Archive for ‘Eclectic’

May 28, 2012

A Bright Idea For A Shaker Set

These vintage salt and pepper shakers were made in Japan and they are marked with a letter ‘F’ on the base. They stand about 5 1/2 inches tall and the screw top appear to be made from real lightbulb bases (and are usually reputed to be on other, similar pieces).  Some folks say that they can also be used for liquids, like vinegar or oil.

I’d be tempted to install them in an overhead light fixture and when you guests ask for the salt (or pepper) stand on a chair, reach up to the ceiling fixture, unscrew them and then sit down and hand the set over.

Highly recommended for the first dinner with your in-laws as guests. You’ll definitely make an impression and even if the relationship doesn’t work out you can guarantee that you’ll be the subject of dinner conversation for years to come.

May 25, 2012

Robert Maxwell’s Monsters

Monsters need not be frightening, intimidating or covered in scales. Monsters, as originally defined in Rome, are just different or unusual things.

Robert Maxwell was a prolific ceramicist and made a significant part of his living making monsters (typically called beasties or critters by collectors) in addition to some really fine studio pottery.  Unlike the creation of Dr Frankenstein, Maxwell’s monsters never upset local villagers or resulted in their creator last being seen headed north on an Arctic ice floe. Produced prolifically in the 1960′s they did bring a sort of lasting recognition to their creator.

These are low number figures indicating they are earlier pieces. The gaping mouth monster is Figure 10 and stands 3 1/4 inches tall. The snouty monster is 4 3/4 long and is numbered as Figure 11. They are in perfect condition and we’re offering them as a pair.

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May 23, 2012

Blind Luck?

Like mixing metaphors, mixing design elements can be unsuccessful, or in particularly bad cases result in explosive releases of “What The . . .?”

For example . . . at first glance this resembles a cornicello or lucky horn. But then there is the small matter of the blindfolded woman at the top which is where things seem to go somewhat awry.

I suspect (hope) that the designer/maker intended for it to symbolize blind luck.

This brass cornicello/blindfolded maiden is 7 3/4 inches long and weighs over one pound. Given the size and mass it is a bit big to be worn as jewelry.

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May 22, 2012

Along The Shore At The Edge Of Genius

 

There is little space between the island of  genius and the raging sea of madness. In fact, the sandy shore where they meet is characterized by crashing waves of wild white horses.

Wild White Horses is the title of this work and it was originally executed by Violet Skinner in the early 1960′s.

 It measures 37 inches by 22 inches and originally sold at Meier & Frank so it was a mass-produced item not a kitschy one-off.

Genius or Madness?

Art?

Take a look at the slide show below then vote in the poll. Remember to vote early and often, it is an election year!

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May 19, 2012

Morning, Noon & Night: I Will Paint You A Picture

Three vintage paintings title AM, Noon and PM. They’re pretty simple but make a nice little themed triptych so we’re selling them as a set.  One of them bears a signature on the back that appears to read V. Kandris with the notation that it was done at Yokoto AFB Japan and there is also the inscription Geni which probably meas something.

Each picture measures roughly 5 1/2 by 7 inches.

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May 18, 2012

Freud’s Gold

This is a commemorative medallion issued by a pharmaceutical company (Abbot Laboratories)  which celebrates Sigmund Freud as one of the  “Pathfinders in Psychiatry” series.

It is 3 inches in diameter and suitable for use as a paperweight or as a metaphor for the subconscious hangups of ones therapist.

May 17, 2012

Don’t Beef Baby, Let’s Do Dinner In Rio

Barra, a soulless community of glass and aluminium high-rises, is known for its jolly churrascarias – steakhouses that work on a $20, all-you-can-eat system. With waiters bringing a different cut about every three minutes, the trick is to hold off until the better beef arrives. Try: Baby-Beef Paes Mendonca (1510 Avenida das Americas; 399-2187) New York Times WHAT’S DOING IN; Rio de Janeiro, May 24, 1992

And if the beef isn’t to your liking feel free to take the salt and pepper shaker, some table linens or perhaps a waiter as a souvenir of the unforgettable experience of consuming Brazilian Beef (“Amazonian Fresh, with the rainforest goodness you’ve come to expect”).

3 1/4 inches tall.

