Blogs - Canita M. Pro Writer

Hmm...Define 'vintage'.

10/28/2014

If an item is…

Antique – My grandmother used to have one.

Vintage – I haven’t seen one in a while.

Old – Mine’s in the attic.

Classic – popular at least one year.

Limited edition – limited to the number of buyers we can find.

Retro – covered in plastic and price marked up.

Rare – listed no more often than once a week.

Unique – only a dozen left!

Collectible – I thought it was great, but don’t want it anymore.

Scarce – I need to get this sold before I misplace it again!

A customer submitted ^ these definitions to us several months ago, and we thought they were pretty funny.

Here are more accurate definitions:

Antique - Meaning the age of the items is at least 100 years old

Vintage - signifies in general something being old, old-fashioned, classical, or "from another time."

Old - Typical of an earlier style or form

Classic - Belonging to the highest rank or class, serving as a model or standard

Limited Edition - An edition that is restricted to a specific number of copies

Retro - Trends, modes, fashions or attitudes of the recent past 15-20 years

Rare - There aren’t many of its kind

Unique - Only one of its kind

Collectible - Collected by fanciers

Scarce - Insufficient amount to meet the demand

I believe the age of E-bay, Etsy, Amazon, and Craigslist has changed the definitions a little, but the definitions given to us by a customer are a good way to remember how to tag items, and identify them for resale, or for collecting.

What terms do you use for "old" items?

I like this definition for vintage: 
Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic.

-The GA Gang

Ship of the Desert

10/7/2014

The other day, the twelve year old granddaughter of one of our vendors brought an item to me at the front counter. She thought it would be a good item to blog about. At first glance, it was obvious that it was a whip.

It is in fact a Camel whip from Saudi Arabia. It is a vintage (1970’s) inlaid whip with a wood and leather wrapped handle. When camels refused to move, they would use these whips to give them a smart whip on the chest. The surprising part was what I found *inside* the handle.

Inside the handle is a prodder. Camels have thick coats that protect them from the sun, and insulate them so their bodies can absorb their sweat. Their hide is very strong, with a pulling strength 5x greater than cattle hide. This prodder is used to stimulate movement. They are poked in the rump. If you have watched “Indiana Jones” movies you will have seen a prodder used on camels when the bad guys are chasing them. Camels can keep a constant speed of 45 mph. With a little prodding they can do short bursts of 65 mph. The prodder is not easily accessible and I am sure only used when necessary. Camels are amazing animals. A full grown camel stands at 6 foot 1 inch at the shoulder and 7 foot 1 inch at the hump. They have a life span of 40 to 50 years. Camels can consume 53 gallons of water in 3 minutes. So, just how long can a camel go, before its hump starts to slump or the camel is in need of water? There are records of camels going 6 to 7 months without water.

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/21513985_vintage-egyptian-leather-and-wood-camel-saddle-stool

In the few years that Grandma’s Attic has been open, we have had a camel saddle and now a camel whip. This is pretty amazing since there aren’t too many camels in Anderson, MO!

Have you ever ridden on a camel?

-The GA Gang

Grandma's Gate to Indian Screen Door

9/22/2014

Three months after the opening of Grandma’s Attic in 2010 we were in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. We were going through antique shops to get ideas and find merchandise, when we came upon “the gate”! We snatched it up and brought it to its new “home”, because you don’t find a piece like that everyday!

For awhile we had it just leaning against a wall. Then we decided to put it up in the doorway between the back room and the front room of Grandma’s Attic. It is an older gate and someone had to have spent a lot of time arching the top. My thoughts were that is was a European gate because I have seen gardens in Italy and on the internet with similar gates. We didn’t know for sure where it came from or what it was used for, but we knew it was attention grabbing, we got price inquiries almost daily! It is a part of the character of Grandma's Attic.

Then in June of this year, a vendor brought in another gate set. This one had the exact same latch and was shaped the same, as well as having bars that are the same size as our gate. The person that sold the gate to our vendor said that the gate is from India.

That got me to thinking about an incident that had happened when I took a trip to India in 2009. We got up one morning and everyone was pulling clothes from the lines, closing windows and doors. Apparently, there had been a monkey alert. Roving monkeys had moved into our community and they are curious characters. The radio had announced the movement of the monkey troops around town.

