And the answer is…(you guessed it) not much, beyond the fact that these two types of items are in my ebay-listing sights this week.  I put some dolls up on tandemkids today, two especially that are about 100 years old and really lovely.  I am not in any way a doll person - I don’t know a whole lot about them and I don’t feel a whole lot for them.  But when I handle high quality ones like these (both made in Germany, by Florodora and Kestner) I can appreciate their details and their beauty.  Here are a couple of pictures of today’s girls:

And then there is Catherine Holm.  Are you familiar with it?  Wonderful, colorful mid-century enamelled cookware and kitchenware from Denmark.  We love mid-century, and no one did it like the Scandinavians!  We have managed to put together quite a lot, along with a little complimentary Dansk.  It is finally all washed and waiting to be photographed for ebay.  It will be a tedious process to photograph each piece, but it was fun to pile it all up together for this group shot:

Next on my to-do list is deciding what new items to bring into our shop in Hudson on Friday.  We have had a couple of good weekends there (despite the economic doom-and-gloomers) and we are looking forward to another.  Those wonderful white glass vases from my last post will definitely go, as well as a fabulous big carved African planter looking thing and a gorgeous amber glass 1950s Mexican hanging light fixture.  Will have some pictures for you here in the next couple of days.

So I was finally able to inspire Steven to design a new logo for us and a header for this blog.  All it took was my seriously threatening to pay some designer several hundred dollars.  And, as always, once he put his hand to it the results are fab!  He really is a talented guy.   What do you think of the new look?  We would love some feedback.

And it was time to adjust the name of the blog (formerly tandemstudios) to be more clearly identified with the antiques business, etc.  Now that we have something to work with we can print new business cards, re-design the banner on our etsy.com shop…before long we are going to look so slick you guys aren’t going to recognize us. 

At this point I finally feel ready to get the word out about this site.  For several months Steve has encouraged me to talk up the blog and begin generating readership.  But I dragged my feet, saying it wasn’t ready, that I wanted it to look better.  And of course I still have ideas about what I want this to become in the future.  But at some point - what is a blog without readers?

Aside from the design work here, we have had a relatively slow week.  But we did find this lovely pair of glass vases.  Gorgeous in their simplicity, only about 7″ tall, but high quality with open pontils, polished top edges, and a smooth satin finish to the glass.

They are the kind of classic pieces that transcend genres.  You could display these just as well on a chrome and glass console as on a wool paisley draped over a harvest table.   Filled with autumn-hued flowers, they would be just the right touch on a Thanksgiving table, adding beauty but leaving the food at center stage. 

Speaking of which, do you realize that Thanksgiving is next week?  Yikes!  Tomorrow will be time enough to get out the cookbooks and start the shopping lists.    

Steven and I just can’t own enough dogs.  Really.

But before you begin imagining the noise and confusion, the giant bags of dogfood, the shedding…let me clarify.  We do love dogs - the real, living kind - and we have one that we adore.  (check our Personal page for pics of our Princess.)  But the kind of dog we can’t get enough of doesn’t shed or eat us out of house and home.  I am talking about dog art. 

We have paintings, sculptures, prints and jewelry of dogs.  Some of it is quite old, some is more contemporary.  Some is naive, handmade, folk art, and some is polished and high quality.  But what binds it all together (as with most of what we deal in or collect) is that we love each one.  Here are a few of our dogs:

This wonderful fellow is an early folk art painted silhouette.  His paint is dry and crackled, just the way you want it to be.  And we think he is just beautiful!

This guy is a crystal humidor with a slightly broken leg and a (now) brass head.  I am certain that his head was originally silver plated, but it has worn down to the brass base metal.  And he is missing one glass eye.  I guess you could say he is a rescue.  But don’t you think the missing eye justs adds to his swashbuckling demeanor?  What personality!

And we are not alone in this passion for canine depictions.  There is a thriving, and fascinating, world of dog art out there.  Doyle of New York, a venerable auction house, has an annual dog art sale.  I pulled a few pictures from their sale back in Feb. ‘08 to show you.  Sadly, we can’t afford any of these pieces.

I have finally started listing some stuff on ebay again.  It is something we do mostly in the winter, when we are not doing antiques shows.  Every little bit helps!  A lot of times the things we sell on ebay are items we find that we know are saleable, but are not necessarily our “style.”  Not things that we would put in our shop or take to a show.  But we do list some cool things as well, and I thought it would be fun to periodically share a little here of what we have there. 

This week I only have a couple of things up, among them a really neat dressmaker’s tool that is patent dated 1885, a great set of vintage 20th Century Fox commissary dishes, and some sweet old bisque dolls.  Of the lot I would have to say the 20th Century Fox dishes are the coolest - a little touch of vintage Hollywood never hurts!

