LIFE: Other Peoples Junk

This little part of the world is heaven if both estate sales and yard sales are your kinda thing. The past couple of weekends we've taken to randomly driving around (you really don't have to drive far) and having a gander at some of the yard sales just for a change from estate sales. 

While I find yard sales a little more frustrating than estate sales - you have no idea what you might find, they can be super hit and miss and some just don't hold any interest in us (lots of sales for baby clothes and items, household junk etc). But they can be fun all the same - from finding penguin nesting dolls, couple of vintage Detroit postcards to cookbooks, vinyls and an unbranded vintage powder compact with a sweet dragonfly design upon it's top, we didn't do too badly. Aside from me getting sunstroke, that wasn't fun.

I don't think anything is going to beat the $1 Jimi Hendrix Experience vinyl (Are You Experienced - 1967) we found the week previous, but last weekend the vinyl gods were smiling on us again. You go through peaks and lows, you can go weeks without finding anything you're interested in and then have a day when everything is in your favor. Take for example the three estate sales we hit which must have had thousands and thousands of records between them, from which we rehomed about 70 everything from The Beatles, Deep Purple to lots of lovely Motown Records (Marvelettes, Temptations, Spinners to the Supremes) to Stevie Nicks and Buddy Holly (an original 1958 one at that) with everything in between. Motown's never the easiest to find, at least in LP format, so finding 9 in one day is my kinda fun.

What have you found lately?

LIFE: Our Collections

Sharing a one bedroom apartment with four collections between me and Joe is just one of the reasons why we need to expand into a house. I've always collected something - for at least as long as I can properly remember that is, whether it was badges to Nancy Drew books and now having someone to not only share my collections with, but to additionally collect stuff together is an added bonus.

So I thought i'd take the time during this 2014 Blogger Challenge post on collections to talk about the four main collections I/we live with, how we got into them and what they are all about. Sadly nearly all of it is all packed away for moving, hopefully they'll see the light of day again soon!

Vintage Powder Compacts
So collecting compacts began back in 2009 after my gran died and I inherited (well saved from the rubbish) some of hers - one being a Statton, another one being pre WW2, both piped my interest and the collection grew from there. They mainly date from the early 1930's through to the mid 1980's and I currently have brands from France, UK, US and Germany. It's a slow to grow collection, while they are easy to pick up on ebay I prefer hunting them out at estate sales. Still, I think the collection is at around 80 these days. 

You can find out more about my collection under the vintage powder compacts tag.

Transformers

I happily share my living space with about 200 Transformer Toys - Joe's main collecting habitat, although a majority of them are packed away for moving. His collection mainly revolves around the Beast Wars, Prime and Generations toy line and I find them rather nifty myself, and I'll happily admit to asking for a Grimlock Transformer along with a couple of others for myself. Back in 2012 I shared a little more about the collection here if you're interested.

Vinyl Records

If you're a regular reader you'll know we have a love for all things vinyl, well we have a big weakness for vinyl's lets be honest. We began collecting in 2012, picking up a couple of records even before we had a player. After picking up a then unworking original 1970's Sony record player for $3 the collection just grew and grew. With records spanning everywhere from the mid 1950's to the present day with everything from blues, to jazz, sound tracks, Motown to heavy metal we've taken to using Discogs to catolgue our collection because we have too many to remember. I've managed to catalog 826 of them so far, but there's at least a good couple of hundred that were packed away for moving before hand.

Find all things record related under the vinyl tag.

Model Trains

Our model train collection is something I've never really got around to talking about, possibly it's a little too geeky to share. Anyway individually we both have a love for trains be it the real ones for travelling for the model rail kind. We have a big collection of model engines, stock cars to mini trees and track that we've collected from estate sales, sadly they are all in boxes and have never yet been played with due to a total lack of space - hopefully whenever we get a house we'll set up a track in the basement and get it working.

Those are the big four, that and a liking for collecting vintage postcards (particularly Detroit/Michigan ones) and crafty things. I'd love to hear what about what you collect!

VINTAGE COMPACTS: Stratton Additions

After posting last week about how to date those popular Stratton compacts you might come across, I thought I'd share my latest couple of Stratton additions. 

Two of these compacts were picked up at estate sales for just a couple of dollars each. I will admit to not being the biggest fans of this brand, but at that price I can't grumble. It was a Stratton after all that got me into this collection in the first place.

Both these compacts are of the same era - if we're dating by the design upon the base - we're in the 1980's but both styles of the design of the compacts shape, began in the 1960's - you can see the issue here. Either way this compact has a simple leaf and line design upon the top and an inner powder lid. 

