Hi everyone. I had a choice between working at the new house today or working on the shops for the holiday season. Instead, I chose the hidden third option… visiting some thrift stores! I’m Thankful I did, because I found a few nice things. Since we’ll be working over the weekend, I thought I’d get a thrifting roundup today.

I picked up yet another Stoneware Designs West vase the other day. I really like these pieces, but they haven’t exactly been flying off the shelves. Because of that, I’ve vowed not to pick them up anymore unless the price is right.

I ended up coming home with this curious chubby little “shot put” figurine, although I would’ve left it if it wasn’t so cheap. I’d thought originally it looked similar to some of the Lisa Larson figures we’ve seen. After trying to research it, now I’m not so sure – it’s probably from Japan. Anyone know?

I couldn’t believe this La Mirada horse was still available at the thrift. Not only that, but it was still in near perfect condition. This is a California pottery that actually dates way back to the 1930s. It was bought by another company called American Ceramic Products, that also has ties to the Winfield Pottery company.

I’ve come across quite a few La Mirada pieces, since we live in SoCal. Since we might be letting more of them go, I took a pic of some of the ones we’ve found above. La Mirada is often unmarked, or the mark is obscurred, or it originally had paper labels. They specialized in a purposeful crackle crazing glaze, and after awhile you can start to recognize them purely on the colors, glaze and pottery composition.

Lastly, I came across two great orange pottery pieces. The one on left is from Germany and was made (or distributed?) by the Simon Peter Gerz company. I believe they specialized in beer steins, but don’t know much about their vases and other work. Some info is available on the Pottery and Glass Forum. The newer stuff appears to use the name “Gerzit”. Funny, this orange vase looks very similar to a Jaru Art Products piece we sold earlier. I definitely think it looks 50s-60s.

The orange cylinder vase on the right is from Italy, and it looks awfully similar to some of the Bitossi pieces we’ve seen. However the bottom mark is just a simple ink stamp marked “Italy”… and I noticed that the “symbols” on the side of the vase look different than the standard Bitossi ones. Not sure again on this one, I think I need to research it further.

OK – happy thanksgiving and happy thrifting!