If you would like to take a closer look at my ebay stuff click here.

Steven and I have collections of stuff.  We have a really big and disorganized collection of stuff that we call our home, but within that we actually have some more specific, edited collections.  And some of those collections are about to get a new home!

In our bedroom we have had for years an old glass-front cabinet that is truly unattractive in itself, but has served as a somewhat dust-free receptacle for our collections of antique mercury glass and copper lustre, along with a couple of tramp art boxes.  (Boy, have I come to appreciate the value of keeping some things behind glass.  I love the feel of modern open shelves, but the dust!)  However several developments have taken place.  Of course we have outgrown the current cabinet - I would like to add my collection of southern pottery to our bedroom, and some other items as well.  And (very exciting) Steven painted our bedroom a couple of weeks ago while I was out of town.  (What a cool surprise.  I felt like I was on an HGTV show.)  The fresh new paint is such an incentive to redecorate.  And did I mention that the current cabinet is ugly??

Last Saturday we happened upon a sale at an antiques shop going out of business, and along with some great items we hope to re-sell, we purchased two matching black and glass showcases.  Two of them!  We will literally have twice the display space we have now, along with a marked decrease in ugliness.  We are stoked.  We pick them up on Wednesday, and I can’t wait to fill them up and take pictures to share here. 

I read an article several years ago that advocated really taking the time and energy to make your bedroom nice.  There is such a temptation to focus on the public areas of your home and neglect the part no one else spends time in, but I agree with the author that it is a mistake.  Steve and I are creating a private space that we can enjoy, and it is good for us.  The heck with the living room.  Right?

The antiques shows we participate in fall into two categories; one-day and multi-day shows.  There are advantages and hardships to both, and we have settled on a mix of the two throughout the year.  The shows that last for several days give a greater opportunity for customer traffic and allow us to establish our display and settle in for a while.  The one-day shows start early in the morning and make for a long day, but then they are over and we go home and relax. 

Last Sunday we did what is probably our favorite one-day show of the year, held at Lakeside Farms in Round Lake, NY.  The location, right up the road from the Round Lake Antiques Fest held in June, is terrific.  The season is lovely, timed to coincide with Lakeside Farms apple-harvest specialties.  And the promoter, Pat Parisi, brings energy and enthusiasm to a small show that is rarely matched by other show promoters. 

 Hilary and Karen Wheaton.

This year we had the added bonus of being neighbors with our friends Karen and Mark Wheaton, of Maria’s Pond Antiques.  They have always shopped this show, but after finding out about a last-minute cancellation they decided to pack the van and join in the fun.  We had such a nice time with them.  They have helped and encouraged us so much over the years, and we value their experience, advice and friendship so much. 

We had a very good show and a nice day, visiting with customers and friends from the area (as well as making sales, of course.)  And this is the show that our older son is doing with us, starting last year.  He is 8 years old, and he collects stock throughout the summer in anticipation of this day.  He prices his merchandise himself, and mans his table. Last year he did very well, and this year he did even better!  He has an interest in Asian antiques, and this year he sold (among other things) a Chinese painting on silk, a ginger jar lamp and a soapstone carved figure.  He also had a charming child-sized kimono that we were surprised did not sell. 

Here is a picture of him perusing the wares in Danette and John Darrow’s booth.  They are his favorite because of their beautiful Japanese and Chinese items. 

As the day wore on and sales slowed down a little, he got tired and bored.  He decided on his own how to handle it, however, and we discovered this note on his table.  Spelling doesn’t count.

That is the end of shows for us this year.  Time now to buckle down for the fall, concentrate on the shop in Hudson (Warren Street Antiques) and develop this web site.  I am excited and full of ideas - I love this time of year! 

While set up and selling at the annual Schoharie Fall Antiques Show last weekend, we enjoyed a truly perfect early fall weekend.  The weather could not have been nicer — chilly in the mornings, sunny in the afternoons.  Dealers set up both indoors and out at this show (we are always outside) and the weather decides, year to year, which is the more desirable choice.   This year there was no question - outside was the place to be!

In spite of cloudy skies on Wall Street, we had a successful show.  We enjoyed seeing old friends and regular customers, as well as meeting new ones.  We moved quite a bit of merchandise and were pleased with our sales. 

On the blogging front, I have an apology to make to my loyal readers (yes, all three of you.)  I am sorry that I have not been writing here as regularly as I was.  My site is going through its awkward adolescent stage.  I am going to be changing and improving it, and am in communication with some consultants who may be able to help me.   But I realize that my reaction has been to write here less, if at all, as if I am waiting for all the changes to happen.  But it doesn’t work that way, and these changes are going to take time.  So I am resolved to continue posting, even if it is not all I envision it to be…yet. 

