My Estate Sale Treasures

33" luncheon cloth in tiny cross stitch

Oh, my! This estate sale was more fun than when the circus comes to town.  Actually, I’m not a fan of circuses, but you know what I mean.  Being in that house was like stepping into a 1925 time capsule and bringing whatever I wanted back home to 2012!   And I wanted a lot…..  But for budgetary limitations, I’d have just bought the farm.

The set has 4 matching napkins.

Several of my friends wanted in on the fun, so we made it a girlfriend field  trip.   We caravaned into the quiet neighborhood, each shopper in her own vehicle, so that we had plenty of cargo space to carry home our booty.

I had been to the house earlier in the week to help  evaluate the textiles for my friend who was running the sale.  I should have left a trail of bread crumbs.

The old 1920’s neighborhood is a maze of angled roads with dead ends and roads just one block long, like the street where the sale was located.  But I tried to take a short cut—big mistake— and instead spent nearly 15 minutes and probably a few gallons of gas snaking through the road maze.

I am surprised that no resident called the sheriff to investigate suspicious activity.  There we were, 6 giddy women in 6 cars in a congo line driving up one block and then another and then turning around—now that was fun on a narrow street with 6 cars!  Periodically, I stopped and ran car to car offering apologies and encouragement to keep the faith. Finally we found the sale and got serious about our shopping.

So here are some of my great finds.

I love the cross stitch tablecloth and napkins in the photos above.  The next time a sewing pal visits, I’ll set the table in the potting shed with this and we’ll have lunch.  Won’t that be pretty?  Note: call first for a reservation or we’ll be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

This set is of a genre that I’ve seen frequently at other sales, but about which I know very little.  It is featured on the cover of a book on antique textiles, but the text makes no mention of the piece, the style, or the unique finish at the hem.    Tablecloths, napkins, antimacassars, armchair covers, and more, are all done in the same rich color palette and always have the same hem finish.

antimacassar for chair back and covers for chair arms

The hem finish is a sort of triangle, sometimes satin stitched and other times a simple short straight stitch.  Most often, it is worked over a very narrow selvage  and is quite secure.  On shaped edges, like the curves on the chair set above,  the raw edge is pressed up no more than 1/4″ and clipped, and finally stitched over the fold.     It doesn’t hold up very well.

Do you know anything about this kind of cross stitch ?  A name for the style?  One site I found called it Arts and Crafts cross stitch and showed nearly identical pieces.  This site also showed the back, which is another match for mine.

But moving on…..

organdy table runner with handmade lace.  Oops. I just noticed that I did not gt all the little lace medallions facing up on the pointed end.

The organdy table runner or dresser scarf is spectacular.  The lace looks like teneriffe but I’m not sure.   But it most certainly is hand made.   I wish I knew more about teneriffe and other antique textiles.  I need to read up on the subject.

The fabric and lace were both absolutely gold colored.

It had been stored in a humid Florida attic for 30 years or more.  It was so discolored that I wondered if there was any hope that it could be whitened.  Thinking I had nothing to lose, I filled my old standby 2-quart Pyrex measuring cup with warm water and a hefty slug of Clorox 2.

Notice the water is blue from the Clorox 2.

Just 3 hours later, it had worked its magic.

Notice how yellow the water is just 3 hours later.

After soaking for another 24 hours and came much cleaner. It will find a home on the dresser in the guest room.

center

I just love these cross stitched boy/girl guest towels which look like updated versions of the famous paintings The Pink Lady  by Sir Thomas Lawrence and The Blue Boy  by Thomas Gainesborough.

cross stitched guest towels with hemstitching at both ends

Robert and Laurel studied these paintings in our homeschool art class more than a year ago.  It will be interesting to see if they recognize any similarities.  The guest towels now hang in the upstairs bathroom which the grandchildren use for overnight stays.

I had no will power at all when I saw this set of Noritake china.   At this sale, there were no fewer than 4 complete sets of beautiful, fine china!!!!   But this one stole my heart.  It’s a service for 8 and has all the pieces shown plus a gravy boat.  Aren’t they pretty?

Noritake service for 8 with serving pieces

I also snatched up many of the items shown in the earlier post about this sale–the WWI Soldier’s Pay Record Book, WWII War Rations book,  Lipstick linen towel and more.

So what do you think?  Didn’t I do well?  What deee-vine finds have you picked up at estate or yard sales?