It was then that I remember seeing two doors together-one was solid and one made with bars. These gates are normally placed in front of traditional wood doors, allowing air ventilation into a home, while keeping the roving animals out. This type of door/gate combinations makes perfect sense with the freedom animals have in India.

This started my internet search on gates from India. There is not a lot to find.

Courtesy Photo

I found this one ^, but it was not exactly the same.
I believe maybe there was a specific era that this type of gate was built in, and the lack of finding them on the internet is because India has changed the style somewhat in current years.

Well, that’s it then, one of the novelties of Grandma’s Attic has had its secret discovered! It is a set of gates from India that they use as their front and back doors.

We’d love to have you stop in and see our “Indian screen doors”!

-The GA Gang

The Teacup's Secret

9/16/2014

This is a beautiful little Japanese tea cup that we have in the store right now.

At first glance, that's all it appears to be, is a beautiful little tea cup,
but sometimes, looks can be deceiving!

If you finish your tea, and glance into the bottom of your now empty cup, you will notice that the bottom surface of the cup is uneven. Nothing too exciting, really.

Then you may think, "Hey, that looks a little like a picture. A face, maybe?"

And when you pick it up to give it a closer inspection, and the light hits the bottom of the cup, you see it! A very detailed picture etched in the porcelain at the bottom of the cup.

So, it turns out, what we really have here is a beautiful little Japanese tea cup with a LITHOPHANE in the bottom.

The word "lithophane" is said to have Greek origins, meaning "Light in stone" or "to appear in stone".

A lithophane starts out as a sheet of beeswax, then a picture is carved into the beeswax, then that sheet of wax is used to make a plaster of Paris mold, and finally Porcelain is poured into the mold and then "fired".

Where the porcelain is thinnest, more light shows through, thus allowing the artist to create a picture by thinner and thicker sections of porcelain creating a "three-dimensional like" picture, or lithophane.

I have read that the older lithophanes would start with the image in wax, then the artist would back-light the image and carve it on glass. Their work tables would be beneath a window, sometimes with a mirror underneath to bounce light up on the backside of the lithophane.

Sounds like tedious work, doesn't it?

Beautiful work though!

Lithophanes change in appearance, depending on the light source that you hold them up to.

A lithopane picture being lit by a window, would change throughout the day, as the light changed.

Where did lithophanes originally come from? Well, that seems to be a subject with differing opinions. Some say they began in the "Tang Dynasty" where people said there were "bowls as thin as paper with secret decorations in them".

That sounds very mysterious, doesn't it?

"The inspiration for the Japanese "geisha girl" lithophane mark seems more than likely to have come to Japan during their early contacts with the West around the turn of the 19th century.

All kinds of decorative pieces, probably mostly lanterns were made in this technique in Europe, with its popularity reaching its peak in the 1870's after which point they gradually went out of fashion."
-http://www.gotheborg.com/qa/geisha.shtml

I guess this is just one more lesson of "Don't judge a book by its cover" or "appearances can be deceiving".

In this case, the moral of the story would be,

even a tea cup can have a secret.

-The GA Gang

The Soldier's Deck of Cards

9/2/2014

A deck of cards can be used in many ways both for good and for bad. When I heard this description, it changed the way I look at cards...

Old limited airline cards $4.95

Furadan cards $1.00

Rondo round cards $12.00

Now, it doesn't matter the shape of the cards, the age of the cards, or where the cards are used, when ever I see them, here in Grandma's Attic or at home, they will always represent the Bible and the seasons to me.

Maybe, this will change the way you view a deck of cards too.

-The GA Gang

All About :The Barcode

7/29/2014

Remember our post on using your five senses to identify if something is truly vintage or an antique?

Well, here's another way to use your eyes:

Symbology -
"A way of identifying the age of some items when antiquing and flea marketing"

One symbol I like to use to tell the age of items is...

the BARCODE.

The barcode is a series of lines in distinct patterns accompanied by binary numbers (two numerals to represent all real numbers) below the lines. The barcode is generally in a rectangular shape.

