Decorating with Vintage Photographs

You can find them at flea markets and antique shops, in old family albums, or in a box in your own attic! Each one tells a story about a distant place and time. Some people put up framed black & white photos of people they don't even know ~ because they can relate to the face in some way. We dealers call those pictures "instant relatives".

This is a wonderful picture of a Flapper Age woman in an opera coat. The hand colored photo was printed on glass along with the gold oval frame and the flowers. Circa 1926.





Here's a pair of sweet angels checking some kind of announcement or list. This is a post- card, circa 1910. You may purchase note cards with this image here:
Vintage Images on Etsy


This image seems like an innocent home snapshot but is actually a photo taken by a U.S. Farm Service Agency employee. It's titled, "Healthy white children", which gives the picture an entirely different meaning. Circa 1940's.



This last one is a professional (posed) photo with perfect composition and lighting. Circa 1890.



If you're planning a vintage photo collection, I know you'll have fun finding them and many years of enjoyment looking at them!

             Happy Mother's Day

I hope all of you Moms out there had a wonderful
Mother's Day today!

Here is what I hope you got to do ....
relax and enjoy your day!

Detail of watercolor painting by Winslow Homer, 1877.

Flow Blue Earthenware

You have your collectible blue and white china, which is lovely and dates from the 1820's, and then you have flow blue china, which began in the same region of Staffordshire, England. The term "flow blue" comes from the blue glaze that blurred or "flowed" during the firing process. This gives an entirely different look than the "non flowing" blue and white, but both are beautiful in their own right and would compliment any cottage style decorating scheme.




Here is an example of regular blue and white:


Non-flowing Blue Willow bowl made in England.





Flow blue earthenware comes in all shapes and sizes, from dinnerware pieces to large jardinieres on stands. Here is an example of a flow blue chamber pot ~ this one was made in Burslem, England about 1900 by Ford and Sons.




Flow blue chamber pot at Hourglass Antiques & Collectibles.







The most ubiquitous pieces are the dinnerware shapes. This 5.25 inch pitcher is six-sided with twelve embossed panels. It has an Oriental motif with a pagoda, a willow tree with twisting trunk, a ship, and distant mountains.

This pitcher dates from about 1860.

Flow blue Oriental theme pitcher at Hourglass Antiques & Collectibles. 








Here are two platters, one is in the "Non-Pareil" pattern by Burgess & Leigh, England, and is decorated with only a little white showing. Date of manufacture is about 1891.

Burgess & Leigh flow blue platter at Hourglass Antiques & Collectibles. 







The second platter has a beautiful floral pattern, but only in the center and around the edge. It is also a wonderful example of American flow blue. It's from the Mercer Pottery Co. of Trenton, N.J. and is in the "Luzerne" pattern, circa 1868.



"Luzerne" flow blue platter at Houglass Antiques & Collectibles.

I can easily visualize this pattern in a cottage style home! 




Decorating Note:  Plates and platters can come out of the china cabinet and go on a wall. Bedrooms especially look well, decorated in this way.

There are many reference books on flow blue china and I recommend buying one before starting a collection. The value of a piece depends on many things, such as the pattern, the maker, the shape, and so on. Beware of reproductions! A good reference guide will also include a list of reproduced patterns and tips to avoid purchasing them.

Happy St. Paddy's Day to all!!

Here's an Irish toast to go with your green beer:

Many blessings to cheer you, 

Each day the year through,

And the luck of the Irish 

In all that you do!

Greeting card image courtesy of :
Vintage Everyday Images

Enter to win the National Craft Month 2014 Grand Prize Giveaway!
  
.... with prizes from Red Heart yarn, Plaid Enterprises, Leisure Arts, Marvy Uchida, Sizzix, Simplicity, DOW STYROFOAM, MD Building Products, I Love to Create, Polyform, Craft Attitude, Ecstasy Crafts, American Quilter's Society, Fiskars, Curious.com, Krylon, Xyron, Jimmy Beans Wool, and Prime Publishing, LLC. You have until March 31 at midnight to enter!

Enter the National Craft Month 2014 Grand Prize Giveaway

Here are some cottage style antiques from my Hourglass Antiques & Collectibles shops. This week I'm showcasing some vintage textiles ....

This wonderful hand-hooked rug with bold multi-colored flowers has a blue and white blocks strip with a brown border. Made with cotton fabric strips, it has a burlap backing. Size: 26¾ x 38 inches. 

