Featured Finds Thread

I'll see your summer scene....& raise you a Winter scene !!!

$5......at the charity thrift..



I also scored a food chopper.....new....for $2.75......( 48 retail..)
but no one wants to see that......

 

Beautiful painting!

 

There was a woman at the flea market selling everything for a dollar. Nobody bought this gem, so I grabbed it. My second upstairs bedroom is done in soft pinks and rose decor. This color is called dusty rose, twin size.

Saturday I stumbled on an estate sale by my favorite company. Walking stick


And this burled mahogany men's jewelry box came home with me, too.

 

In case you were in any doubt, the beautiful elephant head on the walking stick is ivory.

 

They thought it was meerschaum. The gentleman had a huge walking stick collection.

 

it's got soul.....

 

He liked it, or somebody sure did. Ivory doesn't turn that yellow without help.

 

Better for them to represent it that way. They could get a hefty fine if caught selling it. Here in NYC flea market sellers have taken to calling it 'a natural material' when you ask about an ivory item. I imagine what enforcement there is concentrates more on high end jewellery & antique shows, but everyone is wary.

 

Everyone who cared knew what it was. I do offload some natural material pieces locally too. A local antiques dealer loves the stuff and says they're not bothering antique shops.

 

When it comes into the auction house Bill will usually tell the consignor to the it back with them.

When it does end up in the building it will usually be put with a large group of stuff & really not mentioned.

When I have been asked about an item & depending if I know the person I will claim to not know or tell them as long as it is in the building it is bone. What it becomes after it leaves the building is up to them.

 

There are dealers here who can't get enough of it. We have small shows at firehouses and other places where I don't think inspectors would look.... and the dealers have their clientele they sell to. Some just put it out at shows, and usually it is snapped up very quickly by other dealers before the shows open to the public.

The estate sellers did not say what it was, other customers thought it was meerschaum. I did not look closely at first and took a chance.
Definitely pre-ban antique. A dealer told me that if you live in Virginia, you can sell ivory at shows. And there is a on-line jewelry store in Hawaii that sells it outright.

 

In some places you can just sell it, but not here in CT. Tortoiseshell is another no go, but that one's a lot harder to detect since there's tons of plastic copies now.

 

Found some goodies this morning. My jewelry honey hole didn't have anything that needed grabbing today, but I did score two bears and a wooden egg. The glass polar bear is Norwegian, the pottery one is from a New Mexico pueblo, and the egg is Russian. I also scored two sealed jigsaw puzzles (merry Christmas Aunt Florence!) and what looks like a Cleopatra image complete with one very perky bare boob. She's headed elsewhere.

 

Is that bear Acoma? I've got wee cats like him. They sold mould made animals which were then decorated.

 

Pretty little cup. I’m going to clean it up and and put a little plant in it.

I think it is by John Maddock of Egland and the pattern (Jewel) was in use 1896+ (and maybe earlier as well). I’m not sure how late it was used…

 

Doesn't say so if it is. Same sort of beastie.

 

Have a few thrift shop finds from today - I've tried to find out what they are but my searches have been largely fruitless - I'll put two up here now.
The first a creamware (?) jug - can't make out the marks on the base at all, but the brown/cream part has a marbled look to it, the plain parts remind me of Doulton stoneware. Second, a pair of Maltese silver dishes - marked MO 917 a Maltese cross and F - while I've found out they are silver, I can't find anything about Maltese silversmiths. Would love to hear if anyone knows anything about either.

 

Dory, you would get more responses if you posted on the specific forums for pottery, silver. That said here’s some Maltese hallmarks.

 

Thanks Houseful, I'll give that a try. Yes those were the ones I found, but I couldn't find any makers marks. Excuse my ignorance but is there an easy way to put this under a specific forum without having to redo it?

 

@Dory64 - You should be able to copy & paste the text as well as the photos into a new thread in the appropriate category. I know the mods can easily move an entire thread but I do not believe they can move individual posts in an ongoing thread like this one.