Treasure Box Wednesday: Luster, Shine and Glitter

Welcome, Treasure Box Wednesday friends! How's the week been treating you so far?

It was a treat for my inner-magpie this week, when a visit to the Red, White & Blue thrift store in Bellevue, PA uncovered a trio of interesting lusterware plates!
It's been some time since I've thrifted any unique lusterware, and this stack, just sitting among the glassware, was easy to take a shine to. Given the color and style of the pieces, it got me pondering those nifty thrifty questions for which I'm unlikely to ever have the answers...

Like, were these a part of a single person's collection? What did their house look like? Were they loved and displayed? And what happened that meant these beauties made their way to the thrift store?

Then I had another pleasant surprise this week, of the non-thrifting variety, that I wanted to share with you.

One of my favorite decorating magazines is Romantic Country. While it's sometimes just a tad heavy on the floral patterns for me (I'm more of a paint instead of wallpaper gal), it's always chock full of vintage goodies and soft colors. I just wish it came out more than four times a year...
So as I was leafing through it yesterday, enjoying a morning cup of coffee, I was shocked to see someone very familiar!... The internet's Good Lady o' Glitter, Rosemary Olson...

Now, I met Rosemary online some years ago when we both discovered the same decorating and crafts forums. She's a sweet lady with a terrific eye for creating magical, whimsical-style gift and decorative items, like tiaras, wedding favors and seasonal boxes.

So I just wanted to take a moment to say, "Congratulations on the lovely magazine spread, Rosemary!" I'm so happy to see you getting the recognition you well-deserve!

Shine on! (And don't forget to wash the glitter and glue off your hands before you try to frame that great photo spread. You'll stick.) :)

You can check out Rosemary's blog-- Rose's Petite Maison-- here.

Nefarious Knitting with McCall's

Okay, so, Spinnerin Knits may have thought they had the "Most Bizarre and Creepy Modeling for a Knitting Catalog" category all sewn up, in the 1960s Weird Crafting Competition. But McCall's really had some purls-- er, gems-- of their own. Like in this "McCall's Knitting Book 4" from 1968...

From the very front cover, we have a sense that 60s strangeness might lie within. Here we have big sister Marcia Brady with little sis, Jan. Marcia smiles vacantly with dreams of being high school student council president, but Jan may have other plans.

I mean, am I the only one that gets the impression young Jan has more on her mind than comfy cardigans here?

Does she not look like she's, perhaps, gotten a bright idea for a little, um, sibling rivalry revenge, maybe?Can we really prove that very Brady football to the nose was an accident? Or did Jan spend a year's allowance on a little brotherly bribe?

Only time and mysteriously missing footage will tell!

Inside the book, one of the first things I spied was this ad for a different McCall's instruction magazine-- this one "Needlework & Crafts." And there were a couple of things that just seemed "off" to me...

First is why Mom here appears to be animatronic...
And then there are the Toychests from Hell...

Who's dad-- Charles Manson? Gomez Addams? What kind of parent paints tiki-mask versions of cuddly animals on little Suzy's toy boxes?

I mean, what do you tell the kid:

"Ah, if you don't put your toys away, Mr. Fangy-man on your toy chest will be angry. And you don't want Mr. Fangy-Man to be angry, do you, Suzy?"

Somehow I don't think the cost of therapy is going to balance out with the amount of money they saved with this do-it-yourself paint project.

The toybox may have already gotten to young Mary here...

Something about this kid's expression makes me nervous. Like she's saying, "No, the house just burned down. It was an accident. Nothing to do with me. I just don't know why the nice Mr. Fireman found that lighter in my room. And a gasoline can. And that C4. And that nitro glycerine."
Of course, Mom is one of the Stepford Wives...

She's powered down right now, which is why she stares so. And why she's in what looks like an uncomfortable, unnatural position. But don't worry. She doesn't feel a thing. We just oil her up now and then, give her a new battery, flip her switch and away she'll go.

And for our last photo... In case any of you were wondering what happened to Little Orphan Annie once she grew up...
Notice, she finally was able to get the cornea operation to help her eyeballs look more like other peoples'. Her Sandy, however, went on to train as a seeing-eye dog and help other children without irises and pupils.


Hope you got a chuckle from eyeballing this week's post. See you Wednesday, when the Treasure Box opens on the latest thrifted fun.

Treasure Box Wednesday: Brushing Up on Brush McCoy Pottery

There were just two things in the Treasure Box for this week-- one of which I shared with you good folks on Sunday.

The other was a vase that had caught my eye several weeks ago, in a McCoy display at the We Miss Back When antique mall in Apollo, PA. The color and shape were absolutely my taste. Regular readers probably know by now my love of these organic-looking art pottery pieces in cool pastels. And this one seemed so finely-done.

The mark on the bottom of the vase said "Brush Company." And because I had already selected a more inexpensive, small McCoy piece from the mall, I ended up passing on the vase. Budget just wouldn't allow.

It was this week, I was in the area and finally made the purchase for my collection. (And on sale, no less!)
Interestingly, the vase does seem to be a part of the McCoy company's lengthy history. The company had many names, many mergers and many smaller companies branching from it since the turn-of-the-1900s, and the Brush Company was one of those early iterations.

If the vase is truly from the Brush Company itself-- and not a part of the later merger called "Brush-McCoy"-- then the vase had a very small window of opportunity for production.

According to my Collector's Encyclopedia of McCoy Pottery, the Brush Pottery company was a one-kiln operation in the Putman section of Zanesville, Ohio in 1907, started by one of the later general managers of McCoy pottery, George S. Brush. Due to a fire, the Brush Pottery only existed from 1907-1908.

Brush-McCoy began in 1911.
So I still need to verify the mark on the bottom of the vase to determine if it's really just Brush Pottery or not, but either way, it's probably a pretty old piece.

No matter-- the point, as with anything a person collects-- is that I love it. The smooth, creamy matte finish... The leafy, feathery shape... It sits with McCoy cousins in its color palette as a central focal point like it's always lived there.

And I was wondering-- do you folks collect anything that you've had to do some research on?