My Vintage Soul

My Lousy Lilacs

I have always looked forward to spring and the blooming of my lilacs. But this year, the blossoms are few and far between.

Plus, there’s this scaly gray stuff on some of the branches.

What went wrong?

From a little bit of online research, apparently I’m what’s wrong. I have always been reluctant to trim these bushes, and that was a mistake. 

Lilacs are fairly finicky (one blog called them the "Drama Queen" of the garden). They need a lot of air circulation, particularly on their lower branches. By not trimming, I’ve inhibited that circulation, which has reduced the blossoms. And that scaly stuff? It might be a form of lilac mold that’s probably the result of a lack of circulation, plus more moisture accumulating due to a very wet spring. The recommendation is that I wipe it off.

I’ll do that and I’ll do the trimming. There is a tight window for trimming lilacs, in case you’re wondering. It’s right after bloom but before July 4^th.

 

Lucky for me, a few other purple things are blooming in the garden, including the alliums. I’ll enjoy that show for now and, with fingers crossed of course, look forward to next year.

Just a Little Bit More

After last week's haul, I had lowered my expectations for what I might find this week. The rummage sales are winding down and I don't have much luck finding vintage Christmas at garage sales. But I did better than expected. The two gold tinsel trees, which are marked Japan, came from a garage sale. The Santa cup and sleigh were found at a rummage sale. The nativity? It's from the thrift store.

Even better, I found not one but two of those ceramic green trees. And better yet, the one on the right came from a garage sale.  

I guess I might have to rethink garage sales, huh?

 

Junk Drunk

After last weekend, I’m officially junk drunk. But I’m not complaining about a hangover.

You see, I live in Upstate New York, where it’s winter for six months of the year (or seems like it is), so the sales can be pretty sparse for at least half the year. 

Hence, I’ve been on a buying binge for about a week.  Here’s some of the haul:

Holiday stuff: A whole bunch of candoliers that I hope to gussy up for Halloween and Christmas, a fun flocked chimney that lights up, a Halloween blow mold and a few Santas.

These are two wire spheres covered in tinsel. They're something that I have never seen before. The crazy thing is that I found both on Sunday at two different sales. They have tiny tags on them that say they were made in Japan so I think they’re from the 1960s or earlier.

The best holiday finds were two items that I bought on Saturday at a small estate sale. I found a shoe box of more than a dozen foil circles that are embellished with tiny mercury glass beads and paper bells.

And then I found a tall white feather tree made of cellophane called visca.

The tree came in handy as I untangled the jumble of foil circles. I hung them on the tree, and I was stunned by the combination of the two. Both are definitely keepers.

Housewares: More items included a 1950s glass carrier, two matching McCoy planters and a kitschy beach souvenir lamp.

Cute quilt: Finally, there was this redwork quilt that I think dates to the 1940s or earlier. I found it at a church rummage sale. It’s little rough around the edges but it has the cutest farm images, including chickens, cows and various flowers. The sweetest square is the one that shows a little girl named Elsie, who, I’m assuming, must have been the recipient of the quilt.

And what have you found lately?

Harwood Steiger

You never know what you might find at a church rummage sale, and what you might learn about someone you have never heard of before.

Take Harwood Steiger. I didn't know a thing about this textile designer until I came upon 3 yards of mint-condition, hand-printed pink cotton fabric from Harwood Steiger Studios that dates to the 1970s. The pattern is called "April" and it shows images of foliage and birds.

Steiger was best known for his desert-inspired textiles. With his wife, Sophie, they produced silk screened styles (36 yards at a time for each pattern). The company was in existence in Tubac, Ariz., from 1956 until the 1980s.

Steiger was born near Rochester, N.Y., which is about 70 miles from where I live. He went to the Rochester Institute of Technology. In the 1920s, he moved to New York City, where he opened his own art studio and taught classes. In the '30s, he opened a summer art school at Martha's Vineyard called The Steiger Paint Group. His paintings were primarily watercolors and his style was similar to other artists of the Works Progress Administration.

The Steigers lived in New York in the summers and returned to Arizona for the winters. There, they would print their fabrics, which in addition to overall yardage, included table linens and 2-yard dress panels.

Steiger passed away at the age of 80. The Tubac studio was later run by his sister-in-law. It closed in the 1980s.

