Vintage 1950's Coat

Vintage Coat - 1950-1960's based on the garment workers union label sewn inside.  Len Artel, made in Belgium.  This was a high quality coat, thick and warm.  What I like best is the Rike's Label inside.  Big old department store in downtown Dayton, OH that was a shopping destination back in the day.  Here's a link to the youtube video showing the store being imploded years ago:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2muLLJcCT8 .  A  cool link to dating clothing article:   How to Date Clothing as Vintage « Sammy Davis Vintage.

Antique Whiskey Bottle

AWESOME 100+ year old bottle.  The Fred Kette and Sons Co. operated in Dayton, Ohio from 1882-1918.  Based on the address listed on the bottle, this one is from 1910-1912.  Retains part of original cork, original label, and box!  A super find.  Large size (pint, I think?) 10"x3.5"x2".  I love how the label says no other poisons have been added lol.

HO Scale Train Model Village

I bought a village!  Ha, I came across a large lot of scale models used for making mini villages, usually people build these to go with their train sets.  I got them off of a retired man who built them all when he was younger in the 50's and 60's.  I like these because they remind me of the move Beetlejuice "nice bleeping model! honk honk" :).  Pretty cool pieces a lumber yard, houses, post office, fire station, etc..  I'll be selling all these in true action fashion with low starting prices!  Auction to go on over this coming week - see the link to my ebay page on the side.

Native American Indian Bisque Doll

New favorite find - All bisque Native American doll.  She was made in Japan (not that I'm psychic, she still has the sticker on her foot :)).  What I like about her is her expression.  I kind of surprised "i didn't do it look', must be the side glancing eyes that give it that effect.  Her look makes me think she's from somewhere between the 1940's - 1960's, but I'm not sure.  Found her at an estate sale.  Her clothes are made from a vinyl like material so they feel very fragile and have little seed beads strung here and there.  A neat find!

Vintage Celluloid Hard Plastic Carnival Ducks

This week's favorite thing that I came across was a lot of old carnival or county fair ducks.  You know, the kind they use in the games where you have to ring one or shot one.  I see these ducks and smell fair fries, hear the carnies yelling 'hey over here', and can see the lights on the rides all twirling around at night.  The ducks themselves are pretty cute too, got a kind of 'Mario Brothers' expression, I think it's the eyes.  Nothing fancy, just old ducks in various colors.  They do have a bit of fancy silver paint detailing at the tails though.  When looking for similar ducks online, I didn't find any green ones, plenty of blue, pink, yellow, and red, but no green.  Not sure why.  Quack, Quack!

Early 1900's Cabinet Card Photo of Postal Workers

I really have a thing for old pictures.  I suppose it's just knowing that these people and places were real and their lives were so different.  My favorite thing today is an early 1900's picture of a group of postal workers. 

The photo was taken in Louisville, Ohio.  I'm able to date the photo to prior to 1914 because in 1914 the town paved Main Street for the 1st time and this picture is taken on Main Street and shows the old brick paved street.  Also, the Postal Service got motorized this same year.  Not to say that every post office dropped the horse and buggy right away, but.....

Photo shows the postal workers with their caps on, their satchels and stacks of mail, and their horses and buggies.  You can see the old time street lights above the center of the road, the old time electric lines with the ceramic insulators, and couple neat signs in the windows of the shop they're in front of, and horse poop in the road  lol. 

This picture is large, about 9x7 with the cabinet card being a few inches wider all around.  The image quality is fantastic.  The coolest thing about this photo is that if you go on Google maps and locate the 200 block of Main street (e main, I believe) in Louisville, and zoom into the 'street view' you can see the exact spot where this picture was taken.  It's a little different, the big electric poles are gone, the Post Office has moved, there's an ugly new car parked on the side of the road, the road of course has markings everywhere, but the 2 main buildings are still there.

Awesome photo!!

Vintage Pencil Drawing of Crosley Field

This week's favorite thing.....Artwork by Floyd Berg.  Pencil Drawing of Crosley Field.  Crosley Field was home to the Cincinnati Reds from 1912 until 1970.  The ballpark was built on land used by the baseball team since 1884.  Originally named Redland Field, it was renamed Crosley Field in the 30's in honor of the teams new owner.  It was demolished in 1972.  American Ballpark was built for the Reds on a different site.  The old ballpark site now has a few buildings and a parking lot on it.  The drawing I found was by Cincinnati resident and known Artist Floyd Berg.  The picture shows the boys in action on the field, the fans in the seats, some cheering, and the Cincinnati skyline.  All very accurate, down to the signage and lighting.  The drawing was made in the 1960's.  750 prints were made.

