Treasure Box Wednesday: Gaudy Gorgeousness, Porcelain Pretties and More

I have vintage lamp addiction. And I'm sick enough with this incurable disease that the more outrageous the vintage lamp-- the more geegaws and nubbies and curlicues and crystals that sprout from it-- the more it fills my heart with mad, unbridled joy.

Such was the case this last week at the St. Vincent de Paul as I laid eyes on this 60s table lamp and its great, green, gaudy gorgeousness. I spied it and immediately seized the 20 pounds of lamp from the top shelf, carrying it around the store like Galahad with the Holy Grail... Y'know, once Galahad got his hands on it during the Crusades version of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and took a moment for a celebratory spin around the castle.

(Somewhere I'm sure my Romantic Lit professor is weeping.)


Anyway-- my triumphant glee undoubtedly shone to my fellow shoppers, too-- whose attention was caught by the big, goofy grin on my face. Or... um... the massive green, brass and marble protuberance cradled in my arms.

I braced myself for criticism. And such is my Lamp Mania that I was prepared to defend my obvious lack of taste with a bit of wit and self-awareness... I mean, I KNOW it's a singularly unnatural example of interior lighting...

And that's really the point, isn't it?

Only my fellow shoppers smiled back kindly and confided to me, "Now THAT is a beautiful lamp."

One by one: smile and... "THAT is a beautiful lamp."

Perhaps they were just humoring an obviously very sick woman. Maybe they didn't want me to flip out and.... I don't know... start flinging Pyrex in the Housewares section while speaking in tongues...

But it didn't really sound that way. Could it be the gaudy lamp is having an underground resurgence?

Whatever the case, with this fine example of 60s schmaltz in my possession, I admit, I was riding a bit of a shopping high. Could anything else rival the discovery of my Great Green Beauty?

Well, no. But I did find some stuff I certainly wouldn't trade. Like this delicate "Made in Japan" handpainted mantle statue...



Pretty as a picture!


And some Irish linens I plan to use for a bit of a St. Paddy's display this year. Irish potato soup anyone?...


I found an Imperial Grape milk glass goblet, which I plan to put away for my family friend who collects this pattern (I'll amass a nice big box of it for her over the course of the year!)...


And I found a couple of books that I do believe will make for some funny features for the future...


So all-in-all, it was a faboo week for thrifting. Thanks for joining me for the second weekly Treasure Box Wednesday, (click here if you missed last week's installment) and I wish YOU all the little treasures that make life special. Hope to see you again soon.

Treasure Box Wednesday: Gaudy Gorgeousness, Porcelain Pretties and More

I have vintage lamp addiction. And I'm sick enough with this incurable disease that the more outrageous the vintage lamp-- the more geegaws and nubbies and curlicues and crystals that sprout from it-- the more it fills my heart with mad, unbridled joy.

Such was the case this last week at the St. Vincent de Paul as I laid eyes on this 60s table lamp and its great, green, gaudy gorgeousness. I spied it and immediately seized the 20 pounds of lamp from the top shelf, carrying it around the store like Galahad with the Holy Grail... Y'know, once Galahad got his hands on it during the Crusades version of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and took a moment for a celebratory spin around the castle.

(Somewhere I'm sure my Romantic Lit professor is weeping.)


Anyway-- my triumphant glee undoubtedly shone to my fellow shoppers, too-- whose attention was caught by the big, goofy grin on my face. Or... um... the massive green, brass and marble protuberance cradled in my arms.

I braced myself for criticism. And such is my Lamp Mania that I was prepared to defend my obvious lack of taste with a bit of wit and self-awareness... I mean, I KNOW it's a singularly unnatural example of interior lighting...

And that's really the point, isn't it?

Only my fellow shoppers smiled back kindly and confided to me, "Now THAT is a beautiful lamp."

One by one: smile and... "THAT is a beautiful lamp."

Perhaps they were just humoring an obviously very sick woman. Maybe they didn't want me to flip out and.... I don't know... start flinging Pyrex in the Housewares section while speaking in tongues...

But it didn't really sound that way. Could it be the gaudy lamp is having an underground resurgence?

