Soggy Friday Sales

Last week, I took Thursday night off, which really means that I didn't get anything ready to take to the mall.  Instead of fluffing the booth, I hit a few sales to the south of our town.  It was a chilly, rainy day and the yard sales are almost all gone, so it was lots of windshield time with very little shopping.  I went to an estate sale where everything was super-high, except for the unpriced stuff in the basement (always a good place to dig).

A great old camera -- lovely for display

I filled up a bin with Christmas stuff from several piles in a corner.  The sellers priced the whole bin at $5!  I was pretty happy then, but even happier when I put this little beauty together at home:

This is a 'Crystal Pine' tree from the 1940s.  It's layers of clear plastic 'boughs' separated by plastic tube dividers.  It's wonderful!  

Next stop was a Craigslist sale about a 1/2 hour away.  It was a woman (in her 50s) and her mother (70s) who had a very interesting ad. The opening lines were about how they were both avid collectors and were having a sale so that they wouldn't be on TV in an upcoming episode of Hoarders: Buried Alive.  I can relate.

They had 3 portable car-port tents in their tiny front yard with everything sorted by category & organized (nice), but most of what they had was priced like an antique mall (not nice).  There were a few goodies that just jumped out at me, though:

 This sweet set of Royal Sealy kitties, Made in Japan, from the 1950s:

This Made in Japan Santa.  I love his happy look, but can't figure out what he was made for.  He has slits all around his back and sides and little holes in his hat (like salt & pepper shaker holes).  Not enough room underneath for a light bulb and no place for the cord and too big a hole in the bottom for a stopper.  He  almost looks like one of those napkin lady dolls, but that doesn't make sense on a Santa.  Any ideas?

This was under a table in the kitchen tent -- I was so excited and did the happy dance through the raindrops all the way to the car!

A Pyrex red with gold holly.  AND the serving rack  AND a lid!
I'd seen these in books, but not in person -- I'll definitely be keeping this one!

I had thought these were casseroles -- it's actually a 404 bowl.  

Last stop was Treasure Mart in Ann Arbor, an 3-story resale shop that has really fast turnover and usually has great items.  I was disappointed to see that their prices are getting higher -- almost as high as mall prices.   they have a 10% discount per month on anything over $5, but there were very few things therethat were even one month old.  I did find a few good buys, though:

A custard glass plate with ruffled edge

Metlox Californial Ivy divided relish and a Vernon Kilns salt & pepper set

A Monmouth Pottery Western Stoneware bean pot.  I really had to dig to find out about this one.  Monmouth Pottery was in Illinois and Western Stoneware was one of their main lines.  I like its art deco look.

I've been picking up so much more American pottery than I used to (Franciscan, Vernon Kilns, Metlox, Monmouth, Paden City).  I'm going to have to learn more about it!