I love things that hold and hide and enclose things. Wrapped gifts, books, envelopes and packages--and boxes.
And I love discovering what old things are, and, even more, their social history.
Yesterday at work, I unpacked this donated brass-fitted box holding four crystal decanters. Beat up, but wonderful.
Googling around, I find it's in the category of Georgian/Victorian (1714-1901) campaign furniture---designed for soldiers around the British Empire. (A blog post about it.)
It struck me as bizarre that officers would bother with such fripperies. But the British military didn't travel light.
Anyone know wood? I don't.
The previous owner had saved in a bag some veneer that'd peeled off. Mahogany?
Black and pink marbled formica table. Love!
Out-of-season Dream Pet reindeer.
(The orange flying tiger on my work desk is a Dream Pet.)
Finally, here's the newly stripped floor, about to get waxed. A volunteer who travels a lot had said our store was the dirtiest thrift store he'd ever been in. No more!
It's still plenty beat-up, with dented, rusted display shelves and the like, and don't go in the bathrooms or work spaced.
But we've probably moved up to . . . I don't know, the fifth dirtiest.
Hooray!
And I love discovering what old things are, and, even more, their social history.
Yesterday at work, I unpacked this donated brass-fitted box holding four crystal decanters. Beat up, but wonderful.
Googling around, I find it's in the category of Georgian/Victorian (1714-1901) campaign furniture---designed for soldiers around the British Empire. (A blog post about it.)
"There seemed no limit to the number of items an officer would take with him if he could afford to and how well one's tent was kitted out was perhaps an indication of your social standing. William Howard Russell of The Times noted on 2 February 1858 in his diary,That changed before World War I:
'Sir Colin Campbell's baggage &c. extended for eighteen miles, when he came down from Lucknow'.
"The British had been taught a lesson by the Boers in South Africa who could move quickly and they discovered that their mobile units were not quite as mobile as they had thought. In 1903, the Secretary of State for War, H. O. Arnold-Forster, stated, 'The British Army is a social institution prepared for every emergency except that of war.'"(Above quotes from Wikipedia)
Anyone know wood? I don't.
The previous owner had saved in a bag some veneer that'd peeled off. Mahogany?
Also--a pin of Elsie the Borden cow. I remember her from my childhood. The company closed in 2001.
I photographed that orange ashtray, and a few other mid-century goodies too.
I'd mentioned it'd make a murder weapon. Mr Furniture said his mother hit one of her boyfriends with such an ashtray! Nice to have one's suspicions confirmed...
Black and pink marbled formica table. Love!
Pyrex butterprint refrigerator dish with lid.
Pyrex continues to be popular--I'm bored by it now.
The teak-handled silverware–– Ekco Eterna La Joya––
made in Japan:
Out-of-season Dream Pet reindeer.
(The orange flying tiger on my work desk is a Dream Pet.)
Finally, here's the newly stripped floor, about to get waxed. A volunteer who travels a lot had said our store was the dirtiest thrift store he'd ever been in. No more!
It's still plenty beat-up, with dented, rusted display shelves and the like, and don't go in the bathrooms or work spaced.
But we've probably moved up to . . . I don't know, the fifth dirtiest.
Hooray!
