I drove to a local antique shop yesterday; a little treat for myself after a tough week. I chose this shop because my friend Sydney, of Fox Run Antiques, had posted on IG a few weeks back that she had some putz sheep in her booth there. Sydney has booths at three shops I frequent, and her booth at another shop is where I found the egg cup cubby cabinet. Sometime I will walk around the cottage and note the items I’ve found in her booths. There are several.
By the way, I took photos of a few of my favorite items in the shop, which is called Clinton Shops, and they’re on my Instagram Stories for another three hours or so.
When I first found her booth, I didn’t see the putz sheep, and I was ready to kick myself as I thought I’d waited too long. But then I found them in a small glass cabinet. I stood there for the longest time, looking at each one, examining every detail, contemplating which one I’d eventually choose. I walked away. I came back. I walked away again. Then I made my choice. It was this guy:
He’s so fluffy! And he has his original bell.
He has a sweet face. Often, vintage putz sheep, which are quite fragile, have some imperfections or damage. There is missing paint on one of the eyes. The ends of the ears have broken off.
That just makes them more precious to me.
Sometimes the coat is matted after years of use, but this one isn’t.
As I said on Instagram, the problem is that I want to rescue them all. I was surprised by how many were still there. They need a home! I can’t afford to rescue all of them, but maybe a couple more? This is the way I am, as you know. That’s why I have two rescued dolls sitting on top of the cabinet in the office. I couldn’t bear the fact that they didn’t have a home.
Even if I rescue more of the sheep, I’ll feel bad for the ones I leave behind. I guess I’m a little crazy that way.
Here he is on the shelf. You’ll note that the sheep on the left is newer – you can tell by the look of the wool used for his coat. I’ll take a picture of the entire shelf later today. Right now, all the sheep are lined up, but my dream is to have a whole flock of them, filling up the entire shelf.
I got a few other treasures, all of them $10 or less.
Another putz house. I love the front steps! This one has a back stamp on the bottom:
Manufactured by the Dolly Toy Company, Tippecanoe City, Ohio. That company started out as the Dolly Folding Kite Company in 1923. Then it became Dolly Kite and Toy, and eventually Dolly Toy Company in 1951. They started making these houses and indeed, whole holiday villages, in 1952.
I long ago sold my collection of Fiesta. I retained several pieces at the time, pieces that I couldn’t bear to give up. Lately, I’ve been missing my Fiesta and earlier this year, I acquired a compote from one of my readers – the exact same design and color I used to have back in Cambridge. Yesterday, I spotted the vintage salt and pepper shakers in yellow – only $10 – so I grabbed them.
I’m only interested in the original colors – the original line – not the more recent lines. I’m a purist about Fiesta. Of course, I can only buy smaller pieces. I only have so much room here. That gives me an idea: I’ll share pictures of the pieces I didn’t sell back in the nineties. A future post!
I’ve just started collecting butter pats in the past few years. I have maybe 11 or 12 of them, but this is the first transferware butter pat that I’ve found. I love brown transferware and this is a lovely design. It was only $3! Butter pats are a great thing to collect if you live in a small space and have limited room. (I think I spy a potato chip crumb on the pat!)
A lovely couple of hours at the shop. I’m so glad I took the time to visit. An antique shop and/or a book shop are my favorite places to grab some quiet ‘me’ time.
I also put up the outdoor lights yesterday. I love them.
I’m taking it easy today, as I’m really exhausted. I think I’ll hang out here and start to decorate the dollhouses.
Happy Saturday.
Claudia, we’re in between rains, so I’m going to do a quick walk soon. I, too, have trouble choosing among a group of items, especially animal items. I imagine the ones that I didn’t choose looking at me with mournfulness, wondering why I didn’t choose them. It’s especially difficult when I go to the local rescue association to adopt a cat! That’s how I ended up bringing three home!
I don’t remember if you ever talked about “putz” items in general. Can you tell me what they are, why they are categorized as putz etc. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them where I live but probably because I don’t look for them?
There’s a link in yesterday’s comments for an article about Putz houses. See Sylvia’s comment, Wendy. They’re everywhere, but as a rule, only around this time of year. Thanks, Wendy.
Claudia, I have two of those putz sheep too. I paid a lot, but it was a booth at an antique show and items are generally higher at shows. The booth was a mix of old, new and artsy stuff. I now suspect they may not be old. I love them anyway! I love your antique posts!
Thank you, Judy! I’m glad you have some of these treasures!
Your sheep are adorable! I once bought a reindeer hot water bottle cover/pyjamas case as I couldn’t bear for him to be left on his own in the January sales and I was in my 40s!
I know we are nearing the Winter Solstice but I feel like there’s hardly been any daylight today. Sunrise was about 8:15 a.m. and Sunset began about 3:45 p.m.
Happy Saturday
Same here. Sunset was around 3:30 here today. I’ll be glad when we pass Winter Solstice and start to add a little extra light to the day! Thanks, Dee Dee.
