Wanderlust & Pixie Dust

Some of my Favorite Victorian Silverware

 I'm sharing some of my favorite bits and pieces of antique silverware today.   

 

 Of course this is not a piece of silverware but instead, an old hatpin.  I had it stashed with my forks and spoons and couldn't resist photographing it along with the rest. 

 

 Ages ago I started picking up old bits and pieces of Victorian silverware.  I found myself intrigued by how amazingly detailed they were. It's not uncommon to discover that a fork or spoon is almost as elaborate on the back as it is on its front. 

The little creamer has plenty of character and is perfect for holding crafting of office supplies.  My sister owns the matching sugar holder.  $7 each.  Not much.  I left the antique store with a huge smile.  Couldn't afford the stunning but massive silver water pitcher for $70, but I could still stroll out with a little treasure. 

 

This petite spoon features the old Victorian Cliff House in San Francisco.  It survived the 1906 earthquake only to burn to the ground a year later.   I use to live across the bay from San Francico and must admit to often daydreaming about what it must have been like inside this beautiful old place.  As a matter of fact, I wondered what it was like to live in turn of the century San Franciso.  Often.

Oh how I hated leaving that part of the world.  

Note the ship to the right.

 Backside detail.

 It's a little hard to see the detail on this old spoon. Little Red Riding Hood is to your upper left and the Big Bad Wolf on the poor girls right and below her feet.  Sadly, Little Red has lost quite a bit of her face over the years. 

 Detailed backside of fork.

These last two are favorites of mine.  One look at them and you are immediately transported to another time and place.  Here one minute.  There, watching Countess Olenska arrive the next.

 I don't recall ever paying more than $1 for any of the forks or spoons.  Sometimes even less, a quarter apiece for example.  I was fortunate to find a few items at the local Salvation Army not to long ago. 

Only yesterday my heart skipped a beat when I spotted a fellow with piles of silverware at the flea market.  No luck this time.  It turned out to be mostly from the Edwardian/1920s period.  Definitely lovely in it's own right but certainly not as fancy. 

Other favorite things below:

 A Fave Silverware Basket

Silverplated Forks and one Lone Spoon

 Upcoming posts:

The Art of Cuisine/Toulouse-Lautrec

A Vistion of Paris:  The Photographs of Eugene Atget, the Words of Marcel Proust

My Very First Etsy Treasury-My Blue Past

 

I've been a part of Etsy now for several years.  Just got around to creating my first treasury after all this time.  I can see how some get addicting to it.  It's fun picking and choosing, daydreaming even.  I ususually set the search parameters within a very limited $ amount.  This was a chance to search sky's the limit moneywise.

My Blue Past Etsy Treasury

Click on the link above to view actual items.  Everything in the treasury was unsold at the time it was created.  Hopefully you won't fall in love with something that is no longer available. 

Yikes.

I just realized I published a post before it was ready.  Oops.

Riverside Dickens Festival 2011 Photos. 2012 Festival This Weekend.

These photos from the last Riverside Dickens Festival are long overdue.  Especially since the next festival is this coming weekend.  Actually this is what caused me to remember that I had never gotten around to posting my photos from the last event.

Riverside Dickens Festival 2012

I'm gonna let the photos speak for themselves.  If you are anywhere close to the Inland Empire be sure to swing by.  This event has really grown over the years and it is a prime chance to get all gussied up to see and be seen.

Enjoy some tea, envy the ladies in the fashion show, shop for a top hat or just oogle all the vintage  and antique jewelry.  I know I will.  I'm lucky to only live about a mile away from the Riverside Convention Center so I am planning to take a break from a busy Saturday to lose myself in another world.  Even if it's just for an hour or so.

Festival attendees watching the fashion show.

Hats for sale

 

Ye Olde Book Shoppe

Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe. 

Acutally it's really Old Glory General Store located on Market St.  Click on the link for details on the events coinciding during the Dickens Fest. 

 

Treasures waiting to be discovered via Old Glory.

Lovely participant in the fashion show demonstrating a Civil War era style of dress.

I hope to take more and better pictures of the fashion show this time around.  Last year I wore a long lace duster that made it difficult to clambor about.  I won't make the same mistake this time.

Tale of Two Victorian Boxes

May I present one Victorian era velvet box with beveled glass and a second box of silver plated metal (minus most of its silver) with an Art Nouveau design?

The oval Art Nouveu box was purchased from a little old lady at a rummage sale in Northern CA many moons ago.  I remember handing over $10.  One comes across many similar boxes over the years, usually they are Art Nouveau in style and feauring a floral or rose design.  This one really caught my eye because I had never (and have not) seen another with a total of 5 faces with hair "flowing" all about. 

Did I even really like it?  It was kind of spooky with those faces all over it.   But I did like it and plan to keep it for many more years.   

