Frogs, Franciscan and Charles Lindbergh

Since I went back to work at my day job, I never get to do any good shopping on Thursdays.  I have to wait until I get off of work in the mid-afternoon and by then all the good junk finds have been snapped up by the earlier shoppers.  Once in a while I stop at a few sales on my way home anyway.

Yesterday, there was a sub sale right by where I work and my friend Bargain Hunter let me know that one of the houses had old Fisher Price.  So I headed for the sub, but not with very high hopes. 

As I expected, there were MANY frogs ...there were lots of sales with baby & kid stuff (I skipped those) and the rest was pretty picked over.  The FP stuff that Bargain Hunter saw was actually newer than what I look for, but I did get 4 records for the record player for free (always good because the records get lost and are often missing). 

I stopped at one sale, though, because I saw a HUGE 'Everything MUST Go' sign.  There was a real estate SOLD sign in the front yard and the homeowner looked exhausted.  I think this was the last effort before moving.  On one table she had these little treasures:

Gladding McBean ribbed butter dish (only about 6-7" long) and G-McB 'Patio' salt and pepper shakers.  Gladding McBean was bought by Franciscan, who continued producing pottery in their name

A turquoise Franciscan footed tray.  I don't know what this would have been used for, though.

 I was very excited to get them for next to nothing!  I just LOVE Franciscan-ware (especially the solid colors) -- what a bargain!

After several more froggy sales, I headed home.  I hit one more sale that I passed on my way and almost didn't stop.  I'm so glad that I did!  Though almost everything was new, there were 3 or 4 old plates on a table.  I picked one up and the owner said 'YOU know what you're looking at!  YOU'RE the first person who's noticed that all day.  Everyone else just wanted the Beanie Babies'.  I was so afraid he'd want too much for it, but he gave me a great, tiny price.  I think he was just happy that someone appreciated it as much as he did.  What was it?  Here it is:

A 1927 Limoges plate commemorating Lucky Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris. 

I did the happy dance right in front of him and his wife -- I didn't even try to act cool about it.  I LOVE this plate and am sure I'm going to keep it.

See?  There can be a prince (or two) even when you're surrounded by frogs!