 

Sure Signs of Spring

Ahh, spring. The snow is finally gone and the sales have begun.

It's been a busy week. Between my day job, Etsy sales and going to sales, I have been very busy.

I picked up vintage quilt blocks and vintage Harwood Steiger fabric from church rummage sale no. 1. (And, no, I didn't know who the heck Harwood Steiger was, but there's a post coming on just him later this week.)

A beautiful piece of Madonna chalkware found at church rummage sale no. 2 that's now on her way to Kansas. (I love those quick Etsy sales.)

A little bit of Christmas from a farm/estate sale.

The Victorian house where the sale was held had beautiful details, including this frosted glass on the doors. 

 

And finally, an odd trash can featuring every president through Lyndon Baines Johnson. I bought it because it was cheap and it definitely fits the category of being quirky enough that somewhere out there is someone who wants it. I hope.

There are more sales to come later this week, so I'm just getting started. Much more to come.

An Ode to Irene

These days, you can find just about anyone, thanks to the Internet.

But that’s not the case with Irene Winston Spier.

And just who, you ask, is Irene Winston Spier? Well, I’m asking that too.

I had never heard of that name until I came across this cute vintage clock at a rummage sale on Saturday. I turned it over and saw it was made by Lux Clocks of Waterbury, Conn. And then, I saw this: Designed by Irene Winston Spier.

What I did learn from a few online searches was that this clock was called the Honey Bunny Pendulette Clock and it was made in 1950. It originally sold for less than $3. The Honey Bunny Clock came in two colors: white and pink. The white clock is rarer and probably more valuable. If you find the pink one, don’t clean it because you’ll remove the pink from the clock face. Apparently, the previous owner of my clock before me didn't know that because the pink paint is faded on the sides.

 

Irene designed a couple of other notable clocks, including one called the Shmoo Pendulette Clock in 1949 and one called the Petunia Pendulette Clock in 1951. The Shmoo was based on a character that Al Capp created for his “Li’l Abner” comic strip in 1948. The Petunia resembled a red flower complete with a green stem. The pendulum bob had a bumblebee on it.  

Another Internet search shows a patent for a “squeeze container for liquid having a reservoir neck” that Irene designed in 1953. Could that have been the forerunner of the ubiquitous flip cap that we now see on every bottle of liquid soap and lotion?

Without much else to go on, I’d like to think that Irene was among the Peggy Olsons of product design: She was smart, sassy and swimming upstream as a pioneer in a field probably dominated by men. Sadly, it seems unlikely that I’ll never know for sure.

I couldn’t even find Irene's obituary, but I think she’s probably passed. If you happen to know something about Irene Winston Spier, add it in the comments.

Passages to India and Oklahoma

My recent thrifting finds have taken me (vicariously) to locations far from home. 

First, there's this Oklahoma souvenir apron, which, sadly, has more than a few small tears in it.

But I hope that someone will be as charmed by it as I was.  

A better find, I think, is 4-plus yards of this India-inspired cotton novelty print, which, ironically, was found at an estate sale that was dominated with traditional Polish linens, books and religious items.

And that made it all the more intriguing.

Still, I couldn't figure out how one might use this fabric, which is 33 inches wide and has a definite vertical pattern to it. And then, I had a light bulb moment. This fabric was most certainly for one of those travel-inspired border print skirts. They were quite popular in the 1950s and many of them featured exotic locales. Often they were hand-sewn.

Here's an ad for the skirts from a 1950s catalog.

I didn't have to wait long for this one to move out of the Etsy shop. As I was finishing this post, I heard the cha-ching on my phone, signaling a sale.

So it was a good purchase after all.

 

 

 

 

Let That Be a Lesson to You

Did you ever do something that you knew you shouldn't do, but in a moment of temporary insanity, did it anyway?

That's how a perfectly good piece of barkcloth ended up looking like this.

So sad and so stupid on my part.

Here's the complete tale of this tragedy.

I went to two sales on Saturday and came home with a few treasures.

I found these Suntimer sunglasses, likely from the 1950s-60s, at sale no. 1 for $2. Not bad, because just about everything else at this sale was way overpriced, and because on Etsy, this brand can sell for up to $150. 

Then at sale no. 2, I found a few pieces of vintage fabric, including the barkcloth. In my haste to get everything clean, I threw all the pieces in the washing machine. The barkcloth must have exploded, leaving all kinds of residue behind. So let that be a lesson to you. Barkcloth + washing machine = very bad.