Whatever the case, with this fine example of 60s schmaltz in my possession, I admit, I was riding a bit of a shopping high. Could anything else rival the discovery of my Great Green Beauty?

Well, no. But I did find some stuff I certainly wouldn't trade. Like this delicate "Made in Japan" handpainted mantle statue...



Pretty as a picture!


And some Irish linens I plan to use for a bit of a St. Paddy's display this year. Irish potato soup anyone?...


I found an Imperial Grape milk glass goblet, which I plan to put away for my family friend who collects this pattern (I'll amass a nice big box of it for her over the course of the year!)...


And I found a couple of books that I do believe will make for some funny features for the future...


So all-in-all, it was a faboo week for thrifting. Thanks for joining me for the second weekly Treasure Box Wednesday, (click here if you missed last week's installment) and I wish YOU all the little treasures that make life special. Hope to see you again soon.

Willy hits the medication

Today I shall be probed.

I am off to be poked, prodded and probed by the doctor today, to hopefully solve the Sinus epidemic that i have had for a year!

I will update this post when I get back.

Before you read the update, thanks for everyone that wished me well.

Update: I was nasally probed, nasally not any other ***ally! :)
I don't know whether to be pissed off, angry, depressed or just disappointed. The doctor numbed the nostrils and had a good old probe. What did she discover? No, I repeat No sinus juice, but I do have a bent over septum. She then moved onto the ears, no sinus juice there either! But one is slightly scarred from the infections.
So there is at the moment no sign of sinusitis but that happens if you have it Chronically, so an xray of the sinus area is needed to see if there is any blockages. Now I have to wait for an xray appointment, then wait FOUR FECKING months to see the specialist.

I guess I will go with pissed off!!!

Wish.....

Ever wished you could look into a crystal ball and see the future? No? me neither, just needed to get the word 'wish' in this post somehow. Damn Mo for using my amazingly brilliant word this week, therefore forcing me to participate.


Go and find other wishful thinkers over at Mo's place, Click Here : Mo.

Who in the art world is Chester K. Van Nortwick?

His name rests on the bottom of 30s calendar prints, and is emblazoned in the pages of nursery tales of the time. Yet, for a collector trying to learn more about the man, Chester K. Van Nortwick-- like so many artists from the Golden Age of Illustration-- seems almost as intangible as the fairy book characters he painted.

His work imitated the popular style of Maxfield Parrish in the same way calendar artists like R. Atkinson Fox did. But a close look at Van Nortwick's little scenes, with their lively characters, rich color and magical detail, reveals the illustrator's ability to successfully capture much of the humor, depth and quality of Parrish work that few of his contemporaries achieved.

A good example of this can be seen by comparing Parrish's famous Life magazine cover of Humpty Dumpty (first image below), with Van Nortwick's own delightful rendering (second image) of the animate egg in "A Tiny Book of Nursery Rhymes."




Yet it's interesting that Van Nortwick's beautiful and whimsical works, in period frames, are still possible to uncover in antique malls, flea markets and on Ebay-- and fairly economically, too. I've seen Van Norwtick prints run on average from $20-$85, where a good vintage Parrish print-- and even many an Atkinson Fox-- runs in the hundreds and upwards.


Okay, so it's nice work of the era, and can be found at a good price-- But who exactly IS this Chester K. Van Nortwick? A bit of sleuthing on our friend C.K. almost feels like research into absence. For instance, I discovered that while both Fox and fellow illustrator George Hood are acknowledged in books like "Maxfield Parrish and the American Imagists," not a peep is said about Mr. Van Nortwick.

It's enough to make you question whether he was nothing more than a pseudonym, dreamed up by an imaginative publishing company (which, in the case of Atkinson Fox, was done quite regularly during this time)!


But then I turned up some information from "Vintage illustration: Discovering America's Calendar Artists. " There, author Rick Martin comfirms the reality of the man's existence-- and has this to say about Van Nortwick:

"C.K. Van Nortwick was an early art print and calendar illustrator who was born in Rhode Island and moved to Denver, Colorado, at an early age. He studied at the Art institute of Chicago. His work first appeared from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s.