The absolute, hands-down, least glamorous part of being an antique dealer is the clutter.  (Followed closely by climbing around in other people’s attics and basements, but we perversely think that is fun.)  I am talking about the accumulation of the stuff that … we can’t seem to sell, or we broke, or we didn’t want in the first place but had to buy in order to get something else, or that looked good at the time but now we hate…

This stuff piles up, and perhaps somehow multiplies when we are not looking.  And, okay - I admit it.  Steven and I are organizationally challenged.  No really.  We have a nice big barn and a two-car garage and a shop in Hudson, and we regularly run out of storage space.  Then, when we have clogged up our storage options the stuff backs up into the house.  And that is when I get crazy. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, this seems to be my season for cleaning out and attempting to create order (the aforementioned Fall Frenzy).  And this week Steve has a couple of days at home for a change, so Now is the Time.  Seize the Moment, I say!  In that spirit, I made a call Tuesday about a roll-off dumpster and managed to have one delivered in an hour!  And I have a guy with a yen for scrap metal coming this morning to haul away a non-functioning snowblower and lawn-mower, and anything else we can convince him to take.  Steve worked really hard all day, moving and rearranging and culling.  Again, this is not the glamorous side of the biz, but exciting nonetheless.  My barn is already looking friendly and useful to me again, instead of crowded and dirty.

Today I will take a picture of the dumpster for you.  Not attractive in a conventional sense, perhaps, but  rich with symbolism to me — change, renewal, possibilities.

 
We are home from North Carolina, back in upstate New York, and happy to see the first day of school. Our older son is in 3rd grade, and READY to get back to school, see his friends and end his summer boredom.

See, hardly a backward glance!

My 4 yr old just made me play Don’t Break the Ice.  Its one of those obnoxious toddler games that takes 10 minutes to set up and 20 seconds to play.  He won.

Speaking of the 4 yr old, the big news is that he is starting a half-day preschool program next Monday!!  Three precious and wonderful hours every morning, Monday thru Friday.  I cannot express how excited I am.  Its kind of embarassing, really.  Of course I have at least 8 hours worth of stuff I imagine doing in those 3 hours, but no surprise there. 

In the meantime I am in the throes of something - call it Fall Frenzy.  There is much talk of Spring Cleaning and so forth earlier in the year, but this is the season that inspires me to throw out, clean up, rearrange.  We run so much in the summer, between work and Youth Camp and travel, that the house really falls apart by this time.  All flat surfaces are covered, with folded laundry that needs putting away, boxes of random camp detritus that need sorting, various antiques that have not made it to the shop or into show stock.  Immediately to my left, for instance, there is a stack of art books purchased down south, a soccer ball, a plastic gladiator sword and two large old country baskets.  And that is my dining table.  

So I am going to stop typing and get some work done before the older offspring gets back off that bus and says, “I’m hungry” and “What can I do???”  Not necessarily in that order.   

Here we are in North Carolina, on vacation.  I understand that to most people ‘vacation’ means a break from working..but it was Saturday, and there were lawn sales and flea markets out there, and there might be something great…  So, we were up and out the door before 7:00 am in hot pursuit. 

The coolest thing we found today is an unusual sectional wooden bench that dates to the 1950s or 60s.  When I saw it, I turned over the small center section hoping to see the mark of some famous designer or a reknowned mid-century manufacturer — and found only an impressed Made in Sweden mark.  But that’s okay, we are way into all things vintage and Scandinavian right now.  Also - the woman hosting this lawn sale put a clever little sign on the benches reading, “All it needs is a can of spray paint.”  So really, we were obligated to buy it just to save it from some horrible DIY Rustoleum fate. 

We need to clean it up a little (it got too close to some other paint-based home improvement project) but it has wonderful lines and is nicely constructed.  The seats are thick boards, chamfered on the underside.  And we will do some research before we bring it in to the shop, in case we can identify the designer despite the lack of signature. 

Steven is pretty excited about the folk art hand-carved wooden chain he bought.  It is gorgeous, and impressive in its repetitive intricacy. 

Then we found this fun red-painted country bench and the nice antique country handled baskets.

We will save the baskets for the Schoharie and Lakeside Antiques shows in September (see our Schedule of Events page to the right for details.) 

My favorite Hudson-bound find today is the terrific vintage gilt and crystal candelabra at the top of this post.  It has just the right decorative, Paris apartment chic.  As soon as we get back home we will take it into our shop, Warren Street Antiques.  Come in and see it for yourself.