I have been really enjoying looking at the photos from The Little Round Table blog. I have no where near as many dishes, and I am just now learning to love vintage linens, so I haven't found any yet. After looking at all of the beautiful tablescapes, I was wondering if I could maybe use some of my favorite dishes and give it a try...
Today was the big day! The yearly Masonic Antiques Show at the old Hartland High School. It has been 2 or 3 years since we (my friend Chicken's Auntie and I) visited last, and today seemed to have more vendors and more buyers-it was fun! I was very happy to see Carol from Lamb's Gate and the Salvage Yard (one of my new favorite shops), and a couple of ladies that sell in the Royal Oak Parking Structure Garage Sale. It's fun when you get to shop from some of your favorite sellers!
Chicken's Auntie was the big winner at the show, she got a few neat things. All I got was a bag of popcorn and a bottle of water.
After that, we headed to the Great Midwest Antique Emporium in Waterford. This is a neat little shop that seemed to have pretty decent prices. I enjoyed visiting this shop so much, I wish it would have been bigger!
We made a quick pit stop after that at Dixieland Flea Market (I've been there more in the last 2 months than I have in the last 10 years!). I got a set of glass coasters-half off for only $1. I'm thinking of spray painting the carrier.
Nothing fancy, but for a dollar...I might be able to dress it up a little and once they are clean they should sparkle a little bit.
My GPS took us way out of our way on the route home, but we found a moving sale on the way and I got an Anchor Hocking Savannah bread and butter dish, 3 iron skeleton keys (all for $1), and a card/picture holder
for $2.
Somehow, the GPS brought us out in downtown Fenton and ended up at Garage Sale 360 & Hitz Consignment. I got a GREAT piece of material to make into a tablecloth (if I can persuade Chicken's Auntie to finish the edges).
From there we went to Fratz Consignment and we had a ball walking around and looking at everything. I got a great Pyrex refrigerator dish, that is just the perfect size for leftovers, and a purple slag chicken on a nest. How do you tell if it is old or if it is a reproduction? The woman at the register said she thought it was probably 20 years or so old. Anyone have any clues how to date them?
All in all, it was a fun day! Beautiful blue skies, lot of gorgeous sun, almost 50 degrees, and lots of laughs! Today was not a frog, but a prince!
Chicken's Auntie suggested we travel to Jeffrey's in Findlay Ohio for one of our adventures. I was surprised when she said it is no farther to Jeffrey's than what we drove for our Bay City trip! Jeffrey's here we come!!!
This fun little set of Federal Glass mixing bowls arrived from Ebay today!
There was a small heart stopping moment when I first saw the box and one corner was pretty badly crushed. Two other times when I've received a partially crushed box, the contents have been smashed, so the first thing I did was shake the box...
WHEW! No rattling from inside! I quickly opened the box to find probably THE best packing job I've ever seen! Every bowl in the set survived the journey!!
They arrived very dirty, but I was able to clean them up nicely. Now I am on the hunt for the fifth and final bowl in the set, it is the smallest bowl with red dots. In this picture, the smaller bowl has orange dots, even though they look red.
This will be their 42nd year. It is held only 3 times a year at the Midland County Fairgrounds.
Saturdays 8am-6pm
Sundays 8am-4pm
It's about an hour and a half drive from where we live but well worth it! When we went last fall, they said there were 1,000 vendors. It's a lot of fun to be able to visit so many different vendors all in one spot!
Photos borrowed from Michigan Antique & Collectibles website.
The last time we went, we walked for about 4 hours, and still didn't even see it all! We skipped the buildings, and stayed outside. If we had gone into all the buildings, we would have probably added another hour or two.
Admission is $5 per person. It is pretty cheap entertainment if you ask me! Even if you don't buy anything, it is still a fun day.
What did I get last year? A couple of pieces of chartreuse Fiesta, joint custody of a square angel food cake pan, 2 giant bags of kettle corn (that barely survived the ride home with 4 hungry people), and lots of fun memories!
This year, I plan to take my camera, so I can show you how much fun it is!
I recently stumbled on a very fun blog (C. Dianne Zweig-Kitsch 'n Stuff), and through reading this blog, I've found a couple of really fun books - written by the blog's author!
