Estate sale jackpot

The reason that I do not show more of my estate sale treasures is that, generally, I must move very fast to hide everything from Mr. Retro Renovation. He is not so amused by all the Stuff filling every storage space in the house these days. Yesterday, though, he left for a few hours and I was able to linger over and photograph my stash from the late 1940s/early 50s home that I explored on Friday. So what do I buy? Ever since my collage class and in reality, before, I adore “ephemera” — which is defined as things created that were never really intended to survive. Advertising is classic ephemera. So are Betty Brite cupcake holders. There are still some parchment paper bake cups inside. 13 more items after the jump.

Here’s more kitchen ephemera. This envelope – and tons of sandwich bags – were in a box of stencil patterns. The woman of the house was using the sandwich bags to hold each stencil piece. Drats, I meant to go back yesterday, last day of the sale, and buy all the stencils — because I wanted all the wax sandwich bags. I was afraid to buy it all on Friday. I thought the estate sale pro’s would charge me too much. But, I couldn’t go back to the sale because I got all busy — in my own kitchen. Oh well.

Is anyone looking for mid-century wood (mahogany? teak? walnut?) and stainless steel cabinet pulls?

These are really quite beautiful. 3″ spreads.

I bought five panels of fabric printed with Barbie outfit pieces that you can cut out and sew. Maryann Roy: Is there a market? What do you think each panel is worth? There are two outfits per panel.

An aluminum (?) plate from some kind of machinery. In the postwar era, Pittsfield was buzzing with manufacturing.

The folks who owned the home built clocks for a hobby. I was able to nab about five of these blueprints. Two (including this one) are particularly beautiful.These are probably my favorite things of the whole day. “Craftplans.” There were a bunch of clocks for sale, too. Gosh, maybe there will be one or two repeat sale days next weekend… I would love to go back. My head is always swimming after two-or-three hours of poking. Yes, that’s how long I usually take going through a really good estate sale house. I look in every nook and cranny. Then I go back again and try to SEE the house and everything in it. What was it like to live there? How did the people live? What were they like? What happened there? I always ask permission to take photos, and leave my card.

I got two of these. Notice how the pie plate says, “10 cents deposit.” Deposit???? What the heck is that all about? Were these for pies you bought at a bakery…and then you had to return the pie plate?

Okay, all you youngsters, listen close, but be forewarned that what I have to tell you is, well, shocking: You see, back in the day, we did not have Excel. Every input to the P&L… the Balance Sheet… Accounts Receivable… Accounts Payable… and the like… had to be WRITTEN DOWN and TALLIED UP by real people. Legions and legion of people, actually. Because you see, we didn’t have personal computers AT ALL.

I like to collect books and binders like this… thinking someday, I will transform them into collage books.

$4 for this cake server — it has a pressed glass bottom and a lovely chrome cover with a pretty decorative glass knob on top. Oh, and that’s a roman coin belt in the foreground.

Aha! The one and only thing I bought that I truly “needed”: An electric knife. Our electric knife — which, I am telling you, did not last more than a few years under very light use — AND I am sure it was expensive as it was a gift — recently died. Another case in point, Bungalow Bill, about the crappy quality of stuff today. Crap to the right of us, crap to the left of us. Crap crap crap.  (My first curse on the blog, I might as well go for it.) This vintage GE number cost me $7. It came in the original box – and the set is fit into this plastic holder thingy that I could hang on screws in the wall, if I so choose. I might.

Five yards of chintz, aka polished cotton. I have no idea what I will do with this. This was a colonial house – a Cape Cod. Everything inside was very early American. There were tons of beautiful pine dressers and the like – selling for a song.

Detail from the chintz — The White House.

I found a few sheets of vintage Schumacher wallpaper in the garage. Not big pieces. But so gorgeous. This is called Cabala del Lotto. Does anyone know what that means? Caballo=horse in Spanish. There is no Spanish word for “lotto” that I am aware of. So…I’m left guessing. Italian, right?

Another vintage Schumacher wallpaper. I didn’t see either of these papers on walls in the house, though.

They were sample pieces – the prices were on the back. Caballa del Lotto was $10.25 per single roll. The other paper was $7/roll.

The Cabalo del Lotto paper was designed by John H. Jacoby. I am in serious love with this wallpaper.