Saturday, February 18, 2012

Trailer Trad Collecting: February Finds



Even in the deadest of months, good junk can be found. Sometimes,very cheaply. I bought the chair below for a dollar.
Yep, I bought this Emeco Navy swivel office chair right. True, the seat is trashed but a new black vinyl repair shouldn't be that hard. These chairs are still HAND MADE in the U.S. out of aluminum and were originally designed during WWII for use on submarines and warships. The unique specs that resulted in these were born from war time requirements for light-weight, fire-resistent furniture. These chairs are on permenant display at the Museum of Modern Art.

I don't know the history of this sign but I thought it was pretty cool. I'd place it from the 1950s and was probably used for a carnival game. -Remember those foul shooting games were you could never sink those foul shots for stuffed animals? This sign told suckers...er..lucky gentlemen to not pass the foul line and not to 'loft,' which I'll guess is when you underhand the toss to make the bucket.

At an estate sale, I came across a few early drafting drawings in a professor's basement drafting studio. It's no secret why NC State's newspaper is called 'The Technician.' For a hundred years, 'State' has graduated generations of scientists, inventors and designers and many remained in the area to work for local companies like IBM or to teach at one of the local colleges. -Really impressive people.


This looks like just an old piece of lead plumbing pipe, right? It's really a nice little piece of early industrial design. Carved of wood in the early 20th Century, it was used as a mold to drop forge iron pipe in foundaries. The back is labeled "garden hose" so it could have been a piece used to make outdoor pipes that flowed into garden hoses. -Which would this quite early, by the looks of it.




Nice old trophies have been snatched up a long time so it's been awhile since I've been able to grab one priced right. It's an early one from the 1920s in its original finish.
(Sorry for the repost. My blogger account got hacked and has been making blogging tough. -TT)





4 comments:

Russian Trader said...

I would like to buy the nuts and bolts things from you. How much?

Whitson Cole Pfepper said...

I'm a retired officer in Her Majesty's Royal Navy. We had similar seating aboard our vessels. I've been searching for such a chair. It would make a stunning addition to my collection of memorabilia. Might you suggest a source ?

Trailer Trad said...

Russian Trader,

Or, should I say, Sothebys buyer? Why won't you people leave me alone? You gave away your expert knowledge of the subject by describing it as "the nuts and bolts things."


Whitson Cole Pfepper,

These chairs are often surplussed by government agencies and the military. Have you tried looking in the warehouses of The Ministry of Silly Walks?

Russian Trader said...

When they are making show of "The Russian Picker" on History Channel, we will not be visiting you Mr. Trailer Trad.