Yes, we know, it’s a picture of a cow jug – but we’ve been very busy bees recently!
We had a lovely mention in the Guardian Weekend Magazine recently – and a frenzy of orders, packing & posting followed.
It’s now calmed down a bit, and we’ve been back out buying new stock again.
We’ve picked up some really great stuff and had a big listing session on Friday.
We added items to most of our shop sections – these are some of our favourites!
This week was very successful at our local flea market… with 5 really good vintage finds for the shop.
First is this original catalogue from the Festival of Britain held in 1951. We’ve really enjoyed browsing through this booklet. In addition the run down of the exhibition itself, there are some fantastic period ads.
Next up is this enamel teapot made by Finel. It was covered in dust and badly tea stained inside, but it’s come up beautifully – a good wash revealed the lovely pattern and the inside bleached clean & white.
This 1960s coffee pot couldn’t fail to catch our eye. We’ve actually had a set in this pattern before – what a great design with its simple, stylised flowers.
This plate was at the bottom of a pile. We could just see the petal edges poking out. We’re glad we made the effort to dig down a bit! It’s a lovely vintage hand-painted sunflower plate produced by Arabia of Finland.
Finally, we have this tea trio – a set of six trios to be precise. It’s the Amanda pattern produced by Ridgway in the 1960s/70s – bright, cheerful and very usable.
All worth getting up early for!
In addition to the five finds destined for our shop, you may also have noticed some wine glasses in the background of the group photo. We were down to our last couple of decent wine glasses (and we do love a glass or two of red wine in front of the fire!). We’ve been looking for new ones for a few weeks now and were determined to pick some up in a charity shop or flea market. There they were – lovely wine glasses – large bowls, long slim stems, nice quality – £2.50 for a set of 8!! Now that was a great buy!
Any of you vintage fans born in 1979? This could be the perfect thing for you.
It’s one of a series of ceramic date plates produced annually by Arabia of Finland.
Designed by Raija Uosikkinen, they take their inspiration from the Kalevala – the epic national saga of Finland.
Here’s an extract from the English translation of Rune 33 from which this plate draws its reference:
From a tree the raven answered:
“O thou little silver buckle,
Only son of old Kalervo,
Why art thou in evil humor,
Wherefore sad in thy demeanor?
Take a young shoot from the thicket,
Take a birch-rod from the valley,
Drive thy herd across the lowlands,
Through the quicksands of the marshes;
To the wolves let one half wander,
To the bear-dens, lead the other;
Sing the forest wolves together,
Sing the bears down from the mountains,
Call the wolves thy little children,
And the bears thy standard-bearers;
Drive them like a cow-herd homeward,
Drive them home like spotted cattle,
Drive them to thy master’s milk-yards;
Thus thou wilt repay the hostess
For her malice and derision.”
You don’t have to be born in 1979… they were made from the mid 1970s to the late 1990s. That gives a good span of potentially significant years – birthdays, anniversaries etc.
And don’t mind if there isn’t a special date to be marked… the artwork is so fabulous, they’re covetable for the patterns alone.
Having said that, there’s sure to be a few completists out there who are just going to have to have the full set – and we wouldn’t blame you!!
Where were we with our nature-influenced design blogs? We’ve been slightly sidetracked with the opening of our new shop.
Details of a vintage 1960s/70s calorific value tea towel
We’ve previously looked at fish, birds, flowers and leaves – today it’s the turn of fruit & vegetables.
‘Eden’ design by Meakin & Figgjo Flint butter dish
1950s strawberry bowl
They’ve been used as inspiration in artwork, illustration, decorative objects and unsurprisingly kitchen and dining wares.
Hornsea Pottery & Goebel Pottery
Pair of Arabia preserve pots
Apples have always proved a very popular decorative subject, particularly strong during the 1960s & 70s it seems.
We love this glass apple designed by Ingeborg Lundin for Orrefors in 1955
Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love – Song of Solomon, 2:5, King James bible.
Cookbook illustrations from the 1950s are a firm favourite of ours.
And obviously you’ll need something to put all this fruit & veg in!!
These are two nice recent finds – a 1960s globe cane fruit basket and a 1950s Rye Pottery fruit dish.
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