December North London Vintage Market

I am very excited that I will be at the final North London Vintage Market of 2011 in Crouch End on 3rd December. I will be busy getting ready over the next week or so. Here are some photos of my stall at the October market.

In December I will have the usual mix of ceramics, kitchenalia and glassware with a few pieces of vintage jewellery and some nice textiles. New items this time will be a lovely Pat Albeck National Trust tea towel, some Rye pottery ceramics and a boxed set of Sherdley tumblers...

Kempton finds

Last month we made another trip to the Kempton Park market. These are a few of items I bought. At the back is a big Hornsea Studio plant pot with a geometric circles pattern, it's in excellent condition which is always key with Hornsea pottery which is easily damaged. On the left is a small Rorstrand lidded dish, the design is called 'Amanda' which I have not seen before. Front right is a very chunky Wedgewood 'Brutus' vase designed by Frank Thrower. I have a taller version too and they look good displayed together.

Another more sizeable purchase were these giant letters now on top of our book case!

Hat box

This is one of the star finds from our Cornwall trip, its a lovely wooden hat box complete with authentic luggage labels and metal edging. Purchased on a very wet and misty day trip to Lostwithiel.

Holiday

Not much activity on the blog recently as I have been busy at work with an exhibition opening and we have just been away on a week's holiday to Cornwall.

Midwinter ceramics

It's just one week until the North London Vintage Market and I am busy getting organised. This time I will have a few nice examples of Midwinter pottery for sale. Here's a preview:

Cups & saucers in the 'Focus' pattern by textile designer Barbara Brown. These date from the 1960s

Trio in the 'Madeira' design on the 'Fine' shape, in production from the mid 1960s into the early 1970s

TV cup and tray in the 'Capri' design by Jessie Tait, dating from the mid-1950s

'Cassandra' tureen in the 'Fashion' shape, dating from the late 1950s

Buttons, Brooches and a Big Bowl

I haven't been selling at any of the North London Vintage Markets over the summer but have been busy buying at carboots, antique fairs and markets and have also been delving deeper into all the various boxes and crates of ceramics and glass that I have squirrelled away.  I am now getting everything organised for my first market since June which is on 1 October.

As before I will be selling mostly mid-century ceramics including many Scandinavian pieces, but I will also have examples of 1960s art glass and interesting pieces of kitchenalia, homewares and fabrics. I have also gathered together some quirky pieces of jewellery and some nice vintage buttons:

Cats and Clowns

This little cat money box is one of the first retro ceramics items I bought and is still one of my favourites.

It was made by Carlton Ware in the 1960s or 1970s, not sure exactly when. They also produced others in the shape of owl, a pig, a noah's ark and a train and a series of cartoonish heads including a slightly quizzical clown. I will be selling another cat (a red one) and a clown on ebay over the next few weeks.

Hornsea Summit ceramics

I have a lot of Hornsea pottery in my own collection - particularly plant pots - many of which have already featured on the blog.

This week on ebay I am selling off quite a few other Hornsea pieces. Most of them are from the 'Summit' range and or the similar 'colour inlay' range used for tableware. These all date from the early 1960s.

 

Vintage trunk

I have already featured a few of my vintage luggage finds on this blog but I have a new-ish addition to the collection which hasn't yet appeared. It's a sort of steamer trunk suitcase combined and has some lovely vintage luggage labels still in place.

I couldn't resist buying it but up till now it has just been sitting a bit forlornly in our hallway. I have now found a perfect use for it as storage for all the vintage fabrics that I have been collecting together for sale at the next North London Vintage Market on 1st October.

As well as storage and transportation I think it will also work pretty well as a display stand as well.

Jessie Tait Midwinter vase

My family all love going to carboots and we have been busy going to as many as possible over the summer - weather permitting!. The award for the star find goes to my mum for this lovely, and rare, Jessie Tait vase.

The over-glaze decoration of tube-lined stripes makes it beautifully tactile as well as great to look at. I think this one's a keeper for now.. and I have added it to some of my other monochrome 1950s ceramics.

Latest finds

Just back from a week away in Norfolk where I found these two interesting pieces of Hornsea Pottery dating from the 1960s. Both are John Clappison designs.

Tall 'Impact' vase with textured abstract decoration

'Fish' pepper pot, one half of a cruet. Now I need to hunt for the matching salt pot!

Festival of Britain

It's the 60th anniversary this year of the Festival of Britain and it's being marked this weekend at the Southbank Centre's vintage festival.

