Posts in Category: Thrifting
Thrift Roundup: 11.4.12
Hi everybody — we’re back with another thrift roundup! It’s been a fairly quiet week at the Butter’s, but we did manage to get out and do some exploring (and thrifting!) The photo above features an interesting find — a vintage souvenir from the Louvre! This is a replica of the blue Egyptian faience hippopotamus figurine in the Louvre’s collection. Apparently, museums around the world sold replicas of their Egyptian hippo statuettes — the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s example, affectionately known as William, is one of the more well-known. We’ll get back to William in a bit. This is our second blue hippo museum souvenir — the first is a replica of a hippo in the collection at the St. Louis Art Museum.
This weekend, we managed to get away for our first day trip with the Butterbean — it ended up being a good trip, although the thrifting was somewhat bare. Mr. Butter found a vintage men’s Pendleton sweater (not pictured), and we found a couple fun kids books, including “A Tale of Two Williams,” featuring–you guessed it–our favorite blue hippo! 🙂
Our other thrift finds this week included — a pair of vintage NOS Dansk salad servers, a set of Ultima Thule Highballs, a nice blue Dala horse, and various and sundry Scandinavian Christmas items. Many of these will be in the shop this week! As always, contact us if there’s anything in particular you’re interested in or that you’re looking for.
Estate Sale Finds!
The moral of my story?  The more I go to estate sales, the more I realize that all the good stuff is in the basement or the garage.
But I digress…Kevin and I woke up far too early this morning to snag a mid-century scoop chair at a local estate sale.  As I walked through the house the sale seemed okay, but not spectacular.  I picked up a pair of Swedish glass vases by Gunnar Ander for Lindshammar.  I’m just now getting to know Scandinavian art glass, so I was happy to put some of my new-found knowledge to use in the field.
I went over to the bedrooms where I found a stockpile of knee-hugger elves.  They’re cute and kitschy and perfect for my Etsy shop once Christmas-time rolls around!  All-in-all, I thought to myself, this sale hasn’t been very exciting at all.
Then I see Kevin practically skipping towards me with his bag full of goodies.  I gave him an incredulous look: what could he have possibly found in the garage?  Then he pulled out the most beautiful mid-century decanter I’ve ever seen.
It wasn’t until we got home that we realized it was made by Kenji Fujita by Freeman Lederman.  Right now it’s going to stay in the permanent collection so that Kevin can admire his garage find.  Also in his bag of tricks?  A cute, figural wind bell from Pacific Stoneware (with its original tags!), which is an Oregon-based company.  I’ve seen a few other collectors talk about this company before, so I’ve been waiting for my chance to see a piece myself!  He also found some pretty nesting ashtrays  (sadly, these aren’t signed).
Let this be a lesson to me.  Garage!  Basement!  Garage!  Basement!
Let There Be…Grey.
Oh Seattle.  I am ever-so-happy I moved to your fine city.  I’ve loved renovating my home and I cherish the friends I’ve made here, but come February I yearn for sun.  Hot, bright, piercing sunshine.  Sadly, I won’t see the sun until May.  In the meantime, I try and surround myself with ‘sunny’ surroundings.  I love bright colors.  Just looking at the bright oranges and yellows brightens my mood, to say nothing of the mossy greens.
Our Drexel Declaration wall unit is constantly changing.  Pieces come in-and-out as we sell them on the shop, but many pieces stay around for my personal collection, especially my Finel bowls!
A Dreamy Little Hedgehog
This weekend while we were out thrifting, the husband ran up to me with a gleam in his eye.  “Look what I found!”  The thrifting gods have not been kind recently, so I looked down to his outstretched hand with hopeful eyes.
I have to admit I didn’t know what to think at first.  I knew it was teak and I assumed it was made in Denmark, but I was only half right.  This darling little hedgehog was made in Italy, probably in the 1960s?  He reminds me of Kay Bojesen’s lovely wooden animals as well as Walter Bosse’s hedgehog ashtrays.
Our little hog also has the dubious honor of being my fastest etsy sale to date.  Good luck, little dude!  Have fun in your new home!