The barcode began in commercial use on June 26, 1974. The first product scanned was a packet of Wrigley’s “Juicy Fruit” gum bought by Clyde Dawson and scanned by Sharon Buchanan at 8:01 a.m. (A display of this moment of time is on display at Smithsonian Institute).

http://barcodingblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/first-upc-barcode.png

http://angelikaschneider.com/graphic_design.html

Knowing a little bit about the barcode and when it began is a good way to identify the age of an item. Items such as; books, VHS’s, magazines, cards, boxes used for products like coffee or butter, old tins, signs, band aids tins, or patterns, will have a bar code. If these items do not have a bar code they were made prior to 1974 or from another country.

So, what do you know about barcodes?

Leave us a comment and tell us about it! :)

-The GA Gang

All About :The Hitchcock Chair

7/16/2014

When I hear the name Hitchcock I generally think of Alfred Hitchcock, writer and producer of scary movies. So it was easy for me to believe that Alfred Hitchcock could have been the maker of an electric chair, but "Hitchcock chairs" were actually made by Lambert Hitchcock,

not Alfred.

On a side note, did you know Alfred Hitchcock was scared of his own movies?

Alfred

Lambert

Alfred Hitchcock, the author and director, known as the Master of Suspense, arrived on the scene August 13, 1899. As a child, Hitchcock was sent to the local police station with a letter from his father. The desk sergeant read the letter and immediately locked the boy up for ten minutes. After that, the sergeant let young Alfred go, explaining, "This is what happens to people who do bad things." Hitchcock had a morbid fear of police from that day on. He also cited this phobia as the reason he never learned to drive (as a person who doesn't drive can never be pulled over and given a ticket). It was also cited as the reason for the recurring "wrong man" themes in his films. Mr. Alfred Hitchcock left us on April 29, 1980. Do you think Mr. Alfred Hitchcock may have sat in a chair made by Mr. Lambert Hitchcock? I guess we'll never know!

Now, back to the chair! :)

The Hitchcock chair was an early example of mass production. The frames are generally of birch, oak, or maple. The backs have a curved top with a broad gentle curved back-slat, then a broad slat that usually has a design such as; leaves, flowers, baskets of fruit or cornucopias. Below this, is a narrow crosspiece, connected to the sides, that is a continuation of the leg. The front legs and the stretcher between are nicely turned in spools, rings, or vase shapes. The seats are wider at the front and graduate back with straight sides and rolled or rounded edges in front. The front legs of some of the chairs have a ball on the bottom.

There are several types of back slats; “turtle-back,” “cut-out back slat,” - a curved back with spindles, “the pillow back”, eagles, cornucopias, plain, button back, and a crested back. The rarest of the back slats are the eagles, cornucopias, and the scrolls. About 1845, the “vase back” chair or “Urn chair” chair became popular. The wide vertical middle slat was shaped like an urn or vase. It was sometimes called “Fiddleback.” The top slats are called crest rails which are referred to as; “crown top,” “crest top,” or “pillow top.”

In the beginning the chairs resembled rosewood, because the first coat of red paint, applied by children, showed through the black, also used were the colors white and green. Later a lemon-yellow color and brown were used as a background colors. Seats were first made of rush, then cane, and then plank. They were usually painted black, brownish-black or dark green. They have yellow ochre pin striping with gold half-rings on the front legs. The stencils were painted with metallic colors like red, gold, blue and white. The designs can be found on the back and sides of the chairs.

They were marked on the back with stencil “L. Hitchcock, Hitchcocksville, Connecticut, Warranted” all in one line. Hitchcocksville would have been used when the furniture was manufactured in Boston, Massachusetts. Hitchcock chose his woods with care and allowed none to be used with knots or other imperfections. Later marks were “Hitchcock, Alford & Co. Hitchcocks-ville Conn. Warranted,” and “L. Hitchcock, Unionville. Conn. Warranted.”

The height of the Hitchcock chair sales was in the 1920’s and 30’s. The earliest signature is dated from 1820 to 1832. From 1832 to 1843 the signature read “HITCHCOCK, ALFORD& Cl HITCHCOCKSVILLE, CONN WARRANTED” and from 1843 to 1852 the signature read “L.HITCHCOCK.UNIONVILLE,CONN. WARRANTED.” In the second variation of the stencils, many of the chairs have two backwards “N’s” in the word “CONN.” This is thought to have occurred because many of the laborers who worked on the chairs were illiterate. If the “N” is written backwards, your Hitchcock chair is not an original but a replica made after 1946.