I was very pleased to find this commemorative Festival of Britain teapot a little while ago at antique fair so I thought this might be a good time to feature it on the blog!

Vintage coffee table

This unusual coffee table is one of my most recent finds. I love the design of the cityscape and its buildings and I think the illustrative style is slightly reminiscent of the work of the artist John Piper. It doesn't have any makers marks but I think it probably dates from the early 1960s..

Sadly I don't have space for this nice table so its for sale on ebay this week!

stylish stainless steel

 Here are a couple of nice stainless steel items that I am selling on ebay this week..

Old Hall gravy jug or sauce boat, designed by Robert Welch

Tankards made by Viners

Flowers and Figgjo

I always like using the bits and pieces I have collected over the years. This Norwegian Figgjo jug is a favourite of mine (the design is Maja) and looks great holding flowers. I bought this big bunch of peachy dahlias in the Highgate Horticultural Society auction yesterday afternoon..

Clock

Here is the latest addition to our retro home, a lovely reconditioned vintage clock. This was originally a Post Office 'slave' clock, ie. it ran off one central clock in an office block or factory. We really liked the distinctive double line typeface by Colin Banks (1932-2002) and the nice pointy hands. The 24 hour style numbering is also an interesting feature.

Colin Banks, who designed the Post Office typeface seen on our clock, was one of Britain's leading typographers and worked on the modernisation of corporate identities in the seventies and eighties, including British Telecom, London Transport (updating the Johnston typeface still in use today) and The British Council.

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June Vintage Market photographs

Here are a few photographs from the June North London Vintage Market in Crouch End. It was a really enjoyable and successful day and am hoping to be at the next market in October. Until then I am going to be concentrating on hunting around in my own collection and out and about so I should have some great new vintage finds for sale next time..



This photo shows some of the nice bits of kitchenalia I sold, inclduing a nice set of pyrex bowls, some stainless steel salad servers in a fantastic original box plus an unusual cheese board featuring a tile designed by Anne Wynn-Reeves..



This picture shows some nice fishy dishes and two pieces of Piazza ware...

 These are some of the vintage buttons I spent hours sorting and colour coding!



Hornsea Elegance ceramics

This week on ebay I am sellling a couple of really nice examples of vintage 1950s Hornsea pottery.




These are from the 'Elegance' range designed in the mid-1950s by John Clappison. The large bowl is a lovely curved organic shape and its quite rare to find a large piece in such good condition.

Vintage fabrics for sale

There was a lot of interest in vintage fabrics at the last couple of North London Vintage Markets so I have sourced some more for the 4 June market. Here are some photos...

Set of four bright and colourful napkins, probably dating from the 1970s

Flowery turquoise tablecloth from the 1960s

Another tablecloth, this one with a repeated pattern of coffee pots and cups and saucers, dating from the 1950s

Strange fish plate

I do like things with fishes on and couldn't resist this black and white ceramic fish plate at a recent flea market. It has no maker's mark underneath so I can't tell when or where it was made.

I think this might be one of the things I will be selling at next month's vintage market in Crouch End. Click on the flyer below right for details of the market..

Rorstrand Pomona tray

I have recently acquired a lovely new addition to my Rorstrand collection. It's a large tray decorated with the Pomona pattern, designed by Marianne Westmann in 1956. I first saw one of these in a very expensive antique shop in Malmo and have coveted one ever since. It has now replaced the large Picknick tray that previously had top spot on the Ercol shelves.

New plant pots

I can't resist a nice vintage plant pot and here are photos of my latest acquisitions, both newly planted as well..

This one was made by Thanet pottery, I like the wax relief effect of the design, the leafy pattern also reminds me of the distinctive Orla Kiely stem print.

The other one is yet another Hornsea pottery planter, I hadn't seen this design before when I bought it, though it looks as though it might be from the Saffron range dating from the late 1960s. Just behind it is a Hornsea Studiocraft vase with a circle design, also dating from the 1960s.

Vintage luggage and hat boxes

Here are two nice vintage hat boxes which I have recently acquired. The top one has a very pretty design and is a good compact shape. Its already been snapped up by my friend Steph, aka Yellow Bird hats and I sure she will be putting it to very good use as storage for one of her beautiful hand made hats..

Here is another photo of vintage trunks and boxes in our flat. The big metal hat box on the top is our newest acquisition, snapped up in a charity shop at the weekend. Not sure what we are going to store in in yet, the big trunk at the bottom holds vinyl records.