Bowls and Balls

This aqua cupboard in the corner of my family room is what is known as a chimney cupboard~ a thin cupboard that fit in a small space next to the chimney of an early American home. It is a Wisconsin piece bought at the Elkhorn Flea Market 8 to 10 years ago.

Mine is filled with old ironstone bowls~ actually most of them are compotes~ and a variety of balls.





On top are an old tin water jug and two targets from a shooting gallery in the shape of birds. There were many more targets where I found these. They were expensive, but now I wish I had bought them all.

You can see the real shells at the bottom of the cupboard. I like how this new print on canvas looks with them.



I have had many things hanging on this door over the years. Now it's an ode to labor. Do a little cement work and then swat a few flies.




The top bowl is filled with old baseballs.




These are stone balls and old butter molds bought at Estate Sales. They are in an old rye straw basket used in bread making.




This is an old carpet bowling ball in a ironstone platter of petrified sharks' teeth {Doesn't everyone have a collection of petrified sharks' teeth around the house?} on top of an old over pantry box found at a garage sale. It was filled with buttons and other sewing items.




Next are three white rag balls bought in southern Illinois on a road trip.





This is an English lawn bowling ball that was given as a trophy to the winner of some event in 1907. If you click on the picture you can read what it says. I think I will google it to see if I can find out more. Any of your research types out there are free to do the same. After all it is one of you who found our woman pilot.




This is a variety bowl of balls. Some of them fit on top of flag poles. Others are sports balls of different kinds. The white one on the right is a polo ball.




On the floor next to the chimney cupboard is part of my shell collection. Neatly and dust-free inside old pickle jars.




I didn't start showing these pictures of my collection to sell anything, but readers have inquired and several things have sold over the last couple of weeks since I started the "dusting" series. If you are interesting in buying something I am showing send me an email. The answer will be no, maybe, not at this time, or yes. I am open to considering selling things~ after all I am an antiques dealer.

See other White Wednesday posts at Faded Charm.

A Blue Cupboard from a Pharmacy

During the 1980's one of the neighboring communities had the cutest country gift shop inside a local pharmacy. The pharmacist's wife had the best taste and the nicest selection of items. She used antique country tables and cupboards as all her display pieces. The prices on all of these pieces were very, very high. I loved one slender blue cupboard in particular.

When the pharmacy was closing in the early 1990's there was a sale to liquidatel everything in the gift shop. I found out about the sale after it had been going on for a week or so. The cupboard had already been sold to 2 friends of mine who bought several pieces as partners. I didn't have to beg this time. I was able to buy the cupboard from them. It wasn't as inexpensive as it could have been, but it was still a bargain from its original store price.




There is original screening in the door. In its first life, it was probably a kitchen piece.

That is a white painted tin wash tub on top of the cupboard, and a survey measuring rod on the side with the numbers.




This is an old flower garland made from yarn wrapped around twisty wire.




Here is a closeup of some of the flowers. I have no idea how old it is, but it has a homemade 1920's or 1930's feel about it.




More tin lidded country store jars, some Christmas tree candle holders and a cutlery tray in original paint. It is more blue than it looks in the photo.




Hand colored fruit prints, a cutlery tray full of shells, and that general store jar I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I bought from an Estate Sale even though it didn't have its tin lid anymore. It is full of broken folding rulers.




Another cutlery tray. This one is stenciled. That is a rare tin fishing creel. It is rare because it is tin and doubly rare because it has its original blue painted surface. In the country antiques world, blue is the most valued color.

This cupboard is in the same room as the fireplace wall featured here, the coffee table I wrote about here, and the blanket chest display I posted about here.

There is REALLY a fireplace behind all of this stuff!

The weather outside has turned cooler so I am back to dusting. This is the fireplace wall in my family room now totally and throughly dusted....

From top to bottom.




A gable piece from a 1892 Laporte, Indiana workman's cottage.




A variety of big plaster sheep from church nativity scenes.




More sheep and an old toy log fence and gate.




A framed poster from WW2 announcing the pricing for Victory Notes.




A discarded sign from Crab Tree Farms, a local lake front estate.




A partial set of lithographed puzzle blocks. Behind the blocks is an old iron urn filled with round brushes.




An old pair of industrial scissors on top of a vintage ledger book.




Under the nest is an old iron heart doormat. Usually you only see parts of these~ salvaged from damaged doormats. This one is in perfect condition~ a rarity! Even though I found it at a garage sale, it was not inexpensive. She knew what she had.




You may recognized this wooden bowl of dried gourds from my blog header. It is briefly dust-free.




These wire hand shaped things are vintage glove dryers.




Here is another pair of glove dryers.




And a last pair. I have had them in many colors over the years. These just happen to be in the same white color range.




One of my customers may be interested in some or all of these "stone" lemons so they are temporarily residing together waiting to see if they are chosen to go live in a new home. The ironstone bowl is on top of a stack of old encyclopedias.

And off to the side is one of my flower basket doorstops.




I love what it says on this invoice file box, "The Boss File."




Clothespins~ my current default purchase at Estate Sales~ If nothing else is available I buy their clothespins. Another example of easy to find, ordinary things that I love in VOLUME.





