Collectorama

Calypso lolling about on some stock boxes,
as we prepare for Collectorama.

Collectorama, the biggest Antiques and Collectables Fair in south-east Queensland, is coming up this Saturday, 6 September at the Nambour Showground.

We’ll be taking our normal double-stand, at our normal location on the lower level of the large outdoor Pavillion.  It promises to be a sunny day, so it should be fun.  We’ve still got a few things that haven’t yet been presented, and I’ve planned what I hope will be an attractive display.

The boys like the height and warmth
provided by the stock boxes, too.

Decent Antiques Fairs in Queensland are few and far between, so a few weeks ago we decided to visit a small, local - and by that I mean a two hour drive away – Antiques Fair in Esk.  It was a warm day, with big cornflower blue skies, a winding hilly drive, and there was plenty to see and chat about en route. 

As we travelled inland the extent of the drought in Queensland became more apparent.  It’s green and lush near the coast, but not far inland it’s brown and parched, hot, uninviting.  The grass crackles underfoot, the cattle crowd into the sparse shade of the depleted trees, and the creeks are little more than a series of small, shallow pools.  It’s a tough environment.



This was a necklace at Esk.  Can you
imagine wearing it?  Really?  It isn't old
and was obviously bought by a man with
No Sense of Style.
 

Esk is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere with, it has to be said, not a whole lot to recommend it.  It has a giant antiques shop in the main street, but it had taken the opportunity – being a Saturday – to be shut.  But we had come to visit the Fair, and in such a small town it was easy to find.

It’s a pity when Antiques Fairs allow exhibitors who sell nothing but reproduction to participate, don’t you think?  Especially at a small Fair where there are limited exhibitors to begin with.



Nonetheless, I carried off a brushed aluminium cake tin with clean, Deco, lines for an exceptionally good price.  Aluminium cake tins, utensils and aluminum lidded glass storage jars are entirely out of fashion at the moment.  But they are stylish and suit either vintage or country kitchens, so this will change when magazine stylists and interior decorators rediscover them. 

 

This is a cute little Japanese wooden
Netsuke.  It dates to about 1950 so
it's not antique, but it is vintage and
collectable, not to mention way cute.
 

But until they do, now is the time to buy because these pieces are so reasonably priced.  So that will be something for me to hunt for at Collectorama, when I get a minute. 

 

Because this time we’re not going on our usual Sept/Oct buying trip to France and England, I instead contacted a few of my regular jewellery suppliers, to see if they had anything I liked.  And yes, they had lots of lovely things, many of which have arrived just in time for Collectorama.

I bought a nice selection of French glass wedding cake bead necklaces, together with foiled glass and cloisonné necklaces, all at exceptionally good prices – which means I can offer exceptionally good prices myself. 

Sarah Coventry owl
pendant.

I also bought an articulated Sarah Coventry owl pendant – a nice piece of retro jewellery, some lovely vintage French, Italian and big name American brooches and stylish vintage Swiss wrist watches.  I’ll present them all at Collectorama, and we’ll see how well received they are. 

 

I've put a few photos on our Facebook page, and you can click on this link to see them:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Continuum-Antiques/692455087441647?ref=hl

 

The rest you'll have to see in person at Collectorama, or when I finally get a website up and running. 

After we pack up from Collectorama on Saturday, we’ll repack a selection of stock for the Peregian Beach Market, on Sunday 7 September.  So it will be a big weekend.  Call by to say hello, if you can.

 

No stock boxes left for Artemis, but she found somewhere to sun herself anyway.

 

 

Goth Vampire Girls & The Knowledge of Ever

Everyone picks up this little plate & looks at the
underside to double-check that my description
tag is correct.   I'm going to stick another tag
on the back saying "Yes, this really is English".

Taking a stand at a market only once a week has a lot to recommend it.  We’re still very open to the idea of a Pop Up shop, but in the meantime it’s good to be back to a more civilized existence.

So it was off to the Caloundra Street Fair last Sunday.

Despite the excellent advice in my last Blog to the blessedly silent juggling busker, he’d run off – dare I hope that he’d actually cartwheeled off? – and was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, his place was taken by a young lady pretending to be a Fairy Princess Statue, dressed all in silver, with silver face, hair and body, and giant silver wings emerging from her back.  But her makeup highlighted her cheekbones and created cavernous eyes – quite a skull-like effect.  So whether she intended it or not she was a bit scary looking - kind of a Goth version of a Fairy Princess Statue.

