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.