I know I said we had a lot going on this weekend, but just had to post up these great Knoll office chairs we found that I believe are designed by Eero Saarinen. We had a few minutes to stop by the local Salvation Army. I rarely find anything there, so my jaw just about dropped off when I saw the pair of these sitting there. Even better, it was 50% off day!

They have the original Knoll tags, and the date stamp on that is from 1971. We’re very curious about this line, especially since we’re not as familiar with Knoll stuff. The chairs do not have the open “hole” in the back that we see on most similar chairs (series 71-72?) Anyone know more about this particular line? I believe they must be less common than the standard ones, because we haven’t been able to find many like these online.

Hi everyone. We’ve got a full weekend up ahead, so I decided to put up a thrifting post earlier. A few of these finds were from the flea market last weekend. Also, Linda flew to Portland for a few days, so I was able to hit a few thrift stores down near the Long Beach airport at the same time.

We had to rescue this Finel enamel mushroom bowl at the flea market even though we already have one up in our Etsy outlet. Nearly walked away twice, but came back to get it in the end. It’s not in perfect shape (really common for these type of bowls), which is the reason we hesitated.

In the stall next door to the Finel bowl, I spied this little David Stewart for Lion’s Valley alligator planter. We already have the larger alligator planter, so were really happy to snag this one. Having a hard time putting the Lion’s Valley animals up in the shop(s) – they’re really fun to collect because there’s so many different ones. Also, they seem relatively unknown so it’s easier to find than some other pieces.

We don’t see much Figgjo at thrifts in our area, so I almost always pick it up when I see it. This covered butter dish is in the “Tor Viking” pattern, which was designed by Turi Gramstad-Oliver. There’s a gravy server up in our shop already, and we’ve also come across the saucers sans cups.

I picked up this curious Stangl small rectangular dish in a solid yellow color. It sort of reminded me of some of the Bauer or other California pottery glazes. It’s unusual, because most of the Stangl we see is decorated – Replacements lists this pattern as “Americana Yellow”, but I don’t know if that’s the actual name. I believe it’s an older piece from the 40s-50s though.

This is the first time I’ve come home with some Poole ceramics. I actually thought these were Scandinavian before looking at the backstamp. Poole is a well-known English pottery company, and I believe the designer on this one is Robert Jefferson. They’re from a line of oven-to-table wares started in the 1960s with different patterns, this one being called “Herb Garden” featuring different herbs on each piece. Ours appears to be some sort of baker (I think it’s an “egg baker”?) and features carraway. For being ovenware, these are surprisingly lightweight in feel.

We’ll probably keep this Russel Wright American Modern bowl. While it’s a wonderful piece, we don’t see a huge demand for it since it’s quite common. I think prices have also come down a bit lately.

But speaking of Russel Wright, this was probably our best find in the bunch. This is one of his classic pieces – an unusual looking carafe (for wine?) in the Casual China line for Iroquois. It was unmarked but I knew I’d seen the shape somewhere and believed it to be either RW or possibly Zeisel. I don’t see much Casual in thrifts, so I didn’t recognize it right away. But eventually, I found while looking on the iPhone and put it in the cart. Lady at the register made a bit of a “face” when she saw it, LOL!

All right, this concludes our thrift roundup – hope you’ve had good luck this week too!

This post is linked up to ATG’s Thrift Share Monday and HLA’s Flea Market Finds.

Did you find something cool at a thrift or flea market lately?
Please leave a comment here if so…

Hi everyone. We had time to hit a few thrifts as well as an estate sale this week, with varying results. All of the goodies below were from an estate sale close to where we lived. I have to say that this is one of my favorite estate organizers. The prices aren’t the cheapest – but the selection, layout and schedule is usually great.

I probably overspent at this sale, but it’s like I couldn’t help myself this time! You know how it goes… the little Kokeshi doll may or may not end up in our collection. Unfortunately, I think this one might’ve had an umbrella originally that broke off. The little square vase looks like an Otagiri piece though it’s difficult to tell.

I was really happy to grab this little Panasonic AM radio – I usually don’t see them in this good condition. Would have liked to find one of the brightly colored “Panapets” instead, but this one is still pretty cool. They had a number of other radios at the estate, but I only picked this one because it was smaller.

I got all excited because I knew these were Schmid pieces designed by La Gardo Tackett. But I think they may be saucers – weird because they’re extra deep so they could easily be used as bowls. I looked everywhere at the estate for the cups to no avail.

I nearly put this Pyrex Turquoise loaf pan back, but it was just too nice to leave behind. The last thing we need is more Pyrex for our collection right now!

This Iittala Ultima Thule dessert bowl was difficult to resist, even though there was only one and it wasn’t the cheapest thing. It’s just really tough to come across for us – only the second time we’ve found it “in the wild”.

Last up – a Bob Dylan LP… nothing rare or valuable about it. But for a dollar – “I didn’t think twice, it’s all right.” LOL.

OK – another thrifting or estate sale post should be coming next week. We’re still in the process of getting the other house ready to move into. Probably only 1/4 of the way there, if that! But looking to get a lot of stuff done in the coming month!

This post is linked up to ATG’s Thrift Share Monday and HLA’s Flea Market Finds.

