Archive for ‘$76-$100’

February 4, 2012

Dumbo Was A Double Agent

This is a nice vintage Turnabout “4 in 1″ Dumbo cookie jar. The head and body can be rotated to display four different configurations of Dumbo (and was used for other characters too, like Mickey and Minnie and my favorite, the Donald Duck/Jose Carioca combo).

He stands 13 1/2 inches tall  and is in good to very good condition with no chips or cracks. Even the over-glaze paint is in much better than average condition.  Often on these jars the paint is largely gone, due to handling wear and washing.

Not surprisingly the design is patented*. What is surprising (to me) is that the patent for a reversible cookie jar of this sort wasn’t issued until 1944 (and again for good measure).

It’s odd when one considers that Dumbo (the film) was released in 1941 and Dumbo (the character) was nominated as Time Magazine’s mammal of the year in December 1941, even in the face of more pressing world events. He had originally been intended to be the cover character for the final issue of the year, but with the attack on Pearl Harbor and the American entry into the World War he was demoted in favor of General MacArthur.

Given the divergent dates between the release of Dumbo and the successful patenting of the reversible cookie jar (note the patent was issued when this piece was made) I suspect this particular piece was made after 1944 and may be from the early post-war period.

*The patent holder was an employee of the American Pottery Company. This company made the cookie jars and then they were sold to the Leeds China company, which was a distribution firm that had the license to sell Disney products.

To further confuse things American Pottery Company was involved in cooperative efforts with the American Bisque Pottery Company (which in turn worked with Ludowici-Celadon Co., Terrace Ceramics and made and decorated jars that were distributed by Cardinal China Company).

January 25, 2012

Looking For A New Brunette?

I look at this leather upholstered bar stool and think, “If this were at my drafting table I could sketch cities, build Important Edifices or design untold futures.”

Instead I have an old cast iron and oak stool that’s just a bit too short, the mark of a plonker, a dilettante, someone who’s not, note the capital s- Serious.

But I’ve had that old stool too long to casually toss it aside for a flashy new brunette.  I spent a lot of night sitting on it with only a purloined milk-crate for a footrest and a wall to lean against and it suits me pretty well.

This new bar stool is about 48 inches tall with a seat height of 30 inches. It is 23 inches deep and 21 3/4 inches wide, unfortunately we have only one.

If you don’t have a drafting table it’d class up a home bar much better than tossing an olive in your PBR and calling it a martini.

January 18, 2012

Homicidal 1950′s Plaster Lamp Set

“Horace you really shouldn’t try to kill the guy at the Community Warehouse.”
“Bah Helena, one runs some risks in dealing with vintage stuff, he knows this.”
“But Horace you’re not even giving him a chance.”
“Whatever.”
“I shall sprinkle plaster roses on his grave.”

KA-ZOT!!*

Thank you Mr. Circuit Breaker for doing your job and saving me from a serious zapping. As you may have guessed one of these lamps had a serious short-circuit that caused the circuit breaker to trip which in turn has resulted in some rewiring.

This is why I usually test things by plugging the into outlets with multiple breakers in the circuit. Thankfully I only average one minor zapping every two years (except for the incredible smoldering slot machine, which is a story for another time).

This plaster figurative lamp set was made (or copy righted) in June 1952 by Chesterlamp of Los Angeles, California. They stand about 36 inches tall with the shade and are pretty heavy (nearly 10 pounds each). Since they weigh so much and are plaster they could be shipped but it’s going to cost a fair amount.

If one wants them, these lamps even come with age appropriate funky fringed shades that only slightly smell of cigarette smoke.

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*Long before the Electric Light Orchestra came along there was the electric light near-death experience with their big hit Mr. Blue Lips. . .

January 16, 2012

Silver Saved From The Scrap Heap

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  JLB  Rats, it’s actually JHB, I misread that. . .and have a combined weight of  3.31 ounces.  $90

January 14, 2012

1920′s Berkey & Gay Bedroom Pieces

               

Berkey & Gay was one of the leading late 19th century furniture makers and this continued into the early 20th century. They were noted for producing quality pieces at decent prices. I always like to get items made by them since I know that the piece will be well made and if not mistreated, it will have withstood the years well.

These three pieces are good examples and since they were quality pieces to begin with they are in good condition now*.

The tall chest of drawers is in excellent condition, it is about 46 inches tall, 20 inches deep and 26 inches wide. SOLD!