These chairs are identified as “New Hampshire Hitchcock,” or “Sheraton Hitchcock” chairs. Hitchcock is best known for their “Boston Rocker.”

The Hitchcock chair was began in 1818 by Mr. Lambert Hitchcock of Barkhamsted, Connecticut. He established a cabinet and chair factory. He began by making parts that could be assembled later for the chair industry of Charleston, South Carolina. In 1825 he began making complete chairs. Mr. Hitchcock was born in Chesshire, Connecticut on June 28, 1795 and was the son of Revolutionary soldier John Lee Hitchcock. He came to rest in 1852.

We received a call one day from a gentleman wanting to sell us a chair. We asked to see the chair before we purchased it, so he brought it to us and while it was in the store a vendor came in and said, “Oh, you have a Hitchcock chair!” After some research and dickering, the chair now resides at Grandma’s Attic. Come and check it out and let us know if you believe it is a real Hitchcock chair.

-The GA Gang

All About : Aprons

7/9/2014

We saw this little story on Facebook the other day, and thought it was really neat, so we decided to add pictures and share it with you!

Hope you enjoy! :)

The History of Aprons

"I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principle use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids...

And when the weather was cold, Grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

Send this to those who would know (and love) the story about Grandma's aprons.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.

I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron - but love..."

-Author Unknown

-The GA Gang

Jar Re-purposing Project

6/25/2014

At the swap meet last Saturday, we bought four cute glass jars with wood tops from a swap meet vendor.

Each of the lids had a chicken sticker on it.

We decided the jars would make fun display items for the counter, so we pulled off the stickers and replaced them with our own. :)

First, we used our favorite photo editing site, Picmonkey, and designed a new "sticker" for the jar tops, based on what we were going to put inside-in this case; marbles, jars of honey, Zotz candy, and A&W Root Beer Jelly Bellys.

After we printed off the new "stickers", we took 1/2 Elmer's glue and 1/2 water and mixed up a "Modpodge" type glue.

Next we made sure the labels were going to be the right size for the lids...

Then it was time to paint a thin layer of our glue on the backside of the paper and press it down on the wooden lid.

We could have left it just like that, but we decided since the jars already had a "vintage" feel to them, that we would paint a thin layer of glue on over the top too. This smears the ink a little and gives it an aged look.

We wiped the glue off around the edges so we weren't left with a dried crust on the wood. :)

Once they were all dry and filled with the goodies, we were finished!

Voila! Vintage inspired jars with an old fashioned candy store look! :)

Stop by and tell us what you think! :)

-The GA Gang

All About : Celadon &“A Single Shard”

6/25/2014

My introduction to this type of pottery was from a children’s book,
“A Single Shard”.

It was written by Linda Sue Park and won the 2002 Newbery Medal. It is a story of an orphan and his dream to become a potter, set in the 12th century Korea.

In the story, the pottery made by the master potter was “Celadon”. The shard mentioned in the title is a shard of Celadon.

I began to wonder “What does it look like"?

That’s what got me started on this blog post. :)

Not being very familiar with the term “shard”, I decided to look up the definition; “a piece of broken pottery, especially one found in an archaeological dig; a pot shred, a fragment of a brittle substance, as of glass or metal, or a small piece or part.”

Celadon is usually a pale green with a hint of blue, a glossy appearance and smooth texture. It can be any shade of that color from a very pale yellow-green or gray green to deepest jade-green color. It has a subtle beauty and elegant simplicity.

Molded(Incised) Celadon

Plain Celadon

Inlaid Celadon

Celadon glazing was perfected during the Koryo dynasty of Korea which dates from 918 to 1392 AD. There are three design types; inlaid, incised(or molded), and plain(called Mu-ju). Celadon in Korean means “green”. It is referred to as “cheong-ja” in Korean. There is also a brown Celadon which is called “bun-cheong” or brown porcelain, as well as white.

