Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Hope You All Had As Epic A Long Weekend As I Did! Memorial Day Monday? Gypsy Caravan! Status: Sunny And Warm!

DSCN7463

The Gypsy Caravan is a once a year flea market that sets up on the University of Missouri St. Louis Campus. It's fenced off and a $10 entrance fee ($20 early bird) is collected for the St. Louis Symphony. It's like a donation...I guess. The key is to buy enough stuff so that the $10 seems inconsequential! Mission accomplished.

So, wanna take a little stroll through with the Mr.? I only bought three items (well, 6 if you count  

each individual item) but totally filled the wagon (Tinkerbell, not Frank...he was chock full of

china cabinet that I picked up Sunday!). There wasn't a TON of vintage modern but as with most

of our flea markets, look hard enough and you'll find it!

DSCN7465DSCN7464
DSCN7490DSCN7491

There were lots of weird items to see like the small coffin complete with tiny skeleton as well as

crazy things like an Ice Cream Fire Truck (little kid's heads were exploding with excitement. Fire

Truck AND Ice Cream Truck...In One!?!?). Of course, it's the midwest...so there's gonna be a

gun vendor.

DSCN7485
DSCN7484DSCN7486

There was a vendor set up today selling very nicely re-painted "up-cycled" vintage

style furnishings. It's by Leslie Sumner who gave me a card with a web address of

www.lovetoloveit.com but there's no such web address! ::shrugg:: Cool stuff. I'm a big

fan of this type of re-thinking of other types of vintage furniture. I could never stand to do

this to a proper vintage modern dresser...but this French Provincial type stuff...looks better

painted up like this to me sometimes! Gives it a great eclectic mod quality.

DSCN7479DSCN7480
DSCN7482DSCN7483

The cool looking retro table up top had sliding panels with patterned insets. I tried to get a picture

of the patterned inset but it got washed out! You can just make out the $50 price tag though. Cool

table. Hard to spot under all that other stuff. I loved the three pendant lamps. Loved them so much

I brought them home! They'll probably end up at the Green Shag Parking Lot Sale as merchandise

and if they don't sell I might use them as lighting IN the Booth that I'm opening inside the same

weekend.

DSCN7467
DSCN7493DSCN7494
DSCN7477
DSCN7478DSCN7476
DSCN7475
DSCN7488DSCN7470
DSCN7471

Can you guess which of these fine seating options I stuffed into the back of Tinkerbell and brought

home with me?  All fine examples of design and comfort I'm sure, but only one had the elusive

combination of style, condition, comfort and PRICE!  I asked the vendor very off-handedly what

he wanted for it expecting to have to just nod, give a thoughtful facial expression and say "Thanks

anyway"...but they surprised me with a lowball asking price! THEN, as I mulled over ever so

briefly how to get it back to the car and if it would fit in the back with the other items, the vendor  

Lowered the asking...and before I could stop him, Lowered it again!  I had to stop him before

he had to pay me to take it out of there!  But which one is it?  Hmmm.

DSCN7474DSCN7469
DSCN7461DSCN7468

Yes, there were some real bargains to be had...and there were some "not so much".  The Lane

Acclaim set (with hard to find swing out coffee table) was rough but serviceable and ripe for

refinishing...I bet the new owner paid a pretty penny for it too.  If you enlarge the pic of the

fiberglass chairs you can just make out the price tag which says $600.  Ouch.  The mod white

ashtray stand was $30 I think.  Pretty good, right?  Of course, everything is negotiable and more

so as the day wears on!

DSCN7466
DSCN7462DSCN7473

I just love retro bars like the one in the top pic. Almost as much as I love disco balls. See the

lady checking out the nightstands? She was asking about purchasing them no more than 30

seconds after I had paid for them! Whew! Timing is everything! The seller told me that he had

about 4 other people try to buy them after me! Sorry folks...Sold! They took a fair amount of

elbow grease to pretty them up today though.