The dressing table is 46 inches wide, 19 inches deep and 30 inches tall. It’s probably seen the most use out of all the pieces, but it’s still in good shape. SOLD

The mirror is not marked as Berkey & Gay however I’m pretty sure it is another of their products. It is in excellent condition and stands about 46 inches tall and 24 1/2 inches wide.

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*It may help that they might have been in a beach house for a while and not in daily use. When we got them in the drawers had a lot of sand in them, not enough to provide traction on a mountain road, but definitely more than you’d want in the waistband of your swimsuit. We gave them a good vacuuming (in the process netting two pennies for the cash register).

January 8, 2012

15 Drawers For Compulsive Organizers

A place for everything and everything in it’s place.

With 15 drawers this makes that quite a bit easier.

Alternatively one could use it to make getting dressed easier in the morning. Just put one days worth of socks, underwear and a T-shirt in each drawer. After two weeks it’s time to do laundry again.

It is 34 inches wide, 41 inches tall and about 13 inches deep. One of the drawer pulls has been replaced but it is in good shape overall.

January 2, 2012

Pair Of Siamese Teak Folding Tables Tables

Siamese as in ‘generically from eastern Asia’, not ‘co-joined’.

They’re marked on the underside Siamese Teak Handcrafted Hong Kong ATAPCO.  These are probably 1960′s vintage and have end grain butcher block tops on folding bases. For folding tables they’re surprisingly sturdy while still easy to move around.

Overall they’re in good condition with age appropriate wear. The only notable flaw is that the corner of one of them was broken off an re-glued. It seems to be a decent repair as it is still solid and didn’t give way when stress tested.

When assembled  for use they are 19 inches tall and the tops are 17 inches square.

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December 25, 2011

Vintage Indonesian Shadow Puppets

A little while back we go in this great pair of shadow puppets. I first thought these were Burmese puppets, but it seems that shadow puppets aren’t an important part of that great tradition.

instead they’re from another great puppet theater family, the Indonesian Wayang Kulit shadow plays. The Wayang came to Indonesia with Indian traders and are now one of the oldest puppet theater traditions in the world. Originally the Wayang was associated with story telling within the Hindu religion but it has since been modified for other religious and secular tales.

The puppets traditionally made of  buffalo hide with bamboo or buffalo horn control arms. Our figures look like painted hide. The control sticks one the larger figure are wood and horn on the smaller one.

They are both in good condition. The larger puppet is about 31 1/2  inches tall, the shorter is  25 inches tall.

We’re offering them as a pair.

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November 22, 2011

Vintage Aladdin Alacite Lincoln Drape Oil Lamp

The pattern is the tall Lincoln Drape lamp in alacite glass, model B75 with the plain foot.

We had a nice little alacite electric lamp a few months back, one that dated to before WWII. We could tell since it glowed under black light. This lamp does not fluoresce so we know it is alacite produced after the war, when the government was still hogging all the uranium.

The Lincoln drape pattern was produced from 1940 to 1949 with an intermission of unknown duration for the war. The burner is still attached and the adjustment screw reads Nu-type Model B.  This model burner puts out enough light to compare effectively with a 60 watt light bulb, making it perfect for use in storms, remote places or as mood lighting.

The tall lamp and its shorter counterpart the ‘short’ Lincoln drape lamp are the only known faked Aladdin oil lamps. The fakes are pretty easy to pick out since they are made of two pieces and glued together and the burner attachment is different.

This is the real deal.

When originally sold it had a chimney but no shade. In the course of time ours has lost its chimney and the oil fill cap. The glass base is in excellent condition and overall it  stands 13 3/4 inches to the top of the burner.

November 21, 2011

1950′s Toy Fire Truck

This old toy fire truck was made by the Charles William Doepke Company of Rossmoyne, Ohio (northeast of Cincinnati).

It depicts an idealized 1950′s vintage American LaFrance aerial fire truck. It is in excellent condition. Overall dimensions are 36 inches long, 7 inches wide and 7 1/2 inches tall. When fully the ladder is upright fully extended it is 48 inches tall.

The hard black rubber wheels are marked ‘Firestone’ and are in good condition. There is minor wear to the paint, but this wasn’t played with very much. The gold decals are in good shape although one has had slight damage (see detail pictures below). Oddly, the emergency light is still present as is the fire bell located just above the front bumper.

The diamond plate running board is missing on one side and one of the fake hydraulic cylinders for the ladder is broken. Fortunately the ladder will remain fully upright due to a locking mechanism at the base.

