Bit loafers

I went to a funeral this morning for long time friend and laugh-meister Gerry Salsberg who first gained  audience praise with Toronto's first Godspell company (along with Victor Garber, Eugene Levy & Gilda Radner) and then with Toronto's first Second City company.

On the way back I nipped in to my local thrift for a quick peek and came away with a pretty decent pair of Gucci bit loafers.

Gerry's still looking out for me.

Pressing Matters

One of today's yard sale finds: 1930s Coleman's gas iron. Not one of the rare ones so will not be expensive but will look great on display in someone's clothing (or custom/bespoke/tailoring/dressmaking/alterations) shop. Or use it a a door stop. Paperweight? Boat anchor?

House Call

We bought some luggage today from a house call. Not an estate sale because the owners were very much alive, in their nineties and moving from a big house into a condo. They still drive to cottage most weekends.

Husband was a business man, wife a pediatrician, very active, lots of luggage, trunks etc and this flight bag was his from WWII, when he was a naval lieutenant.  It's going to take a few trips to get all of what we bought.

I don't think any of the luggage will be for sale, we'll use it for rentals.
www.vintageluggage.com

Cufflinks or Cuff Links

Just added a whack of new cufflinks to our cuff link site www.vintagecuff.com

Shoe stretcher

Being the shoe slut that I am, a handy weapon in the arsenal for dealing with thrift store finds is a shoe stretcher which, when judiciously applied, forces the leather to be a tad more accommodating.
 The marks (USMC) on this one suggest that it might have seen military service.

Stretchers are often confused with shoe & boot trees which are wooden forms inserted to help keep the shape of the boot.

Hudson's Bay Point Blanket

Spotted at the St. Lawrence Sunday Antique Market this past Sunday, an old HBC point blanket. Using Harold Tichenor's  book The Collector's Guide to Point Blankets, as a reference, the label was used "for a brief period around 1930." The blanket was in very good condition but by the end of the day still remained unsold at an asking price of $95.00.

I was selling a 1920s Trapper Point blanket from Eaton's that I had bought at the market that morning. It sold.

Silver Cuff Links

Found this weekend and now available on our website www.vintagecuff.com.

LL Bean Bag

Off The Cuff features the classic L.L. Bean Tote in today's post. We have an old Bean canvas tote in the vintageluggage.com hoard as well. While it's not the same, it is a Bean canvas tote, probably from the 1920s or '30s.

Christie Antique Show

The ipod alarm went off at 3:00 am so I could finish loading, prep lunch (salmon patties) & mid-afternoon snacks (Niagara prosciutto & melon), and then hit the road to the Christie Conservation area about 45 min outside of town at Hwys 5 & 6.

It's the crossroads, so put on some Robert Johnson.

It was an easy drive at that hour of the morning and we took our place in the dealers' line to wait for the 5:15 a.m. lifting of the gate to allow the dealers access to the field. Fast and easy check in, found our spot and got to work. I didn't get a chance to walk around and look at other people's stuff because it took me the full three hours to get set up for the 8:00 am opening.

PZ walked around and bought a couple of things but no serious shopping.


Jeff and Wendy Gadsden, the show promoters are seasoned pros at this and the rumours were the crowds were the biggest ever, I'm guessing at 20,000-30,000 shoppers.

By 10:00 am the line-up to make the turn off into the park from HWY6 was about 45 minutes long. The crowds were steady all day long.

People seemed to be shopping because we know that the four cash machines ran out of money and had to be refilled (at least once) but they seemed to be cautious shoppers, no panic buying, people thought about stuff and came back for it after looking at the rest of the field.

A lot of customers from the late lamented Harbourfront Market stopped by, people we hadn't seen in years.

The show, for us, was successful in that I moved a lot of merch I needed to move; in other words, not a huge profit day, but a good cash flow/cost recovery day. I don't know if I have enough merch to warrant taking a spot on my own in September and then renting a vehicle to bring it all to the show. The Explorer just doesn't hold enough to justify the expense.

All in all, the weather was great, I'm so glad we had the tent, a good turnout, we brought our own food and drink and an uneventful load-up and drive home.

And then we did the Sunday Market the next day. So a 4:00 am wake up for that and...

White Bucks

Time to dust off these puppies and hit the bricks with these white bucks with red brick soles. I bought these new from Bass about twenty-five years ago. They're vintage now.