1940's Cigarettes

This week's favorite thing.......a pack of cigarettes from the 1940's.  Rare to find something consumable in mint condition.  This was a pack of 'Wings' cigarettes.  Popular with soldiers during WWII as I understand.  Neat thing about cigarette packs is that you can date them based on the tax stamp pasted on them.  This particular pack had a series 115 tax stamp, dating it to 1945.  Another thing that makes them neat is that they were produced in pre-Surgeon General's warning times, so they lack today's typical notations.

Mid Century Flower Brooches

My favorite find this week has got to be these flower brooches I found.  They are all enameled metal.  Big and bright.  From the 50's I believe.  Check them out!

Late 19th Century Tintype Photograph 2 Men with Stuffed Dogs

Today's favorite thing is an photograph.  It's a tintype so it's anywhere from 1850-1930....guessing 1890-1920.  Features two men standing holding stuffed dogs.  They look to be real stuffed dogs.  Funny thing is one dog has a cigar in his mouth.  Interesting subject and the photo itself is in good condition.  One of the better tintypes I've seen as far as lightness and picture quality go.  Check em out -

1983 Cabbage Patch Doll

Today's favorite thing is a 1983 Cabbage Patch Doll.  This one was an African American Preemie doll.  I'm not very old (31), but I'd completely forgotten about these dolls until I came upon this!
See this excerpt from Wikipedia:

"The Cabbage Patch Kids brand of products originally started as dolls called Little People, created by Xavier Roberts with the help of four women, and inspired by Tennessee artisan Martha Nelson.
The name change to Cabbage Patch Kids was instigated by Roger Schlaifer before he secured the worldwide licensing rights to "Little People", and was the basis of the story co-authored in 1982 by Roger and his wife, Susanne Nance Schlaifer. An abbreviated version of the story was reproduced on every Cabbage"

So this doll being from 1983 was from the beginning of the craze.  I was only 3 in 1983, but I still remember them being just as popular in the nineties.  Holding this doll, I also remembered being excited to get one doll in particular.  I can't for the life of me remember what it was called, but it came with a birth certificate and you had to put it in some warm water for the wrapper to dissolve and reveal the name and birthdate of the doll.  I just thought that was the coolest thing! 

Now if I could just come across some Garbage Pail Kids cards...that might be something I'd want to keep - a little more my style lol

No box for this doll, but still in fantastic shape with original clothes, diaper, and tag.

World Map for the Radio Amateur

Tonight's post is about a map I got at auction.  It was entitled 'World Map for the Radio Amateur'.  It was a world map showing all the call letters for different countries used with HAM radio operators.  I'd forgotten that I even knew what amateur radio was until I saw this.  Made me flashback to a relative's house who had a big scanner setup in the back room.  So I looked in to amateur radio and it's quite the popular hobby.  You don't hear much about it (well at least I don't) but it dates all the way back to the early 1900's.  What I liked most about this map was being able to date it.  Just looking at the countries shown in Africa, Europe, and Asia, I could narrow it down to the late 70's based on what countries were and weren't there.  And the awesome Kenwood Corp. logo on it.  The map itself was in great condition - never been folded!  A neat piece that appealed to radio, map, and history enthusiasts.

Marx Play Set 1963 Flintstones

Flintstones... Meet the Flintstones,
They're a modern stone age family.
From the town of Bedrock,
They're a page right out of history.

Let's ride with the family down the street.
Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet.

When you're with the Flintstones,
have a yabba dabba doo time,
a dabba doo time,
we'll have a gay old time!!!

Now that you have that stuck in your head...I was thrilled to find this play set.  Made by Marx, very collectible toy maker, in the sixties.  Appears to be complete from what I can tell from the instructions and box.  This was one of my favorite cartoons growing up.  Never knew they had play sets like these in the sixties either...I'd seen a bunch of military and cowboy and indian stuff before but not this one.  Selling on ebay...auction ending 3/27.

Early 19th Century Photo Album

The cover art of this album is the subject of my banner.  This album was filled with about 40 cabinet card and tintype photos.  Bought at auction and there were no names in the album so I have no idea what family owned this but a lot of the cabinet cards had the studio name printed on them.  By researching the studios (most of which were located in Cincinnati) I was able to date them all to around 1895-1890.  The tintypes may have been older since tintype photos have been around since the mid 1800's.

Most were typical studio pics, headshots, backdrops.  It included women, men, and children.  Most interesting photo I thought, was one of a couple men outside a barber shop.  Check out the giant barber pole with the address on the base. 

It also included an early real picture post card and an early hand-colored color photo. The finish of the post card was almost metallic looking as you tilted it in the light.  The early hand-colored color photo I'm guessing was a little later, the woman was dressed in what appeared to be more 1920's style fashions.  Check it out:

Notes to His Sweetheart

Today's find is a lot of sweetheart letters from the 1920's.  Dated between Dec. 1926 and spring 1928.  These are letters that were kept by a Miss Olinda (Lindy) Wessling from a Herman Anderson. She lived in Cincinnati (near Cheviot), he moved between Dayton, OH, Kalamazoo, MI, and spent a short time in Alabama as well.  