This charming little glass bird is made from
Millefiori canes encased in clear glass.
I believe it is Italian.
 

You know I’m going to have some excellent advice for our Goth Fairy Princes Statue, because I am a mine of excellent advice.  And here it is:  Goth Fairy Princess Statue - stop wriggling! 

I guess some people just aren’t cut out to spend hours sitting absolutely still.  I know if I even think about having an itch an itch magically develops, and then good luck not scratching it. 

But if you’re embarking on a career as a Goth Fairy Princess Statue, it’s probably a good idea to do a test run on your couch – not covered in body paint – before you venture out in public with your Sit-Very-Still act.

I don't buy a lot of figures,
unless they're elegantly shaped.

Our girl soon discovered, as did we all, that she couldn’t sit still if her life depended on it. 

But all is not lost, and here’s my next bit of excellent advice:  put in some fake fangs.  Then she could wander the Street Fair looking like a Goth Fairy Princess Vampire.  How “of the moment” is that?  It’s an inspired idea, I know you are all thinking at this very moment. 

She could go around scaring small children and little dogs, and it would be a hoot.  I’d pay to see that.  I’d also pay her to stalk and scare the bejesus out of selected enemies, and who among us doesn’t have a vast range of enemies?  She could make a lot of money out of this gig.

As for our day at the Street Fair, it was just strange.  For the first time we were allowed to show our jewellery, so we dragged out our smallest display case (bigger won’t fit in the car).  In addition to a range of vintage French costume jewellery, we also displayed a selection of Roman carnelian beads from Libya, c300AD, which we sold for $6 each, and a range of Roman glass beads from Syria, also c300AD, which we sold for $1 each.

Here is a French farm wire basket, a wire basket
from the Paris Flower Markets, and an English
wooden apple crate.

For the most part these little antiquities were a big hit, but they did lead to two very strange encounters with visitors.

In the first instance I showed a woman the beads, explained where they were from and told her they are a little over one thousand, seven hundred years old.  What’s so old about that? she asked.  Wow, I said, You are really hard to impress.  She gave me a tight-lipped smile, shrugged and walked off.  So, rude as well as a philistine. 

But at least she wasn’t crazy.  Crazy was still to come.

This is a French frosted glass vase,
in the style of Lalique (but alas it's
not).  Still French, though, & lovely.

And crazy came along in the form of a normal looking woman.  You’ve got to watch the normal looking ones. 

 

She inspected the beads and told me she had an enormous interest in archaeology.  She asked me if I had heard of The 13 Crystal Skulls.  Part of my sub-major at uni was archaeology, but no I had never heard of The 13 Crystal Skulls.

So these 13 Crystal Skulls, she told me, are human and they are millions of years old.  That’s strange, I said, because humans haven’t been around for millions of years.

She entirely ignored that comment and went on with her explanation.  When the skulls were made, she told me, they were all polished to absolute smoothness with human hair. 

That’s strange, I said, because seeing how there weren’t any humans millions of years ago, buffing up your rock collection with human hair would have proven difficult.  And anyway, what is the exfoliation value of human hair?  It might actually take millions of years to polish crystal if that’s all you’re using.

You can't have too many nice wooden
boards.  This one is English, although most
of those I'm offering are French.

She entirely ignored that comment and continued.  The 13 Crystal Skulls were found in all corners of the world, she explained, and they communicate with each other.  Together, they house the Knowledge of Ever. 

That’s strange, I said, I’ve never heard of the Knowledge of Ever. 

Displaying my extreme ignorance was the ideal opportunity to be lectured at.  The Knowledge of Ever, did you know, is the knowledge of all things, ever.  Ever, ever, ever.  Past knowledge, future knowledge, multi-dimensional knowledge (yes I made that last bit up, it’s just past and future knowledge). 

That’s strange, I said, how can anything know all future knowledge?

As an aside, you might have guessed by now that we were having a quiet moment at the Street Fair.  But to continue ….

This is a rare, large Denby ceramic vase,
coupled with English stoneware pots with
beautiful glazing.

