Been to the antiques fair!

Today was the second day of the four-day antiques fair that is being held here each December - just 5 minutes from where I live.

I went there with my mom, as my best friend couldn't come (and I'm probably going again tomorrow with another friend).

It's called a collectors fair and there's anything to be had there from expensive antiques to old junk... for clothing it's not a good place though. There are basically 3 types of clothing stands and about 2-3 stands of each. First - very expensive designer secondhand pieces, usually pretty recent. Second - new hippie-style clothing - I have no idea what these people are doing at this fair. And third - real vintage clothing, beautiful and priced way beyond what I can afford. What's abundant are vintage handbags - everybody seems to have realised that it's a kind of trend.

So I spent a small fortune on lots of small things :spin: - and am very happy:


A heap of vintage Christmas postcards, which I will use to make my own Christmas cards next year (I've already done the same this year with cards I bought a year ago). Then a pretty belt-buckle, a fun metal and plastic brooch, a very pretty, unused vintage Kigu powder compact, a stunning jewelery set by Lisner, some vintage Barbie doll shoes, a darling 60s Barbie outfit with accessories (the doll is new - she's just modeling it :lol: ) and two fun brooches as gifts for my best frend - a spider and a tiny umbrella and handbag.



Karin

 

The umbrella brooch is quite fun and so is your spider pin! and that Barbie corning ware set is simply too much!

Nice vintage cards too, looks like you had a fun day and with your mum, that's nice!

 

that's so funny, MJ, i totally was thinking how neat the corning ware set is, too!!

 

Thanks for all your comments. Yep, I was definitely done in by that corning ware set that goes with this Barbie doll outfit! I mean, I knew it existed, but to actually find it. The dress alone is super-cute, it's like new, and the colors are very bright, but it was the accessories that did it (it was a little bit on the expensive side).

Sille, yes I think these post cards are sort of 1910-30ish. I buy eggshell-colored plain cards with envelopes, and stick the vintage post cards with photo stickers (the kind where you only slide the photo into them, so no glue on the vintage cards) onto the plain cards. Looks very nice!

Anyway, I went back again today, and met up with a Barbie collector friend and her mother (though as with most my doll collector friends, she also collects other things and has an interest in vintage fashion/fashion history).

So, now I am definitely skint - and very happy with today's finds too :bouncy: !


A German fashion magazine called "Elegante Welt" ("Elegant World") from 1958, two mail-order catalogs from 1968 and 1970, a heap of Barbie "Best Buy" clothes from the 70s (lots of polys there too!) and a pair of lovely vintage earrings.


The mail-order catalogs are from Switzerland. Veillon is your typical middle-class clothes-mail order company. They had everything, including shoes, hats, underwear etc. This shows the kind of stuff one still finds a lot at secondhand shops here. Spengler is a company that doesn't exist anymore, but I remember it from my childhood. It seems though that in the 60s, they were rather "high class". They had "designer outfits" by Emilio Schuberth and Jacque Esterel, and did just "nice" clothes. There's no underwear, no shoes, no home-wear or such stuff. But they care to mention that the shoes in the photos are all by Bally, so I guess this shows pretty much the Bally shoe collection of winter 1968 :spin: . Plus, as a nice addendum, there's a page in the middle that not only explains care-lables, but all the different names under which synthetic fabric were sold, and what they were (polyester, polyamide etc.). Now that is a really nice thing to have! Because I keep finding these clothes, that I simply classify as "poly", and they usually have a little label saying it Terylen, Diolen or whatever name that fabric was given...

Karin

 

Fabulous finds - especially the old mail order catalogs. I love the Barbie items, too, and the earrings are really nice. Interesting stones - sort of a satin finish but faceted.

Linn

 

Thanks, Linn! Yes, that "satin finish" of the stones is what made me look at those earrings twice. The seller said that they were 1940s and from France - no idea if that's correct, I guess it would have to be rather late 40s - I don't think they would have produced anything like this during the war... But they do look vintage to me and are in very good condition. I like to look for more "unusual" stuff - like the set I bought on Friday. There's always a dealer there who has an incredible stock of vintage costume jewelery, most of it American. She must have taken years and years to built this up, because she has masses. Makes me go :o every time!

Karin

 

Karin -

Please take a photo of the back of the earrings. Often the findings are really distinctive on French earrings.

Linn

 

Linn, here's a quick shot of the back of one of the earrings:



Let me know what you think, I admit I have no idea .

Karin

 

Karin -

I don't think we can determine that your earrings are French from that finding but they are probably not '40's. That finding is similar to one that was first patented in the US in 1949. The earrings look like '50's to me - really pretty.

This is the finding that many French earrings have:


Linn

 

Thanks ! It doesn't matter if they're not what the seller told me. I just think they look great.

But I've learned something new again, which is great :spin: !

Karin