Estate Sale Treasure

Husband Jim and I adore Estate Sales and we always have.    Many treasures at Linderhof come from early married Estate Sales we attended when we lived in the city.  

In those days,  perhaps the Sunday paper would whet your appetite for the sale to be held later that week.   A description of the goods to be offered with a tease . . . address would be in Thursday (or Friday's -- whatever day the sale would start) paper.  

And, of course, my imagination would often have better merchandise than what we would find upon arrival!

But those days are long gone.    The internet has arrived and with an email list of customers, most Estate Sale companies send out an email about their upcoming sale.    Some, like the old days when it was in the newspaper, won't put the address until the day of the sale while others include the address with the email notification.

And most either on that email notification or on their own site, have pictures of all of the goods (or most of them anyway) offered for sale.     So you can see if that "mahogany tea table" is really what you consider a mahogany tea table and not an inexpensive sham!  

Of course, there are no prices . . . so if it really is the mahogany tea table you've been searching for, it may be way more than your purse can afford!

Last week, we received a notification of an estate sale to be held not far to where we were obligated to be on Saturday -- a three day sale which started on Thursday.    Saturday would be the third and also the half price day.     Although many items are gone by the third day, the better bargains are to be had and often if you're interested in something -- especially something that's rather large but not an antique -- they'll let it go for even less!

We like the last day of Estate Sales!

In perusing the pictures of that sale, I noticed this . . .

A table of blue and white things -- but what really caught my eye was the tureen.    You just don't see blue and white tureens at Estate Sales all that often.    I was then determined that we had to stop by.

We left early enough so that we arrived about a half hour after the sale started on Saturday.   I made a beeline for the kitchen (that is another good thing about pictures -- you can usually figure out where the item is by the pictures and save yourself wandering through rooms looking for an item) and it was still there!


I grabbed it -- looked at the price (which at first I thought was $65 -- but that wasn't a dollar sign -- that was a "1") and felt all over -- perfect with no chips!     Even at half of $165, it was still a bargain for I found them on line for $170 to $180!

And home it came . . .

On the dining room table --

It's a Johnson Brothers pattern called British Castles -- how appropriate for last spring we visited many castles during our stay in England.     And . . . I have a small platter in the same pattern -- small enough, sadly, that it doesn't fit under the tureen!

I've not put it away -- I'm still admiring it and so I put it on the breakfast room table -- along with the Spode pitcher with lilacs and another new find -- a wee myrtle topiary in an English hand thrown pot -- brought home last spring from England -- in the checked luggage no less!    It was a buy -- retailing for $40 it was an orphan for there were none left and being without a tag they sold it to me for $10.

I've not had luck with myrtle topiaries -- ivies yes -- myrtles no.    But hopefully, I will succeed with this one!    I'm off in a bit to do some internet reading on water and light requirements for myrtles!

One last picture -- the sun isn't so bright for it's a different time of day but I just love the reflection of the tureen in the mirror behind the table!

I adore blue and white transfer ware and am always eager to add to my collection but it does have to be a special piece and it does have to be the right price.  

This tureen fit those requirements!

It's Tuesday and I'm joining Marty at A Stroll Thru Life for Tabletop Tuesday.