Dig This Treasure!

Wow, hard to believe I still have stuff to write about from my trip to South Carolina. But I do… one last entry. After we left the Summerville Antique Gallery, we headed over to this crazy hot dog place called Perfectly Franks that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. This was enough to make me completely sold! The hot dogs at this place were crazy. Just look for yourself. 

I don’t know why none of us ordered something super crazy. I just got a Chicago style dog. In retrospect, I should have tried something more adventurous. Still, it was a… 

After our hot dogs, we headed over to an antique store next door. There were some cool things to look at. 

There were four of these hippie hangers but I liked this guy the best. 

I thought this cool print by Hatch Show Print might be valuable but it was priced correctly. 

I also loved these little Frances invites, but when am I ever going to use something like that? 

Action shot of my mom and Ann discussing something important. 

Ok, so I’ll bet you’re wondering what the hell the awesome find was here, right? Well, I noticed these adorable bisque cake toppers on a shelf, but they were all priced separately even though it was clearly a set. 

When I brought them up, I questioned the price but the guy didn’t seem willing to bargain, and the price of each was $15. I wasn’t willing to pay $45 for all of them, so I left because I figured I could find them online.

We started driving to our next destination and I started looking these guys up on eBay, and they actually seemed to sell for more than that on there, so I felt bummed that I had missed out on something I really liked at a good price. So I did what any brave person would do–I made my dad drive back there, and I sent my mom in with some cash to haggle for me. I told her I was willing to pay $30 for all three and she came out with them in her hands! Yeah mom! 

In celebration, here is a picture of me and my mom sitting on a moon in the Moon Pie shop in downtown Charleston.

Moon Pies are disgusting, by the way. But that backdrop is dope! 

-Sarah

Yesterday my parents surprised me with a gift to kick off the Christmas season.  It was this amazing Russian lacquer art pin.  I actually saw this pin LAST YEAR in Holly, MI (you can read about that trip here).  My parents snuck back and bought it to give me this year.  I know, seriously nice (and kind of insane).

I didn’t know anything about Russian lacquer art until I went to San Antonio last year and saw some elaborately painted boxes in an antique store.  The owner explained that they were hand painted in Russia using super fine horse hair.  The process was labor intensive and artists used magnifying glasses to create ultra detailed scenes.  Most lacquer art features fairy tale imagery.

Most boxes are pretty little, so you can just imagine the work it takes to create such intricate paintings.  Besides boxes, Russian lacquer art can be found on cigarette cases and pins.  

Antique lacquer art sells for big bucks, so keep an eye out!  Lacquer art however is still made today, so it is easy to buy an affordable piece should you want one.  Here is a sampling though of just how high prices can go on this stuff:

Neat, huh?  I love all of these pieces!  They are so gaudy, yet whimsical. 

-Erin

So upon my return to sales with Sarah, I mentioned I found a really amazing treasure. I spotted it at the home owned by a former antiques dealer from Germany. When I first saw this, I thought it was an old metal mold.

And then I realized that it was a tiny replica of an iron maiden!  So creepy!  But also so cool!  I love antique metal items and miniatures, so this was right up my alley.  I was concerned though that it was a little too gruesome to have in our house.  I consulted Zach on this:

He was obviously on board.  I paid $22, which turns out is a great deal!  Look at this other one that sold on ebay:

I don’t plan on selling mine, but it is good to know that if one day I do, it’ll be filed under our “Money Makers” category.

Do you have a “Fave Find?”  Perhaps your own miniature torture device?  Tell us about it on our Facebook page!  

-Erin

Last weekend, I went treasure hunting with a friend and picked up these adorable dolls at an antique mall in Chelsea, MI. 

I am pretty much obsessed with them. I saw them in one of the last booths in the mall and asked to take a look. They were marked $10 each, which did seem a teeny bit high, but they seemed so unique (and were so darn cute), I couldn’t pass them up. I’m not sure if these were made by someone or if they’re Japanese but there are no stickers or marks that indicate their origin. Here are some close-ups. 

“Hello! I’m so cute!”

“Look at our adorable matching booties!" 

I seriously can’t explain how much I love these ladies. 

They do look similar to Mop-Pets, but I don’t think that’s what these are. Their faces are painted–none of it is stickers, which is what other Mop-pets I’ve found have for eyes and mouths. If anyone knows more about what time period these are from (I’m thinking ‘40s and '50s based on the outfits) or who made them, please let me know! 