This Rose compact is the larger of the pair and remains unused with it's original little inspected slip still left inside.  Patent number 764125 which was granted to Stratton in 1956 indicates that this is a convertible compact designed for both loose and solid power which would have been held within a removable tray. Unlike the smaller compact above, this compact has a hinged metal ring rather than an inner lid, to keep either the sifter or powder tray in place.

Finally you might be surprised that Stratton still manufacture, design and sell compacts today. I won this Diva Stratton through Vanroe Compacts (a great store and source of information) which is decorated with a beautiful college of black and white images of some of my Hollywood favorites - Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Bette Davis to name a couple. While not vintage, it's still designed for loose powder and is very much embedded in the history of Stratton. I'd highly recommend looking at Vanroe if you never need an extra special gift.

Do you have any vintage Stratton compacts?

VINTAGE: Dating Stratton Powder Compacts

Stratton Compacts happen to be some of the easiest of compacts to find - for use or for collecting - I myself have eight of them (shown above). As a brand, Stratton began importing and assembling partially finished American compacts in 1923, yet by the 1930's they were a brand in their own right ultimately producing half of the compacts made for the UK market. With over 70 years of manufacturing, they made countless designs - both with regards to the top and the bottom of the compacts, therefore they aren't the easiest of compact brands to date. 

Through my own personal collecting and researching, I've found a couple of tips and links about how to date your Stratton compact. I know a couple of you how have commented previously on my compact posts, own them so hopefully you'll find it helpful in gauging just how vintage your compacts are.

Dani Boyd - a member of the British Compact Society produced a Youtube video in 2013 showing how you can date your Stratton's by the design upon the bottom of the compact. It's a really handy guide to visually being able to date your compact and you'll be surprised that many aren't as old as you might think.

As a rough, rough guide your basic popular Strattons certainly can be divided up into eras;

• Late 1930's to 1950's - base designs tend to be of a spiral 
• Mid 1950's to  mid 1960's - base design of all over stars
• Mid 1960's to early 1970's - base design of stars again but with the addition of the Stratton name
• 1970's to 1980's - Somewhat spotted designs with the Stratton name
• 1980's to 1990's - base design woven patterns with the Stratton name

Adapted from My Vintage Powder Compact

Star base #1 // Star bar #2 // remaining images from my own collection

Not all of the above can be applied to every Stratton model as they were manufactured over 70 years there's a variety of styles - also there's a lot of generic designs which can't be aged so well. How much of a lap over or definitive this list is, I'm unsure, but it's certainly a basic reference point to dating your Stratton.

Other ways to date;

• The "Compact-in-hand" logo upon the inner lid was made between 1950 and 1970
• Convertible Stratton compacts (ones taking powder and cream) date from the mid 1950's onwards
• Self opening inner lids began to be manufactured after 1948

Compact in Hand Logo

Convertible Stratton

Dating Stratton compacts is always going to be a work in progress, even after four years of collecting i'm still learning, finding new ways of dating (you can even date through the size and shape of the original powder puffs). But rough overviews are always a helpful guide to knowing where to start and what your looking at - whether for collections or use. 

I hope you find it useful!

FOUND IT FRIDAY: Raiding the Sally Army

There is an incredible huge, cheap and awesome Salvation Army off M-59 in the far reaches of Metro Detroit that had an amazing, amazing sale on when we happened to be driving past. So awesome in fact they had their records reduced for day down to 5 for a dollar. Yes 20 cents a record and what better way to start a Found it Friday post.

Records and charity shops can be really hit and miss. Mostly miss, sadly. But the vinyl gods were on our side and helped us score some more Zepplin, Who, Temptations and Fleetwood Mac vinyl to name but a few. I actually forget the entire list of records as we did walk away with 34 of them. Yes, really and goes some way in explaining our major vinyl storage issues which will only be resolved with a buying a house in all honesty.

Oh and I made the mistake of actually finding the time to count how many records we have ... without counting 75's and box sets, we stand are 682. Any wonder we need a bigger place?!

Scouring estate sales your constantly pinning in your head furniture wish lists, a true lack of space means we rarely act on our impulses but a set of nesting tables for $3.50 and a vintage shelving stand/unit (now half used for storing shoes, the other half vintage cookbook stock) for $3 and you somewhat make the space. I have dreams of vintage sofas, tables, desks, miss matched chairs and dressers. One day Rachael, one day.

If there's space in our $5 bags we always seem to throw in things for ourselves, from beautifully illustrated 1930's bird guidebooks (seriously the color of birds in the US are amazingly colorful) to vintage Gerber leaflets on the meaning of baby names, endless hardbacks of Steinbeck and du Maurier. I've also managed to rehome a couple of vintage powder compacts into my collection which must be nearing 80. Another Volpte design with lipstick container attached and my first Avon design, at $3 a piece I can't really say no.

