Margaret Rose

Newgate Market in York is a daily market full of your normal fish, vegetable, clothes and knitting kind of stalls but there's also two or three junk, thrifty vintage seller that visit the site a couple of times a week. I often go for a wander on my lunch break so I thought i'd go for a nosey and stumbled across an elderly lady selling a mixture of vintage jewellery, compacts, plate wear and books. While they weren't the most exotic or big named compacts they were going cheap - all under £7.50 which is an utter bargain and after posting last week my complete vintage compact collection I have been having craves to had a new one - even though I'm meant to be money saving. But that when to the side. The first compact that caught my eye was the £4 marked, poorly, tired flapjack compact I posted about the other day, the second was this cameo Margaret Rose 1950s compact - priced at £6 it was more then reasonable.

Pre cleaned - the Margaret Rose compact with it's little feminine cameo.

The bottom pan of the compact is often how they are dated, with Stratton's they can often be dated by the pattern design. In this instance due to the small hole in the bottom right of the compact we can be sure that this is a post 1950 compact. This hole was designed a way of removing and therefore replacing the powder pan once all the contents had been used. As clearly marked the makers Margaret Rose is enamelled into the bottom followed by England indicating is country of origin.

A glimpse inside the cleaned compact - the white pan would have once been removable therefore allowing the lady to keep her compact. The original shifter with cardboard edging is covering the original puff.

Sometimes it pays off to have a good little rumble in all the corners of a market. Sometimes you come away with nothing worth looking at and then others you find little marvels that just need a little loving. The compact may not be as old or as "stylish" as some of my counterparts but its different and offers another glimpse at what was once a named and known English compact brand.