This second box is rather simple.  I'm not quite sure what it held originally.   Perfume bottle of some sort?  A necklace?  Perhaps. 

Note the details on its tiny clasp, the heavily beveled glass and the beautiful lining.  Both are in great shape after all these years.  The yellow box has lost some of it's fuzziness over the years but I don't mind.

I'm sitting here attempting to recall where I discovered it.  I think it was in an antique mall in Las Vegas of all places for $15.  It's made rather oddly and is very top heavy when the lid is raised due to the thick old glass.

Somewhere over the years I placed the ring inside for safekeeping.  Don't remember how the Gillette man wound up in there.  Once upon a time the faded rose petals must have meant enough for me to tuck them in.

Here you see a close up of the lid.  Most of the silver has rubbed off with time. I've tried to shine it up a bit but this is about as good as it gets.

It's good enough for me.

 

Mastery by Sara Teasdale

(August 8, 1884 – January 29, 1933)

I would not have a god come in

to shield me suddenly from sin,

And set my house of life to rights;

Nor angels with bright burning wings

Ordering my earthly thoughts and things;

Rather my own frail guttering lights

Wind blown and nearly beaten out;

Rather the terror of the nights

And long, sick groping after doubt;

Rather be lost than let my soul

Slip vaguely from my own control-- Of my own spirit let me be

In sole though feeble mastery.

My 1875 Copy of the The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizebeth Gaskell and What I Did to It

Not to long ago I stubmbled upon this wonderful, in depth article about the Bronte Sisters and a lost (found and recently autctioned) book by Charlotte.  The headline:

"Insanity. Beatings and a brother's forbidden passion. As a lost book by Charlotte Bronte is auctioned, the truth about literature's oddest family."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2060600/The-Brontes-ultimate-taboo-As-lost-book-Charlotte-Bronte-auctioned-truth-literatures-oddest-family.html#ixzz1ftM2VnS2

I dropped everything (and sadly, I do mean everything) searching shelves for my 1875, Victorian era copy of The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell.   My book was discovered many years ago in Northern California for $10. It WAS in nearly perfect, 100 plus years condition.

Tiny Bronte book recently auctioned by Sotheby.

via www.dailymail.co.uk

 On my way out the front door in search of natural lighting, BOOM.  I dropped the book smack dab on its spine right at my feet.  I was mortifed and terrifed to look down.

Oh hell.
I shudder just looking at the picture above.  Luckily only a few pages popped out from the front of the book.  The binding has loosened up a bit and the situation could have been worse.  Much worse.  Still...

Oh well.  What can one do?  When you love and collect treasures from the past there will be the occasional loss or damage here and there.  Fires, floods occur and life happens.

It just hurts when it's your own damn fault and the item in question is something that can not be readily or easily replaced. 

Ouch.

The Time Capsule House Opened After 100 Years

via www.environmentalgraffiti.com

Streaming Information | The 1920's Radio Network

via www.the1920snetwork.com

F.Y.I.  All vintage music, all the time.  Just found out about this one recently.   How it got be me for so long I just don't know.  Usually I listen to Radiola and/or The Big Broadcast Classic Sounds of the 20s and '30s.  One can never have access to too much vintage music.  Enjoy.

My Velvet, Fur Embellished, Victorian Era Cape and How it Freaked Me Out

These pictures of this cape really suck but it was cloudy and I was lazy.  Too lazy to start fiddling with the settings on my camera.  So be it. 

I discovered this Victorian era cape at a local antique shop here in the Inland Empire.  In the dark and dim lighting of the store, it appeared just fine as I gave it the once over.  I could see that there was old fur attached to the color.  Yuck.  

The rest of it was intact and in good and sturdy shape.  There was a bit of bead loss but no matter.  The beading and embellishments were lovely so I dragged it home.  Most of the cape appeared to be hand made of dark brown velvet and there was a bitty  pocket inside the cotton lining. 

Fine I figured.  I'll just remove the fur and give it a thorough cleaning.

Well that turned out to be easier said than done.  Once I got down to the nitty gritty I soon learned that the fur had been attached whilst still attached to I guess what one would call the skin.  Being a full fledged city girl and not into hunting or dead things, this started to disturb me. Ha.  I laugh now but I couldn't get the thought of shrunken heads and road kill from popping into my brain.  I removed about 2/3 of the fur before I decided to take a breather.  Yup.  It freaked me out.

I glance at it now and then trying to decide what to do from here.  I think my plan is to eventually,  completely remove the lining and fur, clean it, then reassemble.  

I'll let you know what happens and if and when I ever venture out of my house with it on my bod.

F.Y.I. I'm always on the lookout for things to wear underneath when playing dress up.  I found the cute tights at ROSS not too long ago.  They're by Jessica Simpson of all people but are just the thing the next time I pull on my boots.