Stores Start Opening!

Sunday I received an email that a small antique mall about 10 miles up the road was going to reopen on June 1st. I already had a couple of necessary errands to run on Monday morning, but I knew I had to go to this antique store too. Finally, something was open! A lovely store to peruse in person.

Before heading out on Monday, I decided to check the status of my neighborhood thrift store and discovered they were going to open at 10:00 too! What?!! I did a little dance in our family room.

This little Goodwill has been my thrifting sweet spot. When I look through my sales over these past eight years I see so many items that came from that store. Some were pretty spectacular.

Here are a few of my early finds…

So I got my errands out of the way and was second in line when the store opened its doors. I was excited (to say the least)! It had been about 80 days since I had last been in this store.

I wandered around the store for 30 minutes and found a few things. My results were mixed, still I came home happy. Here’s what I bought for $23.45.

First, I spotted these five Williamsburg Stieff silverplate liquor tags (one is a blank). These are reproductions of an earlier design.

Interestingly they were part and parcel with this crystal decanter below, which while nice, was not what I wanted to buy. (Confession, I still have two beautiful, unlisted crystal decanters I bought over two years ago!) But after examining the decanter I spotted a Waterford acid mark on the bottom and thought “Well alrighty then!”

Sadly when I got home and removed all the tape I discovered the stopper was chipped at the top. Drat! Perhaps I could sell the base as a carafe or vase?

Now I know this majolica ceramic asparagus tureen from Portugal is not everyone’s cup of tea. Honestly, it’s not something I feel the need to own…but there are folks who love this type of quirky kitchenalia. In fact I was with an older friend when she bought a very similar asparagus tureen at an antique store last year.

I’m a fan of native american pottery and this one was signed. Did a bit of research at home and discovered that Hozoni pieces are fairly common and most are not valuable. Still it is striking.

I love inlaid boxes and frames and they sell well for me so I tossed this in my basket. But I didn’t look closely at it in the store and noticed later at home that it’s rather crudely made. Hummph!

Was planning on exchanging it, but just discovered the store now has a “no exchange” policy. All sales final. I’ll have to be a lot more careful in reviewing items before buying…which is always a good practice.

I went again to the thrift store again on Wednesday, mainly to drop off a Jeep-load of goods I’ve been collecting for months. Turns out everyone and his mother had the same idea and there was a queue to unload your car. It was crazy!

But of course I went in and did a quick peruse of the store shelves while I was there. Liked the looks of this little reconstituted stone scarab paperweight in dark brown with green/blue undertones and gold glints.

So no huge scores (though the liquor tags are darn good) but honestly I was thrilled just to be roaming my favorite store again.

It’s funny how easily you can take things for granted. 2020 has shaken up life in a way that none of us would have imagined. Such a sad, strange, dangerous year.

Keep safe,

Karen