"Van Nortwick's work was published almost exclusively by the Gerlach Barklow calendar company of Joliet, Illinois. Gerlach Barklow's publicity releases gave little personal information about Van Nortwick. They described him only as a 'well-known painter of allegorical subjects whose works suggest the quality of Maxfield Parrish.'

"Van Nortwick's earlier works seem to display many of Parrish's stock-in-trade images: urns, fountains, mountains, and languid beauties reposing in lush romantic landscapes. But between 1927 and 1930, Van Norwick painted three sets of twelve paintings intended as prints for monthly mailings. The sets were entiled 'Mother Goose,' ''Fairy Tales' and 'Boyhood Heroes.'"



And AskArt.com shares the following information regarding Chester Van Nortwick:

"Chester K. Van Nortwick was born in Providence, RI on December 21, 1881 and died in Brewster, MA on October 8, 1944. He was the son of George Washington van Nortwick, an accomplished and celebrated engraver.

"Chester lived in Colorado during his youth and served as staff artist on the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post. He received private instruction for several years and then entered the Chicago Art Institute."


Also, my search turned up Van Nortwick's work as a part of the permanent collection of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), though no detail is listed online regarding him there, or what pieces reside in the collection.

Chester K. Van Nortwick may never gain the recognition of illustration great Maxfield Parrish, or the dedicated following of R. Atkinson Fox. But his work was a quietly present part of childhood reading and home decor in the 20s and 30s.


From the Golden Age of Illustration, so many artists-- Alice Adams, George Hacker, DC Lithgow and others-- seem to have slipped from the walls and bookshelves of American family homes and into relative obscurity. Here's hoping the age of technology will help us dust off a few, and bring them into the light again.

--

If anyone has any additional information they'd like to share about Chester Van Nortwick, I'd love to hear from you!

And for the rest of you good folks-- if you'd happened to miss my special thriftshopromantic.blogspot.com-only Wednesday post-- "Treasure Box Wednesday: The Adventure Begins," click here.

Otherwise, I hope you see you THIS Wednesday as I share a few of my latest finds, including the seizure of one gorgeously gaudy vintage lamp!

Who in the art world is Chester K. Van Nortwick?

His name rests on the bottom of 30s calendar prints, and is emblazoned in the pages of nursery tales of the time. Yet, for a collector trying to learn more about the man, Chester K. Van Nortwick-- like so many artists from the Golden Age of Illustration-- seems almost as intangible as the fairy book characters he painted.

His work imitated the popular style of Maxfield Parrish in the same way calendar artists like R. Atkinson Fox did. But a close look at Van Nortwick's little scenes, with their lively characters, rich color and magical detail, reveals the illustrator's ability to successfully capture much of the humor, depth and quality of Parrish work that few of his contemporaries achieved.

A good example of this can be seen by comparing Parrish's famous Life magazine cover of Humpty Dumpty (first image below), with Van Nortwick's own delightful rendering (second image) of the animate egg in "A Tiny Book of Nursery Rhymes."




Yet it's interesting that Van Nortwick's beautiful and whimsical works, in period frames, are still possible to uncover in antique malls, flea markets and on Ebay-- and fairly economically, too. I've seen Van Norwtick prints run on average from $20-$85, where a good vintage Parrish print-- and even many an Atkinson Fox-- runs in the hundreds and upwards.


Okay, so it's nice work of the era, and can be found at a good price-- But who exactly IS this Chester K. Van Nortwick? A bit of sleuthing on our friend C.K. almost feels like research into absence. For instance, I discovered that while both Fox and fellow illustrator George Hood are acknowledged in books like "Maxfield Parrish and the American Imagists," not a peep is said about Mr. Van Nortwick.

It's enough to make you question whether he was nothing more than a pseudonym, dreamed up by an imaginative publishing company (which, in the case of Atkinson Fox, was done quite regularly during this time)!


But then I turned up some information from "Vintage illustration: Discovering America's Calendar Artists. " There, author Rick Martin comfirms the reality of the man's existence-- and has this to say about Van Nortwick:

"C.K. Van Nortwick was an early art print and calendar illustrator who was born in Rhode Island and moved to Denver, Colorado, at an early age. He studied at the Art institute of Chicago. His work first appeared from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s.