I checked these out at the library and have spent a lot of time pouring over the pages of them both. I've even taken them in to work and shared them with my co-workers!
If you love antiques and kitchen collectibles, you have to check them out yourself! They are very informative, and have tons of great pictures! While you are at it, check out the author's blog too!
I've been reading a bunch of books from the library about vintage collectibles, depression glass, antiques and garage sales. One book recommended that you make a wishlist and carry it with you when you are out seeking your treasures because sometimes you get so caught up, you forget what you were looking for!
So I decided to make a small wishlist for myself. Hopefully, some day, I will find all of these things-at great prices, of course!
Yesterday, while Chicken’s Auntie and I were out and about on our road trip to Holly, I remembered she had asked about a photo I had taken earlier of some of my “stuff” when I was digging through some cabinets. She had asked “What is Boopie glass?” So when I saw a cordial glass, I pointed it out to her. She then asked “How come it’s called Boopie?” I had to admit that I didn’t know. I didn’t even know if Boopie was Candlewick, or another brand. I had just always assumed it was Candlewick, by the Imperial Glass Company, and it referred to the water goblets, cordial glasses, and other glasses made with the ball feet.
Of course, Auntie suggested that I research it! It is kind of a standing joke with us…dating way back when we first started working together. I would ask for help with a computer problem and she would say, “Did you check the helps?” LOL! I love it! Now, thanks to Auntie, I try to dig in and do the research and check the helps to get the scoop. But sometimes, I still ask her first because she is such a wealth of knowledge on so many subjects!
So here is what I found out to try to answer her question, “What is Boopie?”
Imperial Glass Company was started in 1901 by a former riverboat captain named Edward Muhleman, who also had many years experience in the glass industry. He decided to build his new glass factory in Bellaire, Ohio (also known as “Glass City”) close to the river. It took three years of planning and building before they were ready to start production, and just a few months into 1904, they were shaping up to be a major force in the glass industry. They started with all of the usual pressed glass household items and ventured into carnival glass in 1909. The first series of Candlewick were put into production in 1920, and was formally introduced at the Wheeling Centennial Celebration in 1936.
The Candlewick design (which started with around 40 items jumped to around 200 items by the 1950’s) quickly became one of their strongest selling glassware patterns.Production of Candlewick ran until the mid 50's.
Anchor Hocking was started in 1937 when Anchor Cap, the Closure Corporation and Hocking Glass Company all merged together. They are still in operation today and are primarily located in Lancaster, Ohio with one plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania. The first glassware produced under the new Anchor Hocking name was Royal Ruby in 1939. I really had a hard time finding information on Anchor Hocking’s history and their Boopie pattern in particular. From the many articles I’ve read, it seems the original name was Berwick and was created around 1950, but most people are only familiar with the name Boopie (which was coined by Hazel Marie Weatherman, who in the 1970’s published several books on depression era glassware).
The best way to tell the difference between Candlewick and Boopie (Berwick) is to take a good look at the balls of glass. The Candlewick pattern has balls that do not run together or even touch each other. They are full circle balls that have a little space in between them. They tend to look more fragile that way. The Boopie or Berwick design has the balls touching each other without any space in between. They almost look welded together. The ever so subtle differences in the two designs have confused novice collectors (including myself) and sellers all over the world. If you look on Ebay right now, you will see several listings where the seller has listed their item and included the names Candlewick and Boopie in their descriptions. I am choosing to believe that their reason for doing so is because they themselves are not sure, rather than believing they are trying to pass off Boopie as Candlewick.
It has been interesting to research this. I have had a chance to go through a few of the pieces in my collection and now realize that I have purchased Boopie thinking I was purchasing Candlewick. It doesn’t make me like them any less though-I love the design! I also purchased (a few years ago) a purple divided candy dish, with balls around the edges thinking it was Candlewick, and have now learned that it is actually Czechoslovakian glass.
I hope you too have found this research interesting! Click on this link to get more information on the differences between Candlewick and Boopie.
According to my research, this divided candy dish is not Candlewick, but Czechoslovakian glass.
This is Candlewick because the balls are separated with a wafer-like piece of glass.
This is Candlewick.
This is not Candlewick but Orchard Crystal by Hazel Atlas. Did you notice the little ash tray in the front right corner?
