Auction Finds: Not much vintage stuff, but perhaps cool nonetheless

We hit an auction early this morning. The day started out a bit nippy and rainy, so I was thinking I'd be soaked before the auction even started. Thankfully, it cleared up a bit.

Unfortunately, the retro/vintage/mid-century modern/Danish modern pickings were rather lean. But, being the generalist that I am, I still managed to pluck up a few choice findings. Some I'll probably keep, others I'll probably offer for sale.  So even if the pickings were light, I'm still willing to share them with you (yeah, I'm a nice guy...).




Here is something I've seen only once before in all my years of hunting.

This old book press is pretty cool and VERY heavy.  It was pretty dirty when I found it but it cleaned up pretty nice.

Turns out that there is a little subculture out there that's printing their own books, kind of like underground micro-publishing houses, and these book presses are much sought after and extremely useful to the "basement publisher".



When I saw this shade I just about died.  It's a fantastic, very old, and very well-done shade for a kid's room.  The shade's designed to be mounted on a ceiling fixture with a screw.  If you don't know the kind of light I'm talking about, just think back to when you looked on at some light in someone's kitchen and saw all the dead bugs up there in the shade.  Yeah...that kind of light fixture.

But the shade was in excellent shade and the artwork of the little girl pushing her stroller and jumping rope was too good to pass up.












I've always had a soft spot in my heart for old electrical things, and I've recently developed a "soft spot in my heart suburb" for old Western Electric items.

This used to be (I think) an old Western Electric telephone.  All the parts you typically expect to find on a phone are all gone, but inside this poor, battered box I found a really nice old magneto.  Remember seeing in old movies how people had to crank the phone before talking?  Well, that was a magneto they were turning, making it generate enough power to place the call.

Finally, something I may end up keeping.  This old ottoman just screamed "take me home!".  That upholstery looks like something Mondrian would have done if he decided to go with light pastels just once.


Corduroy upholstery, sturdy base and legs that fold out just like a folding table.  It was just too cool to pass up.  That spot on the top is just some cleaner that's still drying.




Oh...and I think you already saw the Campbells Soup clock, right?