Posts with tag collecting
Winter Antiques Debut on Park Avenue
Gardens & Outdoor Living, Luxury Living, Design, etc
A luminous hanging dragonfly lamp (71-inches overall) was created by Tiffany Studios of leaded glass and bronze in 1905. Dragonflies were a popular motif then, as now. Geoffrey Diner Gallery (price not available).
From a Tiffany chandelier to small-scale sculpture, animal-loving collectors will find much to admire.
New York's 56th Annual Winter Antiques show – a cultural event with special cachet for its combination of art, charity and commerce – opened today at the Park Avenue Armory. Some 75 top dealers from around the world are showcasing rare antiques from ancient times through the 1970s in elaborate booths filled with fresh flowers.
Winter Antiques is the crown jewel of an intense week of auctions and antique fairs that attracts top collectors and dealers to New York each year. Dealers offer their best and rarest pieces and, on opening night, the New York collecting elite gets a few private hours shopping along with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Once pieces are sold, they are whisked off the floor.
Proceeds benefit New York's East Side House Settlement, a non-profit organization that provides social services to residents of the South Bronx. The show runs until Jan. 31; daily 12 pm – 8 pm; Sunday and Thursday until 8 pm. General admission is $20.
While trends are virtually nonexistent – after all, nothing is new – this is the first time in five years where a clear theme emerged. Animals appeared in so many forms, materials and sizes it seems dealers and collectors have "back to nature" very much in mind.
Turkey Transferware Plates
Shopping, Fun Stuff, Parties & Entertaining, Holidays, Design, etc
Good Bones, Great Pieces
One of those special treasures are turkey transferware plates. During our most recent trip to the Brimfield Antique Fair this fall, where it rained cats and dogs for the entire weekend, we ducked our heads under a large tent to get out of the rain. As we shook out our damp hair and regrouped, we looked up and found ourselves surrounded by an amazing collection of transferware turkey plates. While you'll often see one or two transferware pieces at antique fairs, tag sales and even in your grandmother's attic, it's rare to see so many in one place at one time--particularly when they're all decorated with turkeys! With only a few days before the festivities begin, it seems like a wonderful time to bring them out and show you what we've learned about this beautiful collectible.
Top 8 Signature Vintage Collectibles for Your Home
Top 8 Signature Vintage Collectibles for Your Home
Vintage hotel silver pieces come from the finest European hotels, restaurants, ocean liners and even the earliest passenger trains. This dealer, from Connecticut, travels all over the world to salvage these pieces when hotels fall on bad times. They were made to last, so they're usually in excellent condition. They can be used in everyday life as containers to hold flowers or herbs, or to use when entertaining to add a luxe touch. Matching sets of dishes, bowls and flatware are very hard to find, but if you see a great tray or ice bucket at a good price, grab it. They make wonderful gifts, too.
Good Bones, Great Pieces
This dealer from Lake Lucerne, New York, spends her long winter days crafting together vintage hand-painted miniature illustrations with salvaged antique frames. The result is just exquisite. They would look wonderful hung in a small grouping on a narrow wall in a powder room or other vertical space.
Good Bones, Great Pieces
These simple, oversized glass containers are wonderful decorative objects. This dealer came from Ohio, but he had bought them from a farm in Texas. They had been used at one time to store and transport grain and most likely had muslin lids tied with string and sealed with wax to keep insects and vermin out. At $60, vessels like these are a great find; you only need one (although multiples are always great) to rotate seasonal branches, hydrangea or winter greens in throughout the year.
Good Bones, Great Pieces
Vintage French glass containers like these were used to store wine. They've got a lovely history and a wonderful sculptural quality. We've found them to be kind of expensive, so choose wisely.
Good Bones, Great Pieces
A dealer we respect told us that many pie safe cabinets were lovingly made by young men for their new brides in the early nineteenth century. This one, from the Delaware Valley, and others like it were used to store freshly baked pies, breads and other baking goods before the invention of ice boxes and refrigerators. Often they've been painted numerous times as they were passed along through families. The intricacy of the punched tin work (used for ventilation) increases the value of these pieces as they are considered works of folk art. This piece was expensive, at $5,800, because it has a drawer at the top (not typical) and it retains it's original paint color, a lovely pale mustard yellow. This would make a great investment piece for a dining room or a kitchen, to be passed along for future generations.
Good Bones, Great Pieces
This fabulous sofa came from a dealer in South Glen Falls, New York. It was originally made by Baker Furniture in the 1970s. Whenever we find vintage furniture pieces like this one, they are usually very well made (a lot better than some of the upholstered pieces sold at retail today) and you can get great deals. This sofa has a very modern, unusual shape and the dealer was selling it for $1,500. Hard to walk away from. It's covered in muslin right now, so you could either upholster it right away or live with it as is until you're able to have it covered in a fabric of your choice. (Realistically, a sofa of this size would require about 22 yards of plain goods, so keep that in mind when you're hunting!)
Good Bones, Great Pieces
Here's a great example of how to use a piece of American history for decoration. These pig cutting boards were part of a collection culled from many sources. Boards like these were made in wood crafting classes ("shop" in public schools), by cub scouts and even in prisons. The entire collection was priced at $600. We could see this collection, or even part of it, it hung as is on a dining room wall or in a large country kitchen with a sense of humor.
Good Bones, Great Pieces
Brown transfer-printed ware is one of our personal favorite collectibles. This happens to be a particularly strong collection. Each piece is in mint condition (no chips or cracks) and the variety of designs printed on each platter is rare to see in one setting. Each of these platters range in price from $165 to $295. Dealers will often make deals with buyers who buy multiple pieces, so be sure to try to negotiate a better price when you can. If you're thinking of starting a transfer-printed ware collection, ask the dealer to show you the markings on the back of each piece, to validate the age. Remember to look for different patterns, shapes and sizes; if you decide to hang them, the arrangement will be much more interesting to look at. This dealer hung them on a green backdrop; we love them against bird's egg blue walls.
