I know that yesterday's post perhaps made it look like there is a serious wealth of vintage modern goodies to be had 'round these parts...and it used to be so, but we hit like 10 thrift stores Saturday. The items shown yesterday were pretty much all we ran across worth posting about. Seems like the well is going dry!
Seems like I couldn't walk down the street in years past without tripping over all the cool vintage
modern goodies people were throwing out. Has the STL just run out? Is it just that time of year? Has
anybody else noticed a change? I've combed through at least 15 of St. Louis' finest thrifts over the
last two weekends and one weekday and come up almost empty handed. Except this.
I found this little vintage gem down the street at the Goodwill in Florissant on N. Lindbergh. I was
hoping it was a Curtis Jere piece but it isn't. It's an Enesco Imports Corp and is dated 1976. Enesco
is still in business. Here's a timeline of their business. Kinda neat!
These brass home decorations were apparently very popular in the '60s and '70s. I imagine they
were popular in the '80s on up as well but since I grew up in that era I think all that stuff is ugly and
stupid. That's how it works right? It's super hard to be nostalgic about stuff we lived so long with.
Actually, I can't ever remember having anything like this around any of the homes I've lived in as a
child. I do remember lots of '90s "Art Deco" style stuff like mirrors, coffee tables of glass and bad
Bauhaus sofas though. I don't care how "vintage modern" popular that stuff gets, it will never be in
MY home!
The dry spells seem to be cyclical in our area. It's either feast or famine. We've been finding a few things locally, but we've also been doing a lot of buying out of state.
ReplyDeleteMaybe as garage sale weather winds down, pickings get slimmer. I'd think that right after new years, and spring cleaning time would be the peaks.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of that late 80s- most of the 90s neo deco is going to be the next thing people will get excited about. All I know is the goodwill near me is flooded with wavy CD racks and the like, so it's only a matter of time before those things become hip. Still, those won't have a place in my house either.
I can't say there ever was a plethora of stuff here but once in awhile I come across it and it is a thrill. This is a dying area, no cities, no jobs, population is dying, young 'uns are leaving and so what I get a lot of is 20s-30s. I think we are pretty untapped here in comparison to other areas (shocks me people actually fight over stuff, LOL!). So far I think I am the only one really digging for mod here. Now the city, which I went to last Sat? Yah, majorly picked over and my beloved pyrex was too high priced for the most part. So someone over there got the memo.
ReplyDeleteI managed to visit just about every thrift store/antique mall of note in the St. Louis metro area (about 16 or so) as well as 2 estate sales over the course of this weekend and didn't come away with a thing. There were a few small bits, namely a Brasilia headboard, Selig sofa, and a Sputnik lamp, but all were overpriced. I do have a set of American of Martinsville end tables that I'm picking up this afternoon though. You win some. You lose some.
ReplyDeleteThings have been "dryer" than usual for me, as well. However, for the vintage stores the pickings have been great; I've seen a LAGRE uptick in their stock. The action around here seems to be at the auctions, of late
ReplyDeleteThanks for helping me identify an extremely similar but not identical piece I found in an op-shop here in Australia. Mine looks like it's made of copper and the fish "bobs" along in the seaweed. I was going to ditch it in my big Spring clean...might keep it for a while longer.
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