"Van Nortwick's work was published almost exclusively by the Gerlach Barklow calendar company of Joliet, Illinois. Gerlach Barklow's publicity releases gave little personal information about Van Nortwick. They described him only as a 'well-known painter of allegorical subjects whose works suggest the quality of Maxfield Parrish.'

"Van Nortwick's earlier works seem to display many of Parrish's stock-in-trade images: urns, fountains, mountains, and languid beauties reposing in lush romantic landscapes. But between 1927 and 1930, Van Norwick painted three sets of twelve paintings intended as prints for monthly mailings. The sets were entiled 'Mother Goose,' ''Fairy Tales' and 'Boyhood Heroes.'"



And AskArt.com shares the following information regarding Chester Van Nortwick:

"Chester K. Van Nortwick was born in Providence, RI on December 21, 1881 and died in Brewster, MA on October 8, 1944. He was the son of George Washington van Nortwick, an accomplished and celebrated engraver.

"Chester lived in Colorado during his youth and served as staff artist on the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post. He received private instruction for several years and then entered the Chicago Art Institute."


Also, my search turned up Van Nortwick's work as a part of the permanent collection of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), though no detail is listed online regarding him there, or what pieces reside in the collection.

Chester K. Van Nortwick may never gain the recognition of illustration great Maxfield Parrish, or the dedicated following of R. Atkinson Fox. But his work was a quietly present part of childhood reading and home decor in the 20s and 30s.


From the Golden Age of Illustration, so many artists-- Alice Adams, George Hacker, DC Lithgow and others-- seem to have slipped from the walls and bookshelves of American family homes and into relative obscurity. Here's hoping the age of technology will help us dust off a few, and bring them into the light again.

--

If anyone has any additional information they'd like to share about Chester Van Nortwick, I'd love to hear from you!

And for the rest of you good folks-- if you'd happened to miss my special thriftshopromantic.blogspot.com-only Wednesday post-- "Treasure Box Wednesday: The Adventure Begins," click here.

Otherwise, I hope you see you THIS Wednesday as I share a few of my latest finds, including the seizure of one gorgeously gaudy vintage lamp!

The ideal man

Have you found the ideal man? Well that's fabfantastic for you if you have. For those of you who that haven't, you need Uncle Loquacious in your life.
The latest letter written into Uncle Loquacious is eerily similar to something I would write, not that it is me! Who said that?

The Loquacious Curmudgeon via kwout

Check it out here by clicking this link Uncle Loquacious Go and Check it out now!!!
Uncle Loquacious is always looking out for new letters, do you have a relationship dilemma that only he could sort out?

UPDATE!
Uncle Loquacious has rippled out across the net and caught a big fish!

The Astonishing Adventures of Lord Likely: Interlude: Perfection in a Top Hat via kwout

Old Fashioned

Click the image to read the writing

It seems very old fashioned to have to scan your photos to get them onto the computer, but I am very glad you can. Well except for those god awful photos that people keep tagging my name on over at facebook. I will have my revenge though when i dig out my incriminating bad teenage photos.

I think writing with the old pen and ink is fast becoming old fashioned, I only use a pen now when I really have to. I have found some of my own old fashion scribblings in the oracle known as my high school leavers book.

Updated: I have scanned in some dreaded teenage pictures for you to gaze at.


Look at other Old Fashioned things in PhotoHunt.

Willy turns to booze...

Anytime I do counselling homework I feel the need to be a wee bit silly. Also some of you are probably bored shitless with the counselling stuff.

So here is Willy!

Past, Present and the Future

Well in college we have to do some really serious stuff, like erm Painting!! Before you start with the chuckling, let me explain a bit more.
If your a regular reader to this blog, you will of realised that I am a quite creative person. Which ranges from blogging to photography and more recently cartoon doodles on the computer. For me its not about being particularly good at anything, its about enjoying it. So while others in the class visibly grimaced when the paints were brought out, I was a little bit excited ( okay a lot). I know that I am a bad painter, but I still enjoy it.