The 13 Crystal Skulls, it was explained, together form a type of Black Computer.  I don’t know what a Black Computer is, but I saw no need to display my utter lack of education yet again. 

When we learn how to turn on this Black Computer, I was informed, we shall become the Custodians of the Knowledge of Ever.  Won’t that be grand?

That’s strange, I said, if we don’t know how to turn the Black Computer on, and we don’t know how The 13 Crystal Skulls communicate with each other, how do we know they actually are communicating and are chock full of past and future knowledge? 

They’ve done tests, apparently.  Who? you ask.  They.  They!

 

Your cup of tea in the morning
always tastes better in nice china.
 

Nuff said.  Everyone knows they aren’t to be questioned when they’ve done tests. 

Who knew that attending a Sunday market could be so educational?  But why, why did I bother with boring old normal archaeology when I should have focused on becoming anointed a Custodian of the Knowledge of Ever?

Our next outing will be at the Peregian Beach Market (weather permitting) this coming Sunday, 10 August.  The weather forecast is for torrential rain, in which case we’ll stay in bed.  But if the forecast is wrong, as seems likely at this point, then we’ll be there bright and early.  I wonder what pearls of wisdom I’ll learn at this market?

 

A copper preserving pan, big heavy brass preserving pan and enamel ewer, part of the large selection of nice metalware we are offering at the Markets.

 

3 Reasons Why a Pop Up Shop Works

A random shot from the last day of the Pop Up.

Now that our Pop Up shop has closed it’s timely to do a quick analysis and consider whether it was worth it, and whether we’d do it again.

In short, the answers are yes and yes.

The three main reasons this approach worked for us:

1.      The rent was very reasonable, so there was little risk and we could afford to keep our prices at wholesale level;

2.      The location was excellent, with good street exposure so it had high visibility for locals and tourists;

3.      We had just imported 600kg of stock, so we had a wide range of interesting items to offer.

A few years ago we sold out of
English Victorian cranberry and green
glass wine glasses at $40 each.
Now they're $12 each.  You can see why
people are loving wholesale prices.

This worked so well for us that we are now scouting for a new location.  With the same three parameters:

1.      A non-delusional landlord, offering a reasonable rent;

2.      A good location, with high exposure;

3.      A good selection of interesting stock, at wholesale prices;

we can see no reason why such an exercise wouldn’t work well again. 

The only downside this time was that we couldn’t extend the lease for another month.

Okay, working seven days a week for an entire month was also a bit sucky.  But it was totally worth it, and for a month or two we can live with being hard working, so the hunt for the next Pop Up shop has commenced. 

Calypso enjoyed being Shop Cat again, but she's
enjoying snoozing on her favourite cushion
at home a lot more.

We considered the nine – yes nine – shops currently vacant in Hastings Street in Noosa, but the cheapest one is seeking rent of $9000 per month. 

And that, my friends, falls into the Delusional Landlord category. 

So the hunt continues.  Maybe we’ll find something suitable, maybe not – we’ll chill and see what happens next.

In the short term, the next big event for us will be Collectorama – the biggest antiques fair in south-east Queensland – which will be at the Nambour Showground on Saturday, 6 September.  We’ll take our usual double stand in our usual spot, if you’re able to visit.

Can you make out the odd thing about this
frosted glass globe paperweight?
New Zealand is missing. 
Perhaps it didn't exist in the 1960s? 
Sorry New Zealand, but I didn't make this piece,
I'm just flogging it.

In the meantime, it’s back to the Caloundra Street Fair for us this coming Sunday, 10 August.

At our last outing at the Street Fair we had a busker set up almost directly opposite us.  Regular readers will know that I have developed a not unreasonable suspicion of all buskers, and a pathological hatred of most. 

But the busker opposite us was juggler.  Yay, a silent busker – got to love that.  But it did beg the question:  Has anyone made a living from juggling since, I dunno - the Middle Ages?  The answer is forsooth, alas and alack, no.  Our boy didn’t appear to even cover the cost of having a spot at the Street Fair.

Our juggler with one of his students.  Don't you
think if he wore a great Court Jester outfit
it would be more fun?

He wasn’t bad when he didn’t try to get too fancy-schmancy, and he threw in a 10 minute lesson for only $2 more if you bought a set of balls.  But jugglers, even 21^st century jugglers, need to be dressed in motley, don’t you think? 

