Treasure Box Wednesday: Juicy Finds and Nifty Info

Greetings Fellow Thrift-a-holics! And welcome to today's Treasure Box Wednesday post. I was excited to get this one rolling for you all today because of one particular item I never imagined finding at a thrift store-- a Juicy Couture embroidered bag!

I mean, really: while I love some of the vintage inspiration and velvety fabrics on Juicy Couture handbags, I find the prices for them-- even at places like TJ Maxx and Marshalls-- end up out of my price range.

But a walk-through of the Red, White and Blue thrift store on Saturday ended up paying off big for me. Not only was the bag there, but it was a blue tag-- meaning it was half-off.
I loved that the purse was a nice usable chocolate brown. And the little shabby bow and dangling charms and crest on it, I thought were particularly cute.

I love, too, that my purchase money went to charity. A definite win-win!

I also found there these pink goblets...
It's a little hard to see the pattern, but it looked to me very much like some I'd seen on Depression glass. So I went home, checked my handy-dandy Depression Glass book and...
It IS and it ISN'T Depression glass! The pattern is called "Madrid" or "Recollection" and it's made by Indiana Glass. But the shape glass is actually completely modern, and was issued in the 70s.

Now me, I don't really mind it not being from the Depression. But it's certainly interesting information to have.

The last thing I found was this little cuckoo clock planter in turquoise. It isn't marked, but it looked like McCoy to me...
Well, I STILL don't know if it's McCoy. But in the McCoy book, there was this very similar cuckoo clock wall pocket planter...
Mine does have two holes at the bottom where possibly a chain and weights might have hung. But honestly, given my young cat Harry has been testing the physics of ledge shelves in the last day or so-- to see if an 8 pound cat can fit on a four-inch wide wall shelf with knicknacks (The rather disastrous answer here is: Um, NO.) it's probably just as well the planter has no dangly bits to tempt curious paws and jumping legs.

So, that's it for the Treasure Box today! Next post I should be able to give you an update on my friend Scoobie's livingroom transformation.

Take care! (And don't jump on any wall shelves.)

Birth and Rebirth in Collectibles Trends

Do you ever wonder about what specifically spawns certain trends in collecting and decorating? What makes a certain type of item suddenly become in demand, or even have a powerful resurgence after being ignored or reviled for decades?

I had often wondered this very thing in relation to the iridescent glass we think of as "carnival glass" today.

I have been fortunate over the years to pick up a number of carnival Indiana Glass Harvest Grape pieces from the 60s and 70s-- all inexpensively at thrift stores and antique malls.

But I was always curious what it was that triggered modern manufacturers to suddenly start remaking the colorful glass that had been so popular 50 years or more before.

Well, would you believe I recently found the answer to this, in casual reading?

Yup, I'd been going through volume three of the Imperial Glass Encyclopedia, when their section on carnival satiated my curiosity once and for all!
In the 1960s, not only did Marion Hartung publish books on the subject, bringing the glass back into the light (so to speak), but an article in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution newspaper (August 18, 1963) on the topic dubbed old Carnival glass the "Cinderella of Modern Antiques."

In response, Imperial, Fenton Art Glass and other companies began reissuing carnival pieces, many from their original molds. And the revival grew well into the 1970s.

This got me thinking about how it had taken some appreciation from Martha Stewart to get the collectibles community showing renewed enthusiasm in the creamy green glassware known as jadite...
While I've noticed costs for jadite have gone to more reasonable levels in the last year or so, there for a while antiques dealers were offering jadite for princely sums. Where Martha waxed poetic, the market agreed. Everyone wanted beautiful, soothing pieces made of this opaque, aqua glass.

So this got me pondering again: what do you think is a highly underrated collectible today?

As I've always been a fan of the Carnival glass, I notice right now I'm one of the few that finds it magical. Will it have its day again?

And I adore McCoy's art pottery pieces, particularly ones from the 1940s. It always makes me wonder why McCoy pottery ends up being about half the price of Hull, even though their style is very similar...
So my question is open to you folks:

Is there a collectible item out there that you adore and feel hasn't received the attention it's deserved?

What is your "Cinderella Among Collectibles"?

Treasure Box Wednesday: Carnival Ride and Thrifty Thrills

Well, this antiquing and thrifting adventure weekend certainly packed a punch! Twelve of them, even...


Yup, in a trip down my beloved Route 30, I had a veritable carnival ride of goodies. Like this lovely blue Indiana Glass carnival punch bowl in blue... complete with the original cups... hooks... and even a ladle!... All of it came as a set from the L&L Fleatique in Adamsburg. How I do love that place!


I can just see a nice sherbety beverage in there, or perhaps a mulled cider in fall! Care for a sip?

My other favorite thing of the day was this beautiful Victorian photo album cover...


The pages and binding, unfortunately, are long-gone... but the celluloid cover is in just amazing condition. Back and front are intact. I think I'll just display it as-is.

It came from Graham's Antique Mall in Ligonier. I was carrying it around the booths and radiating unbridled joy, I suppose, since an older lady smiled at me and commented, "Ohhh, somebody's found something they love."

Is it that obvious? Erm... yes. Yes, it is. :)

Then my other-other favorite thing of the day (and will probably be a fave of my fellow Pyrexics, too) is this nifty Pyrex holly and pine mixing bowl I found at the Salvation Army...


...In an orange-red, I think I'll fill this with goodies for my friend Scoobie's mom... She loves red, and can certainly use the bowl. I can hear her oohing and ahhing now! I've never seen this pattern before-- and I see a lot of Pyrex at the thrifts. So that was exciting.

I also got this cool 1940s Homer Laughlin mixing bowl in a pattern that's called Orange Tree...


I liked it because it reminds me of William Morris Tree-of-Life inspired wallpapers. It's a very small bowl-- perhaps only six inches across. It was a whopping $0.99!

And it was at a Salvation Army I found this nice purple vintage hanky...


And a Trixie Belden for $0.49! T'is the season for Trixie Beldens it seems. I wonder why we're spotting her all of a sudden like this?


Lastly-- and this is the thing that will hopefully end up being a present for you all, as well-- I found us some fun vintage cookbooks to look at in future posts! (See, I think of you folks when I go out...)


Well, it's time for me to put the lid back on the Treasure Box for another week! Thanks for joining me-- as always. I enjoy hearing from you all immensely.

If you didn't get a chance to see the "Bag of Old Papers" post from Sunday, that'll be tucked away here.

And otherwise-- hope you have spring in your step, and in your gardens, too!