(Inside A Black Apple)

A Celestial Globe

I had been wishing for a nice celestial globe for a while, and this gem finally came to me.

They are much more scarce than their terrestrial cousins, and the nice ones (the really, really, really nice ones, illustrated in color & centuries old) are hugely rare & cost a corresponding amount of pennies. This one is from the early mid-century, so no very old, but very beautiful & within my reach.

You probably won't be surprised by the constellation highlighted in the picture -- it is my favorite -- but they are all equally beautifully illustrated. And I've learned some new ones, too, like Lacerta, (the lizard).

A Small Collection of Bears

Clockwise: Real-fur figure with painted mouth, Fur-embellished Polar Bear postcard, Flocked Brown Bear postcard, Flocked metal figure, Good Luck Bear in crate

I've been thinking of some of the mini-collections of things I've (intentionally or unintentionally) accumulated. I have a problem with odds & ends like these and I thought it might be nice to photograph some of them together.

I really like these embellished postcards: the background is lithographed, the animal/bear figure pasted down in fur or flocking, probably from sometime in the early 20th century. I've only found two, but I hope I come across more.

The Good Luck Bear is a souvenir from San Isabel Colorado (I found him in an old things shop). I don't know much about them. If anyone does, please chime in!

A Good Luck Bear seems like an excellent souvenir of a forest trip, even though it's a bit like he's a captive genie in that little crate of his - trapped & beholden to give you good luck.

Blanche & Cora

One of the most unusual old children's book's I've brought home lately: a nineteenth century chromolithographed book about two girls in florida, a bow & arrow, and a snake. I love the image on the cover so much (and the pamphlet-style book is quite brittle and delicate) so I think I'll probably frame it to keep me company here in my studio.

There is nothing quite like the colors they achieved when printing chromolithographs. There's an irrepressible brightness in the colors and a softness in the shadows...it's hard to define, really. I only know that they're some of my favorite, favorite illustrations and that boxes of postcards and game pieces and scrapbook bits printed this way make me go out of my mind a little.

Magic Box

I happened on the Magic Box on Ebay.

I don't even know exactly what it is or how it works (neither did the Ebay seller) but I want to know its secrets. The Magic Box is not mine but I will probably be looking for it for the rest of my days.

A Piece of a Heart

This antique glass slide came from my valentine this year.

The little labels, with their perfect script...my stars. And the actual anatomical slide itself (heart tissue, looking so much like a tiny, delicate sea fan) make my own heart beat less like The Human Subject and more like a hummingbird.

Tiny Nonsense Stories

I have a weakness for tiny books - anything less than 3" tall (it almost undoubtedly began with the Nutshell Library, but microscopic bibles, teensy flip books...I'll take it.) So a few weeks ago, when I brought home all those nice moldy oldies from the book fair, this 1940s box of the Tiny Nonsense Stories (from the Tiny Golden Library) was one of my prized finds.

These little books are written by Dorothy Kunhardt and illustrated by one of my very favorites, Garth Williams (Little Fur Family, forever and ever.) I already have the 1980 boxed edition, and though the books are the same, the little production details on these boxed sets are so incredibly lovely (and the prices seem to creep up steadily every time I see them) I'm so happy to have this older and more beautiful set.

Everything about these books is perfect...the colors, the type. Everything. Each of the books is about some little misfit animal-child - they are featured on the thumbelina-sized cover, and their parents are illustrated on the back. The whole thing reminds me of Wes Anderson in the nicest way (just look at that squirrel papa above with the caramel-colored suit!)

The design of the box/slipcase is a little apartment building and neighborhood, with enough tiny details and little implied narratives to make you crazy - every inch tells a mini-story, from the sunbathers on top of the box (one of my favorite things) to the little bandit cat and bow and arrow-wielding mouse facing off on the left and right corners.

Again, Wes Anderson, do you own this? If you do not, you need one. And I know you can get your mitts on the most pristine copy around.

When you remove the books, this is what you see. Naturally, Garth Williams didn't leave just regular ol' white space here or a simple pattern.

No, it's a corner grocery store with a rabbit family perusing the produce section and a bear cashier!