Vintage Hand Hooked Floral Rug 

A vintage potholder pair from the 1930's. Crocheted in ecru and red in a flower shape, they each have a ring for hanging.














These two doilies are crocheted in a color-changing yarn in bright pastels.

This is a lovely quilt in a variation  

of the 'Nine Patch' pattern. 
  

Predominant

colors are

blues, greens,

& pink, all

on a white 

ground. On all 

four sides is a 

'saw tooth' edging. 

This quilt was 

machine pieced 

and hand quilted.

Check out the Etsy Cottage Style blog ~ Market Monday (which runs 24/7).  It's "a virtual flea market of arts, crafts, antiques, and more". Each item shown has a link to it's place on the internet.  Browse and shop 'til your heart's content!

Market Monday ~ Etsy Cottage Style Blog 

Cottage Garden Ideas

Spring is "just around the corner" as we all say, so here are some interesting garden ideas from some very creative posts on social and other sites around the country ....

This is a great idea for sprucing up a birdbath. These are vintage insulators which make a colorful perch for birds when grouped together.  You can find them in green and other colors, but they're most common in clear and blue.

These insulators used to be seen in great quantity atop the telephone lines crisscrossing the country, and can still be found doing their job in long stretches of open road.   

A lot of bird species have been
photographed at this particular birdbath, but others like to visit when no one's looking.  For more images, including lots of bird species getting their bath on, visit:
Flea Market Gardening


 
Isn't this the lovliest garden idea? ~ using an old wagon to gather dried flowers.  It's a beautiful soft shade of, what else, lavender!  You could also plant it with a mix of flowers types, such as short and tall, colors and greenery, etc.  

I found this photo at a intensely inspirational FaceBook page:   Vintage Bohemian 





Or .... go with tall and overflowing in a vintage wheel-barrow.  It's nice the way the gardener put a gravel foundation in the same form below it.

This pic is from  the DIY Network   




Although there's nothing vintage in this one, it still grabs at my heart strings.  It's just plain dreamy!
  
Lon ny Magazine



So start planting those seeds now for a  bloomin' gorgeous Spring!






  

Displaying Cottage Style Cookie Jars

Recently, on IAntiqueOnline-ning, there was a discussion about collectible cookie jars in the cottage style. There are a number of designs out there to please any cottage style collector. And the best characteristic about them is, they're not just for display ~ they're quite useful!  Pair one up with a pretty doily, a small houseplant or wreath, and a vintage photograph for a lovely vingette.

The first one pictured is a birdhouse and has a little bluebird for a handle. With hearts, flowers, branches and a shingle roof and corner blocks, this cookie jar would be perfect in a cottage kitchen, dining room, bedroom, or on a porch.
 

Vintage Bluebird Cookie Jar 

The second one is one of my faves. It's a Peter Rabbit cookie jar originally by Beatrix Potter.  I believe Miss Potter should be represented at least once in every cottage style home!  If you didn't grow up reading the Peter Rabbit stories with their adoringly illustrated pages, then you should definitely read them to your kids or grandkids!
                                 
                                 Photo courtesy of  I Antique Online

The canister style cookie jar shown here is part of an entire line of dinnerware made in England of bone china. The pattern is "Old Country Roses" and it deserves a place, in some form, in every cottage style home. I have cups and saucers in this pattern and I never tire of looking at the beautiful design!
Old Country Roses Bone China Cookie Jar

This cookie jar is the best one I could find for this post. It's small, but it's perfect!  The only thing it's missing is roses!  I love the English Tudor style windows, the climbing vines, and the thatched roof.  Ahhh, the things dreams are made of ....

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              Debra's Common Ground Blog

My eCrater Store Widget

We Started as Collectors

Before we opened Hourglass Antiques & Collectibles, we were collectors. Bill was learning decoy carving and got interested in knives (folding pocket). That led to straight razors, and then, shaving mugs and barber bottles. As a boy, he collected comic books and rocks & minerals.

I started with Steiff animals, mostly teddy bears. Eventually I sold my other species and concentrated on bears. That led to children's storybooks about bears, post cards of teddy bears, and miniature creamers of every type to display with the bears. As a youngster, I had several nice dolls and a collection of dog figurines.

As any collector knows, this can become addictive. On occasion, you'll see something in a magazine, at a yard sale, or in an antique shop that will call out to you. Generally speaking, if it's within your budget and you have plenty of room for it, our motto is, "Do you take VISA?"