Marblelike

I went hunting in TMR on Wednesday but came away empty and feeling burnt out. I have to be careful now that I have the use of a car to not overwork myself. That can be difficult given the near infinite amount of work I can do on a day-to-day basis and the massive quantity of things I’d love (and feel compelled) to redistribute but can’t due to logistical reasons. It would all be much easier if I had a store, more convenient and plentiful storage, or a home more conducive to yard sales but I’ll have to make due for now.

I took Thursday off to relax. I got back to work on Friday, biking to a productive spot near Westmount that I refuse to take a break from. It once again provided me some interesting finds.

Lying on top of the bags was a laundry drying rack. It’s a nice one made of old sturdy metal. A friend of mine just bought a new (modern) one at Costco for about 40$ so these don’t come cheap. The racks we have at my place aren’t very good so I’ll put this one to good use. Just up the road I came across another, more modern drying rack (behind the metal one).

I found a couple of cool temperature gauges. One (by Frisy of Germany) is made of brass and looks a bit like a chess piece. The other by Royce of Chicago also comes with a humidity gauge and two pens.

I like this little plaster figurine. On the back is etched: “Copyright 1949 Marblelike Novelty Co.” Some research on the company shows that they mostly produced toppers for wedding cakes. I think this one was made for a Bar Mitzvah, however. I can’t find any others like it online. It might have some collector value as a vintage piece of Judaica. It stands a bit more than 4″ tall.

The wind-up Sheffield watch was a little slow to start but has been ticking nicely ever since. The crystal is a little scratched but otherwise it’s a beautiful watch in nice condition. I also like the 1950s pocketknife key-chain made to promote an auto parts shop on Jean Talon.

I found many of these smaller pieces underneath piles of shredded paper that filled two of the black bags. This vintage bottle opener made for Canadian Pacific (railway) Hotels will make a cool 50 cent item at a future yard sale.

Two of these decks of cards were made for Delta Airlines in the 70s. They’re mildly collectible but it’s not really worth it for me to put things on Ebay for the five dollars that someone might eventually pay for them. I might only get a dollar per pack at a yard sale but I also save myself the work of taking photos, listing and shipping.

This purse contained a collection of necklaces in need of repair. Sealed within a small plastic bag were some gorgeous vintage pink crystal beads and a broken (but likely fixable) sterling chain. Another bag held two working gold-tone chains and a plastic bead necklace missing a clasp. A bird pin was hidden away in a pocket in the back.

I found a couple of records of which the one in the middle (the “Duodisc”) is the most notable. I frequently sell things – mostly old paper ephemera – to a guy who runs a Montreal-based archive. I visited the facility for the first time last week and he asked me to keep an eye out for these kinds of records (which I had not seen before previously).

It’s basically a “home-made” disc. They can be interesting from a historical perspective because they’re unique and can contain previously unheard recordings of music, speeches, and other great stuff. It’s a 78rpm disc – too fast for my current record player which plays only 33s and 45s – but what I heard from manually spinning the disc sounds like Hebrew singing. These types of recordings are apparently fairly fragile but this one seems to be in pretty good condition. I always love finding unique items and hope at some point to get this digitized and potentially uploaded to Youtube.

I find a lot of perfectly fine glasses in the trash. I sell the ones with fancy or vintage frames but give away the rest, often by leaving them in a donation box or in an open box on the curb. You can also (and maybe I will going forward) give them to certain stores or organizations.

This electric razor works great. It’s a rechargeable Philips Speed XL, a fairly high quality model that sells used on Ebay for around 25$ plus shipping. I’m going to keep it myself though!

I pulled this wool hat out from underneath some shredded paper and was instantly a fan.

It’s a “Fleur de Lis” curling tam made by Dorothea Knitting Mills Ltd of Toronto. I think a curling tam is a Scottish hat and not related to curling but I can’t be sure, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong! I might use it as a toque next winter as it would keep me pretty warm. It’s in great condition but a dry clean might spruce it up even more. I’d guess that it was made in the late 40s or 1950s.

This light-bulb was a cool and unusual find. There are metallic flowers and leaves in place of the ordinary filament.

When you plug it in the leaves glow green and the flowers (which look like tulips) glow a sort of light purple.

The bulb doesn’t give off much light but it definitely looks cool in the dark. I’ve never seen anything like it before, have you? If you have any information let us know in the comments. I wonder when it was produced and if it was once common or fashionable.

I may take Monday off but I’ll be out for sure on Tuesday. I’ll keep you posted.