Dig This Treasure!

I know you all have been pining for a porcelain update.  I have heard your cries, and here now, is the current status of my porcelain collection.

I’ve been exclusively buying Herend porcelain, and more exclusively, porcelain in the Herend “fishnet” pattern.  Back in September, I caught wind of a special Herend event happening in Troy, at Nieman Marcus.  The event was at the end of October, so I counted the days with a reminder calendar on our fridge.  

The day arrived, and I hiked out (despite having a cough & cold), to buy me some high-priced ceramics.  The event featured a Herend artist, direct from Hungary!  She was handpainting figurines right there in the store!

This woman did not speak English, but I proceeded to tell her that I admired her work and loved Herend and blah blah.  

There were a lot of figurines to choose from, and I was so excited because this was the first time I had ever been in the presence of more than one Herend piece available for purchase.  Up until this point, I had only bought Herend at an auction, and on ebay.

I wanted to buy a piece in the lavender fishnet pattern because it is a newer released color.  Here is what I chose:

I even had the artist write “Herend Event 2012” on the bottom, and sign her name!

So my collection now stands at 4 pieces of Herend fishnet figurines.  I had a giant cat too, but I am selling him on ebay right now because I want to buy a cuter piece to replace him. Also, I’m aware of the rabbit to non-rabbit ratio here, and don’t worry, I hope to remedy that in the future.

But wait, there’s more!

So a few weeks after the Herend event, I randomly stopped at an estate sale while out buying dog food.  And lo and behold, they had a piece of Herend!  Priced at $10!  It’s not fishnet pattern, but it is still super pretty.  He is displayed on the shelf below the fishnet pieces.

Again, if you/your mom/your grandma/your neighbor/your anybody has some Herend porcelain they are looking to sell, let me know!  I have 100% positive feedback on ebay, so you know I’m legit. 

-Erin

So remember that time I got lured to an “estate sale” and instead ended up at a commune where they were spray-painting indoors?  I should have learned my lesson then about going off the grid, but apparently I didn’t.

I’ve been meaning to write about this insane adventure for awhile now, but haven’t had the chance.  So now, submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story, “The Tale of the Bone Collector.” [Throws magic dust into the fire.]

P.S. If you don’t get that Midnight Society joke, get outta here (or google it).

Ok, so a few months ago, I was driving through Redford and noticed this weird little hut on the side of the road.  It was small, and junky, and said “Antiques.”  Perfect! I love antiques!

This man greeted me, and he seemed nice enough.  A little strange but nice.  As I chatted with him more though, I got that feeling in my stomach that Oprah used to talk about–the one where you are supposed to drop whatever you are doing and run.  At one point, the man said, “Where do you live?”  And I told him “Livonia.”  And then he said, “No no, what’s your address?”

My address?  Hmm, this man didn’t appear to work for the post office, so the request was questionable to say the least.  I laughed the question off, and went inside to look at the “antiques.”

Things were weirder inside.  And dirty.  Like really super crazy dirty.

The floor for all I know was 2 feet below me.  I was walking on compounded debris. And there were bones everywhere.  I am not making this up.  Here is a bucket of bones.

Which is cool.  I like bones.  I like taxidermy.  In this context though, things felt real spooky.

Ok, and see that muscle man photo in the ziploc?  Here, I’ll zoom in:

That muscle man runs the place.  I forget his name, but here he is now:

Well, the back of him anyway.  This guy told me he was 88, but he didn’t look a day past 75.  I liked him.  He was nice.  A little messy, but nice.  I started asking him about his place, and about antiques.  And he told me about when he was a muscle man.  Things were good, 15 minutes passed.

Then he pulled out this binder, and told me he was going to show me something.  Something he doesn’t show many people.  I had that Oprah run-for-your-life feeling again, but I stayed.  What if he wanted to show me (and give me) a bunch of gold bars?  Or maybe he had photographic evidence of UFOs or solid proof of a JFK assassination conspiracy.  I had to know what was in the binder.

So what was in the binder?  See for yourself:

Alright…baseball pics.  Cool…

Look at the pen writing on the leg of that player.  Every photo had commentary like this.

If you can’t read that pen writing, it says, “THIS IS SAD FOR BASEBALL.  IF YOU ARE A TEAM, DRESS LIKE A TEAM,” and, “IS THIS WHAT BASEBALL IS COMING TOO?  PAJAMAS?”  And there are arrows pointing to all of the players ankles.  

As it turns out, this man is single-handedly on a crusade against the length of modern-day baseball pants.  And I think he has a point here.  Those pants look sloppy!

He explained to me that he collects this binder of photos, writes his commentary on them, and then mails an example every month to Mike Ilitch, the owner of the Detroit Tigers.  He then told me that he hasn’t heard back from Ilitch, so he’s been sending examples to the newspapers and local TV news stations.  

I didn’t really know what to tell him except to keep up his crusade and that he was, “Fighting the good fight,” which I really think he is.  Pull up your pants you dummies!

I didn’t buy any antiques, but I did leave with an asthma attack, and with a new realization that you really can collect anything.  Sarah collects gross porcelain, and I collect nice porcelain, and this man, well, he collects an arsenal of scribbled on baseball pics.

