Hectic Few Days, Some Art Deco Treasures Found At KDF, etc!

Antique/Vintage  Book Shop

Unusually it has been well over a week  since my last blog entry on here....the reason being that life has been a bit of a whirl during that time...in  a lovely way! My eldest son is getting married next month up north, so there has been a little bit of to-ing and fro-ing between Oxfordshire and Liverpool of late.  I must just tell you of a most wonderful place I stumbled across on my travels last week.....I felt I'd died and gone to heaven on entering!!!

The shelves run from floor to ceiling literally, crammed packed with old books...plus along this long main corridor seen above, are loads of separate little rooms also packed from floor to ceiling with antiquated treasures! Needless to say, a particular book I spotted was on the last but one top shelf....so the lovely gentleman had to get his large stepladder out to get it down for me.  I bought just one book, as I had to keep in mind that I was tavelling back on the train!! But I most definitely hope to be going back there again very soon.  I did ask the gentelman's permission to take this photo and he was more than happy to oblige. He told me that often when people enter, they gasp and liken his shop to a scene from Harry Potter! I can see why.

My one purchase.....the handwritten inscription inside says "To Irene From John & Tommy Christmas 1928".

This treasure trove of a book shop is called Cheshire Books and can be found at Lady Heyes Craft Centre  at Frodsham in Cheshire. They have a website....do go check it out!

http://www.cheshirebookcentre.com/index.php

KDF 2012

Our Liverpool trip was cut short as I had to dash back in order for me to go to  Kensington Dolls House Festival on Sunday (my friend had got me a ticket and we were to have a real "girlie day out")...can recommend it. KDF was superb as always. It was so nice to simply be a visitor to a dolls house fair and not be on the other side of the table, as it meant that I could spend time admiring the amazing miniatures on show and catching up with many of my old artisan friends.

I was travelling by public transport again (Oxford Tube this time), so I had to limit my purchases, paricularly as I knew I would be bringing back bundles of wood from lovely Wood Supplies. Both Robin and I are in the process of building the prototypes for our next workshop in September (we have just two places left if anyone is interested-spaces have filled rapidly).

http://www.miniatureworkshops.com/The_Little_Vintage_Hall_Other_Room_Workshop.html

I succumbed to a gorgeous Art Deco dish from Sally Meekins.......I already have one or two of Sally's exquisite Art Deco pieces purchased over the years.

And then I came across a new artisan....well new to me as I just haven't seen them before. If you are an Art Deco fan then hold onto your hats people as you will be very excited over their work...they are quite unique. After much pondering, oohing and aaahing....I succumbed to a leather Art Deco sofa....seen here. This could easily sit at home in an antique dolls house too. In fact I am hoping that it will fit into my Hobbies 1930s house....but it will mean my lovely Pit-a-Pat suite will have to go....big decision to make then!

Here is another image of the sofa with the accompanying matching cushions.

ADM (Art Deco Miniatures) produce the most wonderful Art Deco leather suites.They have a website with a gallery and Carol Tyerman can take commisions. Do go check them out.

http://www.artdecominiatures.com/

KT Miniatures Website

 

Since my return I have been quietly tweaking and tidying my website and hope you will like the changes.  I am also in the process of completely revamping the Old DIY section too.....fingers crossed, this will be ready to unveil in the next day or so. When it's ready I'll let you know on here.
Celia

Exquisite Britains Lead Garden Gate, Hedge etc.

Wonderful treasures from the Britains Lead Garden range do not appear that often these days. They are becoming more and more sought after and due to the sheer way they were constructed, were very much prone to damage in young hands. But a couple of items have come in, one being the exquisite swinging gate and hedge which ranks amongst my all time favourite from the lead Britains pieces....plus a tree!

Isn't this lovely?!

 So evocative of the 1930s-1950s era when this was manufactured.

The little gate is attached to two hooks on one side - and in this case both are fully intact.....you have no idea how many gate and hedge sets that have one or other hooks missing these days! On the other side is a tiny false catch which protrudes just enough to enable the gate to stay in a closed position.

The whole piece is painted in the most gorgeous colours which have retained their vibrancy after all these years. This would look amazing standing in front of an old dolls house.

And then there is this tree. This example is extremely heavy and a little playworn but would look rather lovely standing with an old dolls house.

To view these items, please go to:

http://www.ktminiatures.com/Britains_Lead.html

I have often wondered if any child back in those times ever got mortally wounded by these lead garden pieces? We are so used to modern health and safety standards being incredibly strict but this tree for example, would have made a pretty impressive weapon in small hands!

Some Unusual Miniatures That Just Don't Come Along Very Often!

I've been busy listing some rather lovely old treasures over the past 24 hours on KT Miniatures website. Amongst them are some rather unusual items indeed.

First up.....how about this then! In all the years I've been trading, I've never sold anything like this before and actually had it for a while because I didn't think I could part with it. But it's just sat in a box so I felt it was time to let it go.

