Posted by As August wound down I found myself thrifting more just to give my spirit a boost! Maybe you’ve done that too. I wasn’t buying a lot, but I was looking. And blessed be in the last few days I’ve found some fabulous signed items for a snip reminding me why I love this biz.
First I found a small piece of Waterford crystal signed by Bernard Barry in 1987. Yes, please! It also has its regular acid-etched Waterford mark. I’ve never found Waterford signed like this. Have you??
Turns out Bernard was a master cutter with Waterford and I found him on Facebook. How cool is that!
There is some cloudiness in part of it. Regular washing helped, but not enough. Now I need to whip out my cerium oxide, create a paste and polish it out. Likely it will need several many applications but I want it to glisten and I don’t mind putting in the work for this special piece. (I’ll list this around $60.)
A few days later I was dropping off two bags of stuff at my fav upscale thrift store. One bag was “better clothing” that either no longer fit or didn’t look flattering on me–like a sweet Johnny Was embroidered top. (Hated to see it go.) Of course I had to look around the store since I was there and I found a small hand-painted, folk art religious item. (This is one of the small niches that does well for me.) And bonus it was in the 50% off area.
This piece was naive and charming and had a message on the back.
Back at home out of curiosity I did an image search on the message and I am sooooo glad I did. Turns out this is a Lydia Garcia piece. Lydia lived in Taos, New Mexico (1936-2023) and, later in life, became a painter of saints and religious iconography. Her retablos are collected and treasured.
My next step was to learn its fair market value. I found a Lydia Garcia retablo that sold for $100 on the Ripley Auction site a year ago and the few that are for sale online currently are listed from $75 to $395.
Now I’m looking at my angel holding a sheep. Where does it fall on this spectrum of prices? In the end, after doing a bit more research, I listed it for $148.
Just thrilled with these two little finds. This is just the kind of inventory I want to have in my Etsy store.
Total spent for both: $11.99
Would love to hear what you’ve been finding.
Karen
Hunting for Vintage 