Good Bones, Great Pieces
Decorative lighting can have an impact on any interior design project, but it can cost a fortune if you're buying from retail stores. We find lighting to be one area where you really can find extraordinary pieces at great value. These Art Nouveau sconces came out of an opulent Park Avenue apartment undergoing a major renovation. They had already been electrified, which is an important cost saver. A pair of these flanking a fireplace or in the hallway of a large vestibule would be breathtaking and you could take them with you from home to home. These were going for $1,575 for a pair.
Good Bones, Great Pieces
Fabulous Finishing Touches
Treasure Hunting at the Brimfield Antiques Show
A Visit to the Madison-Bouckville Antiques Show
Buying Antiques: Expert Secrets for Spotting a "Find"
I recently had the privilege to chat with Carol Prisant, author of the upcoming Good, Better, Best: Trade Secrets for Spotting a "Find," a book which started out as a column of the same name that Carol wrote for House Beautiful. Carol is also the author of both Antiques Roadshow encyclopedias, a professional appraiser, a former antiques dealer (she started dealing when she was 25) and the American editor of The World of Interiors, which is to say, the woman knows a thing or two (or maybe two hundred) about shopping for vintage and antique goods. Carol was gracious enough to share some of her secrets with ShelterPop:It's all in the timing. Dealers like to get to flea markets at the crack of dawn because that's when you get the bargains. But...if you go towards the very end of the day looking for, say, a sofa, dealers are much more likely to give you a deal because they don't want to cart bigger pieces home.
Shop tag and yard sales. "Let's be honest," says Carol, "[At a tag sale] you're playing against a non-knowledgeable seller, and that's to your advantage. It's a game. How much more do you know than the seller knows?"
The best way to get a deal is to know your stuff. "Learn a little bit about it before you go," says Carol. You have the best chance at getting a good deal when you are well informed. Read a book or ask a dealer to teach you -- most will be happy to share their knowledge.
Observe and learn. If you really want to educate your eye, visit as many antique shows as you can; it will make you more discriminating. You'll begin to see duplicates and triplicates. Knowing what is common will help you know what's uncommon, and what's uncommon is what's rare and valuable.
Head to urban areas for high quality pieces. "The closer you can get to a big city, the more likely you are to be buying the property of well-to-do people," Carol advises. This is important if you're hoping to find great art or well-crafted antiques, but less so if you're searching for vintage collectibles like toys.
Head to the sticks for undiscovered treasure. While the ascendance of mid-century modern furniture is well known on the coasts and in cities, you still might be able to score a Paul McCobb desk or a Bertoia chair at an out-of-the-way flea market.
Look for furniture that is substantial and well made. Pay careful attention to joints, finishing and evenness of surface. "It shouldn't look like something you can make in your basement." Just use your good sense: If carving is shallow and careless, that's not the work of a good manufacturer; if the hardware looks cheap, it probably is.
Never speculate. "Don't ever spend more than is comfortable for you on the chance that it's going to be good," says Carol.
Don't criticize the merchandise. "Dealers get their backs up when people knock something they want," says Carol. And if you think about it, they've got a right to get ornery: Why would you offer a dealer money for something if you were complaining about the condition?
Don't play tough when trying to get a bargain. If you really like something but it's priced too high, make an offer. "Leave your card and say 'If you ever decide that you can sell this for X, give me a call,'" says Carol. "Sometimes you'll get a call two years later, and sometimes they'll call you that day."
Some things don't improve with age. "Things that were tacky when they were new, are tacky when they are vintage," says Carol. Amen to that.
Avoid the name game. Fashion's obsession with labels in names has slipped into the world of design. Don't let anybody say to you, "Oh that's a such-and-such." A name alone isn't a reason to buy something.
There is no next big thing. Carol sighs, "The dealers have found everything: Everything that was under-exposed... has been re-discovered, gone up in price and found collectors." However, if she had to make a guess, Carol says we may see 18th century French and Jacobean furniture have a renaissance because it's been neglected a bit. (You heard it hear first!)
For specific advice about collecting everything from brass door stops to paintings of cats, pick up Carol's book GOOD, BETTER, BEST: Trade Secrets for Spotting a "Find".
Budget Mid-Century Peppermills
Decorating, Shopping, Design, etc
Now that's a collection of Danish pepper mills! Photo: Modernica
Mark notes that these mills are so appealing because they exhibit hand craftsmanship. "If you have six of them, they make a great display," says Mark. "They're almost little sculptures." Plus, unlike some collectibles, peppermills have a practical purpose, and therefore an intrinsic value.
According to Mark, the mills created by Dansk and designed by Jens Quistgaard are the "crème de la crème" of peppermill collecting. There were about 70 Dansk designs in total. Some of them were only made for a year, making them very rare. (In fact, some of them are so hard to find that Mark has only seen photos of them in old Dansk catalogues!) Nissen is the other collectible manufacturer, and beyond that, there are a couple of other Danish companies that made mills.
Modern Garden Gnomes
Gardens & Outdoor Living, Shopping, Gardening
Travelocity has popularized the gnome with their "roaming gnome". Photo: Travelocity
You can get a traditional garden gnome just about anywhere these days, or even a novelty gnome donning your favorite team's gear.
But what about the modern design lover? Where do we go for garden garnish?
A few companies have a new take on the traditional garden ornament for modern decor-lovers.
