Friday 6 May 2011

Researching treasures

I love coming home to find out more about the vintage things I find, almost as much as I love finding them in the first place. 

Today, I stopped by a rummage sale.  It was probably the smallest I've been to and I didn't find any vintage Pyrex so I was disappointed at first.  But since I had already paid for parking (which I was not happy about doing in the first place), I figured I might as well take a look to see if I could find anything to salvage the trip.

I've always been partial to the blues and this square bowl caught my eye:

 Here's the bottom showing a stamp that says "3335 Soholm Bornholm Denmark Stentoj".
Turns out that Soholm was a ceramics factory founded by Herman Sonne Wolffsen and Edvard Christian Sonne in 1835, and was closed down in 1996. First I thought "Stonetoj" was the name of the designer but it actually means stonewear.  This appears to be part of the most well known "blue series" designed by Einar Johansen, who worked for Soholm between 1958 to 1966.  I found this exact piece on a couple of online auction sites and it seems to be worth between $30 and $60.  Pretty good considering I paid only 50 cents  :)

Another piece of blue pottery, that I spotted under a mug, was this pretty pitcher:
Here's the mark on the bottom:
I thought the mark said "Meadowcraft", but it's actually "Meadowcroft".  It was a pottery based in Meadowvale, Ontario, that was started by Sandy Metcalfe in 1966.  He started by making honey pots for his home made honey.  They became so popular he decided to go into the pottery business.  Sadly, it closed down when he started having heart troubles in 1974 and he passed away in 2005.  On the website www.canadiandesignerresouce.ca, his daughter posted comments on his work and mentions how she would love to have some of his pieces.  I thought that was so touching, so I posted a comment for her to get in touch with me if she wants this pitcher.  I would love to reunite her with her father's work, which she helped with as a little girl.  Just writing about this makes me tear up!

On a much lighter note, I forgot to post one of the other freebies that I picked up at the estate sale I went to earlier this week:


It made me chuckle  :)

Oh, and I also forgot to post about this little fridgie that I picked up under the "no fridgie left behind" policy:
The lid and the bottom says "Balkan's Yogurt Maker".  It seems there's some debate whether this is Fire King or Anchor Hocking.  Either way, it's super cute and I'm using it to hold my salt.  Picked it up for 50 cents from a GW on half price day.

Speaking of half price days, I also went to a couple of GWs today.  Found a Pyrex canister:

It was only $1.01 after the discount!

Also found this super cute and very old looking pitcher:


It had a lot of caked on grime but cleaned up beautifully.  Love the pattern and the christmas-y colours.  It is huge and I paid $2.02 for it.  There are no marks indicating the maker and my random google searches are not coming up with anything.  Anyone have any ideas?!


Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!!  :)

8 comments:

  1. I must say the vintage pitcher is my favorite. Looks very cool!! I hope you can reunite that piece of pottery with the makers daughter...that is so thoughtful of you. Oh and I love the no fridgie left behind! hugs, Linda

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  2. Cool finds! I like doing that too - coming home and researching what I just bought.

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  3. I love the belly button thing!

    I've been looking at the vintage belly button brushes on eBay occasionally, but haven't found one to my liking (price range, vintage, good price shipping) whenever I've been looking.

    I'm soooooooo jealous! You're so lucky, especially since you got it for free!!

    That's a great story about the honey - let us know if she gets back to you!

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  4. Oh you found some amazing pieces! About the fridgie I would first say potatoe/potato! I believe it's a Fireking and quite desirable since it was commisioned by a yogurt maker company.

    Sometimes Fireking and Anchor Hocking got mixed up in their stamps. In my Fireking book (yes the book again, but Fireking this time) I saw some Fireking mugs that I found in a thrift but with an Anchor Hocking stamp. Crazy! :)

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  5. The pitcher is so sweet. I have an addiction to buying cute pitchers, and my cabinets are full of them. There are only so many drinks to have in one week!

    Smiles,
    The Joyful Thrifter

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  6. Will definitely keep you all posted on whether the pottery maker's daughter gets back to me.

    I love that pitcher too...so cute!

    I really need to get some books to bone up on my vintage glassware knowledge!

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  7. Nice finds!

    I wonder if your pitcher is made by Libbey Glass. I recently found one in the Golden Wheat pattern and while this is a different pattern the profile/style and shape of the pitcher looks just the same.

    Also - I found a piece of Meadowcroft that I also posted on the Canadian Design Resource site (a great resource, I think) asking the daughter to contact me - I have not heard anything - yet. Your little creamer is really nice and I love the colour - I've only seen oranges and yellows.

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  8. Hi Jane, I think you're right, it looks like it might be made by Libbey glass...the shape of the spout area and the grooves on the handle is similar to the golden wheat pitcher I've seen online.

    Let me know if you hear back from the potter's daughter...no word on my end.

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