Featured Finds Thread

Love the jewels Marko and Ownedbybear! Hoping that both of your strands of beads do indeed turnout out be piles of cash!

Kentworld - how can I 'not' love a Funky find? Cool stuff.

 

I'm keeping mine. I don't think massive value, you can buy Egyptian and even older beads readily in London. But I do like antiquity.

Having looked hard at the scarab with a high power loupe, the uneven colour and depth of the glaze looks right, and it's certainly not machine made. Nor is the glass. The faience body looks gritty enough, too.

 

Great find, Bear. I am leaning towards thinking the beads are bakelite, I have to get some Simichrome. Somebody gave me a black light pen, a nice surprise gift, and I have been shining it on jewelry. I didn't know that lab-created rubies flouresce, you should see those buggers. And I have a pinky ring I wear ever day diamond chips, many of the small chips flouresce.

 

I always look for vintage drinking glasses for my own use. I am brutal.... I prefer older German or Japanese flatware, I am picky because it has to feel just right in my hand, not too thick or thin of a handle. I buy my Corelle at yard sales, and my vases. I buy vases cheap and use them to put flowers in when I visit friends.

 

I allowed a couple of fellow jewellery nuts - one has a shop on the Portobello selling stunning antique bling - to have a paw over the thing last night. Consensus was scarab is old as dirt, and so are the toroid glass beads. We think the egg shaped ones are 19th or 20th C, although hard to be sure they're not a bit older. There was a bit of coveting taking place on their part. I may get them restrung, dunno.

If you can't get Simichrome, Maas works.

 

One guess what I was doing last night...restringing. I finished off one and redid a second piece, both old 30s/40s Czech glass.

As for testing, good old baking soda/sodium bicarb does the trick without having to find the polish. A damp q-tip, dunked in the baking soda, and rubbed does the job neatly. Rub an inner surface and hold it close to your nose and sniff while you're at it. Nicotine will sometimes give a false positive on color, but the smell is unmistakable. In the field, I generally just use my eyes, although the rub and sniff method is also useful. Generally the weight and color give the game away.

 

here are a few of the goodies I recently picked up - the large tin owl is a keeper, he is 3 ft high, great yard art, The Chautauqua Combination Chalk board and writing desk, 25 different panels on the scroll, Owl money bank, cow horn - I think a cow horn, Simplicity Scan Globe designed by Henrik Tengler and a mini cast iron money bank.

 

love the big owl!!!

 

Very nice cxgirl. You always find the most unique items.

 

Thanks bob, I do too

thanks pearls

 

I love it too - but then again... who wouldn't I ask...who?

 

Me, too!

 

lol arron

 

At the Salvation Army store today - they had picked up a lot of framed art from a local consignment/auction place that had gone out of business - and were selling each piece for 5$ a pop- Spied this old (really old?) Chinese ink wash on silk painting - about 3 feet high - which I couldn't resist. Will post more pics in the art forum.

 

Score! Today was a nothing much day in this area. One moving sale, all furniture and a few accessories. Nothing for me at all. The Ill Will did give up some scrap gold, which will make up for the fake Tiffany silver they sold me earlier in the week. It was modern and mass produced and not worth showing. This is unsigned, newish, but really pretty. It's a silvertone collar necklace with goldtone and rhinestone accents.

 

Should I be buying these bags of trinkets there???

 

...only if you go out in the evening....little glitzy for afternoon wear

 

OH!
WELL!!!!
I
NEVER!

 

p.s. That was bait but expected Komo to hit it first.
~
You're in the creel Bob.

 

Anyone?
My GW has these and so does another.
Should I buy them for gold, silver, possible good jewels and stones?
Possibilities worth the risk in general?