The original headlights are still in place and the truck steers freely.

We also have two additional ladder sections and there is a decal that notes that this reproduction was authorized by American LaFrance.

A vintage color advertisement featuring the truck can be seen in the second advertisement on this page.

 

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November 18, 2011

Antique Mantle Clock

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.

November 11, 2011

Antique Buffington Rifle Sight

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.

October 23, 2011

Scott Nelles Humback Whale & Calf Bronze Sculpture

This sculpture was conceived and executed by Scott Nelles, who learned to work bronze in Seattle but now lives in Michigan.

It is cast in bronze and depicts a mother Humpback Whale and her calf. They rest on a wooden base with a vertical wire. They could swivel, but they’re quite heavy (almost 4 pounds) so they tend to tip over if not aligned along the long axis of the base. When aligned as shown in the pictures it is quite stable.

When set up on the stand they are 9 1/4 inches long, 7 inches tall and 7 inches wide from fin tip to fin tip. The larger whale bears a copyright date of 1986, the smaller one is from 1981. This seems a little odd but they were cast together.

October 17, 2011

Wine For A Witches Coven: 13 Crystal Glasses By Stuart (England) In The Marlborough Pattern

Let’s get this taken care of right off: I know that a witches coven does not necessarily consist of 13 members.

But we have 13 wine glasses in two sizes and I’m trying to write (yet) another post before I get to go home, so just bear with me.

These glasses were made in England by Stuart crystal. They are all in the Marlborough pattern. We have two sizes. There are six  water or wine glasses (7 inches tall) and 7 claret wine glasses (5 5/8 inches tall). If, by some chance, you happen to belong to a 13 member group and you’re looking for a way to demonstrate a 6 vs. 7 individual hierarchy then here’s a possibility.

These particular pieces are in good condition. We originally had more of them, but they’re easy to damage accidentally if you’re accustomed to drinking out of mason jars (like I am).

Drink carefully, lest you do anything you might regret later. . .

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October 7, 2011

Vintage Office Chair

Sometime in the early 1950′s my mother worked as a secretary in a big insurance company. This chair probably comes from that era, when stenography was an essential skill for office workers and the kind of chair you had was a symbol of social status in the organization (which is something that hasn’t changed much).

Given that this chair doesn’t have arms and has a hard wooden seat it was probably used by a typist or someone similarly low in the office food-chain.

It is in great shape which I take to mean that they spent as much time as possible elsewhere. It adjusts for height and the back is adjustable too.

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October 5, 2011

Multi-Section Danish Book Case: Breaking Up The Band

The trouble with big set like this is not a lot of folks have room for all the pieces AND a convenient empty corner to put it in. Hence, we’re faced with the  classic problem of either breaking the set up, or looking at it for the extended future.

We’re going to break it up since space is a bit tight around here.

These five pieces were made in Denmark, have rosewood veneer and adjustable shelves. Each piece stands 88 inches tall.

From left to right we have:

A 1/4 round unit that is 12 1/2 inches deep (SOLD).
Next is a tapered  shelf that is 12 1/2 inches deep on the left side but just over 16 inches deep on the right side (SOLD).
The center unit has three drawers and is also just over 16 inches deep (SOLD).
The biggest piece in the assemblage is the corner piece. The short sides to either side of the opening are only 12 1/2 inches deep. The enclosed back sides are about 26 inches wide, so the foot print for the piece is a 26 inch square (SOLD).
The last piece on the right is another tapered shelf, but this time the deeper side is to the left and the shallower side is on the right (SOLD).
The two tapered pieces and drawer unit are 22 1/4 inches wide.

October 2, 2011

Do You Know Some Bunny Who Needs A Rocking Chair?

My favorite chair is a Windsor rocking chair that was a wedding gift for my grandparents. My second favorite chair is a sewing rocker, much like this one but in much rougher shape. I bought it thinking that it’d be a good porch chair but it is too comfortable to leave out in the weather.

Like this chair and sewing rockers in general it has a low seat. This one has a curved back made out of a piece of veneered bent wood and it finished in a mahogany colored stain. I’m not sure what the underlying wood is. The chair is 38 inches tall and 27 inches deep ($90). There are faint traces of writing in chalk on the underside of the seat but I can’t quite read them.

It looked a bit lonely when it was sitting out in the hallway waiting to come into the store so I took the opportunity to use it as clean seating for one of the giant rabbits we recently got.