It’s a tad boring to see a dude in casual street clothes standing around doing okay juggling.  We weren’t talking Cirque du Soleil standard by any means, and even their super-duper performers add razzamatazz via makeup and an appropriate outfit.

But on balance, silent buskers at the Caloundra Street Fair get a big tick of approval from me, and our boy can only improve in skills and marketing.  Bring your fire-breathing routine – and outfit! - if you visit on 10 August, and together you might have the makings of something entertaining.

What a sweet boy Caleb is, but what a naughty boy he was as Shop Cat, so he was banned and Calypso became the sole pussycat manager for the duration.

Pop Up Stories

Here is a nice French travel
advertisement, just to get me
in the mood as I plan our next
buying trip.  This ad is dated
28 June 1930, is 27x38cm
and is $40.
 

It’s been 12 months since we closed our retail shop in Eumundi, so for a year I have not encountered the bold and the beautiful and the just plain weird who used to come by to visit me.

But having the Pop Up shop for the last three weeks has brought it all flooding back.

So today an old lady came into the shop.  She walked past a set of four American spindle back chairs with woven cane seats, past a French walnut marble-topped bedside cabinet, past a Honduran mahogany Georgian table that seats six, and positioned herself next to a large English oak coffer.  It’s a beautiful piece that dates to 1750 and is one of the oldest pieces of furniture for sale in Australia right now. 

Does anyone around here sell actual furniture?  she asked.  I pointed to the piece she was standing right next to and said I have actual furniture.  No, she said, I mean real furniture.  I have real furniture, I said, even older than you.  Yeah that was a bit mean, but hey she was dissing my stuff.

The lovely French enamelware has been selling
solidly, so it's definitely on my Must Find List
for next trip.  As long as I get there before the
Americans, I should be fine.

 

But obviously I need to work on my meanness, because my tart little comment went right over her head.

She sighed loudly and rolled her eyes at my stupidity for not understanding that when she said “furniture” she meant “cheap, nasty, stapled together plywood furniture”. 

 

I felt my left eyebrow involuntarily rising, I felt my lips pursing, I felt downright meanness coming on.

We have chairs, we have tables, we have chests, we have cabinets, I said.  They are all traditionally regarded as furniture.

You know that we focused on vintage kitchen
ware on our last buying trip, and that was a good
decision because it's proven to be very popular. 
These are a couple of herb cutters, the top
one a quite rare shape, the bottom one more
typical (and probably easier to use).

She looked at me blankly, her mouth working silently.  I just looked at her, with my raised eyebrow.  She was a rude old lady and I wasn’t going to help her out, so I let the silence grow.

Eventually a thought formed – But do you have bookcases? she asked.  Yes, I said.  See that Art Deco stepped bookcase in the window?   That’s a bookcase.  No, she said, I mean a real bookcase.  My right eyebrow had now joined the left; it’s a real bookcase! I replied.

Yes, but I meant a tall bookcase, she said triumphantly.  The conversation may as well have been Guess what number I’m thinking of? with every number I nominated not being right.  If I’d been able to say Ha! Here is a tall bookcase, she would have countered with But I meant a tall, thin bookcase.

Now this is rare - an ad for the
Moulin Rouge, from the days
before they were mostly boobie-
girls with tassels.  This ad is
for La Geisha opera.  It is dated
14 July 1906, 29x40cm, and is $52.
 

In fact, it became apparent that she wasn’t interested in buying furniture from me (or anyone else) – it was just her way of opening the conversation, which then didn’t go the way she planned because she had failed to notice the variety of furniture she had marched past to get to me.

 

It turned out that what she actually wanted was for me to give her free valuations of her belongings.  My face was getting a right workout, with the eyebrows now furrowed.  No, was the answer.  Did you guess that was coming?  I owed her no explanation, No, was the only response she was getting. 

She looked at me blankly again, clearly expecting something more.  But I had wasted enough breath on this old chook.  I looked back at her, leaned slightly forward over my desk, and gave her my best Less Than Impressed look.  Without another word she turned tail and walked out.

This is a random shelf photo from the Pop Up
shop.  We have lots of lovely vintage French glass.

The only other You’ve Got to be Joking moment this week was when a couple with their 10 year old son came by for a browse. 

