Pick: Did you ever notice that everyone is happy and smiling putting up the tree before the Christmas holiday, humming Christmas carols the whole time, but taking it down is another matter? Grin: Whatever do you mean dear? Pick: Well, here I stand on a ladder taking down the ornaments, while you yell out the [...]

You see a vintage or antique photograph and you wish it were larger, more detailed… I want to see every photo, every scrap of ephemera, on the table in front of her!  As a collector, I’m allowed to be that nosy, right? Photo via Lynnstudios.

You accept a vintage pottery pig as payment for your work. I happily received this vintage cold-painted piggy bank as my fee for consulting work. I adore her sweet face and the red roses that decorate her — butt but it’s the curly tail that charmed me the most. So this little piggy came wee-wee-wee [...]

An interview about collecting Frankoma and other vintage decorative pottery with Molly Ives Brower, aka The Vintage Reader. How and why did you start collecting Frankoma pottery? Was it, at first, just part of decorating the house? When I was in high school I started going to the Tulsa Flea Market with my mother every [...]

A vintage advertorial announcing “what’s new” to ladies who read Modern Woman magazine (volume 17 number 1, 1948). In this case, “what’s new” was a Lucite tea tray and luggage rack. Since the photo was courtesy of DuPont, I assume it was a DuPont piece. Tea for two — on a distinctive “Lucite” table, combining [...]

I purchased this vintage wall pocket awhile ago simply for it’s whimsy; what’s not to love about a pirate duck? It simply has to ‘quack’ you up — or you’ll be forced to walk the plank, arr! It’s a vintage ceramic piece, made in Japan, rather nicely painted under the glaze with additional spots of [...]

When I saw this photograph of Wink, the vintage fashion collector and seller, the first thing I thought was, “Wow, vintage fans really blow her skirts up!” The second thing I thought was, “What a ‘cool’ thing to collect!” And then, nearly out of puns (“She has created her own ‘Fan Club!’”), I realized I [...]

One of the great things about collecting old photographs are the things in the photos — not only the objects and persons the photographer intended you to focus on, but the little extras which make the scene. Like in this vintage photo of Alice White. Clearly designed to promote the movie star, but (as pretty [...]

When I was a kid, I had a number of vintage spaghetti figurines — mostly poodles. Sadly, I sold most of them at family rummage sales as I got older. So when I spotted this black poodle with the familiar ceramic spaghetti fur for just $2 at a local thrift shop I had to take [...]

I know some collectors will find this inherently evil, but I like to use my collectibles. In fact, one of my favorite things about the holidays is using my vintage glassware. One of our family traditions is to stay home with the kids on New Year’s Eve and have a party. A geeky party, filled [...]

In the 1930′s and 40′s, terriers were quite the popular dog. I usually refer to these terriers as Airedales because they seem so large to me — not ‘to scale’ or anything, but something makes them seem like big dogs rather than smaller ones. But I think because the bodies are more white than brown [...]