Friday, August 27, 2010

Professorial digs

We went to the outskirts of the city today to pick through the estate of a well known and well respected philosophy prof. A lovely mission/arts and crafts style cottage on the the edge of a ravine which made for dank pickings. Much larger inside than the exterior would have you believe, it contained a warren of bedrooms and studies. The attic was crammed full of trunks and tea chests which naturally we managed to liberate.

Not much else. The few bits of antique I picked turned out to be poor choices: a beautiful old cast iron dutch oven and a lovely brass bladed fan. The dutch oven, I should have examined it there but the light was poor, was marked: made in Taiwan.

The fan, which I knew wasn't working, also had a massive crack in the base which I didn't see. Oh well, la de dah. La dee dah.

I did have my my pick though of the clothes though. We're almost the same size but not enough. The jacket including a beautiful but moth eaten Norfolk  (which I should have taken just for the fabric), several pair of jodhpur boots, sadly not my size. A Fulbright scholar who taught at a number of institutions before settling in at U of T,  he did manage to shop at the local campus shops for some great trad gear.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Raleigh Wheels

Today's yard sale Catch o' the Day is this Raleigh Bike; the Tourist, I think the model is. Rideable right now, but needs a bit of work, nothing serious, some nuts and bolts, brake work and a proper Brooks saddle. I haven't had a chance to do any real research yet but it's probably from the late 1960s or early '70s.

A very handsome ride indeed.