The boy picked up a large carving knife, and drew it across his throat.  A carving knife.  And he didn’t do a pretendy cut-your-throat action, the knife actually made contact with his throat.

I was aghast and quickly stepped forward.  Sweetheart, that’s a really effective way of killing yourself, I said.  He gave me a look that only exasperated 10 year olds can - I know what I’m doing, he replied.  What you’re doing, I said firmly, is coming close to seriously injuring yourself.  It’s a dumb thing to do, so put the knife down right now. 

This is a page from an old atlas, dated 1893.
The map size is 17x21cm, and it's in a frame
of 30x40cm.  It's $64. 
I also have a framed map of Africa from the
same atlas, and it's interesting to see how much
borders have changed in the last 121 years.
 

The exasperation was replaced with dumbfoundness – he appeared to have never been spoken to in a firm tone before. 

 

His father turned back from his browsing - What did he do? he asked. He almost cut his own throat with a carving knife, I told him.  Ah, kids, was the nonchalant response.  What, you have some spares at home so you can afford to lose this one? I asked. 

 

He gave me a smirk and a shrug and I turned back to my desk, abandoning the family to deal with their suicidal genes on their own.

So that was the week that was.  For the most part everyone has been lovely, with lots of welcoming us back to town, even if only momentarily.  We have one week to go before we close, and this has been so successful I will definitely consider doing it again.

In the meantime, we will be back at the Caloundra Street Fair next Sunday, 27 July, with a selection of nice things to show you.

 

Due to good behavior on her part Calypso has been the only cat coming into the Pop Up shop every day.  It is with much screeching that the boys are left behind every day, but they get over it and snuggle up soon enough.

 

Popping Up is Tiring but Fun

Emerald green poison bottles are
always popular.  The colour, the
ribbing and the Not To Be Taken
message stamped on them made
it as clear as possible to the
pharmacist to be careful when
handling the contents.  These days,
interior decorators love them for
their gorgeous jewel colour.

I’m exhausted. 

 

Who knew that working seven days a week would suck so much?  Actually, it’s not exactly sucky – things are going exceedingly well – but for someone used to phaffing about it’s quite tiring not being able to loll about at will.

Still, only two weeks to go.  Today marks the half-way point in the Pop Up shop, and we are very happy and very amazed at how well it’s been going.  We are bringing in new things to restock the shelves every day, so I’m very happy I bought so much on our March buying trip.

I think I can safely predict there is no prospect that masses of beautiful, colourful French enamelware I bought, that was meant to last us until December, will last until then.  And wow, I bought over 100 pieces of enamelware – you might recall from my blogs in March/April how I thwarted sundry American dealers to get my hands on so much good stuff.

This is a 1927 reproduction of
Degas' famous Dancers in Blue.
I'm cataloguing this and other
vintage pictures to present in the
Pop Up shop later this week.

But good stuff, at wholesale prices, sells very well it turns out.  So I’ll have to go hunting again.  And with the right location, the right landlord (not a delusional one) and the right timing we will definitely do a Pop Up shop again.

I know I’m not very chatty lately, but I’ve been busy unpacking, cleaning, waxing, polishing, cataloguing, describing & pricing things every day.  So this is just a quickie update today.

I’m currently working on cataloguing some vintage French advertisements, covers and images, and today I brought out the three fabulous French flower and fruit drying racks I was so happy to find (see my blog from 26 April 2014 for just how pleased I was, and why) - and sold them all today.

 

 

I have only 3 lead-light windows left.  This one
has a beautiful rich red and cobolt blue
centre.  It's from Kent, and at $52 is less than
half the price I used to charge in my retail shop.

Yet more enamelware has to make an appearance – there has barely been a day when we haven’t sold enamelware, and the last of the round, wooden Jamie Oliver boards will be out this week.  We’ve already sold out of the big dough troughs, and I have only three round boards to go.  There are more big, rectangular Jamie Oliver boards to come, mostly because I haven’t gotten around to waxing them and bringing them to the shop yet, but I’ll get there.