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May 14, 2012

My Maserati Did 185

Now I take the bus, walk or bike because I can’t afford the insurance, but Life’s Been Good.

Maserati club car badge and belt buckle. The buckle is 2 1/2 inches high and the car badge is about 4 3/4 inches tall, or perfect for attaching to your bicycle rack. If there’s any question about whose bike it is when you’re attempting to force the lock with a set of bolt cutters because you lost your keys (again) at dollar Pabst and (tofu) wing night, you can just flash your belt buckle like a diplomatic passport in a smoke and whiskey-vapor filled second world drinking establishment.

It may not save your skin, but you might have enough time to run for a bus.

Badge: $30; buckle $10

May 14, 2012

Lucky Pipe Rest

Vintage ’lucky’ pipe rest with horseshoe motif, jockey’s cap and riding crop. It’s a great accessory for a day at the race track or for smoking your pipe at pig number one’s straw house.

It seems to be made from some sort of cast resin and it measures 4 1/4 inches long  and 2 3/4 inches wide. If you’re not a pipe smoker I can see it used for other purposes, including (but not limited to): pin tray in the sewing room, serving dish for fennel seeds after a big meal, a paper weight for when the big bad wolf is next door and the windows are open, or just as a conversation piece.

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May 13, 2012

Table Lamp With Prism Pendants

The major bummer of this lamp is that there is not a light bulb in the lower section. On the other hand there are a ton of glass prism that will nicely refract natural light!

The lamp works well and stands 40 1/2 inches tall over all. The lower part (from the table to the top of the prisms) is about 22 inches tall.

May 13, 2012

Barrel Bar

Is this more fun than a barrel of monkeys? I don’t know because we’re fresh out of monkeys but it is a neat piece none the less. Some one took an old barrel and made a custom one of a kind bar out of it. The barrel bar features a built-in ice bucket accessible through a trap door in the top, lined receptacles for glasses and bottle, casters so you can move it around, and a hasp on the doors so you can lock it to keep honest people out.

It stands just under 32 inches tall and is about 24 inches in maximum diameter.

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May 12, 2012

Nothing Better On A Hot Saturday Afternoon?

Nothing says indolence on the first hot afternoon of the season like a quart pitcher of gin. Although  a quart pitcher of premixed gin and tonic might be a little wiser.

About 6 inches tall and in great condition.

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May 8, 2012

They’re So Cute When They’re Little

But then they grow up and the next thing you know they’re hurtling through space from the main belt, or the Kuiper belt or the Washington Beltway intent on malevolent planetary destruction.

Maybe if you get your pet rock when its still small and trainable (1 1/2 by 1 1/4 inches,  like this one) it won’t grow up to be an asteroid-hole.

May 7, 2012

Magical Resin Hemisphere Of Magicalness

Maybe not so much a hemisphere as part of a hemisphere, perhaps from the tropic to the poles. Regardless of any passing resemblance to a hockey puck it is still magical.

It must have been quite a trick to maintain the shape of a dandelion puff-ball while pouring the resin. Therein lies the magic. I could guess how it was done, but sometimes a sense of wonderment is better than the truth of how things happen.

It is 3 1/2 inches in diameter and about 1 1/2 inches tall

May 6, 2012

Don’t Dither Just Play That Funky Zither!

Rustic or homemade zither in a similarly made carrying case. In OK condition, missing some strings and could use a tuning, but it’s a zither and it’s not like you’ll find one sitting on the curb any time soon.

The carrying case measures 28 3/4 inches wide, 20 inches deep and 4 inches thick. The zither itself is 26 1/ inches long and 17 1/2 inches wide and we have the tuning wrench.

Consideration given if you can play the theme for The 3rd Man on this.

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May 4, 2012

Your Biggest Fan

Unless you have a bigger fan. This plastic decorative fan is pretty big though. It measures 42 3/4 inches wide and it can be hung in three different positions.

Don’t worry though I won’t go all Annie Wilkes on you . . . which we’re both probably grateful for.

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May 1, 2012

Mr. Fox & The Debt Collectors

Mr. Fox we presume?

Yes, if you insist . . .

Mr. Fox, we’re here on behalf of the firm of Beeblebrox and Dent, intergalactic debt collectors.

Ummm . . . in what capacity?

Mr. Fox, there is a small matter of  library fines for overdue books.

