Yikes! Where did 3 Months Go?

I just looked back at the blog and realized that I haven't posted in almost 3 months!  It seems like November, December and now January have blown by in a whirlwind of activity....New booth...Thanksgiving...Christmas...and the super-busy holiday shopping season on Etsy.

I went all out decorating for Christmas this year!  It was fun to go to the antique mall holiday open houses and sales and to buy even more vintage Christmas (as though I don't have enough already...).

I got this sweet wooden elf at Williamston Antiques.  He was originally part of a set of 13 or 14, but he's the only one that came home with me.  I put him inside the big (four foot) lighted wreath that my dad made for Mr. KV and me about 35 years ago.  The elf looks like he belongs there!

At Little Red Schoolhouse, I got this great bottle brush tree with a music box base.  It's in mint condition with ALL of its ornaments and mercury glass candles.  (I didn't take a picture of it all by itself -- it's the little tree on the right, next to the beautiful baby).

We found this big wood NOEL at Jeffrey's Antiques in Findley, Ohio on the way home from Thanksgiving.  It looks great in the kitchen.

I picked I added several Japanese pose dolls to the growing collection.  If you grew up in the 50s or 60s, you will remember these -- they have stocking faces and are wrapped over wire bodies so they can be posed.  I got a Santa and an elf this year.

I was lucky enough to get three big blow mold Santa faces this summer and couldn't find a place on the front of the house for any of them.  I'm going to sell one or two of them, but hung one on the back porch, facing the kitchen.  I love being able to look out and see him there -- he makes me smile every time and our little granddaughter loves him.  Maybe I won't take him down.  Is it weird to have Christmas light up all summer?

We found the perfect place for the plywood Santa that I got last year -- next to the fireplace in the living room!  He kept blowing over on the front porch last year, and I was afraid he'd break.  He looked just right there.

After Christmas, I went back to Williamston Antiques with my sister, because it's one of her favorite malls.  I got this great angel display from a dealer who used to be at our antique mall.  It's big -- about 4 feet tall -- and really fragile, because it's that thin celluloid plastic from the 50s.  I don't think it's ever been out of the box.  Isn't it great?

The new booth has kept me really busy.  Two weeks AFTER I moved everything in, I decided I hated the wall color that was there and couldn't live with it.  So I moved everything away from the walls and painted.  Not the easiest way to do it, but where's the fun in doing things the easy way?    It's been a lot of work to keep both booths stocked (that's good news, though, because it means things are selling).  I don't think I realized how much more planning and prepping would be involved with just adding one more booth.  The furniture is starting to thin out a little in the barn and garage, though, and Mr. KV is very happy about that!

The 'Etsy Every Day' project was a real success.  I listed almost 400 items in 2014; well beyond one each day.  I've been keeping it up so far in January, but have really enjoyed not having the every-day commitment to deal with.

I know that there will be lots of flea markets and sales coming in the spring, so I've been trying not to buy now, but rather take a look at what I have and get it listed and in the booth.  I've bought some great stuff in the past few years and completely forgotten about some of it!  It's sort of like a treasure hunt (for free!) or an archaeological dig, going to layer after layer of cool vintage finds.

I found this really sweet tin Valentine candy box from the 1920s.  It was made by Tindeco for the Sanders Chocolate Company, which was a favorite confectioner in the Southeast Michigan area, but are now gone. The box has great Art Nouveau styling and is in excellent condition.

I'd also forgotten about this Franciscan Coronado demitasse set that I got in Kentucky almost 2 years ago.  It's really beautiful!

I looked in a back corner of one shelf and found lots of blue transferware that I'd bought at a sale almost four years ago.  I think I moved it to the back in a 'safe place' and then didn't remember where I put it (have you ever done that?)  How could I completely forget about 3 covered vegetable bowls, a gravy set, 10 plates and a platter?  It boggles the mind!

I'll update more often now and will post pictures of more treasures as I find them in my basement.  I also know that there will be a few sales that I just can't miss and some shopping adventures with my friend Bargain Hunter, so there will be new things to find.

I'm really looking forward to getting back into routine.  In a way, January, February and March are a relief, with no outside work to do and no holidays to plan and just lots of time to get inside jobs done.   Am I the only one who feels like this?  Do you get lots of inside work done in the winter?

California Pottery and Metlox Poppytrail

Lately, I've been buying a lot of California pottery -- Bauer, Franciscan & Metlox.  Two of the more recent pieces I've gotten were a swordfish vase & two swirl candlesticks by Metlox, and they made me want to know more about their history.

Sailfish vase & swirl candlsticks

Over the years I've become pretty familiar with the whole whole West Virginia/Ohio/Pennsylvania pottery industry (including the factory tour at Homer Laughlin -- a must-do, if you ever get the chance).  I didn't know much about California pottery, though, so I did what any so-last-century person does:  got a book out of the library!

This is a great book by Carl Gibbs Jr. -- all the information (and book pictures) in this blog post come from this book & he gets full credit!

1920s:  Metlox was started by TC Prouty & his son, Willis.  They'd moved from Michigan to California and began working in tile in 1920.  They started Metlox in Manhattan Beach, CA in 1927 & made outdoor signs and insulators for neon tubes.  The name Metlox is a combination of Metal and Oxide, which refers to the pigments in their glazes.  In 1931, Willis took over when his dad passed away and, after seeing what Bauer was doing with pottery dinnerware & how popular it was, he started the pottery lines we're familiar with now.

Their dinneware was equally colorful and pretty as Homer Laughlin's Fiesta line!

1930s:  In 1934, he had the '200 series' or Poppytrail line (my swirl candlesticks), followed by the artware line in 1935 (my swordfish vase -- which I found out is really a sailfish).  My sailfish was designed and signed by Carl Romanelli.  That was followed by Pintoria, Yorkshire and Mission Bell.  All of these were solid color pottery pieces.

1940s:  They stopped production during WWII and Prouty sold to Evan Shaw in 1946.  Shaw hired Bob Allen and Mel Shaw (no relation), who were animators & created lots of animal lines for Metlox.  They started doing painted pieces, like this California Ivy relish dish.  The hand-decorated lines were their most popular and rivaled Franciscan's Desert Rose line.

Vernon Kilns plaid salt & pepper and a California Ivy relish dish

1950s:  They bought Vernon Kilns (of the Blair plaids, like this salt and pepper and painted pot) and started using their molds & patterns.  This is the same way Homer Laughlin continued to produce pieces for companies they bought out in the midwest.

Blair handpainted decorative pot

1954 Free Form gravy boat -- I love this line, with its atomic-era shapes!

My newest find at the antique mall -- a large (13") Free Form platter!

1960s:  This was the high point for Metlox -- by then, their only main competitor was Franciscan.  They sold lots of their lines to department stores.

1970s:  Hand-decorated and open-stock dishes went out of style and people wanted boxed sets.  Metlox couldn't compete with foreign manufacturers (mainly Japan).  They still had the little animal line, though, and some planters called 'Poppets' that were designed by Helen Slater & which were very popular.

1989:  Metlox closed its doors for good.  They were the last California pottery works to go out of business. This is all that's left of the Manhattan Beach factory.

The old Metlox sign -- all that's left at Manhattan Beach

Here are some other California pottery pieces:

Franciscan Autumn Leaves divided dish

Franciscan ceramic tray, Gladding McBean (Franciscan) butter dish and Patio line salt & pepper

Franciscan condiment set

That's what I love about buying, selling & collecting vintage:  no matter how much I know, there's always something new to learn about!

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!