Sew Vintage!

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vintage white painted wicker sewing box on legs with blue lid

We picked up this vintage sewing box at a market last week. It’s made of wicker with blue plastic lid and weave detailing. We neatened up the interior with some matching floral fabric from the same 1960s era.

interior of a  vintage white painted wicker sewing box on legs with blue lid

These boxes are perfect for sewers & crafters who love a bit of vintage – you’ll never waste hours looking for those elusive needles, threads or pins ever again!

vintage yellow dandycord tabletop sewing boxvintage wooden tabletop sewing box with black trimvintage blue dandycord sewing box on legs

vintage wooden sewing box on legsround, cane vintage sewing box with yellow quilted interiorvintage wooden sewing box on legs with castors

small vintage orange plastic sewing boxvintage wooden sewing box with three tiersvintage dandycord tabletop sewing box with floral lid

 

They always prove popular in our shop. The little montage above shows a few of the boxes that have recently passed through our hands or we currently have in stock.

Forthcoming Attractions: Mid March 2012

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selection of vintage items recently acquired by H is for Home including an olive green Cathrineholm teapot, Lord Nelson pottery icing sugar canister, 1950s patterned pilsner glasses, beechwood sewing box, fire lighting matches with colourful tips in original hexagonal shaped, cardboard box, bright red metallic Barber Polykymatic heat generator, Danish teak framed mirror and set of Alfred Meakin "Gay Fantasy" tea trios

Here are a few recent buys – all heading to your local neighbourhood vintage website sometime soon!

selection of vintage items recently acquired by H is for Home including an olive green Cathrineholm teapot, Lord Nelson pottery icing sugar canister, 1950s patterned pilsner glasses, beechwood sewing box, fire lighting matches with colourful tips in original hexagonal shaped, cardboard box, bright red metallic Barber Polykymatic heat generator, Danish teak framed mirror and set of Alfred Meakin "Gay Fantasy" tea trios

These pilsner glasses will add a splash of colour to your cocktail cabinet – or kitchen shelves if you prefer.

vintage fire lighting matches with colourful tips in original hexagonal shaped, cardboard box

The fab-tastic long matches for Peter John are straight from 1960s Carnaby Street – very groovy packaging. A humble product, and rare survivors!

vintage 1950s bright red metallic Barber Polykymatic heat generator

Next we have this red electric heater (or “Polykymatic Heat Generator” to be precise). It has a tilting head which fits snugly into the curved arm. It has such a great industrial design look.

vintage beechwood sewing box

Moving on to the two wooden pieces. The first is a rather nice sewing box that we picked up only this morning – it was sitting on the pavement outside a bric-a-brac shop as we drove past. It needs a bit of mild TLC, but it’s a lovely shape and made of solid beech.

The second is the 1960s Danish mirror. It’s got a bit of quality about it too – made of teak, it’s very well constructed and quite an unusual shape.

vintage 1950s set of Alfred Meakin "Gay Fantasy" tea trios

This crockery was produced by Johnson Brothers in the 1950s. The range is called “Gay Fantasy”. We love the simple stylised leaf design and the classic period colourways.

vintage Lord Nelson pottery icing sugar canister

This large sugar jar is one of two we bought recently. The soft brown sugar has been added to our own collection which sit in a vintage 1950s kitchenette. We bought the kitchenette a few months ago and spent 4 days doing it up. Once we’d finished we didn’t want to part with it. As Adelle is a keen baker, we thought it would make a great baker’s station. It now houses all the different flours, cutters, trays, yeast, dried fruit and sugars. It looks really good – we’ll have to do a quick blog post about it with some photos. We’ll be selling this icing sugar as we’ve already got that one. They were manufactured by Lord Nelson Pottery in the 1970s – and there are four in the set.

vintage olive green Cathrineholm teapot and fire lighting matches with colourful tips in original hexagonal shaped, cardboard box

Last but not least we have a Cathrineholm enamel coffee pot designed by Grete Prytz Kittelsen. The pattern is called “Lotus”. A little known fact is that whilst the pot was indeed designed by Kittelsen, the Lotus pattern was actually designed by Arne Ingemann Clausen. He doesn’t often get the credit!

Fair Finds

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selection of antique & vintage homewares bought at Lincoln Show

We made the trip to Lincoln Antiques and Home Fair on Monday. Our alarm was set for 5.30am, so it was quite an early start in the cold and the dark. Add in a few hours driving and you have to hope that the effort will be worthwhile.

selection of antique & vintage homewares bought at Lincoln Show including a bolt of vintage 1950s fabric, set of sky blue Czech enamel containers, circular Nymolle pottery plaques designed by Bjorn Wiinblad, trio, vintage Marks and Spencer blue and purple floral curtains of fat lava West German vases and antique 18th/19th century wooden pie/bread peel

Fortunately it was – and we picked up some very nice pieces – some favourites are shown here. It’s mainly vintage, mid 20th century stuff; but we couldn’t resist a couple of country antiques too, such as this beautiful 18th century bowl and bread/pie oven peel.

selection of antique & vintage homewares bought at Lincoln Show with antique 18th/19th century turned wooden bowl highlighted

We bought quite a few West German ‘fat lava’ pots, concentrating on bold reds & oranges. Their prices are certainly on the rise. Other ceramics included the wall plaques designed by Bjorn Wiinblad for Nymolle of Denmark. Each one represents a month of the year and features a loving couple’s story – from courtship to parenthood. We like the whimsical, folk art design and we’ve actually got a set on our kitchen wall.

selection of antique & vintage homewares bought at Lincoln Show highlighting a set of 1950s teak coasters in a matching lidded holder

A slightly more recent piece of wood was to be found in the shape of this 1950s/60s teak coaster set. We’re not sure who the maker is, but it’s got real quality to it – it’s very Scandinavian and has a gorgeous, warm colour.  There was no shortage of enamelware to be found – we plumped for this set of graduated blue kitchen pots – the largest has an impressive 18 litre capacity!

selection of antique & vintage homewares bought at Lincoln Show

The sewing box dates from the 1960s and is made of a plastic weave material. Some people call in Dandycord – which we think was a trade name or brand of PVC flooring. The same material was used in the manufacture of these sewing boxes. You also see chairs, plant pot holders, magazine racks etc from the same period made from it. We were given a real flash of flower power colour when we lifted the lid!  Equally bold & bright were the lovely little teatowel and this absolutely stunning roll of unused 1950s fabric, with it’s classic vase design & period colour combination of yellow, red, grey, black & blue.

It’s always tempting to stay in a warm bed, but we’re glad that we didn’t when we look back at this haul!

Sew & Sew

We picked up this wonderful vintage needle book this week…

with its period air travel graphics and ‘pop-up’ details.

After a little research we came across this blog post from Crazyhaberdasher with some fantastic examples of pop-up needle books.

It would look good in my newly organised ‘craft corner’. It has a nice little Victorian pine table, 1950s spindle-backed Ercol chair & anglepoise lamp – along with sewing machine & sewing box.

The 1960s Bernina sewing machine was a great buy – recently bought at auction for a mere £5.00!!

I also have my 50s beech ‘fold out’ sewing box filled with all those essential bits & pieces.

It’s great having everything to hand and easily accessible. If you’re in need of a bit of organisation, here’s our current selection of craft boxes, baskets & bags.

All I need now is to find some time to do a bit of crafting!