Antiquing and Collecting in Sagus, Ca.

Sagus is close to Valencia, where Magic Mountain is for you unfamiliar with the area. There used to be two antique malls across the street from each other, but one closed, and COUNTY ROADS ANTIQUE MALL is the last one standing. It's been here for years, and a few of the dealers who were across the street moved here. It's a mix of real antiques and garage sale stuff, but I always manage to find something. The people who work here are nice, and do appreciate your business.

One of our neighbors had a set of these in aqua in the 60s, and I never got to play with them, so I had to buy these. One is a bank, the other is a pencil sharpener. The original red pencil was missing, but it should be easy to find an older replacement.

One of their dealers has lots of paper: Victorian scraps, greeting cards from the 60s, and lots of cooking pamphlets from the early 50s on.

From the left, a Victorian fan advertising card,  a hand holding a rose advertising card,  a Christmas card with a woman walking a Pomeranian looks to be 20s or 30s, a Victorian prayer card (I'll be offering some reproductions of these on RubyLogan.com starting Sept.2) and lastly, a birthday card with gold foil and cool lettering from the 1960s.

                                                                               

                                             My final purchase: Life Magazine May 13, 1966, with Men's Mod clothes. The interior photos are black and white, which seems odd now. The article and story focuses on how strange these clothes look to older people while younger people love them. Ah, the Generation Gap....
                                                                               

That's it for this week. Next week: Pasadena City College. Last month, one of my favorite dealers had something I should have bought, and I hope he still has it. I'll be kicking myself if he doesn't...I'll blog about it later. Happy Antiquing and Collecting, Everybody!

                                                                                 

Shadowbox Gallery

These are cigar box pet memorial boxes I made for friends. The Liam box is a combination of doll house furniture, scans from art books and photographs. The Spud box is scans, photos and antique bracketing from a Victorian glass dome unit. (See below for example.) I have another spare piece of the bracketing that will up for sale on RubyLogan.com after Sept.2.

Maybe I should start at the beginning-- I collect old stuff, and I'm always looking for ways to display it. (No sense leaving it in a drawer.)

This is one of the first ones I made, from a prepared box from Martha Stewart. The paper is pretty, but the box isn't very deep. Victorian photographs, scrap metal, doll house rug, Victorian china butterpat dish, calling cards and Victorian Mothers' pin.

Here's another in a craft store box. The butterfly theme is really pretty for a young girl. It includes buttons, jewelry, coins and other mementos.

This was made from a smaller cigar box, about 6" tall. I got the idea of using cigar and found boxes after seeing the Day of the Dead altars at the Folk Tree Gallery in Pasadena, Ca. Jesus has three levels of paper behind him for depth: two palm trees, columns, and, an extra layer on his hands. Jesus and Mary are from Victorian postcards, and the frame around Mary is a German Dresden coated with gilt wax to tone down the shine a little.

Who doesn't have Elvis and Beatles stuff just laying around the house? The Elvis box is made from a glass top cigar box, I'll have a few of those up for sale on RubyLogan.com soon. The Beatle Box is made from a pink backless box I found at a thrift store. Both Elvis and the Beatles use scans of pages from authentic teen magazines, and I'll have some of those available soon for your crafting needs.

Happy Antiquing, collecting, and crafting!

What I Collect #1 Esther Hunt Busts

These chalkware heads are by Esther Hunt and

other artists she inspired. They date from 1914-1925.

Photograph courtesy of "Esther Hunt, A Collectors' Guide" by Donna R. Yick, Poco Books, San Francisco. Most of her artwork features Chinese women and children in lovely robes and headdresses.

She won a medal in sculpture at the Pan American Exhibition in 1915, San Diego, Ca.

Here's three of her smaller size heads: from the left,

Cherry Bloom 1923, Peachflower 1923, and Au Wu 1912.

Peachflower is 8" tall, to give you an idea of size.

These busts are by Leon Fighiera from around 1925. These are more like Gypsies, but he

did Chinese style heads also. He was in San Francisco in the 20s and may have been in business with Esther Hunt exporting their busts. (The one on the left is a little over 9" tall.)

These two heads are from Florence Arts-- untitled style. (Almost 12" tall.)  One on the left is

midway or prize painted. This was painted quickly and lightly to be given away as a prize.

The one on the right is older, the mold was sold to the companies that provided the carnival prizes afterwards. Designs for these busts were stolen and borrowed from Hunt. She testified to congress about the need for strong copyright protection for artists.

Want to know more about these heads? Check out "Esther Hunt, A Collectors' Guide".

It's available on Ebay and Amazon. (And also features her paintings, prints and postcards.)

Along the carnival busts, there were also busts that were sold blank as craft projects. You may find ones with strange paint colors and blonde hair. It's probably a do it yourself project.

Happy Antiquing and collecting!

Hello There.

Welcome! I love antiques, collectibles and old paper-- I've been collecting for over 30 years. I'll be posting on antiquing in Southern California, the things I collect and making shadowboxes out of the stuff I find.

This photo combines two of my favorite things: flea markets and dogs. This was taken early AM, August 22, 2010 at the Santa Monica Airport Antique Market. Today, I'm looking for photographs and images to use in my card series for my upcoming store, RubyLogan.com. Here's some items I found:

I collect old photos of showgirls and chorus girls.Before the tyranny of thin and cosmetic surgery, this is what women looked like. If you like them, I've got a note card series coming up soon on Ruby Logan.com

Here's some old postcards with great dog art-- those little doxies are so cute.The Airdale looks very regal. Dog cards and photo from the same dealer in the back area. Linda always has great stuff, intact scrapbooks and yearbooks. She also has lots of pinup girl postcards. Santa Monica is the first Sunday and fourth Sunday of the month. But the fourth Sunday is best-- Pasadena City college is the first Sunday and lots of dealers

go there instead. Here's a booth of great cosmetic jewelry-- the little Christmas trees in the front look like big pins but have stands that are welded on. These items (and lots of other great rhinestone pins) are from the Czech Republic. Not terribly old, but nicely made and unique. The little 60's collar pins were from the dealer next door-- they'll be fun to put in a shadow box or display with 60s stuff.
The next photo is Fairfax High school, the Melrose Trading Market. Lots of vintage clothing, modern art and antiques.

Here's some Christmas postcards I got at Fairfax, this is the last time of the year to get them cheap, they go up in price in September. I'll have copies of these available soon at RubyLogan.com for crafting and making cards. After this, we went to breakfast at Dupars. Happy Antiquing and Collecting, everyone!