-Erin

Just in case you were worried, Erin and I are once again officially BFFs and made up after our Jerry Springer style argument in her driveway last week. We started our adventure in Warren at a sale run by the same woman who ran the sale from last week that I speculated was actually held at her house. Erin had some mad love for that lady when leaving the sale last week but the tables turned this time around. Erin has a habit of fluctuating between feelings of love and hate toward the people who run these sales, while I’m usually more ambivalent (except for my favorite guy ever–the guy who tried to hook us up hard at the Best Sale Ever.)

Anyway, this sale was the worst but we did find some funny things. This is the best of the bunch: 

If you’re struggling to determine what those are, they’re two handmade refrigerator magnets. The one on the left is a pig that says (in little alphabet noodles glued on), “Porky are you eating again?” The one on the right is a cow that says, “Holy cow are you eating again?” I had to buy the cow. 

Basically, everything at this sale was either made by Avon or found at the dollar store. I’m not into either of these things, so I was sad. 

Here are some items that I passed on: 

I can’t even remember what I bought at this sale, besides a little pile of letters that I thought were affair letters, judging by the first few lines of one of them. I haven’t read them in their entirety but Erin read some of them aloud to me in the car and it turns out they’re really depressing letters from a sister to her brother about having cancer. That’s what I get for being nosy! Also insane: I had a tiny stack of cards and the lady told me it was $5. I am talking like, three cards. In this stack was an old brochure about Cedar Point that I wanted to buy for a friend’s kids. She told me, “that brochure alone is worth $3!” Really, lady? ON WHAT PLANET? You should be thanking me for getting rid of the crap that nobody wants! I told her to forget the brochure and I’d give her $2 and she told me she had to recalculate the cost because she was giving me a “bundle deal”… WTF?!

Next stop was a sale in Mt. Clemens. This sale contained a ton of antique furniture, but most of it was in really bad condition. I got a box of really old wrapping paper that was in great shape, and a vintage little girl’s pea coat. Erin got a box that had visible bird poop in it. I wanted this thing until I saw the made in China sticker. I ONLY BUY AMERICAN.

Just kidding. I just didn’t realize it was a reproduction at first. I still don’t know what it was supposed to be, but it reminded me of a card catalog (but real card catalogs have labels on the drawers.) 

The next sale we hit up seemed promising but ended up not being that great either. But it was really weird and time-warp-y and there were the most lawn ornaments I’ve seen in a while. It was also worth going to because the house was arranged really weirdly (it seemed like over half of it was a screened-in porch) and there were lots of funny things to see: 

Again, what is UP with these depressing statues? We see them basically at every sale now. 

Classy lady, classy car. 

Spuds MacKenzie. 

Private parts statue. 

…and… a ladyman with very large penis under her skirt. 

I found a few good things at this sale. First, a real deal garden gnome. I have a handful of lawn ornaments and he will be a good addition. I also got a couple of cute things to sell. Here is one of them: 

Yes, that is a kitten wearing a yellow beret and blue glasses. 

It’s past my bedtime, so I’ll let Erin update you on the Grey Gardens Man sale. 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I was disappointed with the seller lady at the first sale because she was being outrageous with her pricing.  Last week she gave me all sorts of deals, even when I didn’t ask for them.  Yet this time, she tried charging me $1 each for a stack of old dirty Christmas magnets.  The magnets were handmade out of felt and had some sequins glued on them.  They were cute obviously, but as a general rule, ANY magnet in the world should be 25 cents.  $1 each?  You’re out of your mind.

The second sale was great.  Sarah thought the furniture was all gross, but she was wrong.  It was like the movie Aladdin, you had to be willing to see the diamond in the rough here.  I bought an old cabinet for my new porcelain pieces.  

After some windex and Lysol, it looks amazing:

As for the “box with visible bird poop” that Sarah mentioned, this was actually an old DRAWER, that I planned to turn into a shelf.  It wasn’t really covered in bird poop, it had drops of old paint on it.  It did however have some mouse poop on it.

All you gotta do is hose that shit off, sand it, and stain it…WHICH I DID.

Look! Room for more porcelain!

At this sale I also got an old Minnie Mouse wind-up watch from the 60s.  It is apparently collectible, and most people start it on ebay at over $100.  I have it up now and it’s doing great.  I paid $10.

The next sale was awful, despite having a million cute sheep lawn ornaments.  

They were selling things like this:

Watch, that doll is probably like CRAZY VALUABLE.  

Ok, this entry is getting so long.  You all need to email us if these jumbo posts are annoying, and we can try condensing…

The last house was in Detroit and was a crazy mansion.  Rooms up on rooms up on rooms.  

Things started out promising, but the further you went in the house, everything got weird and abandoned.

Look at those walls and the ceiling.  They needed me to get up in there and hang some bird poop shelves and fill them with porcelain.

Oh wait, looks like someone already was moved in:

OK, one more Grey Gardens-esque pic…

I bought an old, giant Mae West poster at this sale for $3.  That’s it I think.  I didn’t buy this poster which some perv had drawn all over:

-Erin

After the success of purchasing my first piece of Herend porcelain, I decided that it would be nice to start collecting this stuff regularly.   I imagine a little shelf in our house with all Herend pieces.  It will take awhile to get there, but why not start this endeavor with a bang…

I found this Herend seal box on ebay and decided to splurge on it.