The Window

This exercise is called 'The Window', each window pane represents a a different time in your life. They are your Past, Present, Wished for Future and Feared for future.
We were given four pieces of paper, one for each pane 'time in your life', some basic paint colours and told to paint something that summed up that time in your life.
I think everyone sat there at first thinking what the f*ck am I going to paint, but the urge to splosh paint on paper soon takes over. I found myself thinking about what I had felt in that particular moment in my life and how to sum it up using the materials we had. The class was the quietest it has ever been,as everyone was painting away.
I know painting is not going to appeal to everyone, but a lot of folks simply stop doing anything creative and messy, once they leave the classroom. So to just simply sit there and paint was very relaxing, although it did bring up feelings that I wasn't expecting.


My past: As you will see in the painting I put little faces under a cloud, but there is one sad face. Yes the sad face is me. My childhood wasn't a horrible one, yes I had my mum going in and out of hospital, but it could of been worse. The overall feeling that I get when I think about my childhood is feeling alone and a bit sad. I did put the happy smiling sun, to represent the good times.

My present: You will see the smiling face that I use in my little cartoons on this blog. To one side is the sun which represents my friends, my college course and other happy things, The other side is a murky cloud that represents all the dark, miserable thoughts that sometimes overwhelm me.

My feared future: This is simply the fear of being overwhelmed by those miserable feelings that I think haunt everyone at some time in their life.

My wished for future: Is of course myself being happy, Mountains to climb (physically and mentally), travel the world and generally a sense of excitement and adventure.


So who is ready to get the paints out?
The idea behind using paint is you can't rub it out and start again. Just go where the paint takes you.

Treasure Box Wednesday: The Adventure Begins

Thrifty treasure-hunting. There's just something exhilarating about the thrill of the hunt, the serendipity of it all. We dig deep into the past and find joy in the personal gems we uncover at our favorite flea markets, yard sales and charity thrifts. And we learn so much by vicarious thrifting, too-- discovering what's out there within reach of our fellow thrift archaeologists, gleaning a little history, recalling a few trends, and bringing to light the long-lost, forgotten and beloved.

So in addition to my regular weekly post, I've been thinking about starting a new feature, right here every Wednesday, to just share the fun of some of the most recent finds.

To start things rolling, I thought we'd talk about what was unearthed at the Red, White and Blues this last weekend.

We'll begin with the items one of my buddies uncovered, and kindly let me photograph. My amigo in thrifty-fun this day-- oh... let's call her Scoobie (due to said friend's unwaning and somewhat bewildering nostalgia for the cartoon mutt of the -Doo variety). Scoobie did very well for herself this weekend.

To give you an idea of her interests beyond cowardly crime-meddling dogs, she loves French blue and elaborately gilded things, but also is a fan of the Victorian western look. She's got a red Victorian parlor set and collects ruby glass. So you'll soon see why she was so jazzed about her finds.

Something blue (French influenced jaquard comforter)...

More blue... (Votive holders or drinking glasses... I can't tell which, they are votive-sized...)


A bit of ruby... (Avon Cape Cod ruby glass)


And a handsome cowboy and a couple of cactii for good measure... (Coors mirrored bar sign)


(Quirky Western diorama...)


(Gotta love that thrift store art Gambler-look still-life... Somebody worked hard on that one! :) Excellent kitsch!)



Now, me, I found a hand-painted tole tray, some vintage hankies and an interesting retro Gloria Vanderbilt umbrella...

A pink glass lidded pitcher and an aqua blue mixing bowl...


A vintage apron (how cute is that?)...


Some cherub candlesticks in faux jade...


And this cool vintage lamp made of slag glass... (I'll be having fun this week trying to figure out just what sort of shade was meant for this baby! Mission style? Arts and Crafts? ) Anyway, it was $5.99!


So what do you think, folks? Is this a type of feature you'd enjoy seeing once a week? I'll still be posting the regularly scheduled thrift trips, more in-depth looks at vintage collectibles, cookbook and crafting fun, and other goodies every Sunday afternoon...

...Like this week's other new post-- "Dubious Dinners and Riotous Retro Recipes"-- a light-hearted examination of some questionable vintage cooking-- click here. Make sure you leave room for the Frozen Cream Cheese...( or, er, NOT)...

Otherwise, thanks for joining me today, and I hope to see you again on Sunday!