The bunny rabbit is by Dakin. It is a very large Lou Rankin Friends Beatrice Bunny. The bunny stands about 24 inches tall. The one in the picture has been sold but we have another that is still in the original plastic bag ($25).

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September 27, 2011

This IS Your (Great) Grand-Mother’s Plastic: Antique Hand Mirror

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

The Graduate (1967)

This is not exactly the kind of plastics Mr. McGuire had in mind.

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.

September 20, 2011

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Joker, Magician, Minister: Three Burmese Puppets

Well, I screwed up and somehow managed to not schedule this at the right time.  So only eight hours late, here is today’s 9 am post at 5 pm.

 

What I’d like to spend most of my time doing is figuring out the weird stuff, deciphering the enigmas of past culture while learning not-exactly useful (on a daily basis) information on the way. Unfortunately the reality is that I get to spend more time than I like doing the dishes, spit-shining furniture and shifting things from one place to another.

So, sometime things take longer than one would like to make it from the pile of denial (the place where all the enigmas go before being decoded) into the store. These neat fellows have been around quite a while (approximately the gestation time of Homo sapiens sapiens), and I’d like to write the tale of how they made it to America (it involved tricking a tourist in a game of seven card stud, stowing away on a tramp steamer and then a dangerous swim through the surf to reach the Port Of Portland) but some things can’t be told in more or less public forum.

We’ve had Burmese puppets before. Discovering what they were was a world ranging exploration in itself, from Korea to Japan and southward to West Africa, before closing in upon Burma (Myanmar). Once we figured out where they were from it was relatively easy to decide which of the set-piece characters in the codified Burmese puppet theater the object represented and go from there.

We know where these come from (that’s the easy part), but which characters do they represent?

 

The characters in Burmese puppet theater were more or less officially codified by the royal patrons of the theater in the early 19th century. Luckily for us this means that the possible field of characters is restricted and we only have to look with in a relatively finite set of 30 or so individuals.

We’re pretty sure we have one of the Three Jokers (Yaw Yuet, Lu Phyet & Lu Shwin Daw). The pointing index finger on the right hand is the primary indicator of this. We’re not sure which of the three jokers this is, but it’s pretty definitely one of them. The pointing index finger on the right hand is the defining trait and they’re not laughing with you, they’re laughing at you.

He’s in OK condition and comes in traditional dress, carved wooden hair, fixed hands (see below) and clay painted face (with a few scrapes as shown in the picture). He’s about 13 inches tall.

This is the Alchemist or Magician (Zawgyi) they always wear red and the characters “dance is full of high jumps and somersaults and the puppeteer is usually very skilled in his craft.” Without any quantitative basis for thinking this I suspect our Magician was made more recently* than the Joker above. He’s in great shape and stands 23 inches tall. Like the first Burmese puppet we had this one has articulated hands which is just really neat. His beard hairs are plugs of human hair,which is kind of cool too.

*I suspect I’m thinking that relative simplicity (primitivism) is can correlate to greater antiquity. This is a fundamentally false premised based on the idea of progressive evolution and that sophistication increases over time. As the Middle Ages shows so well when contrasted to Imperial Rome this is not the case. As such I could be totally wrong. But I’m a generalist so I do what I can. If the change in construction techniques and styles in Burmese puppets happens to be the subject of your master’s thesis and I’m wrong please let me know and I’ll make the necessary revisions.

The third one appears to be a minister (or possibly a hermit which says something about how in touch with the populace government officials really are). The tall hat suggests that he’s a very important person we’ll go with the idea that the size of the hat correlates to the (perceived) importance of the person wearing it.

He isn’t as elaborately made as the Magician so he probably wasn’t as important a person on the stage. The decorative style suggests that he’s come from the same place and or time as the magician though. He’s in good condition and stands about 16 inches tall.

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September 18, 2011

Oneida Twin Star Stainless Flatware Set #1

The Oneida Twin Star stainless flatware pattern is one of the signature patterns of the mid-century modern era. It is still one of the most sought after patterns out there and luckily pieces are readily available.

We’ve collected a bunch of it and although we’ve sold a few sets we haven’t advertised any since December of 2009. . . This time we’ve got enough that we’ll need to break it into a couple sets and we’ll tell you about the odd ball pieces we have left too.