These Celadon items are for sale in Grandma's Attic

Celadon is beautiful pottery but the book A Single Shard made it mean so much more to me than just a piece of pottery from Korea. A Single Shard is a very moving story, it will bring Korean Celadon alive for you. Come on in and see these beautiful pieces of pottery and visit your local library to check out A Single Shard, then let me know what you think of it! :)

-The GA Gang

Camp Crowder Creators

4/15/2014

About 6 months ago, we came across a picture of a carpenter crew from Camp Crowder, in Neosho, Mo. Dated 3/27/1942. (V. R. Moore, Senior Foreman and Henry V. Rogues, Foreman.)

This picture is currently for sale at Grandma's Attic. $10.00

We started talking about Camp Crowder with Earnie and Loretta of “Finders Keepers”, (Some vendors at Grandma’s Attic). They were kind enough to lend us a book they have on Camp Crowder. The book was published by Newton Country Historical Society in 2006, and is titled “From Camp Crowder to Crowder College.” It was compiled by Larry A. James.

While researching Camp Crowder, we came across some interesting information.

One fact that stood out to us was that the creator of Beetle Bailey and the creator of the Dick Van Dyke Show have a common thread with a local institution here close by Anderson, Missouri, where Grandma’s Attic is located.

The cartoonist Mort Walker, of Beetle Bailey, and writer Carl Reiner, of the Dick Van Dyke Show both drew inspiration for their creative interests from their time at Camp Crowder. Most of the humor in Beetle Bailey revolves around the inept characters stationed at “Camp Swampy” (inspired by Camp Crowder). The Dick Van Dyke show was based on Carl Reiner’s professional and personal life. Both Reiner and Walker were stationed at Camp Crowder in Neosho, Missouri while it was being used as a military training facility.

Another local personality became attached to Camp Crowder through one of these creators, Carl Reiner. Actor Robert William “Dabbs” Greer, who was raised here in town and laid to rest in a local cemetery, was the minister on the Dick Van Dyke Show who married the characters of Rob Petrie and Laura Meehan. (He was also the minister who married the characters Mike Brady and Carol Ann Taylor Martin on The Brady Bunch.) :)

{See our recent blog post on "Dabbs Greer & Anderson, MO" for more info.}

In the Dick Van Dyke Show, Dabbs played the Army chaplain of Camp Crowder, where he married Rob and Laura.

From May 15, 1941 to July 1, 1962, 10,240 acres south of Neosho in Newton County were known as "Camp Crowder" and used by the United States Military as a training compound. From April 2, 1963 to Present it has been known as "Crowder College." Many of the same buildings were used by both the military compound and the college.

Image Credit: http://shepquest.files.wordpress.com/

Crowder College is only approximately fifteen minutes’ drive Northeast of Grandma’s Attic, in Neosho, Missouri. Next time you stop in to visit us, you might want to leave some extra time to check out the local history surrounding Crowder....

The college and the camp.

Broom Zombies

3/18/2014

I remember the first time I saw a broom standing without a person partnering it. I was visiting my sister and noticed that she had brooms just standing around.

Image borrowed from luckypalm.com

Image borrowed from: ridgidforum.com/forum/t28529/

Of course, I asked, “What’s with the brooms?”
I was thinking maybe a science fair project or a magic trick.
She replied, “Oh, Gregg came home and started standing all the brooms up. He has discovered that for a certain time of
the year brooms will stand alone.”

Image borrowed from meanderingthoughtsabound.blogspot.com

As I write about this I think of the witch hunts. Did they see a broom standing alone and think to themselves, "Couldn't only a witch make a broom stand alone with their magic?" It would surely have added to the troubles they were having at that time. :)

So, here's how I understand this phenomenon:
There is a planetary alignment where the magnetic poles shift. In March the sun is aligned with the equator. On March the 20th, the first day of Spring, the sun is perfectly aligned.

The story goes that in 2009 a lady in Prattville, AL discovered that for a couple of weeks in March, a broom will stand alone after the initial stand,(even the slanted ones). On March 20th, it is stated that you can stand an egg on end because it perfectly balances on a surface.

Image borrowed from http://hungerhunger.blogspot.com

Well, it’s that time of year, get your brooms out! Then on the 20th gather the children and amaze them by standing an egg on its end! It may be the "First Day of Spring" that they will remember forever! :)