Overdue books? I haven’t checked out a book since . . . Gutenberg was in diapers and I think that was back in oh-two . . . 1402.

Exactly Mr. Fox. You see you failed to return De vulgari eloquentia on time.

But it was only a few days late!

Mr. Fox, we’re just here to help you clear up this matter and our records indicate that “a few days late” was roughly 37 years.

Details! Details!

Yes Mr. Fox, details. Our records also show that you never paid the fine for this transgression which was assessed at 1/2 sou per week.

Let me see . . .1/2 sou per week at 37 years, 1,924 weeks, divide by two . . .so you’re here after a debt of 962 sou? 962 sou in a currency that went out of circulation in 1795? Seriously?

If it were only that simple Mr. Fox . . .you see there is the small matter of compound interest.  If we were to calculate it at this moment in your time it would be the trifling sum of only 166,528,734.54 sou, or 33,305,746.91 livre, roughly equivalent to 133,222,987.60 United States Dollars.

That’s a lot of cash; would you take a check?

We’re not done Mr. Fox. as you may have noticed we’re not your average debt collectors, sure, we may LOOK like your average BEMs, but we are rather different.  You see we recently took payment on Dave Lister’s unpaid* light bill. We’ve now travelled from three million years in the future and we’re going to assess you at the rate from that point in time.

What?!

Well Mr. Fox we wouldn’t want to upset the time space continuum and alter the course of history or anything, now would we Mr.Fox?

I suppose . . . so exactly what is due by your reckoning?

Mr. Fox we show that you owe us one Galactic Reynard.

A Galactic Reynard?

Yes, it is a unit of currency that we named after you; you should be honored at such consideration. The Reynard represents all the wealth of all known species plus one dollar and fifty-seven cents. 

So . . . would you take a check?

No.

Visa? 

Sorry, but your visa is expired.

Damn.

Well Mr. Fox? 

Uhhh . . . would you care to step over to the ‘banking cage’ and I’ll be by in just a moment to give you the funds….

Of course Mr. Fox!

Suckers.

Reynard would like to take this opportunity to announce the sale of two (TWO!) genuine bug-eyed-monsters. The proceeds from the sale of these monsters will (of course) go to repay his massive library late fee debt and will not (of course) be squandered on a chicken dinner.

The big green monster is 5 inches tall, the not-so-big purple monster is 3 inches tall. Although they have travelled from 3 million years in the future and bear small amounts of dust (or the soul-dirt that all debt collectors bear) they are in good condition.

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*Holly: Also you left seventeen pounds, fifty pence in a
bank account.  Thanks to compound interest you now own
ninety-eight percent of all the world’s wealth, but since
you’ve hoarded it for three million years nobody’s got any
money except for you and NorWEB.
Lister: Why NorWEB?
Holly:  You left a light on in the bathroom.  I’ve got a final demand
here for one hundred and eighty billion pounds.
Lister: A hundred and eighty billion pounds!

April 30, 2012

We Don’t Clown Around

Except when we do.

Years ago we had a little creepy clown figurine. Somehow* it ended up in a mandolin slicer box that was then put on a sales shelf. Poor Margaret found it and was not pleased. I think that’s understandable, how would you feel if you opened a box to see if all the parts were there only to be greeted by a little purple haired creepy thing?

He stayed around for a while but then we sold him to one of Margaret’s friends who was traveling out-of-state with her so that the clown could make another unexpected appearance.

Oddly we haven’t seen much of Margaret since.

We’re pleased to offer a slightly less creepy, but still sort of sketchy clown doll. This one is too big to fit into a mandolin slicer box, but small enough to fit in carry-on luggage. He stands (sits?) 14 inches tall and has a ceramic head and hands.

It is in good condition.

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*”Somehow.” I put it in the box intending to surprise the person pricing when they checked to  see if all the parts were there. They didn’t check and so the joke had an unintended victim.

 

April 28, 2012

Art Deco Rustic Cabinet

For some reason I have a hard time conflating those two styles in my mind, but that seems the best way of describing this piece. It even makes a certain amount of sense; just because folks were broke in the 1930′s didn’t mean they didn’t want stuff in the popular style of the Art Deco era.

So they made things like this cabinet and bookshelf combination.

I’m not sure if it was home-built or factory-built on the cheap. They did a decent job either way and used good materials (unlike certain modern flat-pack retailers).