What have been your vintage finds lately? Thinking of buying vintage things for Christmas? I'd love to hear!

PS // Giving you all a heads up -> Love vinyl as much as we do? You might be interested in checking out the Record Store Day Black Friday special LP (and even CD) releases - not sure how international the releases are but well worth checking out.

FOUND IT FRIDAY: Holiday Antiquing

I've been meaning for months to be more dedicated to sharing my vintage finds from estate sales and the like, but it's just never stuck. So I'm running with Joe's idea of trying at least to make it a somewhat semi-permanent fixtures every couple of Fridays in what I'm now terming Found it Friday. 

Estate sales have been a little hit and miss in the last couple of weeks, coupled with missing a weekend after being stuck with a broken down car, I thought I'd share some of our finds we picked up during our time away. As a couple we love nothing more then finding and poking through local vintage antique malls and flea markets in new places and we certainly came away with some goodies - although mostly of the vinyl and vintage powder compact kind, but I guess you wouldn't expect anything different from us these days!

We took the leisurely coastal route north after coming off the freeway at Bay City and after seeing a couple of antique stores driving through Tawas, we decided to have a quick stop and looksee. There's actually a number of antique malls and it was a great start to our holiday, we managed to pick up three nicely priced compacts - the red powder and rouge compact, Richard Hurbuard somewhat Aztec designed compact and a smaller rogue pot from the Central Michigan Normal from Mt. Pleasant all for $26, bargain!

I find the Central Michigan Normal compact the most intriguing. After doing a little research the title is actually the former name of the Central Michigan University. The university changed it's name just prior to World War 2 so this compact happens to be one of the early ones before mass production took off in post war America. 

Flea markets in the US tend to be a little more junk shop then what i'm use to in the UK, but we popped into one in Oscoda and were met with a huge amount of vinyl. I manged to pick up two Motown vinyls - my first Martha and the Vandellas (famous for Nowhere to Run, Dancing in the Street etc) and a Gladys Knight and the Pips record. I also have another side interest in collecting old vintage advertisements, basically ones taken out of old magazines. I already have a couple up in our kitchen and have dream-like-plans of continuing this when we buy a house these will go with my Fred & Ginger advertisement I picked up at the Royal Oak garage sale earlier this year. At $1 for the two you really can't go wrong and saves me cutting up my own vintage magazines!

Our last vintage stop was a gorgeous little antique store called Trillium Woods Antiques somewhat in the middle of nowhere but handily located along Lake Shore Drive more communally the Avenue of Trees scenic drive. This sweet little log cabin store was set within the woods and had some lovely home decor pieces, but as ever we were more interested in the compacts and managed to find two. The first being a leather one, also part of a matching set with a small purse with the most intricate design upon the top and the second, a cute little square design with flowers. Granted the second wasn't the cheapest ($19) in hindsight but certainly welcome in my collection!

Looking back at all out goodies has made me all excited about all the estate sales we have lined up for tomorrow, there looks to be a few good ones so fingers crossed!

Where are your favorite places and shops to get your vintage picks from? Found anything good yourself lately - I would love you hear all about them!

VINTAGE: US Capitol Vintage Powder Compact

So tonight we're off out to try a pizza place with it's very own stone oven for it's pizza's for our date night. But it's a kinda of special date night in the fact we've somewhat celebrating being together four years. So in four years together Joe has come to know me very well and as a sweetie gave me this vintage tin powder compact showing the US Capitol framed by cherry blossom in Washington DC for our 4 year anniversary on Wednesday. This enamel compact has an upper disk in the top which opens to reveal the metal stiff and powder well. The metal stiff in this compact denotes it as being a somewhat early compact - of an era before plastic was mass produced and therefore cheap. The lady would turn the metal disk clockwise thus grating against the powder which would come through the small holes in the stiff therefore allowing the lady to use just as much or as little powder she required at any time. 

Washington DC is right up there on my must visit list hence why Joe brought it for me, it probably says something about me that Washington Dc is on the list and New York doesn't feature. It also not only goes with my souvenir compacts but it's a matching compact for my Chicago Buckingham Fountain Compact as shown in the bottom photograph.

This week not only marks four years of me and Joe being together and of everything we overcame to be together, but it's also four years since I started collecting compacts which all started with one gold Stratton. Four years on the collection stands at 65 and still going strong.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, got anything excited planned? 