Did you find something cool at a thrift or flea market lately?
Please leave a comment here if so…

Hi everyone. I decided that weekly blog posting would go MUCH faster if I didn’t have to think up a title/theme every week. So from now on, we’ll just do a Thrifting Roundup with the date – unless it’s a special feature or a Tuesday Tips.

We did have more time this week to take a few thrift breaks. Incidentally, if you thrift and use Twitter, you might be interested in the “thriftbreak” hashtag. Anyone can participate – simply use #thriftbreak in your tweet while at the thrift store.

We’ve been using it for awhile now (we were one of the original users along with Scott, Steve and others), and it’s sort of a fun way to let people know about your discoveries at the thrift store while you’re actually finding them in the thrift. Of course, you need a mobile device that can run a twitter app in order to do this…

First up were these nice solid color vases and planters. The seafoam aqua vase in the back is from Haeger. Rather common shape (several other companies like La Mirada and Gladding McBean produced very similar ones) but love the thicker matte glaze on this one.

The periwinkle blue three compartment planter, I’d thought was from Padre, an earlier California pottery. I based that assumption on the thickness of glaze, color and the bottom – we have several pieces of Padre that have similar characteristics. However, we think it could also be a Gladding McBean, or even another Haeger item. Unmarked on the bottom as far as we can tell.

The taller orange cylinder vase is Italian and it reminds me of some of the Raymor items. Unusual that it’s just one color glaze without any decoration though.

I almost forgot – I snagged this Robert Maxwell vase last week at a flea market. It’s unmarked in any way, but I knew immediately it was a Maxwell item due to the clay consistency, type of decoration and general shape. Plus, we happen to have a Maxwell vase marked with a paper sticker with this exact shape.

This one is cast from a mold and then hand-finished. Please note – this is not a Pottery Craft item. It drives me bonkers when I see people (mostly Ebay sellers) trying to pass off Pottery Craft items as Robert Maxwell items. There is a relation between the two, but it’s not correct to say that Pottery Craft items were designed by Maxwell. Not that there’s anything wrong with Pottery Craft… we have tons of those items ourselves.

I’d gotten word of a church sale on Friday that we had some good luck at last year. Unfortunately, I got there a little late and everyone else seemed to also have discovered this one – the lady said there were masses of people there when it opened at 7am.

I got there at 11am, so there was slim pickings. These vintage liquor bottles were nice find though, and I also grabbed a small Bavarian ashtray that looks to be from the 60s.

I’m not sure if the lady at the checkout was very impressed with my purchases: Booze bottles and an ashtray, LOL!

I also picked up this Guzzini chip and dip at the church sale. Never really seen Guzzini around, so I didn’t realize that this is probably a newer item. I thought it might’ve been a vintage lucite item. But I’ve seen it new in some online shops – oh well, we might just use it at the next party.

Lastly, I uncovered this huge cache of probable Heath Ceramics oval serving trays. I say probable – because none of them have any markings whatsoever. I’ve come across a few pieces like this that have ALL the characteristics of Heath Ceramics items, but without a stamp. Everything is spot-on… the heft, glaze color, glaze and clay consistency, the shape, the back footer and the unglazed rim (the wider rim leads us to think it’s from the Rim Line). I haven’t seen any of these marked online, so I’m still unsure about it. But it doesn’t seem to me like it could be anything else – one thing we had thought that perhaps they were custom orders for restaurants.

OK – roundup completed… hope you enjoyed it and see you next week!

This post is linked up to ATG’s Thrift Share Monday and HLA’s Flea Market Finds.

Did you find something cool at a thrift or flea market lately?
Please leave a comment here if so…

Hi everyone. I didn’t want to let the blog languish, but we just don’t have much time to write. So I decided to keep this thrifting report short – under 300 words perhaps? =)

Here’s the latest:

Unfortunately, this Dansk Kobenstyle casserole had no lid and a big chip. But we couldn’t pass it up – probably will use it as a planter…

Love these handpainted “Nordic” style mugs. Bit of a mystery, designer is “C.J. Petersen” but it was made in Japan. Second time we’ve found this one. Anyone know more about them?

I can’t tell you how much Pyrex we pass up nowadays. But we didn’t have this Charcoal Snowflake 043 casserole or the Pink Gooseberry 502 refrigerator dish yet, so we got them. No lids? No problem – any matching clear glass lids work.

This little cup may be a bit on the boring side – but the sucker is Sterling silver, so couldn’t pass it up (have you seen the price of silver lately?) Made by Fisher, has a glass insert. Anyone know a way to approximate the sterling weight of a combination item like this?

These last two items were the best recent finds. The biomorphic white vinegar bottle is made for Freeman Lederman and is very popular with the midmod crowd. Famous designers for the company include La Gardo Tackett and Kenji Fujita. But we haven’t figured out the designer on ours yet – has a mark of “N” inside a “C”.

Don’t know much about the glass Holmegaard bowl – saw a similar style by Per Lutken called “Verona”, but unsure if this is related. Ours could also be a newer model.

OK, that’s it for this roundup – hope to post more soon!

This post is linked up to ATG’s Thrift Share Monday and HLA’s Flea Market Finds.

Did you find something cool at a thrift or flea market lately?
Please leave a comment here if so…