The first Porsche ever built has been untouched since 1902. Officially called the Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton, this electric car from 1898 has ‘P1’ engraved onto all of the key components standing for Porsche 1, done by the then 23-years old Ferdinand Porsche himself.
See on jalopnik.com
What if one of the most important street photographers of the 20th century was a 1950s children’s nanny who kept herself to herself and never showed a single one of her photographs to anyone?
See on www.messynessychic.com
A look at the history of portable music, from the first portable transistor radio in 1954 through to the iPod Touch
Of course there were portable phonographs; but the transistor really started portable, personal, music.
See on www.telegraph.co.uk
If you’d like to put your antique & vintage irons to good use — without risking your clothing or textiles, or if you’d just like a neat way to display some of your old irons, consider using them as bookends!
Anyone else remember these vintage fairy tale books with the fancy “winky” cover inserts? If you are of a certain age, they are iconic as well as nostalgic.
Often called 3-D books, the iconic images on the front cover are actually lenticular designs created in Japan. Most of these books date to the 1960s. By the 1970s, the books were republished without the plastic inserts on the covers; instead, they were replaced with standard photographs of the posed puppets Those images themselves are rather iconic — to those of us who are of a certain age. This one is The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson illustrated by Shiba Productions and published by Golden Books. Via Little Slice of Heaven.
I know that many of us who regularly hunt for collectibles at eBay are likely to start with our “My EBay Page” or a bookmarked link to one of our favorite category pages, and as a result we often never visit the main page of the site. As a result, even if it’s nearly a year old already, you may have missed eBay’s new blog called eBay Stories.
Unlike most things eBay, this part of eBay proper actually manages to focus on antiques, vintage items, and history. One of their latest posts was about how a lost WWI medal was found again. What collector doesn’t like to hear about a story like that? We love happy endings like that! To keep up with other similar stories, you can bookmark the “Remarkable Listings” category of the blog. Or make just one visit and subscribe to the newsletter.
PS If you’ve heard about eBay Collections, but aren’t sure what they are or how to use them, here’s a nice tutorial.
I hate dolls. They just creep me out. But, as I’ve mentioned before on the _floss, I have a bizarre fascination with dollhouses.
I’m in good company, though. Included amongst the millions of people interested in miniatures was Colleen Moore, a silent film star whose career fizzled a bit when the talkies came out. But movies weren’t her only passion: a love of miniatures was passed down to her from her father, and in 1928, she enlisted the help of a set designer friend to make a remarkably detailed eight-foot miniature “fairy castle.”
Absolutely stunning!
See on mentalfloss.com
It took six years and $4,440,000, but now world’s largest model railroad set up has the world’s largest model airport!
Called Knuffingen Airport, the model airport has 40 working aircraft that take off and land, as well as 90 vehicles which tour the grounds. The model is based on Hamburg’s airport which opened in 1911 and remains the oldest operational airport in the world. This wonderful display is part of Miniatur Wunderland, in Hamburg, Germany, and is now part of one of the most successful permanent exhibitions in Northern Germany.
Image via the story at The Daily Mail.
Ahh, the memories of playing with the toys! Via Lynnstudios.
A lovely vintage medium format color negative capturing the nostalgia of holiday train sets. Circa 1950s, via.
This story just resonates on many levels. It’s about a chance discovery that included a mystery – partially solved through luck, skill and perseverance. The tale combines history writ large and humanity on an individual level.
Why we all collect!
55thousanddresses – Over 55 thousand dress privately collected and offered to you.
For 50 years, a man purchased vintage ball gowns, prom dresses, and other dresses for his wife to wear when they went dancing. The collection totals 55 thousand gowns — and now is available for sale (one by one, of course!)
See on 55thousanddresses.com
On December 21st, hundreds of movie props spanning the silent era through today’s blockbusters will auctioned off by Profiles in History. And these aren’t random odds and ends left behind on a set; they’re one-of-a-kind pieces of film history that will demand top dollar from collectors.
See on www.theverge.com
Some collections are easy to display for the holidays — and don’t require any additional trimmings either. In our space at Exit 55 Antiques, I’ve put the vintage cookie cutters in the ceramic basin of an antique washstand. It would be an awesome way to greet guests at the door, especially if you added some old wooden baby blocks spelling out “Welcome” or “Merry XMas” along the back shelf!