VINTAGE: Embroidered Powder Compact

Vintage compact number 62 in my collection is a sweet little compact with a flower bouquet design encased upon the top. Needlepoint decorated vintage powder compacts are few and fair between when it comes to finding them but Joe managed to sneakily buy this one for me at the weekend from an estate sales we visited. While unbranded I've managed to find some interesting information and history about this little compact all thanks to the patent number which was originally hidden under a clump of now vintage, original powder. Luckily google's patent search makes it super easily to track down and read American patents - in this case an issue date of January 29th, 1935 when a George Rosenburg of New York was issued his patent for a compact or vanity case was found. 

There's a couple of reasons why this patent and compact is a little different mostly relating to provision, adaptation and construction methods of using two different materials and so on. But what is of most interest is a little change in the mirror as described in the patent;

The ordinary vanity case is provided with a mirror on the inside of the cover facing inwardly, this being exposed when the case is opened. In accordance with a further object and feature of the invention, the bottom of the vanity includes a mirror facing outwardly which is valuable for use as a hand mirror without opening the case. This mirror makes unnecessary the extra mirror usually carried by a women in her handbag. Because the mirror is located at the bottom of the case, the cover at the top of the case may be suitable decorated or adorned to beautify the same.

George Rosenberg, 1935

That's not to say the only mirror provided in this compact is upon the bottom, inside there is a double sided mirror in the underside of the top, behind which a rogue compartment is held. Sadly over time this bottom facing mirror has faced a little extra wear but it's certainly an intriguing and practical idea. 

VINTAGE; Volupte Reflects the Prettiest of Faces

 

Volupte - a compact manufacture producing designs between the 1930's and the 1950's credited themselves and their compacts as "reflecting the prettiest faces" are considered to have been one of the top compact companies in their time. This is only the second Volupte that I've comes across in my hunting, or at least in my price range - this was a mere $3 at an estate sale at the weekend. I love having collections within a collection and this falls within my place souvenir additions - alongside my London, Chicago and Pennsylvania ones. While I try to steer away from buying compacts of places I haven't yet visited, Joe persuaded me otherwise - we will actually get to visit Florida as it's where one of his gran's now lives, so I guess it's allowed.

This addition with it's gold detailing of places and cultural representations of Florida upon a silver backdrop upon the top, this is an unused Volupte compact - one that came complete with it's original puff and small purchase slip. I wonder if they still imagined people collecting and using them 70 plus years from their manufacture when they notated the last line of the compact providing "long and lasting service" - they certainly age well indeed.

Latest Compact Additions

From left to right - top collage - London souvenir compact by Stratton, Engraved Elgin American square compact, scalloped shell compact by American Beauty, blue-green leather bound vintage powder compact produced by Elgin American - book shaped, possibly a former perfume compact with green stone. Bottom collage - Wadsworth gold, red and black book shaped compact, Dixie Deb miniature silver rogue compact, very old and early double compact for powder and rogue - leather bound in the shape of a book. 

It appears I haven't mentioned my vintage powder compacts for a fair while - in fact I started a blog purely about them but that occurred at the time my shops were growing and now I can't get into it. So here we go. These eight vintage compacts - a mixture of single powder, double powder and rogue, rogue and just a perfume compact have all been gifted by Joe for my birthday or estate sale finds. Hopefully I'll get around to posting more in depth about them all but they too look good as a college together. 

Compacts have been a little easier to find at estate sales - but then again they are either priced perfectly (really cheap or bang on) or unrealistically over charged. The same sadly can be said of etsy - they are over charged within an inch of their life. As someone who has just one off 60 compacts you get a feel for their pricing and in the last year there has been a vast increase in compacts on the online market. But unless your a collector you don't really know their true pricing, just because their old doesn't necessarily mean they can be expensive especially when they aren't even in a fair condition. With crackling enamel, broken or missing, blurry mirrors, damaged patina etc sadly too many people are asking perfect prices for them. That is not to say there aren't compacts out there that aren't worth paying lots for - even into the hundreds - but you learn to know which these days. 

The same can be said for any collection - get aware of the market, what the pricing should be like and you'll find yourself making better judgement in what you buy, from where and for how much. 

Photography Compact

When compact manufactures brought out their powder compacts they often had matching items say cigarette cases, double mirrored compacts and often photograph holder compacts. The latter of which i'd never come across until we were in Northville for an estate sale last weekend. Hidden along some really old and nasty make up was this photograph holder - at first I thought it was a compact but opening it up not only revealed the photograph holder but additionally a collection, possibly of the houses former owners, wedding photographs. Pulling out to reveal 12 photographs in all, the images capture the brides day - from her mother doing her hair, the bride adjusting her fathers corsage to kissing her groom and cutting their wedding cake. By the details of the brides hair and dress it probably dates from the 1950's with the details stamped within the case although a little warn gives the name of a Detroit based photography shop. I may never have known the couple but I'm certainly keeping the photographs inside it.