Off our trolley!

vintage industrial trolley with 3 brown vintage suitcases

Justin spent last Sunday afternoon doing up this vintage trolley or sack truck – here are the results of his labours. It was in a bit of a state – the metal hidden behind years of rust and grease.

The metal now has a lovely patina and we like the greens & yellows of the original paintwork that eventually came through. It has a nice original maker’s label for Willmot Trucks of Dudley. The wheels are also impressed with the word Dudley. It has such a strong, vintage industrial look.

We often have vintage cases & boxes for sale in our pitch so we’ll probably use it for displaying those. But if you’ve always wanted one, and can collect from Todmorden, we could let it go to a good home!

Etsy List: To the Wire

This week we’ve selected 16 vintage wire-work homewares for our new Etsy List. Some colourful, some up-cycled, some useful and some just beautiful to look at – and some, all of the above!

To the Wire
curated by H is for Home

Forthcoming Attractions: Late January 2014

In addition to our web shop, we also sell items from the antiques centre in Todmorden.

We tend to keep the web shop items separate from the antiques centre items to avoid confusion when things are sold.

This does of course mean that lots of lovely pieces don’t even see our website, so we thought we’d share a few photos of how our bricks & mortar space is looking at the moment.

We like to fill our pitch with a good mix of items; they mainly fall under three broad categories – namely country vintage, vintage retro and vintage industrial.

Our country vintage includes two kitchenettes at the moment – and this fabulous 19th century butchers table/block. Also various baskets, stools, storage racks, pans, tins & jars.

The term ‘vintage retro’ is now well-adopted even though, strictly speaking, ‘retro’ means recently produced items that have the flavour or style of past eras. We do tend to concentrate on genuine vintage. At the moment, these include small pieces of teak, beech & chrome furniture, fabric, bits of fashion like handbags, hats & ties, mid century pottery & glass, tableware, artwork including posters – and loads of great lamps!

The vintage industrial department (well corner!) includes filing cabinets, crates, boxes, drawers & wire racks. Some of those many lamps also probably sit comfortably in this section.

So if you’re ever near Todmorden pop in for a browse!

Items come & go of course, but these pictures were all taken on Monday 20th January.

If there’s anything you spy in the photos that’s practical to post were always happy to oblige.

The Tardy Trestle!

Here’s something for all you vintage industrial or shabby chic fans. We think this old decorator’s work table is gorgeous.

It dates from the 1920s/30s era, and as you can see, it once belonged to J.Sergeant from Tardy Gate which is (or was) a small settlement in the South Ribble area of Lancashire. It’s now been somewhat consumed by Preston & its suburbs, but was once a farming community. Great place name isn’t it?

The trestle table has a hinged plank top & folding base for ease of transport & storage. We’ve been told that Mr Sergeant actually travelled around by bike!

It’s not a fine piece of antique furniture, but we love everything about this object – the design, the lettering, the colour, the wear & tear, its original function and the fact that it can be re-used today. We could see it in a craft room, studio, office or even kitchen – it would also make the perfect display table for a shop or market stall.

We bought something of a similar ilk just recently. These vintage step ladders might also have belonged to a decorator – or a shop maybe. Again they have their original lettering – don’t you just love that stylised ‘S’?

We have a friend whose surname is Sutcliffe (hello Rebecca if you’re reading this!) who snapped them up when she saw them – how could you not? They can still be used for their original purpose – but you can also use them for displays, plant pots, hanging clothes or towels – and we saw some recently bedecked with Christmas baubles which looked great.

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: vintage industrial

Off our trolley!

Etsy List: To the Wire

Forthcoming Attractions: Late January 2014

The Tardy Trestle!