The endpapers of each book show a playground scene with all the tiny protagonists playing...just another perfect detail among dozens and dozens.

There is another little box from the Tiny Golden Library called Tiny Animal Stories. I had the 40's era set of that one in my collection already - perhaps that one needs a post sometime soon?

I hope you have a nice week! It's (uncharacteristically) hot as blazes here, which isn't good. I need my 60 degree days and grey sky/coffee afternoons to best get my work done.

Wind-up Friends

Anyone who has ever seen my tiny crackerbox of a studio knows that my wind up animals are some of my most prized possessions.

I recently got this rosy-cheeked monkey from a junk box at an antique fair - he is missing his drum, but (as you can see from my #1 favorite toy, the gentleman goose) I have a soft spot for the mussed up misfits of the wind-up world. I always think about this when I watch American Pickers, and Frank says some variation of "This piece isn't perfect, so a serious collector wouldn't be interested, but I think I can sell it too a beginning collector."

I know what he means, but I just don't have the gene (or the pennies) to be the kind of collector obsessed with pristine things. Of course, I love getting to see exquisite toys, perfect, in-box, and have real admiration for collectors who act as archivists and preservationists. But I loved the dinged-up things too, and truly, I love them more...all tarnished and threadbare with age or love or both.



Lucky for me, I'm happy just to see a scrappy monkey with a chunk of metal protruding from his old-man trousers have a conversation with a dingy-feathered goose who is down on his luck.

"Say, can I buy you a drink? You look like you could use one."

"Thanks, pal. Ever since my drum fell off, things haven't been the same. But I did hear there's a girl. They say she gets stars in her eyes over the likes of us."

This Year's Valentine's Provisions

I love Valentine's day a lot - of course, I love holidays in general. But Valentine's day is special to me, both for its proximity to my birthday (which falls on Valentine's eve) and all of its unabashed red-hearted, doily-covered exuberance. I also love the chance to mushily tell people how much I love 'em and that they're the apple of my eye, etc.

I was rifling through my small drawer of Valentine's ephemera, and I thought I'd pull out some of my favorite ones. The 3-D standing card above is definitely the nicest one I have...how could you improve on flowers, a sweet bird, a ship, honeycomb tissue, and a pair of scraggle-haired moppets?

I also have a soft spot for the dark-haired girl with the arrow at the top (variations on that little character show up in lots of Valentines from the time period, and I'm always drawn to them.) The grumpy blondie boy in the heart frame is pretty good, too. A pouty little grump after my own heart!

Yesterday I sat down with all the little odds & ends I needed to put together for Valentine mailing. I had parceled out the afternoon specifically for writing notes, stashing candy, and wrapping little gifts since I wanted to make sure everything could be in the mail with enough time to reach my scattered sweet-peas. It was such a nice way to spend a few hours!

I'm still working on my gentleman's Valentine for the year - so far he has requested caramels, but I've got another idea or two up my sleeve.

Studio Snaps

I moved my studio around this Summer, which was a little project that siezed me one day out of the blue. My work room is quite small, no more than a walk-in closet. And it's important for that tiny space to be cozy, not oppressive (otherwise, if this hadn't worked out, I probably would've needed to look for studio spaces in the outside world.)

The move-around turned out exactly the way I'd envisioned it, even though it was all rather harem scarem and done on a whim. We moved the heavy-duty printing equipment into a formerly useless nook in another part of the house, so my pint-sized studio wasn't consumed with electronic things. Now I have only a slim little computer, and the rest is full of my old toys, books, paints, fabric.

Nice things. Things I'm happy to have surrounding me.

I also got a very small loveseat we stuffed through the door somehow. Miette has taken up residence on it, and does his best bossing and dictation from upon a ratty old quilt my friend donated to our beloved ratty quilt collection.

My favorite 7-year old came over for a bit a week or so ago. We spent the afternoon at the antique mall, and then came back here for tea. Inevitably, we ended up in my studio, where curiosities on crowded shelves had drawn her like a moth. She peered into old paintboxes still full of crumbling cakes of watercolor and admired my strange monkey lamp (a longtime favorite of hers.) I think she might try to pocket it if it weren't so unwieldy.