DSCN7492
DSCN7487DSCN7489
DSCN7481

You know...Nick(Armadillo - Mid-century Midwest) texted me about 12:30pm telling me he was

at the Gypsy Caravan. I texted him back saying that I had already gotten all the good stuff! But

now that I look back, there was still plenty to be had. I actually STOPPED LOOKING when I

realized I wouldn't be able to fit any more large items in the car! He told me he was thinking about

setting up a Tiki bar in his basement, that top pic of a corner table would fit right in!  He might

have passed on the Owls Lamp (are Owls coming back?...I thing they might be!) but I bet he

picked up the pair of vintage lamps with the two tiered shades.  They were $70 and I really don't

know why I didn't buy them.  The covered bowl, or compote, or whatever, was really pretty.  It

was bright yellow inside, but it had a few light scratches on the outside and I couldn't really find a

reason to bring it home.  Sometimes a picture is enough.  Hope you all enjoyed our little roundup

of the Gypsy Caravan.  I know...it's no Brimfield, but the prices - even though they might still be

higher than our other full time flea markets - are probably so much more reasonable.  My only

complaint for the day?  There seems to be a growing contingent of "sock vendors" (anybody

hawking new items - like socks, purses, makeup, sunglasses) at the sale and less "vintage"

dealers.  This is a bad bad thing.  I hope the powers that be rectify this in the future.  If it

continues, it may get to a point where it's just not worth going anymore.

14 comments:

  1. Mr. Mod! That my corner table too! Yea! I have something in common with you two cool cats!

    http://texastreasurebox.blogspot.com/2012/04/beverly-hill-rattan-circa-1961-to-1963.html

    I think you brought the bottom pic of chair and ottoman...am I right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Crystal. I do have a thing for the banded rattan like Paul Frankl designs. I've got all I need though. It wasn't the Ekornes Stressless, though it was a good looking chair and looks totally comfy! It was the green Baughman recliner at the top!

      Delete
  2. I'm gonna guess that you brought home the green Dux-ish lounger home! It's just big enough to fill a car, but not so big you can't fit in the night stands and the pendant lamps! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Diana. You, Mme, are correct! But it's not a Dux (I wish!), it's a Thayer Coggin designed by Milo Baughman. You're like a CSI genius!

      Delete
  3. Hmmm....I'm leaning toward that beautiful orange chair, piled high with stuff, myself.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Becky. It was driving me nuts that there was so much stuff piled on top of other stuff in that booth. I just wasn't in the mood to dig for a better photo of that orange chair. Looked like it might be pretty cool though!

      Delete
  4. Lookin good, Mr. Mod. I got there after everything was cleared out (even those lamp shades, which I'd have jumped on if I'd gotten there in time), so only came home with a vintage cowboy shirt and a gyro for lunch. Was a nice bit of exercise though.

    I spoke to the guy selling the Plycraft Lounge and he said that he had already sold it for $400! That's crazy. It was missing the ottoman and wasn't even in decent shape. Think I need to put mine up for sale if that's what they're going for.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Nick. Those Eames knock offs kill me. ::shakes head:: I was looking at pics from the latest Belleville Flea and those same lamps were there! Musta been the same vendor.

      Delete
  5. Love the pendants you picked up. And yep, owls are definitely in right now. I sell owl stuff like crazy. I'm guessing you bought the green recliner - that's my favorite of the bunch.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi V Hunter. You guessed it! I guess I should start pickin up the owl stuff before I miss out.

      Delete
  6. I passed on those shades as well! Its rare that you come across two of em, but I wasn't in the buying mood I suppose..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Illuminate. Oh, I hate the Not Buyin' mood! I sometimes look back at pics a few days later from estate sales or flea markets and see something cool that I failed to pick up cuz I wasn't in the right mood. ::sigh::

      Delete
  7. Looks like some good stuff, and some good finds for you! Got my vicarious thrifting thrill via this post :-)
    When you compare this to Brimfield, you're right - the prices at Brimfield are borderline ridiculous sometimes (I blame NYC folks and decorators, but that's b/c I'm a thrifty yankee gal!)
    AND I had to literally LOL when you mentioned the "sock vendors" as I use a similar description when discussing flea markets or farmers markets near us - it was a "tube sock flea market" or not.

    Congrats on your finds, and thanks for reminding me I've got some MCM treasures in our garage just ripe for CL!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Mod Betty. I can totally see why stuff at Brimfield is pricey. It's known world wide! It gets tons of buyers from all over...and they ain't necessarily looking for bargains. I bet it costs a fortune to set up for selling there, too. Still, I'm hoping to get to go one day.

      Delete