Nope...your eyes are not deceiving you....it is actually a miniature nesting box that has been carved out of a real twig/branch...complete with teeny eggs and woollen nesting!

This would look brilliant hanging outside an antique/vintage dolls house.

Then there's this very old celluloid/bakelite? telephone marked GERMANY and was obviously once a pencil sharpener as the hole at the back is a bit of a give away....although the sharpener mechanism has long gone.

Both these items can be found on the ANTIQUE 1/12TH SCALE GENERAL PAGE

Next up is this curious cardboard radiogram, which actually came along with some 1930s-1950s dolls house furniture. I cannot make up my mind whether it is from the 1930s or from the 1950s....but pretty old whatever era it hails from! If anyone has any useful comments about this....do let me know as I would be interested. Obviously commercially made but I certainly have not seen one made out of cardboard before.

And finally......coal boxes are not that rare but it is nice to have an old metal one for a change. It's believed to be early 1900s with a nice ornate handle on the top, as well as a loop on the back where a shovel would have once sat.....long gone sadly.

The lid lifts up and how fabulous this would look with some real coal inside!

These two items plus lots more are available on the

ANTIQUE 1/12TH LIVING/DINING ROOM PAGE.

Lots of other items including old dolls have been listed today....so please do have a peruse of
http://www.ktminiatures.com/
if you have time.

Bit Of A Do In Thame Today!

Well.....there was a bit of a do today in Thame.

RAF Halton were to have an inaugral freedom of Thame parade through the town....complete with royal visitor.  So there we all were, local children and some local residents (not many I have to say)....lining the streets in anticipation.

Excitement mounted as the band came along but then they turned off before they got to us?  From then on for about an hour or so it was like watching paint dry, not much to see at all....as the ceremony bit was happening outside the town hall which we couldn't see....plus the dignatory speeches could not be heard as the tannoy system didn't seem to be working properly (bit of a cock up really). The most entertaining thing that happened during that hour was when the now very bored, very cold and underwhelmed school children spotted their recently retired headmaster and gave him a popstar welcome.....(embarrasingly far more enthusiastically than our royal visitor) who they/we could not see from where they were standing anyway. For a moment, all the dignatories were distracted from their pomp and ceremony and appeared to be wondering who or what was causing all the excitement down our end!lol

In the end, the band started playing and set off in the opposite direction to where we were....so, rather bored and also decidedly underwhelmed, we made the decision that it was time to go and do something a little more constructive.  But then as we began to leave, the royal visitor appeared to embark on a brief walkabout, so we finally caught sight of her. And well, yep...the royal visitor turned out to be Camilla! If you look carefully you might just see her blue hat! Someone told us that the band would be marching back again so we went back and stood where we originally were.

So I have to say that the band were superb, the RAF personnel marching past with fixed baynots looked very grand and George their goat mascot looked suitablility impressive.  It was almost worth us having stood around in the freezing cold for nearly 2 hours.

I was told by a lady standing next to me that apparently George has been for ever more assigned to the back end of a parade now,  due to him pooping! But he did look rather handsome in his official coat.

So there you are....bit of excitement over and I will now try and get back to some serious work.

 I have some rather lovely vintage goodies to list on the website over the next 24 hours....so watch this space!

HUGE MEGA RISES IN UK POSTAGE!

I think I aged 10 years yesterday after a trip to the post office to send my latest batch of orders off! I could not believe the huge increase that Royal Mail has inflicted on us all,as from yesterday!!!! The lady behind the counter drew breath each time she gave me the new price  for each individual parcel and as  a queue was increasing greatly behind me, luckily I managed to contain my anger.....just! I realised I was beginning to sound like Victor Meldrew off the tv.....as I continually muttered truthfully  "I don't believe it!" at each price quoted to me. A chap dressed in a suit and obviously attempting to send his business post next to me was also not happy and muttering words such as DISGRACEFUL...SHAMEFUL!!!

I knew that there had been some hype in the media about this impending price hike by the Royal Mail but I had had great difficulty finding the new prices before yesterday and optimistically thought that well....it was just hype!

Oh no siree....hype it was not and I am very....VERY ANGRY!

The poor lady behind the counter, who serves me almost daily at our local post office, sympathised greatly and of course it was not her fault. She agreed that the huge increase.....way above the rate of inflation was outrageous.

I wouldn't mind quite so much if we got a half decent service......but just don't get me started on the Royal Mail!!!! Me and "Skippy" at the local sorting office see far too much of each other...I think he shakes in his shoes when I approach him at his Enquiry Desk!

AND....TO FINISH OFF MY DAMN GOOD MOAN.....

WHEN WILL IT EVER STOP RAINING!!!!!

Our local River Thame is now on big flood alert after the continually heavy rain we have had for days....and yet we are officially in drought with a hosepipe ban!

In the middle of last night we were woken by a hail storm that was so ferocious...that it set off several neighbours car alarms.....utterly bizarre.

Life is never dull round here.