Oxo tin – cubed

Three types of vintage Oxo tin | H is for Home

We’ve bought quite a few vintage tins this week including three classic Oxo tins.

Three vintage Oxo cubes tins | H is for Home

We love an Oxo tin – that bright distinctive colour, design and logo. They’re perfect for holding all kinds of bits & pieces – and ideal for storing stock cubes, of course.

Three vintage Oxo cubes tins with lids open | H is for Home

Attractive packaging is always lovely to see in the kitchen or larder – and these tins are full of vintage charm. They have a real tradition and homeliness – a bit like a Colman’s mustard jar, HP sauce bottle or Kellogg’s cornflakes box. And when you lift the lids on these, you’re greeted with interior decoration too. In fact, the three tins we bought this week all had different insides.

Vintage Oxo cubes tin with lid open | H is for Home

Each tin holds about 50 cubes, so big enough to keep a selection of flavours – convenient and easily to hand when cooking. No more scrabbling amongst the packets at the back of the cupboard. We sell them for between £8 and £12 each and we’ve usually got one in “stock“.

Forthcoming Attractions: End February 2016

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collection of vintage homewares

Here are some of our recent purchases and forthcoming attractions.

vintage brass horse and wooden printers letters

We’ll start with our little equine friend. Vintage mid century modern brass horses – they’re like buses – we don’t pick one up for years then four come along at once! We’ve just sold a lovely pair of similar horses in the web shop this week. This one’s equally stylish. Frederick Weinberg is a name often mentioned in connection with this kind of piece. As with the previous pair, this horse dates from the 1960s era and has a classic Etruscan like form.

You’ll also notice some of those lovely vintage wooden printer’s blocks lurking there. We’ve just got hold of another small quantity of letters & numbers. They’ll be heading to our antiques centre space as it’s not really practical to list them all individually on the website… but if you’re after a particular letter or number, drop us a line and we’ll let you know what we have.

Vintage Wiktor Berndt face vase and Riihimaki vase

Next we have a couple of lovely Scandinavian glass vases. The green hooped example is known as a ‘tulppaani’ or tulip vase and was designed by Tamara Aladin for Riihimaki of Finland – and the amber ‘face’ vase was designed by Wiktor Berndt for Flygsfors of Sweden. Both date from the 1960s and the latter is signed to the base.

Antique earthenware cup Antique earthenware cup

We’ll head back a couple of hundred years with the next piece. It’s a small transfer printed cup featuring the tale of Cock Robin. It’s got chips, cracks and the handle’s missing – but it’s such a charming little object. Perfect with a few fresh flowers on a small table, tray or windowsill.

Vintage Rorstrand 'Party' teapot

This vintage tin is really lovely and the condition is remarkable considering it dates from the late 1950s/early 60s. It has a ski and winter sports theme with fabulous illustrations to the lid and sides. It still retains the original label to the underside for a ‘mallow selection’ produced by Elkes Biscuits. It’s the ideal container for cakes or home-made cookies. And if any of our readers out there do happen to own a mid century modern ski chalet… well it’s just perfection!!

Detail from vintage biscuit tin with alpine illustrations

And finally, we have to give a mention to this gorgeous teapot by Rorstrand. It’s not actually a recent purchase, but it feels like a new item to us. We misplaced the lid about 5 years ago. We’d given it up for sure – and it really irked us every time we came across the lidless pot in a storage box. Someone recently ordered a coffee set and as we unwrapped the various cups and plates from their newspaper wrapping, there it was! The little lid with its distinctive pattern peeking out of a piece of paper at the bottom of the box. How it got in there we don’t know – but what a great feeling!

Anyway, we thought we’d give it a mention in our recent finds post! We’re always happy to share pictures of this wonderfully designed teapot anyway.

Charity Vintage: Carr biscuit tin

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vintage Carr biscuit tin being sold on eBay for Charity by & in support of Isabel Hospice | H is for Home(ends 15 Apr, 2014 09:05:55 BST)

This vintage Carr biscuit tin is being sold on eBay for Charity by and in support of Isabel Hospice*. It looks as if it’s been through the wars. Lots of scratches and other wear and what looks to be a large, sticky black area on the top where there was once a label.

But it’s so pretty; such a lovely illustration… and it’s only £5! The good news is that rubbing it gently all over with a bit of Brasso wadding should get rid of much of the ancient dirt and sticky black stuff (this is one of our little restoration secrets!).

*Isabel Hospice is a charity needing to raise nearly £4 million per annum to provide their free services to the people of eastern Hertfordshire. Their ethos is that they treat the whole person, not simply the illness. They offer a complete hospice service through their team of Community Nurse Specialists, a 16-bed, in-patient hospice, a day hospice, outreach day hospices, hospice at home and a family support and bereavement service.