Vintage market next weekend

After a bit of a break I will be at the North London Vintage Market in Crouch End again next weekend on Saturday 5th May. I have just spent all afternoon trying to get myself organised and am now (almost) all packed up ready to go.

This time I will have quite a few textiles for sale, mostly vintage tablecloths and tea towels.

I have also taken a few pictures of some of the ceramic items I will have for sale.

Scandinavian ceramics

Despite very wet conditions I had a pretty successful visit to the Malvern flea fair over Easter and bought these three nice pieces of Scandinavian pottery.

Rorstrand 'Eden' butter dish, designed by Marianne Westman

Stavangerflint cup designed by Kari Nyquist

Stavangerflint trinket box designed by Inger Waage

V&A design exhibition

Last weekend I went to the V&A to the exhibition British Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age.

The exhibition is arranged over three galleries and the first section, entitled Tradition and Modernity, covering the post-war years was the area I spent most time in.

It includes material relating to the Festival of Britain and the construction of Coventry Cathedral, the development of New Towns and some of the key design trends of the period. There were some great examples of poster design and illustration, fabric and furniture, ceramics and glass on display.

Here's a photo of the shop display, and one of Abram Games' classic poster designs for the Festival of Britain:

Old Hall vase

Last sunday I was able to get to my first car boot sale of 2012. I managed to pick up a few nice items but the star find was this unusual chunky stainless steel vase.

It was made by Old Hall and is a Robert Welch design. I think it was part of the 'Alveston' range and dates from the 1960s. It will be appearing on ebay shortly...

Chance glass hankerchief vases

A few weeks ago I delved into one of the boxes that I still haven't unpacked since I moved house two years ago!  I found these two glass 'handkerchief vases' made by Chance glass that I had forgotten all about. The pattern is predictably called 'polkadot' and I think they date from the 1970s.