It was the nicest way to spend an hour, and I was happier than ever that we fixed it up so that room is stuffed with only nice things, and not big hulking things riddled with power strips and cords.

We read Little Fur Family aloud and wound the silver keys on my wind-up toys until her mama called.

Antique Fair Treasures

  

Last week was the autumn antique fair - one of my favorite happenings of the year!
Here's my loot - I found some really neat stuff and (luckily!) didn't spend too many pennies for most of it.

Top row: Little bits - some litho ephemera I couldn't leave behind, sweet old buttons, and a German children's storybook pamphlet with the prettiest colors.
Second row: A beautiful copy of Tony Sarg's Surprise Book & a funny blow-mold PigDog bank I couldn't resist
Third row: Old Fulton Sign Writer printing kit full of stamps (A similar one (and in nicer shape!) is right here & a beautiful turn of the century little fancy-boy portrait I had been eyeing for the last 3 fairs!
Fourth row: The best gem of the day! A little old metal (working/restored) radio painted with flowers.

Poking around at all the beautiful things keeps me on a dust-buzz for weeks after the actual fair!

Even though lots of the offerings are too fancy or pricey to even dream about actually owning (this year, the heartbreaker was a painted diorama of a ship that cost the same as a brand-new car!) it's fun to be able to peer and paw at it all - even if it's just for an afternoon.

A Bunny Pal

Thanks for all the book-love! You're all so sweet. I hope to host a giveaway of some Paper Doll Primers really soon, so keep an eye out for that.

I found this little pal at the big antique expo last weekend, and he's one of my new favorite things. That ratty little tail is just the tops. I posted about him, along with some other finds, at my oft-sorely-neglected old things blog.

 

I've been working this week on getting everything ready for the 2010 Black Apple Holiday cards (hooray!), as well as another printing project I've been meaning to make for a really long time. I can't wait to share either one with you. Those Holiday cards can't get here from the printer fast enough!

Happy weekend & see you soon!

Crayons and Artifacts

Image Source

I've been increasingly attentive to old primers and school supplies in my old-things hunting of the last year or so. Old handwriting practice-books and learn-to-draw books (hopefully filled with doodlings and scribblings from some little person o' the past) are some of my favorites to look at.

I found these pretty school artifacts from this Etsy shop (which, sadly, is mostly empty right now) for my pal Mandy's Christmas gift last year:

   
  Image Source

My friend Devlin forwarded that beautiful row of crayons image up top to me yesterday, which is taken from this post from the general grab-bag of the strange and wonderful that is Dull Tool Dim Bulb (please note that some with more delicate sensibilities might be a little unnerved or scandalized by some of the entries). This lovely row of boxes hails from the collection of one Diana Korzenik, who donated a formidable collection of artifacts and objects, excerpts from which can be seen in this little catalogue (that I now wish to own) to The Huntington Library (a place I now dearly wish to visit).

For goodness sakes, they've got a 19th Century Children's Book Ilustration exhibit on through July, so maybe I'll get there by then!

Old Things Scheme

I've been picking up some good old things lately. Frames for my show in June, doodads, nicknacks, the usual. Below is a photo of the findings from an afternoon antiquing trip a few weeks back. And last weekend was the big Portland Old Stuff Fest, so now I have even more new-old doodads to find a place for!

Tell me I'm not the only person who tends to shop (thrift, antique, or otherwise) in "schemes"? Types of items, certain colors, etc. I seem to do this all the time. But maybe, if we take the example above, it's just a case of my liking the same things (in this case, red + white) over and over again.

I've made a vow (of sorts) to myself to try to only buy old or handmade things through the Summer, excepting necessities. It will be fun to see how it works out!

And I've made a vow this afternoon to do a big Spring cleaning of my studio, and hopefully make room for some of my new-old treasures (and also unearth my drawing table from towering piles of nonsense). Off to do that...now!