The curved top pieces of wood at the sides of the fireplace are an old pair of Amish shutters.

Mr. Anything Goes Here's view from his favorite chair across the top of the coffee table. If you look closely you can see that there REALLY is a fireplace behind all that stuff!!!!!

More pictures from the 1940's~I think I am on the right track.

I thought I would share some more of the hundreds of pictures I bought from an Estate Sale a couple of weeks ago.

I am sure the photographer is a woman, and in a future post I will share where my research has taken me, but for today just enjoy some women at play in the mid-1940's.

{NOTE: All the pictures will enlarge if you click on them.}
















Don't you agree with me that these women would not have let a man take these pictures of them?

No sucking in of stomachs.

No covering up.

No embarrassment of being photographed painting a fence in their unmentionables.

My spring yard clean up is interfering with my dusting! So much to do and so little time.

No, I am not doing any yard work in the middle of the night. But the lure of the outdoors was so strong this weekend that I had to get out there and spruce things up.

Last year's curbside finds were looking VERY trashy to me out there in the yard so I took a load of the junkiest junk to the dump and started rearranging the rest~ Not best, just the rest.

Also hit several Estate Sales and will share some of my finds later this week.

But today I thought I would finish with the collections on the green cupboard that I dusted the other day.




This general store jar has pretty carmel and brown colored shirt buttons and some dice. I have a weakness for dice.

Behind the jar are some old leather books. I use old books as props in almost all of my displays. You may have noticed that already.




These are iron whatsits. I have no idea what they are, but they are HEAVY, HEAVY, HEAVY.




As children, both I and and later my daughter collected what I always thought were "fossilized fish vertebrae" from the shores of Lake Michigan. As an adult I have been told that they are crinoids.

Which they are, I'm not sure, but they along with driftwood, sea glass, and pretty rocks were the things I stuffed in my pockets for the bike ride home from the beach each day in the summer.

Some of these I have had for over 50 years.




Another tin lidded general store jar with rummage sale candles. More of those creamy, carmel tones that I find so peaceful to live with.




I am sure these tablets "regulated" something. I am not sure we want to know what.

We will leave dusting for a while and move on to some other things tomorrow.

For the love of a lamp, I can be reduced to begging.

Just a hint! Never be the driver when you are Estate Sale shopping with your competitive antiques dealer buddies. While you are parking the car they are buying everything worth having!!!!!

That is what happened to me years ago and the chickens in the picture below were involved. By the time I got TO the Estate Sale my friends were already leaving~ one of them with these chickens in his hot little hands. The chicken are a lamp! A lamp I LOVED. I am sure HE got the lamp at a great price, but I had to HAVE it and was reduced to BEGGING!

I have never been sorry that I bought it from him {I don't even remember what the price was}, but I NEVER drove my competition around again!




In the background of the photo is one of my old oil paintings of fruit. Another collection. I have several oil fruit paintings of various qualities~ this one is probably the best.




The little sleeping pig is a ceramic bank. I have a couple ceramic piggy-banks. He is the cutest.




Here is a closer look. The money slot is on his back. He doesn't have any money in him. If he did, it would be staying there because the only way to get it out would be to break him. Can you imagine? What a waste of a darling little guy.




These are plaster-like eggs inside an old general store jar. The eggs are what I have always called "hen-encouragers." After farmers took the real eggs they replaced them with "fake" eggs. The idea was to encourage the hens to continue laying more eggs. I don't know if it worked or not. I don't think farmers do it anymore. I have owned and sold old "hen-encouragers" in ceramic, glass, and wood.




This is another old general store jar with a tin lid. This one has some bay leaves, nest stuff, real dried eggs and oranges in it. These old tin-lidded glass general store jars are the only kind I collect/keep. I have a nice collection of general store jars now, and have never had them for sale. Anymore you only see them at better country antiques shows/shops. I haven't seen one for sale at an Estate Sale in years. The last one I found didn't even have a lid, but I bought it anyway.

There have been several versions of this type of jar reproduced, but the originals have handmade tin tops, are made of hand blown glass or old molded glass with seam lines. They are always clear glass that does NOT have a bluish tint.

All of these things are sitting on an old green storage cupboard that I bought in a Wisconsin shop. It was part of an Estate of a country collector whose family didn't like "Country" furniture. Goody, for me.

I continue dusting. I mean I am REALLY dusting~ I am taking everything off the surfaces, dusting and rearranging. So far it has been very rewarding.... it has literally been years since I have done this. I will keep dusting and photographing and sharing for as long as my allergies can stand it. Or if you can't stand it anymore!!!

I will know you have had it when my follower and visitor numbers start dropping like a stone. You could tell me to cut it out if you want to before that happens though.

Temporarily dust-free collections! Look quick!

Another sleepless night near Chicago and another dusted and rearranged table top. This is the coffee table that is between me and my favorite Judge Judy on TV.





Several of my favorite collections are right in front of me everyday. Here are some old rubber stamps.




Old brushes of several kinds.




Brushes and folding rulers~ metal and wood.




More rubber stamps and rolls of tickets.




Shells and leather books.




These are all colors I love. Creamy whites, browns, blacks, and gilt. And briefly dust-free.