It is 42 inches wide, 12 inches deep and stands 36 inches tall. The cabinet and drawer pulls are wood and there is about 10 inches between the shelves, so you could put ‘real’ books in there, not just mass market paperbacks.

April 26, 2012

When Furniture Has An Identity Crisis

I wonder if furniture, were it sentient, would ever question what it was. Would it wake up in the morning and think “I am not a sideboard, I’m really a table?”

If so it might look like this.

At first glance this is a sideboard of buffet with two drop leaves. It is 42 1/2 inches wide, 19 inches deep and 30 1/2 inches tall with two 12 inch drop leaves. There is an open shelf and a drawer below that.

However if you pull out what appears to be the top drawer you discover that it converts into a massive table. Or at least converts into a table with the aid of six 15 inch leaves and some long table slides. In the largest configuration it can be as much as 122 inches long.

The table is unmarked, but it came with several Leg-O-Matic folding chairs with the same finish so I suspect it was made by the same folks.

The table is in fair condition, the biggest problem is that the folding leg which supports the middle is a bit wonky to use.

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April 26, 2012

Custom Painted Dining Table

Unusual hand painted round dining table with two leaves.  This isn’t the sort of thing we give to families, so here it is in the store.

I have two questions: if He is omniscient why is there a pocket watch, and what happened to the pepper shaker?

This  table is 42 inches in diameter/across and each leaf is 11 inches wide.

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April 20, 2012

Folding Barbeque Tool Set

“But officer there is nothing on the TSA prohibited items list that states barbeque tools aren’t allowed in carry-on luggage!”

This folding BBQ tool set by Brookstone (“Purveyors of the obscure, the unnecessary and the useless since 1973″) will easily fit into your overnight bag and will probably pass security unnoticed, especially if you do a strip tease at the screening area.

It measures a modest 12 3/4 inches long when folded and extends to 20 inches. Included are a spatula, fork, knife and meat thermometer.

If your plane goes down on a deserted island (and you survive) and all you have to eat are feral pigs and wild sausages you are totally in luck with this handy tool.

Providing you brought a source of fire that is, because a lighter isn’t included. If not the thermometer will be there, like an old friend, to remind you how it was ready, but you dropped the ball. And, by the way, aren’t those cold hotdogs simply wonderful?

April 19, 2012

Day Of The Grateful Dead Platter

Ohh look it’s Carmen Miranda* in the afterlife but instead of fruit she’s wearing flowers…

14 1/4 inches in diameter and has pierced holes in the back so that it may be hung as decoration.

Made in Mexico with lead free glazes and in excellent condition.

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*Carmen Miranda was actually Brazilian so we’re improperly mixing metaphors by associating her with Mexican iconography of the Day of the Dead. The Brazilian celebration of the Day of the Dead is rather different.

It should be OK to mix these ideas for the purposes of this post; we’re highly trained professionals working under carefully planned laboratory conditions and with excellent ventilation. In other words: don’t try this at home.

April 11, 2012

A Gift For You Mr. Modern Movie Director / Producer

Dear Mr. Modern Movie Director / Producer,

Please, please for the love of all that is in film and cartoons, read this book BEFORE remaking yet another classic and utterly ruining it.

Heck, read it before making any film, you might get some good pointers.

How To Make Good Movies by the Eastman Kodak Company. It’s undated but there are some example of shots that show 1951 and 1952 in them and this seems like a pretty reasonable guess for when it was printed.

Interestingly a fair number of old pictures made it into the book, including a film marquee advertising The Great Gambini starring Akim Tamiroff which was released in 1937.

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April 11, 2012

Barry Kite: Clumsy Nude

It’s so awkward. Not only are you naked, but at the top of the stair you trip and fall and you can’t even blame the designer stiletto heels you picked up (for almost nothing) at the Garage Sale.

Bloody hell.

And of course society mavens, the gatekeepers, are there to see the whole thing, your whole thing, tumbling behind over forehead.

This print by Barry Kite is signed in pencil and measure 16 3/4 inches by 20 3/4 inches in frame.

It’d make a good gift for an awkward friend, or to remind someone who you care for that you haven’t for gotten about the things in their past that they’ve spent so much time dis-remembering (like a pal of mine and that one hip-wader . . .).

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