Pictorial Texts, Old and New-Old

  

We found the book on the left when we were hunting for old things last weekend. It's so beautiful, and in better condition than it looks in the photo. Anyway, I bought it because, in addition to the hilarious and preachy forward (which hopes that "savages" in foreign lands can use it as primer to one day better themselves), it has nice black and white line art illustrating nearly every lesson, from vocabulary to verbs. Imagine my surprise when the book on the right came to me (as a surprise present from Josiah) just a few days later! It's a new (to me, anyway) book from Chronicle, and is it ever lovely. And it is bursting with the most beautiful illustrations...as Chronicle's website says: "over 1,500 engravings that originally graced the pages of Webster's dictionaries in the 19th century"

When I uploaded my photos of the pages, it was difficult for me to distinguish between the two, except from the tattered pages! Here are a few from Picture Teaching...I love these that have little "labels" - one on each item illustrated:

 

Oh, that chart on the left below...be still my heart!

   

And here are a few favorite pages from the utterly exhaustive Pictorial Webster's:

   

This is my favorite page thus far, but that might just be because it's near the center of the book, and so my volume has an easy time falling open to that page. But come on! Those three monkeys that the top? And the molars aren't too shabby, either.

I'm excitedly readying all the prints from the Oddfellow's series...they'll be making their way into the shop tomorrow (Friday)!

See you soon!

Future Dresses From Old Calicos

Even though my favorite fabric lady was nowhere to be seen at the Summer Antiques-fest (#453 on the list of things I love about living in Portland), I did bring home this pretty little stack of vintage floral fabrics.

They're becoming dresses for dolls today! Back to the ironing board.

Whole Lot Of Lovely

Sometimes, I find that my mind (and bookmarks) have accumulated a lot of neat things from the internets in a fairly short period of time. And then I feel like it's silly to keep them all to myself, so here are some things that have tickled my fancy in the last month or two:

(Photo credits go to each individual blog owner/shop keeper)

- The fiendishly lovely frocks n' old things blog, The Snail and The Cyclops.

- This card is undoubtedly my favorite from this post of beautiful, delicate old calling cards.

- The dolls of Misako Mimoko! Be still my heart. It's all about the shaky, embroidered old-timey eyes.
And, I just saw that she has an adorable little embroidery pattern up as a gift for anybody with a needle and an appreciation for tea-kettle-headed things.

- Julianna generously began to archive her personal collection of ephemera, at, where else: Ephemeratopia.

- The American Archives, especially things with lots of pictures, like children's books and natural history books. The Bird Book (depicted above) is pretty enrapturing alone, and the vast resource the archives already is (let alone what they're building toward) is a thing of beauty.

- Also! And this is not from the internet at all, but from real life...Ashley gave me an amazing little deer yesterday (you might've seen it on this post). She is so generous and such a great friend to have.

And I think she was just tired of me staring at it longingly.

New Old Things

I've accumulated some really excellent old things lately, and I thought I would take some photos to share them with you!

Let's start with this insane quilt:

 

I nabbed it just last weekend at the antique mall. It has, embroidered in the squares, all of the state birds! And state flowers! And little, odd, totally unofficial (updated: Thanks so much all of you who told me what's what about these older abbreviations) state-abbreviations in banners!  When I found it, I did the crazy, looking-around-suspiciously thing you do when you can't believe that someone hasn't snapped up a quilt featuring all of the state birds and flowers and state-abbreviations in banners.

I had been watching this little old-as-can-be taxidermy duck at the antique mall for almost a year and I finally brought her home and named her Clementine. She manages to be quite cute and quite gross, simultaneously.

I got this locket from an Etsy seller in February...okay, it was my Valentine to myself. I love stars, and a vintage locket with beautiful stars and a tiny photo of somebody's fella from about 80 years ago is as good as it gets.

 

Pretty brown purse (local vintage) + briefcase (Ebay'ed), because I got really obsessed with having a little briefcase a few months back:

We actually ended up going thrifting today, and found some gems, mostly for the house. Observe the back of our car:

Very little makes me happier than a good thrifting day.
Especially when it includes these two things:

We have so many lovely old things, but luckily we all really love old treasures.

And I do mean all of us:

Almost There...

I can almost share the Spring-kitchen-overhaul!

It's looking bright and pretty, and now all it needs is for me to make the new curtains...so once those are ready and I get a nice sunny afternoon, I'll take some photos. Above are a bunch of the framed vintage bird prints that are gracing the walls in there now. A very welcome change from peanut-butter colored cabinets!

