More About the Madness

I have lots of dreary housework tasks I must attend today, so my plan is to reward myself when I accomplish the tedious bits by allowing myself the treat of short posts to show you more of the stuff I picked up at that terrific estate sale I attended Thursday.
Right now I've started the laundry so here goes.

We'll start at the left and move across.

Sunglasses. Why sunglasses? Well, I've had good success at reselling vintage sunglasses so far. Usually I get $9-$10 a pair, depending on style, maker, etc. Some pairs garner much higher prices. The green and brown color is rather cool and unusual, too.
Now...  as I pick these up to examine them more closely, I find these have a maker's mark, "Jacques Martin". They also feel very hefty and the lenses are in excellent condition... I have just now googled "Jacques Martin", and I realize I may just have hit the proverbial jackpot! Here's a pair of Jacques Martin vintage sunglasses that went was tagged $85:

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I can't wait to clean mine up a bit and do some more research! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'd be thrilled to get a quarter of that amount. All this stuff was purchased in a lot, so I doubt I've laid out more than twenty-five or fifty cents for these, if that. Oh, I do love estate sales!

What's next? Ah, pretty vintage ribbon trim. It's a lovely embroidered blue ribbon and there's about 4 yards of it. Someone is bound to want it.

Just above the ribbon is a little brooch with some missing stones.

It's not an especially valuable piece, but it's old and rather fun. Right now it's in pretty grimy condition and the brass (?) is tarnished. I've hunted about in my broken jewelry stash and found two round fake stones I may be able to use for replacement heads. I'm not sure--I'd rather find slightly larger stones, but here's an idea of how this will look when refurbished and up for sale in Peppy's shop:

Now for the brown plastic box at the top! This was a fun find. It was sitting, unnoticed, in a corner of a bedroom, and priced $2. It took me a bit of time to figure out how to open it, but when I did, it turned out to be a very nifty little trinket/jewelry box.

 

(Yes, I just sneaked a piece of pristine barkcloth in on this photo--another of my wonderful estate sale steals for which I paid $1.50. Rule of thumb regarding barkcloth found at garage sales, thrift shops, and estate sales: Buy it! You WILL be able to resell it and if you'll check out the prices people are getting on Etsy and eBay you'll see why it's almost never a good idea to pass it by when you can get it cheap!) Fortunately for me, this is an Asian pattern and I'm  not fond of Asian-style things, so I'll be able to part with  this without a qualm. I adore barkcloth!

Okay, back to the nifty jewelry box. It's missing one of its plastic drawers and it needs a good cleaning, but this is a pretty terrific piece of sixties/seventies collectible junque. I'd have paid $2 for it alone, but imagine the charge I got when I found wonderful vintage earrings inside that had either gone unnoticed or undervalued by the proprietor! I guess it was assumed no one would want these. Hah!

I won't belabor you at this point with minute descriptions of all the terrific pieces here, except to say there are enameled florals, celluloid beauties, a pair of mink clip-ons (who knew?!), and...

These!!! An amazing pair of screwback earrings in the form of little caged birds! I'm in a swoon over these treasures. They dangle and sway beautifully, too. So fun!

Okay, moving right along (it's time for me to throw in the next load of laundry!) there is a shoehorn made in Scotland. It's actual horn/bonelike material, too. Fifty cents, and Christmas is coming when Etsy shoppers are looking for small luxuries to give to their menfolk...  I'll make up a pretty gift bag for it and see what happens.

Then there's the beautiful blue, bumpy bead necklace. It's almost purplish blue--royal and periwinkle. Right up my street! No manufacturer's mark other than "Hong Kong". I splurged a bit on this one, mainly because some young guy was temporarily manning the jewelry table when I went up to pay and he was clueless and I'm not the haggling type. So $3-ish. 

One of the other items I bought with it (in addition to the bird pin with the missing jewels) is a vintage girl's celluloid hair barrette in the shape of a fish. The fastener is too worn to use, but I'm thinking this can be repurposed into a magnet or brooch or something.

I wish I could lay my hands on all the cute cheap plastic barrettes I had growing up in the 1960s. So fun and so collectible, now, too.

Okay, that's it for this post...