I went out yesterday evening to check out the Plateau. There wasn’t too much of interest outside of these bags on Chambord, in front of the same place where I found a couple of neat vintage things on Friday. The bags were loaded with heavy old tools.
I also found an old cigar box (in rough shape, unfortunately) that contained four pairs of old glasses. The lenses are in bad shape but the frames are quite nice. The mark of “AO” (American Optical) is printed on a few of them and two are gold-filled. I can probably sell these as a lot online for around 50$, maybe a bit more – I’ve done it before with some old frames I found. However, there’s a vintage eyeglasses stores not far from where I live so I might take them in there to see if they’ll make an offer.
This odd religious thing was in the box as well. It looks to be a missing piece of something else. It’s marked as being made in France. Any ideas as to what it might be from?
Here’s some bric-a-brac I found among the tools. The pin in the back features a dragon curved around some green plastic, which is kind of cool. The keys have some cool designs on them, though the pictures doesn’t really do much for the details. The tins are full of razors blades and with a little cleaning will be quite yard saleable. There’s also a hole punch, but instead of a simple hole it punches an arrow. Maybe that’s not too exciting but I’ve never seen anything like it before!
I brought home some other nondescript tools that looked to still be useful and left them outside for others to rummage through.
I also saved this old jar. It’s probably worth 50 cents at a yard sale!
I slept in a little this morning but made it out in time for a run through TMR. My bike tire was flat when I got up but when I filled it up it held air, which is pretty lucky. The tire must have a slow leak.
I like this TMR route a lot. The air is fresh, there’s lots of trees, and the streets are quiet and wide (even if they twist around like a maze). Pretty relaxing, despite the fact that the locals are a bit more reticent about trash pickers like me.
I feel like the neighbourhood has a lot of potential. People have a lot more space in their bigger homes to store stuff they never use, that’s for sure. They also have enough money to buy new things. I think next time I go I’ll bring my bike trailer.
This pile contained the most notable finds.
I saved some perfectly good knick-knacks and ceramics. The thing on the bottom right is a bell, and on the bottom level is a brass donkey candle holder. I thought the pair of ceramic dogs were pretty cool.
The thumbnail is the makers mark on the dogs – it says 1895 but I imagine that would be the date the company was founded. I’d guess they’re from China as there’s also some (probably, definitely not an expert here) Chinese script on the bottom.
This find was a bit more fun, though. It’s a bunch of unopened packages of balloons. They seem to have been made to promote a band called “The Peaks” – I also found two boxes full of their CDs (of which I took one). In the foreground, as well, is one massive “cloudbuster” balloon which would probably inflate to about the height of your average human. Pretty cool! They seem to be made of a thick plastic, making me their they are fairly high quality. It’s a shame to throw out good balloons, I think there’s at least a thousand!
Here’s another piece from Monday’s collection of jewelry. It’s a old silver bracelet engraved with a nice, simple pattern. The silver marks (below) are pictorial which is typical of British silver (maybe other countries too, but Britain for sure). There’s also a light etching in the first picture that I didn’t notice at first too. It’s a pretty beautiful piece that, with a bit of cleaning, will looks great and make me some decent money.
That’s all for now. It’s a nice warm sunny day, the first in a while. I think I’ll celebrate with a walk. It’s recycle day in Outremont, maybe I’ll find something good while out on a casual stroll.