Besides cookie cutters, what would you display this way?
Before electricity made its way into most homes, Christmas trees had the warm glow of candlelight. The candles were attached to the tree branches via little metal clips. Most often they were decorative clips made in Germany, like these shown here. Since using candles to light your tree is neither practical, nor safe, we don’t recommend bringing back that tradition lightly. (No pun intended!) But that doesn’t mean you can’t safely use these charming bits of Christmas past this holiday. They make wonderful placeholders, with or without candles, at your holiday table.
More than that, these vintage and antique Christmas tree clips can be used to display your holiday greeting cards (collectible ephemera and the new ones you receive from family & friends this year), photographs, etc. (As always, I would recommend sliding old or collectible paper in clear sleeves to protect them from the elements.)
This sort of display would work well on holiday trim around doorways, etc.,; not just on trees.
In fact, since the designs on these old tree clips vary widely, including non-holiday motifs, like pine-cones, you could use them year round. For example, instead of clothespins on those framed bits of chicken-wire and other rustic ways to show-off photographs.
While I obviously prefer “old” pieces, if you prefer something more industrial (or at least not so shabby chic), there are contemporary clips as well. Whether you opt for old or new, whether you want to light the candles or not, the fact that they still make these tree candle clips means they still make the right size candles too.
The holidays, with all their visitors, are the perfect time for showing off our collections. And what collector doesn’t want to show off their collection?! Instead of replacing your antique and vintage treasures with holiday pieces, why not deck your collections along with decking the halls? It can be as simple as mixing in some simple holiday trims.
Here’s a collection of vintage soda pop bottles topped with simple gold and silver ball ornaments. It would make a unique centerpiece on any holiday table.
Collect breweriana, not pop? Gold balls really make vintage beer glasses come alive!
Here I used some sparking Christmas tree balls and strings of garland to decorate some vintage pottery pieces.
Even more rustic country displays can be given some holiday glitz this way. I added some silver balls and garland to this set of vintage blue Ball canning jars.
And here, that rustic autumn centerpiece gets a bit more glamorous for the holidays. Along with the ball ornaments, I added some glittery golden picks.
Antique and vintage ornaments are nice to use, of course. And the old glass ornaments are actually much cheaper than you think right now. The kitschy vintage pipecleaner and flocked plastic ornaments, like the shelf-elves, are becoming more popular now and well out-price the vintage glass pieces. In fact, the vintage glass balls and ornaments — even those painted, frosted or otherwise decorated — can be found in antique shops in my area for as little as one dollar! (Contact me at my store page if you want me to be your personal shopper and get some for you!)
However, if you don’t have any vintage ornaments left over once you’ve decorated the Christmas tree, or if you cannot find enough old ornaments to get a color theme for your grouping, you can get extra trimmings inexpensively at the dollar store. That’s where all of these balls, picks, and garland came from.
I just love the look of old wooden sleds holding the Christmas presents. Sometimes you have more presents than the sled can carry — but a few on the sled looks lovely next to the tree! This is a photo of our display at Exit 55 Antiques.
What people collect is telling of what they value. Personal collections driven by curiosity, aesthetics, history, and the pleasure of the hunt.
See on dailyplateofcrazy.com
There is a scene in Talledega Nights, where Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) is swarmed by a crowd of fans after a NASCAR victory. During the excitement, he acci
See on listverse.com
As a collector of vintage retail store items, I was thrilled to spot Gimbels in episodes of The Goldbergs on ABC. The show is set in the 1980s in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, which is about 10 miles north of downtown Philadelphia. Which means the Gimbels store is the Pittsburgh location, not Milwaukee. But it was still such a thrill that I had to take a screenshot when the store was shown in the second episode, when mom Beverly takes Adam to get back-to-school clothes.
I screamed aloud when I saw the name on the fitting room wall!
Then Gimbels was featured again in episode 10, entitled Shopping. So I had to take a few more…
I know I’m not the only one who does this, right?
These kitschy relics of mid-century cheer may have earned Charlie Brown’s disdain, but they are making a comeback with collectors.
The color wheel was fabulous; but I still prefer the pink trees!
See on www.etsy.com