-Sarah

You’ve seen a lot of Sarah’s and my “fave finds”, but recently I visited my sister’s house and realized she had a whole treasure trove of amazing collectibles.  Lindsay has been mentioned on this blog before, and if you don’t remember, she is the penguin keeper at the Detroit Zoo.  Her vintage and antique collection is centered mainly on old Detroit Zoo memorabilia, and also general zoo related items.  I hadn’t been to her house in awhile, and was super impressed by the way she displayed all of her finds.

This old library cabinet is the perfect way to display all of her zoology books and collectibles.  Sarah and I see these cabinets all the time at sales and they are usually around $300-$400.  Lindsay lucked out and got this for free when she found it thrown out in the trash.  She painted it the white color I believe.

This shadow box has an old Detroit Zoo charm bracelet and vintage pins.  It also has old “zoo keys.”

“Zoo keys,” I believe, are from the 1960s or 70s and were given to children to use around the zoo in “talking storybooks.”  These “storybooks” were basically signs that played audio when a key was inserted.  Very cool and very cute!

Old programs are fun to collect but often hard to display.  They usually end up in stacks on a bookshelf or in a drawer.  Timmy displays old baseball programs in a table with a glass top so you can see all of the program covers.  Lindsay, as you can see, framed her programs.  

So what is Lindsay’s ultimate fave find?

This old scrapbook was put out by the Detroit Free Press.  It came empty, and each week children were encouraged to cut out different zoo photos from the Sunday paper to fill it.  Lindsay was lucky to find a copy of this in which some diligent child filled the entire thing!

I love this scrapbook because it is so indicative of a bygone era.  I imagine a little kid waiting for the paperboy to swing by so they could collect their next zoo photo.  Adorable.

Again, if you have a “fave find,” we want to hear about it!  Visit us on our Facebook page and post a photo!

-Erin

Sarah and I are working on some longer entries about our recent adventures, but in the meantime, let me share some new fave finds with you guys.

My sister and I visited the Romeo Peach Festival a few weeks ago.  We’ve been going to this since we were children, and every year we always swear it is the last time we will go.  You see, the Romeo Peach Festival is a really good place for people (not me) to buy Confederate Flag t-shirts and marshmallow shooting guns.  It is no longer a good place to buy antiques or high quality crafts.

To be fair, my sister and I went because we were on a mission to find these peach cookies we had two years ago, which then disappeared off the planet.  Turns out that these cookies aren’t even part of the Peach Festival, but come from a grocery store just outside of town.  We found them living in their peach cookie heaven, and proceeded to buy about 26 boxes each:

Just kidding, we each only bought 1 box each, and then I b*tched the whole way home about how I was an idiot for not buying more.

Ok, so besides the cookies, I did miraculously find one good treasure at the Peach Festival.  Two guys were selling random junk in a booth and I came across this old ceramic walrus bank:

I KNOW, RIGHT?! That is the cutest chef walrus you have ever done seen.  I bought him for $5 and put him in the last available space next to my kitchen scale collection.

OK, so another recent fave find came from the totally random thrift store trip that Sarah and I took a few weeks ago.  You might remember that I snagged a ton of baby clothes, but the best by far was this vintage baby sweater:

What is so perfect about this is that we are naming the baby Everett, so the E’s on the sweater actually make sense.  Baby E is going to be stylin’ and profilin’ for sure.

The last fave find is also for future baby and I found it at the Ferndale DIY Fair.  There was a booth selling all vintage clothes and knick-knacks called Octopus Pie Studios.  I found this sweater and pants set featuring whales and sailboats.  Sarah contends it is for a baby girl, but I refuse to believe that.

It might be kind of itchy to wear, but that is the price of dressing so fly.  

If you have any “fave finds” you can share them on our Facebook page.  Post a pic and tell us where you found your treasure.

-Erin 

Happy Labor Day, all! To get the party even more pumped up on this national holiday, I’m going to talk about garden signs and lawn ornaments. 

A few Fridays ago, Erin and I hit up a sale that we’ll update you about soon. It was held in a commercial space (we’ve been to sales there before) and there’s an outdoor area. While I was out there, I spotted a bunch of terrifying lawn ornaments. Here’s the best one. 

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted this totally adorable sign: 

Is that not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?! 

Here it is, guarding an area in front of my home where I DO find frogs (ok, toads really) on a regular basis: 

I was actually reluctant to put it there because I thought someone might steal it but I don’t think my neighborhood is filled with garden art thieves. YOU NEVER KNOW, THOUGH. 

