the relatively recent cutesy piece of trim at the top (it should look like the trim at the bottom), but generally it’s decent otherwise.
What is really nice about this piece is that it is entirely constructed of solid walnut. The shelves are thick planks, the door faces are the real deal and the sides are too. The main open shelf or work surface is particularly spectacular as a solid plank that is 17 1/2 inches wide!
As it is currently configured this piece is 18 inches deep, 81 inches tall and 53 inches wide (the widest part is along the trim at the base). Overall it’s a nice functional Victorian era primitive cabinet that could still get a lot of use or would make a great built-in with not much effort.
