Way Cool Antique Mall Score! Ben Seibel Bookends. Status: Not Perfect But Cheap!

These were found in a booth at the St. Charles Antique Mall.  Antique malls are not really Meccas of Vintage Modern but, like craigslist, if you have the patience and check often you will be rewarded!  I only learned about Ben Seibel and his various designs about a year or so ago but have become a bit of a fan.

Secondhand Hannah turned me on to Ben Seibel by introducing me to a set of bookends that

she had sold on eBay that were just like these. I was surprised by how desirable these

bookends actually are. I wasn't surprised that Hannah was able to acquire a pair of these as

she has always been able to find the coolest stuff for nothing or next to nothing. It's too bad

she's kind of abandoned her blog. It was a good one and the one that got me into blogging.

Maybe if everybody goes over there and leaves a comment to get back to posting she'll

resurrect her blog.

Neither of these are perfect. The finish is questionable but I think it can me cleaned up. I

started to clean one with some Goofoff and it took the clear coat off but left the metallic finish

underneath unmolested. I might continue with that. The metallic finish will need to be polished

to get these to look really good. The only problem is that one of them is cracked along the

outside edge on both sides. It's a minor crack but is all the way through. It looks like a

manufacturing flaw to me. I can't imagine what else could have caused the crack.

My first instinct was to flip these on criagslist but I'm kinda liking them. I think I might keep

them. The cracked one means that I wouldn't get top dollar for them anyway. I'll just clean

them up and use them to keep my cool books together! I found them on a day where I had

gone from one thrift store to another finding nothing. The antique mall was my last ditch effort.

It paid off.