A Few Scores in an Unforgettable Week

I don’t need to tell you that this past week in the U.S. was horrific. Between the frightening Capital attack and the scary-high Covid numbers I have bounced between feeling anxious, angry and heart broken. So I find myself sending up short prayers to God throughout the day and setting myself small tasks so I don’t spend the whole day curled up in a fetal position under my quilt. (Slight hyperbole!)

For my Etsy store one small task was listing items–which is tedious work, but necessary, and slightly rewarding. Another small task was clearing off my desk…which stays clear for about a day! And I did manage two short sourcing trips.

Since Thursday was a post office day and I would be out and about anyway, I signed up to peruse the free books being offered by our public library. The books are shelved in several rooms of a defunct school and I was one of six people who had reserved a spot from 1:00 to 2:30. They had advertised having 8000 books, but half the shelves were strangely bare. I’m guessing it was closer to 2000-3000 books. Of the normally robust mystery section (400-500 books) there were only10 large-print books. Fiction/literature was wiped out as was the religion/spiritually book section. There were no home decor books. The only books in great quantities were cookbooks, quilt/needlepoint/flower arranging books and outdated travel guides and computer books. I was disappointed but I found out one of the reasons…turns out a few local Kenyans had come in recently and selected books en masse to send back home to libraries in Africa. Well that’s cool, just wish the volunteers had updated the info.

Book wise I didn’t find anything exciting. Not one thing. But I did find this 1982 West Germany Ravensburger game called “Guess-a-Shape.” It’s geared towards children ages 4-8. Seems rather tame for 8 year olds, but I think for young children it would be fun. (My husband tested it out and was pleased to do well!)

It seems to be all there and in good shape.

But the real sleeper was a very worn box with large interlocking cardboard pieces with cool graphics tucked amongst some children’s books. Gosh these were fab. I tossed them in my bag.

Got home and discovered the cards (7″ by 11″) are mid-century modern ones made by Tigrett Enterprises for Charles Eames! Holy smokes!

The instruction sheet is missing and the box is…well, demolished, but all 20 original cards are there (though five have some creases in the cardboard from use.)

Sets of the same age, though in better condition, are listed online for $800 – $3200! Was hoping to list mine for $400-$500, but I think there are too many condition issues with the set. I’m leaning towards a more modest $200.

So despite the lack of good books I’m glad I went. Time will tell if these games find a new home!

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I also had some eBay bucks to use before they expired so I put them towards the purchase of this small 1904 English sterling silver vesta case. This would have hung from a chatelaine’s belt back in the day when matches were vital to the smooth running of a household. This is more my thing! Love, love, love sterling silver smalls.

It’s been well used and loved and I like it all the more for that. Would be cute as a pendant and is secure enough to work as a pill box. Frankly I’m happy to keep this for a while.

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On Sunday I popped in my neighborhood thrift store for 30 minutes. It was tough picking. Mostly newer, cheaper and damaged items. The best thing I found was this set of six vintage F.B. Rogers silver plate wine goblets made in Spain. I debated about buying these as they are heavily tarnished and I knew I would want to polish these at least a little before photographing them. (Another seller listed hers with nearly black tarnish and wrote about their “beautiful patina.” But make no mistake, patina and tarnish are two different things and no one is going to want to drink wine from a heavily tarnished silver goblet.)

Now in the “I’m keeping this one for a while” category, I bought a mid-century modern painting of birds signed “Meier” from an eBay seller.

I thought it would compliment some of our other art or at least be a fun addition!

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So just a couple of things…which is fine because sales have been fairly slow so far this year. I was happy to sell one of my lovely crystal decanters a few days ago. Crystal doesn’t sell quickly for me but I adore good quality pieces and find them hard to resist…and eventually the right person comes along!

Wishing you happy (and safe) hunting and may you find a few little sparks of joy in these dark days,

Karen