Show us your Thrift and/or yard sale finds

First of the church Spring rummage sales yesterday...a great time and a great sale.

Picked up a number of things, including a 1918 edition of Fanny Farmer's Boston School cookbook, but the most interesting was this small leather bound booklet put out by Gordon's Distillery.



It features such products as Gordon's Damson Gin and Gordon's Jamaica Rum as well as the products one would expect (dry gin, sloe gin). It is lacking any reference to a royal warrant so I'm thinking it predates 1925. It also mentions "Tanqueray, Gordon and Co. Ltd" so I would assume it was produced after 1908. Anyone familiar with this one?

 

Nice finds DNO, I've never found a vintage cocktail recipe book, only cook books.

I wish I could help on dating the Gordon's book, I'm surprised it wasn't dated on the first few pages.
Sometimes I can tell within 5 years just by the type faces or images used. I'd also say very late teens to early 20s.

 

Today, at the monthly flea market at the county fairgrounds, five bucks. Works fine.

I have a few old irons around here, and they see actual use. For my routine purposes, the old ones are superior to the newer ones.

I'm trying to figure out why an iron would carry the General Mills (not General Electric) brand name. Anyone got any ideas?

 

tony,

Without question.

 

Recent purchases include a tripod with a 5ft maximum height. Made of aluminium. $10.00:





Folds up to a rather compact state:



At a rough guess, about 20 inches long.




I also bought a cheap, $25.00, chromed steel cigar case. It's not for putting cigars in (I don't smoke). I'm going to turn it into a pen-case instead...

 

$10.00 Yard Sale Find!
St John's Bay leather jacket in almost-new condition.

 

After striking out at two estate sales that only had tacky modern junk, I happened upon a sidewalk sale at an antiques mall, where I scored these lovely magazines for a song.

 

Nice score, Clarissa.

I recently got a stack of a dozen late-1960s Life mags for a buck a pop. I remembered some of the covers from when those issues were current, which I would have found almost hard to believe myself, had I not known it to be so. Funny how memory works, how I can't recall what I had for lunch yesterday but I can remember the cover of a weekly magazine from 40-some years ago.

I'm just happy to save them from the desecrators, who are more than happy to cut 'em up and sell the ads by the each.

 

^^^ Yes. I showed these pics to a friend in England who, knowing I make art from assorted things, said, "those are wonderful; will you be able to bring yourself to cut them up?". I immediately assured her I would never destroy them, but read and enjoy them, doing nothing else except possibly making copies of any charming imagery I might like to use in some way.

 

Wonderful finds. Have a couple of those magazines. Have read through them many, many times lol

 

What song did you sing?

 

Given the titles of the magazines, I'd hazard...

[video=youtube;KIiUqfxFttM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIiUqfxFttM[/video]

 

[video=youtube;77GXIpOrmEw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77GXIpOrmEw[/video]

 

Oooh one of my favourites!

 

At the thrift store today, for 25 bucks, a pharmacy floor lamp, of fairly recent manufacture. But a good one -- not at all flimsy, and with a dimmer switch, which is a nice feature.

The volunteer store worker told me it had been on the floor maybe an hour when I bought it. Price it to sell, I responded, and it will.

 

And ...

Picked up over this past weekend at the monthly flea market at the county fairgrounds. It's a Corning Ware W-35-B Broil, Bake Tray. 10 bucks. As its name clearly suggests, the tray separates from the carrier/trivet base, so it can go from oven to table. Fits right in with the rest of the mid-century swag around here.

 

Found a stack of 20 early postcards. Nearly half are worthless religious, birthday, etc. The others are railroad, mining, and WW1 themed. Those are valued at $2-$5 each. I paid 25 cents for the whole lot.

 

What a beautiful lamp! I think brass is so wonderful.

 

^^^^^^

I'm confident this is mostly a thinnish brass plating over a cheaper metal, but it's still a nice looking, heavy, sturdy lamp. In other words, at least three or four times better than what you might find at Ikea. (Nothing against Ikea per se. Their stuff is quite stylish, even if very little of it will survive long enough to hand down to the kids. The leather couch the lamp is alongside is an Ikea product, but I got it off craigslist for 50 bucks, cat damage included.)

Now that the sun has gone down here on the West Coast of the U.S., I'm appreciating this lamp all the more. It's nice to have a bright light right where you need it, without flooding the entire room with so much illumination that it flattens the entire scene.

 

It's these little victories that brighten the junk picker's day, eh? Somewhere between 20 and 50 bucks for a 25 cent investment. It ain't a winning lotto ticket, but it's still fun.

Got any pictures to share?