Here’s another related fave that I also found at an estate sale a few years back. I drove to this sale in BIRMINGHAM (note, far from my house) just to get this guy specifically. Shockingly, he was still there when I arrived to take him home. 

This hedgehog was brand spanking new when I bought him but is now a little rough around the edges. He’s got a hole in his nose and my 14-year-old dog pees on him on a regular basis. But still–adorable. 

And just for fun, check out two of my other faves. 

Neither of these were found while treasure hunting. I picked up the frogs at my local TJ Maxx (I’m a Maxxinista) and the singing cats were gifted to me by Erin from a MAIL ORDER CATALOG for my birthday a few years ago. Fun fact: both Erin and my mom bought me the same lawn ornament for my birthday that year. This is how you know you are super cool. 

-Sarah

Sarah and I will have a longer entry soon about our vacay to Charlevoix, MI last week, but in the meantime, here is a preview of some of the treasures I found.  These were so good that they deserved their very own write-up.

The first two treasures are part of a larger lead soldier set, which was being sold at an antique-filled consignment shop in Petoskey.  The set was unusual because not all of the soldiers were holding weapons.  Here are some pics I pulled off the internet to give you an idea of the scope here:

It’s like these little dudes each had their own little dude job to do, and they all did them well.  The detail is amazing.  The shop we were at didn’t have all of the figures shown above, but did have two that struck my fancy.  First was this guitar playing man:

He’s having a grand ol’ time for sure.  Also, I suppose that is a banjo and not a guitar.  Whatever.

The next figure I bought was a real tough boxer man.  He is probably my favorite.  The set is made by Manoil, which is apparently pretty collectible.  Most range in value from $20 to $70.  Some, however, are so rare that they are worth almost $200 each!

And it looks like I scored with my two selections because I paid $17 each for them.  Here they are for sale on a toy soldier site:

Cool!

The toy soldier saga doesn’t end here though.  On the last day of our trip we stopped by that huge antiques place in Traverse City (you may remember it from last year).  There I found this great piece:

These soldiers aren’t lead, but instead are composition.  And they are so dope.  The detail is incredible.  Look at the blood on this man’s arm sling:

I kind of feel like that bro could’ve walked if he only had an arm injury.  Maybe there was a huge loss of blood.  Or he is super dramatic.

This set is made by Lineol Germany and dates to the late 1920s.

I paid $25 for this, which is what similar ones sell for on ebay.  

Definitely a nice addition to the ever-expanding soldier collection in our house!

-Erin

P.S. You can see more of our “Fave Finds” by clicking here.

Last Friday (which we will wrap up shortly), Erin and I hit up a few sales. One of these was pretty far away–in Harrison Township, but I really wanted to go because it looked like there were tons of photographs there.

I wasn’t prepared for how cool some of these pictures were, though. It seems like one of the people who lived there must have been a photography hobbyist, because there were lots of 8x10s that were clearly made in a personal darkroom. I’ll talk more about the boolsheit I went through to obtain these photos, but for now, I just want you to enjoy them as much I have! 

The first is a Rat Terrier and the second is a Dachsund. There were a few actual portraits like these, and then many action shots: 

Do you like how the one is totally jumping off the other one’s head?

Here are some pics with their people: 

And other beasts…

My favorites, though, are these:

And finally, my #1 favorite: 

I’m not sure I’ve ever found an “old” thing that I love more than these pictures. I haven’t decided which I’m going to sell. I don’t need to keep them all, and they could, as I’ve found in the past, make me some money. 

I’ll keep you all posted!

-Sarah

Six or seven years ago, I used to substitute at a local public library to make some extra money, and they’d occasionally give me random projects to work on while I was there. One night, my project was to go through the vertical files and recycle anything that could be replicated or found online. 

In case you’re wondering what a vertical file is, it’s this: 

If this doesn’t look familiar to you, then you’re young.

If it does, you’ll recall that basically a vertical file used to be a library’s way of keeping current background information on a really wide variety of subjects all in one place. Libraries don’t really need these anymore because the Internet is so awesome and radical. One exception to this would be an archive–many archives still have vertical files. 

Anyway, I felt totally unqualified to do this job but went with it. I looked at the existing pile of recycling that someone before me had already started, and found some serious treasures! I asked if I could take anything from the recycling piles and the full time person I was working with said sure. These posters are one of the treasures I found, and they’ve been on display in my kitchen ever since. 

These were published by…

The United States Beet Sugar Association, which still exists! 

Look at that molecule of sucrose! So cute! 

-Sarah