Well…today was the highly anticipated antiquing trip to Holly. What we were hoping would be a prince of a day…turned into a very creepy frog day!
It turned out to be a sleepy little town that on first glance, seemed to have lots interesting older homes and buildings downtown. We got a great parking spot, right across an alley from an historic hotel (which isn’t an operating hotel anymore, but a high scale restaurant). It had such a great exterior and was on a really cool little alley with a bunch of little shops, I couldn’t wait to explore!
As we got about 20 feet from the entrance to Arcade Antiques, Chicken’s Auntie, casually pops out with, “You know this place is haunted don’t you?” What? No, I hadn’t heard that…are you joking? She wasn’t joking! She went on to say that some people have even said they have felt what feels like the skirt of the woman that haunts the place to brush up against them when they are in the back rooms looking at the antiques. GREAT…now I really want to go in - - - not so much!
When we went in, it was a little different, but we kept going. The farther back we went, the darker and creepier it got. The lighting was really sparse, and the facades that they built for the outsides of the rooms that was I’m sure, meant to be charming, seemed to me, to be just plain creepy! The guy working there was very friendly, and fun to chat with, but I couldn’t get over the creepy feeling. I’m pretty sure, that even if Auntie hadn’t dropped that bombshell on me, I would have still felt it was creepy!
We walked to the end of the alley and out on to S. Saginaw and saw this really neat building across the street-I just had to take a quick snap of it! I didn’t even realize that I got the Holly Hills Primitives sign in the shot.
Our next stop was Holly Hills Primitives. It was a quick walk through for us. Neither of us are very big fans of primitives. I’m glad we stopped though, because you never want to wonder, if you missed your prince because you didn’t stop.
We walked across the street to Holly’s Main Street Antiques. It was quite a bit less creepy- brighter lighting, and more open spaces. When we went upstairs, a little boy (I am assuming he was either the son or grandson of the owner), came upstairs after we did, and hopped on an antique tricycle that was for sale, and was riding it around up there while we were shopping. It was kind of weird-in a creepy sort of way. We both thought the prices seemed very high, and neither of us ended up buying anything.
The next stop was the Holly Water Tower Antiques Mall. I had seen this place on line and was pretty excited to stop. Their parking lot was so tiny! I think it only had 6 or 7 spaces! When you first walk in, there are a lot of locked display cases. I was kind of bummed, because it has been my experience that the stuff in locked cases is usually priced way more than I want to spend. Plus, when I am shopping, I like to be able to pick the items up, look them over really good, hold them up the light, and just feel the weight and quality. If I go to a shop and see a lot of locked cases, I usually skip right by them.
There were a couple of things that caught our eyes…a Harlequin creamer, a chartreuse pitcher and a couple other small things, but in the end, we walked out without buying anything.
Our next stop was Balcony Row Antiques. It looked interesting from the outside. When we went in though, it was really creepy. It was very dimly lit, and was a very old building with lots of little rooms just filled with really old creepy stuff. They were playing really creepy classical music and I was glad I wasn’t in there alone! By the time we got about half way through, I was ready to go! The creepy-ness was getting to be too much for me. One little room we looked in even had a skull on the counter! I couldn’t wait to get out of there!
Off to Spinning Jenny’s Antiques in Clarkston. I wish I would have read the online review before we went! It was a small place, with stuff that looked like it had been there for a long time and prices that were really high - another frog in our search for our prince today.
We ended up being only about 5 miles from Dixieland Flea Market, and since Auntie had never been, and I knew the Fiesta lady was there... I kind of talked her into going. I figured what’s one more creepy stop on the creepy train!?! It fit it with the rest of the day’s stops quite well.
We saw some neat stuff, lots of people and actually liked the Betty Boop ladies room. I got a purple Pyrex mixing bowl set (that I think is actually called cranberry, but looks more purple than red to me) and a chartreuse Fiesta charger, and then it was time to head for home. We made a quick stop at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in WhiteLake, but didn’t find anything there either.
So…overall, I’d say it was a really ugly, creepy frog day! I think we need to find a prince and soon! If for nothing else than to chase the creepies away!
In keeping with our rating system (frog for not so great, and prince for great), today was an ugly, creepy frog day!
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