Hi everyone. Apologies for the posting delay - we were working on our taxes, ugh. While our thrifting luck has still been a little sporadic, we did finally find enough items to make a worthwhile blog post!

Vera Neuman have been a little hard to come by lately - we suspect it's because more people in our area are finding out about her work and snapping up the vintage textiles at the thrift. These butterfly napkins are actually a flea market find - we're still a little bit unsure about dating these items via the "Vera" signature.. there just seem to be too many variables. However, we're certain that the pattern dates to the late 60s... it's just a question if it may have been repurposed later.

This divided metal dish with glass insert is actually a Chase Brass & Copper Company deco piece from the 1930s. I might've passed on this, were it not for some help from the thriftbreak crowd (thanks,peeps). Believe this to be a Harry Laylon design, called a "Duplex Jelly Dish". Not a whole lot of value there, but still worth picking up. I personally never would've guessed it dated to the 30s.

I hit an estate sale further away from us this past Thursday - something I really haven't done for awhile. The only takeaway from that one was this gold-tone metal multi-taper candleholder. I haven't been able to figure out too much about it, but I think it may've been a 1970s copy of another piece. It has the same feel of the other pseudo-Nagel/BMF gold-tone candleholder pieces we've found. The guy at the estate checkout said, "Hey, those look almost like bullets!" Anyone seen these before?

I've been getting back into looking up estates to hit. The thing with looking at the preview pics is that sometimes they're totally not representative of what you might find. There was an estate sale where I saw a bunch of Dala horses listed, along with tons of other wooden and ceramic figurines. I thought about going earlier, and finally decided to hit it the day after in the morning. I'm glad I went... but now realize that I might've scored big time if I'd gone the day earlier.

There was IMMENSE tons of collectible figurines and other goodies. Apparently, this property dated from the 1890s (rather old for California). The workers at the estate were telling me that I should've been there the day before when all the "good stuff" was sold. The Dalas were gone, but I still found a few things.

I'm thinking this little teak figurine with a "backpack" is a Japanese piece made in the style of Hans Bolling or Kay Bojesen figures. I was actually hoping that some more of the real ones might've been hidden within the mass of collectibles, but if they were they were snagged the day before.

This elephant is also probably a Japanese figurine made in the style of Bolling/Bojesen... I've seen it a few times so I recognized it immediately. Unfortunately, the ear has some damage so if I can't fix it up then we may just keep it.

There was a lot of Japanese stoneware in this style. I would've grabbed it all since the prices were so cheap, but so many of the pieces had damage. These anthropomorphic bull or cow shakers were the only ones that were in decent shape.

This little piggy is probably a Japanese wooden creation.. I'm assuming from the holes in back that it was meant to hold hors d'oeuvres via toothpicks. Have not been able to ID this one yet.

I don't pick up Sascha Brastoff anymore unless it's undamaged. This lighter in the "More Gold" pattern actually had a companion ashtray receptacle but I passed on that one because it had a crack. So many pieces at this estate had similar damage, otherwise I would've come home with twice as much stuff.

Lastly, I'd originally thought this depiction of a girl holding a bird might be a Lisa Larson piece (from her "Children of the World" series). It's definitely not, but it's sort of cool nevertheless. It's signed on the bottom, but I haven't been able to make it out - anyone have an idea?

[ UPDATED 5/2012: Unfortunately, today I saw this same girl holding a bird figurine with a different glaze treatment. It had a tag that said... Cost Plus imports! Believe it was made in Chile, but still a new item. I'd suspected something like that, but it was so difficult to tell. Thankfully, no one had bought this yet - otherwise I would've felt bad about that. I took it out of the store right away. Just a FYI for anyone who might find a similar one - it's likely new. Sigh, so hard to tell sometimes with ceramics nowadays... ]

Well, now that our taxes are out of the way and we're finally settling into the new house, we'll probably be trying to spend more time on the shop(s). Part of that is going to be a major push to list tons of new items - we are looking to purge a good portion of our own personal collections as well. Hopefully, the other part is going to be to continue our "How To Start A Reselling Business" series as well as some other blog goodies.

Happy Thrifting!