Luckily, the other piece of fabric, 2 yards of vintage Sundour fabric, was OK (after i picked off the barkcloth fibers).

Also surviving just fine was a funny little gnome patterned tablecloth.

Luckily, I didn't throw the 1943 McCalls Needlecraft magazine in the wash either.

So I was able to see how it still relates to current events.

And now much better our lives would be if we still wore hats.

and aprons.

 

 

The Art of Paint by Number

Do you remember the classic Paint By Number paintings? Introduced in 1950 by Palmer Paint Company of Detroit, Mich., these  painting kits gave people the chance to bring out their artistic side. The concept took off, and in 1951, Palmer Paint's Craft Master brand sold more than 12 million kits.

Paint By Number was designed to be simple. Paint the numbered images with the corresponding paint, and you could mimic the Masters, or as the box containing the kit, promised, "Every man a Rembrandt!"

Well, of that, I'm not so sure. I have seen a lot of PBNs over the years, and I've sold a few too, and the quality of them can vary greatly. And speaking personally of my own experience. I'm no Rembrandt, although I do consider myself to be crafty.

I think you had better success with PBNs if you were somewhat artistic, had a steady hand and a fair amount of patience.

I bring all of this up because I found several PBNs at an estate sale on Saturday. I brought a few home although I passed on several that were in poor condition from being stored in a hot attic. Also, several of them were unfinished, and I didn't know if there is a market for unfinished PBNs. (Does anyone know?)

One resource that I have consulted every time that I buy a PBN is the Paint By Number Museum. You can search PBNs by keywords and learn a fair amount of information, including the name of the original kit that the painting came from, the series it was in, and, sometimes, the date it was manufactured.

From the museum, I learned more about my new finds.

These two small paintings (they're 6 inches wide and 8 inches high) are from a kit called "Tranquil Gardens," which was sold in 1969. The kit came with a third bigger painting (which I didn't see at the sale) that was about 16 by 20 inches. These are headed to my Etsy shop soon.

"The Exotic Orient," date unknown, but probably from the 1960s-1970s. These are headed to my Etsy shop too.

"Harbor Scenes," manufactured in 1970. This is not on traditional canvas and it part of a series that used glazes, so it has a shiny appearance. Also Etsy-bound.  

 

A Craft House Paint By Number portrait of deer in the woods titled "Wooded Sanctuary." It dates to 1990s. It's in my Etsy shop.

 A pair of horse portraits. These are titled "Horse Portraits" and date to 1976. They're also in my etsy shop.

And finally, two PBNs that I think I'm keeping. 

I found these at a yard sale a few years ago, and they're among the best PBNs that I have ever seen. They're in a great shape and were obviously done by someone who was already a "Rembrandt." 

The one on the left is "Mill Pond" and the one on the right is "In The Valley," and they weren't originally sold together, but they are both from 1958.

Finally, you can buy new Paint By Number kits from various sources online. The archives of the Palmer Paint Company were donated in 1993 to the Smithsonian Museum of American History, where they are available to both the public and museum staff for research and exhibition purposes. 

 

Worth the Wait

Some things are worth the wait, including first decent estate sale of the year. Today, it finally happened, despite a steady snowfall that made the trip seem doubtful at first.

Still, Mr. VS and I persisted. We arrived a good hour or so into the sale, or about the time that the souvenir pennants that enticed me from Craigslist were being removed from the walls, and not by me. Oh, well.

Still there were several things that were fun and cheap. Here's a look:

Four Federal Glass hostess plates with three matching cups. They're milk glass and are from the 1950s. What caught my eye was the atomic flower design in pink and aqua. 

A set of salt and pepper shakers, which I keep telling myself that I shouldn't buy because I don't seem to have much luck selling them. But I was powerless to resist Holly Boy and Poinsettia Girl in perfect condition and in the original box, and I think you would have been too.

And speaking of Christmas, here's a plastic tree topper with a faceted pattern. I'm hoping that the those little yellow spots, which are the remnants of cellophane tape, will remove with a second application of Goo Gone.

And finally, on to another holiday that's just around the corner: Easter. Here's a family of fluffy chicks all decked out for the Easter parade.

So there are my finds. And what have you found this snowy weekend?