Featured Finds Thread

Haven't posted here in a long time but have something worth showing today. This is definitely my best find of the year so far. Large 20" oil jar from Burley and Winter. Thrift store find for $15.00, in perfect condition. This is also my favorite color combination for B and W. This one is a keeper!

 

And not a mark between 'em, darnitt! No idea how old they are, where they came from, or even the real metal content. The brass Georgian ones gave themselves away underneath, but plaster inside and felt are still in use.

Not precisely my thing, but it's a local piece that deserves to stay local. Sounds like $15 was a steal.

 

Actually, not very local to me. Burley and Winter was a 19th century Ohio company that lasted well into the 20th century. They made a lot of utilitarian wares but also had a line of art pottery, of which this is an example. The art pottery line ended in 1943 so this piece is no later than that. As a colletor of arts and crafts pottery, this falls within my collecting spectrum.

Burley Winter Home — The Kings Fortune

The Burley-Winter Pottery Company (bluewhitepottery.org)

 

I figured the Depression got them, but I'd imagine it was WWII instead. Clay wasn't war material, but potters were.

 

never hold a collectors sexual appetite against him......

 

Unless he was into kids or animals. (ewwww)

 

BDSM? What have I missed?

 

Nothing I ever wanted to see, and I do mean ever. My idea of a dungeonmaster involves 12-sided dice!

 

Here's an 18" x 24" Navajo weaving dated 1932 and with a profile image of a Native person in a feather headdress.



It's interesting to me as a cultural artifact. At that time, Hollywood films were popularizing imagery that implied all Native Americans were Plains Indians, and ignoring the huge number of cultural and regional differences between Indigenous groups.

In a documentary about Hollywood Indians, First Nations film critic Jesse Wente calls the elision of individual cultural traits through this kind of popular imagery, especially the feather headdress, an ingenious act of cultural destruction.

For me, then, there are a lot of contexts 'woven' into this piece, made by a Navajo most likely in Arizona.

 

A tourist piece doubtless, made for some dumb tourist who'd like dumb tourist art.(LOL) No point in wasting the good stuff on that lot.

 

Actually found a bit yesterday. Paid too much for the necklace, but it's signed Krementz and strung on chain. They cared. The moonstone earrings aren't marked. This charity shop overprices everything they catch, so you have to hunt for the misses. The Chinese cloisonne is brand new, but the brand doesn't go cheap.

The little needle holder looks like a match case to me, or even a go-to-bed??. It has a rough area on the bottom made like a striker, and a round brass inset in the top that doesn't go all the way in. The hole is pretty small though - might just be a holder for a needle? The other bit of treen is a mystery. Incredibly fine-grained and smooth as silk. The lid piece isn't really a lid (doesn't fit), and it's ribbed inside like it was meant to have a glass liner. The bottom has what looks like a ballpoint siggie.

 

Dice cup.

 

Entirely possible. It does make me wonder what the little lid/cap piece went to, but if it's a dice cup the world may never know. I'd love to know what wood it's made from too, because whoever made it knew his business.

 

The 'world' knows - it is a fairly common dice cup, likely boxwood, the interior ridges help turn the dice.

https://www.google.com/search?q=box...9Al8Q_AUoAnoECAIQBA&biw=1536&bih=714&dpr=1.25

From an 1885 retailer catalog (though they were also produced much earlier, and later as well, into the 20th century):

 

The Moonchild loves the moonstone earrings.

 

Have to charge my phone. My $1 probably fake but sterling earrings marked Tiffany are cleaning up nicely. There is a thread on the jewelry board about them.

 

Some finds from this weekend. I love these, brand new for $1, who knew they were a thing!

Holmes and Edwards silverplate forks in May Queen, $1 each.

Hardly any jewelry at an antique show this weekend.
$6

A bit beat up for $20, but it is Ostby and Barton 14k gold shell.