LOOK AT HIS SAD LITTLE SEAL FACE!  I love him.

I don’t want to say exactly what I spent on this guy, but I will say that it was more than $128 and less than $130.  Don’t tell Timmy. 

-Erin

As I mentioned, the plans for my birthday last week were entirely based around treasure hunting.  Saturday night, Zach and I went to an auction in Plymouth.  I’ve mentioned this auction before on the blog, and the last time we went, we left empty handed.  This time though, things were VERY different!

We arrived at the auction and the place was packed with high quality items.  There were Le Creuset pans still in the box, Lenox serving pieces, cool art, and LOTS of porcelain.  If you’ve been following closely, I’ve been in the market for some baller-ass-rich-people porcelain.  Now was my chance to get some, and because it was my birthday, I could drop some mad cash on it and not feel bad.

I bid pretty regularly during the auction, and won lots and lots of things.  My first two purchases were Lenox:

You can’t really tell, but these pieces are HUGE.  And the edges are 24K gold.  The larger dish cost me $22 and the smaller one was $7.  Let me just say now, that this is INSANE for Lenox.  I was thrilled.

The low, low prices continued all night.  I bought a lot which included an antique silver-plated serving tray, an old silver trinket box, and a super heavy metalware cake stand.  I paid $5 total for all of it.  I bid because the cake stand is by designer Michael Aram, whose work usually sells for around $250 new.  I already have this on ebay. 

At this point, we had been at the auction for a couple hours.  The only negative about the auction is that it goes from 7pm until midnight, with no schedule of when certain items will go up for sale.  I told Zach though that I had my eye on a particular porcelain rabbit, and that I would stay there all night.

The rabbit in question was a Herend, and in the hand-painted fishnet style.  I had been coveting one of these rabbits on ebay, and even asked Zach a week before to buy me one.  It was fate, this rabbit was to be mine.

When the rabbit finally went up for auction, it was paired with a Limoges trinket box.  I was really worried because those dumb little boxes are SUPER collectible, so I figured a million people would bid.  

But then the bidding started, and it was just me and this dude a couple seats down from me.  I just kept my hand in the air, instead of raising and lowering it with each bid.  I really wanted to look at the guy and yell, “STAND DOWN.”  

But then he bowed out at $17.  SEVENTEEN DOLLARS?!  I was so shocked and thrilled.  Zach said that the guy gave me death stare when I went to collect my goods, which made me savor the victory even more.

Here’s my little buddy:

And in case you are wondering if I made a good purchase, here are some recently sold Herend figures:

As for the Limoges box, it is already selling on ebay.  

This entry is getting long, but the scores I had at this auction were never-ending.  The last item I bought was this Royal Doulton rabbit bank.  Ok, I obviously like rabbits, but look at this guy!  So great.

This bank was my most pricey purchase of the night…a whopping $30.  Obviously worth it.

-Erin

I never thought I’d have one of these Holy Grail posts, because I’m not greedy and don’t need very expensive things to feel happy in life (unlike Erin), but then I realized I could have a Holy Grail that isn’t necessarily expensive–just something I’m dying to stumble upon. 

ANYWAY, I was at a couple of sales with Adam over the weekend and found this adorable figurine from the 1950s. I am seriously obsessed with her.  

If you look closely, you will see that she has a crack that was mended on her rear end. This is not ok. Even though she was one dollar, I wish she wasn’t damaged. Still, I love her so much. 

After digging around on eBay, I discovered that people do occasionally sell these, and it appears that, unlike the collector pool for fine porcelain, nobody but me wants them! In my search for more by this company (Lego Japan), I found a set that is even more adorable and made by some other company, but someone bought them. LOOK HOW CUTE THEY ARE: 

I love those two ‘50s nerds talking on the phone. I am seriously so sad that I didn’t discover my love for these things just a few days sooner. Those ones could have been mine!!! 

-Sarah

Update from Erin: I can see why Sarah likes that first figure…its hair looks just like hers.  As for the second set, those are some seriously solemn phone talkers.  I am assuming that both of them are on the phone with Capital One, begging for a increase in their credit limit.

So the New York posts continue…

While walking around the West Village with Zach and our friend Mary, I spotted this little basement shop called “The Porcelain Room”.  It seriously looked like the cutest place on Earth, packed full of tiny porcelain creatures and decor.  

I don’t think I realized my love for porcelain until I went in this store.  I wanted pretty much everything, especially this deer bowl:

I kept imagining what it would be like to have a party and serve something in this adorable dish.  It cost $2,500 though, so I guess I’ll never know.

I did find something a bit more reasonable in price.  It was this cute rabbit made by KPM in Berlin.  He was $310, which is still pretty outrageous for a porcelain anything.  I pulled this photo of him off the KPM website:

So the point here is that I want me some baller porcelain.  It’s something I am going to keep my eye out for at future sales, which I am sure Zach will be thrilled about.

-Erin