 

If you have a chance, you can visit my Facebook page for updates every few days of what I'm featuring.  Try this link - even if you don't have a Facebook account it should work - or just go to Continuum Antiques. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Continuum-Antiques/692455087441647



I have a great selection of Midwinter ceramics out in the Pop Up shop.  Midwinter is my favourite mid-20th century pottery.  The spotty cups and saucers are called Red Domino, the Zebra striped are called Zambesi, and the coffee pot is Graphix.  The black cups with spotted saucers are interlopers by Meakin, but still nice.

Can selling at wholesale prices work? Well, yes.

Caleb cooperating momentarily
with a press photographer.  Not his
best angle, but the best that could
be managed given his naughty behavior.

It's official that our Pop Up shop is the only antiques shop in the country selling at wholesale prices direct to the public.  Yay for not having massive expenses!  Everyone is happy, and we've been selling well every day.

 

Day Three saw Caleb recommence managerial duties and he was one unhappy vegemite, let me tell you.

 

I had Calypso in for Days One and Two, and again here today for Day Four.  After some initial hesitancy in a new environment, she quickly remembered that she loves being Shop Manager.  When she isn’t lounging around on my lap, she’s been striking I’m-drop-dead-gorgeous poses for her new legions of fans to photograph.  She won’t sit still for me to photograph her today, though.  If I’m in range, I’m there to be sat on.

 

But Caleb wanted none of that.  He’s two years old now, and for the last year has enjoyed running amok, being entirely indulged and more-or-less his own boss.  I knew that something had to be done to bring him into line, but unless I physically chain him to me it’s hard to find the time needed to impose the discipline he needs.

 

We provide a one-stop coffee service - you can
have a fabulous French coffee grinder, followed
by a fabulous Italian stove-top coffee maker.
We even have the espresso cups and saucers.
 

But now I have time and the chain.  So it was on.

 

When he was a baby and first came to our old shop, for the first little while there were nonstop tantrums and pussycat meltdowns when he realized he had to do as I say and not as he wanted.  And it was loud – way loud – but kind of cute having this very assertive Alpha kitten screech his lungs out while telling me off.

But now he weighs 7kg, and his screeching also includes a good selection of deep, guttural growls and bare-your-fangs-and-look-like-you-mean-it snarls and hisses. 

Royal Worcestor is an extraordinarily good
English ceramics brand.  This blue dragon
cake plate dates to about 1940 and is $35.

But guess what?  I weigh more than 7kg – how rude of you to wonder just how much more – and I’m not one bit scared of screeching or growling or hissyfit snarling.  Plus I had tasty bribes in my arsenal and a determination to outlast one petulant pussycat.

So in the end Caleb settled down on the bed I made for him on my desk, and decided he wanted to be a good boy afterall.  Once we establish that he really is a good boy and this isn’t a cunning plan designed to lure me into prematurely trusting him, he will be allowed more freedom to sit where he wants.  Until then it’s My Shop – My Rules. 

This is a large floral embroidery on one of
the giant French linen sheets that have started
to come into the Pop Up shop from today.
In addition, it has a white embroidered
monogram & a ladder-stitched border.  It's $100.
The dimensions are 200cm x 296cm -
just how tall are you?

It’s good for boys of all species to learn that the primary female in their lives is She Who Must Be Obeyed At All Times.  It’s something Caleb grew used to ignoring (I wonder where he learned that, Doug?) so our time together will be good for both of us.  Having an out of control 7kg Bengal isn’t good for anyone.

The Editor of the local Eumundi newspaper came by to welcome us back to town and get some photos of me and the shop.  Naturally, I was having a bad hair day – all that lovely straightened hair I got in Bangkok the trip before last is growing out so it’s back to unruly curls and frizz.  But Caleb was looking beautiful and for once kind of cooperated with a photographer, so hopefully it will be him and not me staring out of the pages when it’s published.

 

Calypso will usually strike a pose for a
photograph, but today if I'm in range I
must be sat on.



Today it’s back to me and Calypso, and after his practice run yesterday Caleb will make his first grand appearance as Shop Manager tomorrow (5 July) for the Saturday Market Day in Eumundi.  Polly the Poodle is coming in for a reunion visit, so it should be fun.  Or a fur-flying disaster.  We’ll see.

 

If you'd like to see more photos of the stock we're bringing in, you can visit our Facebook page, Continuum Antiques.  

(try this:   

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Continuum-Antiques/692455087441647?ref=hl )