Before you even start to read the letters, there's a lot to see just by looking at them.  1st of all, 2 cent postage, what a bargain!  Most of the letters are written in fountain pen except for a few in pencil (which he apologizes for every time, lol).  He has pretty nice script too.  I love his 'W''s.  For awhile though, I thought his name was Sherman, as his 'H', looked like  'sh' to me.  The quality of the paper varies, but it's generally thicker than today's typical letter paper, unlined, smaller than a std. 8.5x11 sheet, more like a 6"x10".  Almost always folded in half (so it opens like a book).  Some of the nicer stationary has a ruffled edge with a silver or gold trim.  Some of the paper is pink, some white, some blue.  He usually matches the envelope to the paper color.  One of the envelopes was almost like linen rather than paper.

He starts out the letters as 'Hello old pal' in the beginning but then progresses to 'sweetheart' rather quickly.  He signs them 'with oceans of love', 'loving you till the golden gates turn brass', etc.  Most are S.W.A.K. (sealed with a kiss - lol I had to look that up, thought I knew all the texting type lingo).  He talks about general day to day things, work, a few times he's looking for work, the things they'll need to start their life together.  One thing I found funny was he did own a car, but never called it a 'car'.  He always said Lizzy or just 'the machine'.  Took me a little bit to catch on to what he was talking about.  I guess Lindy was a moonshiner as well because he talks about her 'home brew' a few times (this was during prohibition).  In one letter, he'd come down to visit her a couple days before and took back a bottle but somehow it broke and spilled all over this other guy on the bumpy ride home, he was really disappointed!  Mentions a car wreck in another.  Talks about getting sick with 'the gripe' a few times.   A few of them he tells her to destroy after reading (obviously, she didn't listen :)).  In one letter he mentions he'll be turning 22 that year, I'm not sure of Lindy's age but from what I could gather, she did still live with her parents.  Another tidbit, he's always reminding her to 'keep her prize for him' (you know, wink, wink).  In one letter he warns that if any other guy ever tried to be with her, he'd kill them both. 

In the last letter he says it will be the last letter because he'll be coming to get her so they can be married.  I assume he kept that promise because the very last piece of mail postmarked Nov. 1928 is addressed to Mrs. H. Anderson (no return address) and includes a "Baby's Lucky Penny" card with a 1927 penny included.  The card is from a bank in Kalamazoo (letter is also addressed to Kalamazoo, so I assume they started their home there rather than in Cincinnati) and it suggests adding 99 more pennies to that penny in an account for the baby and making a deposit of pennies equal to the child's age every year.  It says 'this will amount to $250 by age 21' !!! 

The house in Dayton, OH where he penned the earlier letters from still stands.  You can see it on either google street view or the Montgomery Co. Auditor's website (can't remember which I pulled it from).  It was built in 1906 or '07.  The houses at the other addresses are long gone.  I considered signing up for an Ancestry.com membership just to research the records to see how their story continued (there's enough information included to do so), but I don't want to get too attached to these, need to let them go...lol


These letters were really neat.  A realistic window into the times.  Sure, people do mind what they're writing and don't tell all their secrets, but just the stories about the mundane things...what they ate, the cost to ride the train, the doctor's prescription for their ailments...is interesting...just to see how different things are.  


When was the last time you got a letter from your sweetheart?  I bet never, he'd just send a text now, or email, or call...A long distance relationship like what existed back then, doesn't exist today (unless one of you is living out in the back woods somewhere lol).   

Also in this bunch was a postcard from Kalamazoo of the lake at sunset, a Christmas postcard, an old Christmas card, and a western union telegraph receipt showing charges of .43 cents. 

A California Town

So last week's auction led me to some real picture postcards from the sixties.  The traveler found his way to Rough and Ready California.  The postcard showing the bullet holes through the sign and the old cars are what caught my eye.  Then I read the name...Rough and Ready...that's a statement!  So I looked them up. 

The town is small.  It was setup by a mining company.  The town was named after the mining company and the mining company was named after a General Zachary Taylor. It's a registered historic landmark.  One interesting fact about them is that shortly after forming the town, they seceded from the Union (declared themselves independent from the United States) but 3 months thereafter, re-joined.  Supposed reasons for the secession - to avoid taxes, to avoid the prohibition of alcohol, to allow them to prosecute a local hustler that the law otherwise wouldn't allow them to as no crime was legally committed.  In 1859, a fire devastated the town.  The 'Grange Hall' building was one of the few remaining intact.

Today, there are around 1000 residents.  They hold an annual chili cook off at the end of September.  There still are a few buildings standing from the late 1800's.  Would be a neat place to check out!

Real photo postcards were introduced around 1900.  Known by the acronym RPPC.

Until the next find.....I bid you well