Recent Estate Sales

Up before dawn recently for more yard sales and estate sales. I try to be very selective when choosing yard sales to attend because, face it, they are usually huge wastes of gas and time so I stay within the Raleigh city limits focusing on Inside The Beltline. Some recent yard and estate sale finds:

This charming plastic bank was yanked from a under-advertised estate sale recently. A family had bought a small older home in a good neighborhood and was selling off all of the old junk that remained inside. I bought a small souvenir pitcher with JFK and Jackie-O for a dollar or two. I was delighted to find a packet with gold fillings in it worth about $140. Not bad.

A handsome 1940's piece of technology, I like to think that this camera pulled from a yard sale really describes my personality.

This estate sale featured the leftovers of an Olde Raleigh antiques dealer. Most of his vast, superior collection was liquidated by a high-end auctioneer in Hillsborough. But there were a few items left over. This ship's wheel is large, heavy and was likely taken off of a 19th Century British craft.

I collect (among many, many things as you know) U.S. Navy wardroom china (the kind with a blue ring around the plates along with a cool 'fouled' anchor). I came across this spittoon and couldn't pass it up. I'd guess that it's from 'between the wars.' Cool and large, it would be good to put hydrangea blossoms in. Or spit tobacco juice in. One or the other.

I pulled this tray at a recent estate sale which didn't yield much else. -Most don't really. This circa 1955 Coca Cola tray is very common. Every antique advertising collector has one. But the shiny-new condition and that great smile were too good to pass up.

This bottle is from a brewery in Brooklyn NY dating from around the turn of the last century. -Considering the cool embossed anchor, I think that it has Jim Dandy's name on it.There's something very strange about being in a small, dark, subterranean space and coming across boxes and boxes of pale limbs and heads. Fortunately for me, I was picking in a Raleigh estate sale crawl space that was once a warehouse for the lady of the house's Porcelain doll making workshop. -Didn't make it any less creepy though.

I didn't get much but I did get this nice printing roller that I want to try with my vintage printing blocks. -Could be cool. I'll keep you posted how these prints turn out.