Hmm...what else is on my mind. Oh! Jen Corace's show, "Clementine" at Art Star is so beautiful and detailed. You should hop over and see...the poppies, patterns, and sheer "Elizabeth Bennett"-ness of the show might really make your afternoon.

Happy Monday + see you soon!

Letting the Sun In

There is serious Spring cleaning afoot here.
Serious.

So serious, in fact, that we're going above + beyond with ushering in Spring in our kitchen by repainting all the cabinetry. Currently, they are a horrid (as Josiah so aptly called it) "peanut-butter-taffy" color...and they will soon be lovely, glossy milky white.

I'm also doing lots of stuff-purging, moving around, acquiring and casting-off. This lovely sunny 70's-grandma chair (and its twin) were nabbed for a song at House of Vintage (a labyrinth of old-things in Portland). I love Spring-cleaning! Well, I love the result of it. We have to do the second coat of cabinet-painting today, which means I must detach myself from the computer and get a move on!

Happy Friday + Happy Weekend, everyone!

Of Magic Ships & Buttons, Of Cabinets & Kings...

Last weekend, there was a deal struck in our dollhouse.

"I'll go with you to see Watchmen on Friday night", I said.
"And I'll go with you to the big Antique thing on Sunday", Josiah said.
Hands shook. There was no arm-twisting necessary, because I kinda wanted to see Watchmen, just like J kinda wanted to go antiquing. It's so nice when things work out like that.

The movie was fine, I liked parts and like everyone who's familiar with the comic, griped about others. But the antique show! Oh, the antique show.

It was my perfect afternoon for treasures. I'll start with the small treasures and work up to the big (very big) one.

 

Of course, I had to pay a visit to the button lady (I saw her last time I was there!) These little jewels make me so happy. For a size-to-happiness ratio, you're getting a very good deal with a paper sack of vintage buttons.

 

I fell in love with the box for that "Japanese Magic Boat"...the toy inside is so dinky! It's worth it for the beautiful box. And this vintage collar is just the cat's pajamas. The lady that sold it to me gave me an amazing deal, and was the second or third person at the fair to tell me "I can tell you're going to really love this, so I'll give it to you for half". So sweet. And I will really love it.

 

Pretty vintage fabrics. Of course, they must be inspected by the vintage fabric inspector.

 
Pretty trims and gaudy little brooches.

And then, even though I was already slap-happy and drunk on old-things, I found this amazing old bath-cabinet.
And for a really good price.
And we really, really needed a place to stow our DVDs and other things out of sight.

So we bought it, and drove it home in our far-too-tiny-for-hauling-hutches car.

And now it is housing many things, including this cat that arrived with the hutch, who I can only assume is part of a display in the Cabinet of Natural Curiousities. Wait...he looks kind of like the "vintage fabric inspector". Hmmm...

The "privacy glass" in the top cabinets is so pretty, so that was a selling point. So were the little drawers (what to store in there?) and the curious little vents in the bottom cabinets.

And, I mean, it came with a free display cat...there wasn't much to think about.

The only thing that made the afternoon nicer was seeing Anja and Julianna there.

See you soon, and Happy Wednesday!

In Which People are So Darn Nice

I've ordered a few little things from Etsy here and there (mostly for the house) in the last few weeks, and so when I got a little package all the way from our Canadian neighbors today, I thought it must be something I purchased.

But it was an unexpected, out-of-the-blue gift from the kind owner (Shelagh) of this Etsy shop! This is why my post has title justification.

It is an extremely old Alice edition (1898, I believe) for my collection.

The inscription is darling, and reads:

"St. George's Sunday School
1st Prize, Class 7
Edith Bayne
Xmas 1904"

I wish I had been so lucky as to attend a Sunday School in which a copy of Alice in Wonderland is de rigueur prize material!

Oh! And thank you so much for all of your enthusiasm over the Anytime Valentines. They sold out quite quickly today, which I would never have anticipated. Thank you, thank you!
I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. I will be painting and drawing and probably mostly living it up as a homebody (one of my very favorite things to do).

Happy Friday!

EtsyVintage Feature...

curated by moi.

 

Read + click + visit these fine vintage purveyors by hopping over to The Storque!