The Thrifting Anthropologist

Eames Chair, Classic Design   By now everyone has heard the phrase, mid-century modern applied to furniture, accessories, clothes, houses, and almost every trinket you can think of but what exactly is it?   The design aesthetic of the middle of the 20 th century, which has been dubbed Mid Century Modern, or MCM, is generally thought to have begun in America with Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs and work in what he called “organic architecture”.  Organic architecture seemed to grow naturally out of the Arts and Crafts movement which stripped down the ponderous and over-decorated Victorian work that preceded it and simply took it to the next level of design.     If you ever get to visit a Frank Lloyd Wright house or even get a good look at some of the wonderful books on his work, you will begin to understand his deep belief that all elements of a building from the windows and floors and walls to the individual pieces of furniture intended to fill the space all relate to one ano

  The Ultimate Mid-century Pottery, a Bitossi Cat from Italy   By now everyone has heard the phrase, mid-century modern applied to furniture, accessories, clothes, houses, and almost every trinket you can think of but what exactly is it?   The design aesthetic of the middle of the 20 th century, which has been dubbed Mid Century Modern, or MCM, is generally thought to have begun in America with Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs and work in what he called “organic architecture”.    Organic architecture seemed to grow naturally out of the Arts and Crafts movement which stripped down the ponderous and over-decorated Victorian work that preceded it and simply took it to the next level of design.         Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water House   If you ever get to visit a Frank Lloyd Wright house or even get a good look at some of the wonderful books on his work, you will begin to understand his deep belief that all elements of a building from the windows and floor

At Finders Keepers Antique Mall today, I took a stroll to count the chickens. These ones won’t hatch anytime soon, I’m talking collectible glass chickens of every shape and size. Suddenly, there seem to be cool chickens in every corner. That made me curious enough to do some research. Collectors are strange beasts, we not only love what we collect we want to know about it. I started researching glass chickens, aka hens on nests and the facts behind these pretty things are amazing. They are very collectible and the prices for even lovely examples are still low enough to let beginners find great examples in every size and color. No one is sure where the great chicken craze started, Europe or America, but the precursors to our glass chickens were ceramic and porcelain pieces from Germany, France, England and elsewhere overseas. American’s introduced affordable pressed glass during the Victorian era running the porcelain pieces out of town cost wise. Chickens on nests

It isn't often that I am flummoxed by research into something I've found, but this case had me chasing my tail. Here's the back story: I recently acquired a batch of stuff being sold by a gentleman whose very old mother had gone into assisted care, he was beginning to sell her bits and pieces to pay for her stay in the facility. It's a common story and a sad one, but sometimes it lets me send lovely things back into the world for another life so I try to be positive and honest. In this case he had a silver Mexican bracelet that was to die for, I gave it back and told him it was worth in excess of $150 and he needed to get more than I could give him for it. Its just good karma to be fair in my world. stuff   None of what I got had a ton of value other than curiosity and my love for bits of Odd Stuff. One of the other people I was with acquired lots of depression glass and some serious pieces of carnival glass, I opted for stranger things, like two shoe horns, one