So let’s begin: This set consists of 41 pieces altogether including 12 dinner knives, 12 dinner forks, 12 teaspoons, two serving or table spoons, one slotted serving spoon, one butter knife and a pierced pie or cake server.

All the pieces are in good, but used condition.

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September 3, 2011

Pre-War Aladdin Alacite Lamp With Finial

Alacite was a type of glass developed in the late 1930′s by Aladdin lamps and was intended as an ivory opalescent glass that would imitate the look of natural elephant tusk. Between 1938 and 1942 this glass contained trace amounts of uranium which causes earlier pieces to glow under black-light. As the war effort ramped up uranium supplies were monopolized by the government and, when production resumed after the war, uranium was no longer an ingredient in the glass.

I fully expected that this piece dated to the post-war production phase and that it was made no later than 1952 when production ended.  Thankfully, I checked it under black light and it does indeed glow dating this from 1938 to 1942.

Although Alacite has a tendency to be brittle (leading to a quick end to a foray into glass cookware) this urn-shaped lamp is in excellent condition. It works and we even have the original buckle shaped finial, which is something of an unusual find.

While we might be able to make more by selling the lamp and finial separately it seems a shame to split them up after all this time.

All told this item is 21 1/2 inches tall.

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August 22, 2011

Paul McCobb Planner Group Chair

I knew I recognized the form of this chair, even with the poor paint job.  It is a Paul McCobb Planner Group Chair and it was made by the Winchendon Furniture Company as part of one of the longer lasting lines of the mid-century modern design era (1950 to 1964).

Unfortunately someone decided to give it a paint job. Luckily they didn’t it very well. It seems like the original finish is mostly intact under the paint. As such the damage may be reversible and you could get the underlying maple to shine once again.

Other than the paint, the only notable flaw is that one of the back support spindles has been broken and repaired (see detail pictures) Otherwise this piece is in good shape.*

Just in case you find it relevant, the height of this chair is 31 inches to the top of the back. The maximum depth is 19 1/2 inches and it is  17 inches wide.

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*The previous owner and presumed painter was left-handed. We were able to tell this by trace evidence left on the underside of the seat. We’ve taken the liberty of cleaning this detritus off for you. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to do it, nor the most notable (that one involved a vacuum cleaner and a putty knife). We respectfully ask that, in the future, you consider wiping your finger on the cuff of your pants, rather than upon the furniture.  Thanks in advance!

August 17, 2011

Walnut Danish Bookcases

“In Ireland and Denmark both,
Witches for gold will sell a man a wind,
Which, in the corner of a napkin wrap’d,
Shall blow him safe unto what coast he will.” 

Thomas Nash Summers Last Will And Testament

Perfectly suggesting the possible future contents of these shelves. Travel books, books on religion, myth, sorcery and magic. Books about sailing ships and sealing wax, comparative literature, business, textiles, metallurgy and meteorology.

These tall skinny bookcases traveled from  Denmark. They’ve come in as a pair, but we’re willing to break up the set if that’s what it takes to find them new homes. They are 74 3/4 inches tall, 31 1/2 inches wide and 12 inches deep. The veneer appears to be walnut, the shelves are adjustable and they’re in good condition overall.

August 1, 2011

Vintage Tile Topped Mission Table With Catalina Style Tile

This is a great little table with four pieces of Catalina style tile for the top.  We’ve had several of these over the years and we’ve yet to get two that are the same. This time though we got one that is at least in the same color tones as one of our previous pieces, which might be a new occurrence.

The four tiles are in perfect shape and are set in the usual California Mission Style frame table top with turned legs. It is 17 1/2 inches square and 17 inches tall. Although there are a few age appropriate dings and other small bits of damage,  it is in good condition overall.

Arts and Crafts period purists get bent out of shape when Mission furniture shows up in non-bungalow style houses (the type for which the furniture was originally designed) but because these are great little pieces they tend to fit in everywhere.

I think I’d like them on the terraced patio of a seasonal home in the desert southwest, especially around late February of next year. If anyone happens to have one . . .

July 31, 2011

Recycled Treadle Sewing Machine Table

Problem: You have an old table with bad legs. You also have a treadle sewing machine you don’t use anymore.

Solution: Use the sewing machine treadle as the base for your old table.

Vintage cast-iron Singer sewing machine treadle legs mated to a rectangular oak table top. This piece is 40 1/2 inches long, 22 1/2 inches wide and 29 inches tall. It ‘d make a nice little table for a small kitchenette, breakfast nook or cozy country cabin.


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