Your sheep is adorable…I can understand why you couldn’t leave him. Or is it a her? I don’t think I’ve ever seen putz sheep or houses around here either. Is that an eastern seaboard thing?
You deserve a reward after the difficult week you’ve had. So….go ahead….go back and get a couple more. After all…you don’t want those other putz sheep languishing on the shelf, do you? Your welcome! ;)
No. I bought my first putz sheep in California! They’re everywhere, but you’re more likely to see them around Christmas.
Thanks, Donna!
Ok..,that explains it. I usually stay way from antique places during Christmas. ;)
xo
I love today’s post; every single part! Where do I start, the dear-dear-DEAR putz sheep. Absolutely adorable. I want you to march right back there and get the rest of the sheep, Claudia. You must! It’s your flock!
And what a treasure, this particular putz house, with the stamped info. It’s as old as I am and that’s getting pretty-darned old. (Now, Vicki, don’t say that; we’re only as old as we feel, right?
Saying this as I nurse a sore leg and two sore hands from taking a nasty spill last night…IN MY OWN HOUSE. Only Vicki falls UP steps rather than down them. Ow.)
I never knew about butter pats til you.
Fiesta. So ‘heart’ Fiestaware. We never had it in our family (my first family/childhood). We were more Franciscanware people because it was local to Los Angeles (I’m nuts over all the SoCalif ‘days of old’ ceramics/earthenware, pottery, tile, etc.; was a HUGE industry here back in the day [several decades]; I have a TON of Desert Rose Franciscan from the 1940s-50s that belonged to an aunt; made in Calif; then I also have the newer pieces made in England…and my husband HATES all of it; sigh; hard to believe that Desert Rose is now-today made in China [I love that Fiesta is still made here in the U.S.]; my good friend’s sister collects the Franciscan apple pattern and another aunt of mine had shelf after shelf of the Franciscan ivy but it was all lost to estate auction by a really-mean Trustee who kept the family away from everything).
I can see where the art deco of Fiestaware appeals to your aesthetic; whereas with me it’s the Fiesta colors for which I go crazy (but clearly you loved all aspects of the line, or you wouldn’t have amassed a lot of it, lucky you[!!]; must have been so hard to give up your collection; we do what we have to do at the time; I usually always regret things I’ve moved along, even human houses). I wish I had one piece of Fiesta in every single color, vintage or new, but I’ve just never made the investment. I know they have a website where they sell single pieces. I do have a blue teapot that I bought new, about 20 years ago. (Isn’t your yellow pretty! Sunny, cheery colorway.) I think with vintage, you do have to be careful about serving food in the reds (radioactive!) but all the other Fiesta colors(?) are ‘safe’ (you probably don’t put food or liquid in any of yours anyway, right? [Are for display only.]).
Thanks for sharing all your terrific finds; Claudia scores again!
hej, vicki …
sorry to hear you are hurting. hope you take it easy and feel better soon!
kathy in iowa
oh, thanks, kathy; you know what they say about accidents in the home…
…and then my husband caught his bare foot on one of the legs of the sofa last night and his own toe is black & blue this morning…
…there must be something in the water(!)…
oh, no!
hope you both heal quickly!
kathy in iowa
I’m fine now, Kathy!
Oh, it’s both the Art Deco and the colors – the colors appealed to me all along. I have a beautiful platter in red (which is really orange, not red) but I don’t use it. I don’t use any of it. It’s a collection. But the reports of it being radioactive were debunked many years ago.
I’m so sorry to hear of your fall, Vicki! I had one of those a few weeks ago and I came out of it sore and with a temporarily jammed finger. Take care of yourself, my friend!
Thanks, Claudia. I always worry you’re going to lose your footing in all that snow and ice! I’ve become the ‘old lady’ who, when out and about, is trying to remember to CAREFULLY walk on rain-washed pavement/parking lots, looking down, looking down(!), watch where I’m going…but ‘they’ say we ARE supposed to slow down to indeed prevent falls, so…needs to also apply to inside and around the house/yard (I was rushing to catch a phone call I didn’t want to miss; next time, take the phone with you, Vicki!). I can remember when a young adult and on my first full-time office job how I’d RUN up the two flights of stairs, taking two at a time if I could; or, when exercising and my asthma would allow it, running up the bleacher stairs at the football stadium! Those were the days…
We are very careful, but I was coming out of the shed and walking down the ramp and it turned out to be slippery. There wasn’t any snow or ice yet, so it was unexpected. We’re going to paint them with something that makes them non-slippery.
It’s good there’s a product out there to make it not slippery! I wonder if they have something like that which is used on a boat deck…
Probably!
you found so many great things … and at great prices! that little sheep and putz house are especially sweet.
after your tough week, i am glad you gave yourself time to go to a favorite shop (i enjoy wandering around bookstores and antique shops, too … even if i don’t buy anything).
if your budget agrees with your heart, i hope you go back and get the other sheep.
is the store open tomorrow? :)
happy weekend!
kathy in iowa
Yes it is. Maybe I’ll persuade Don to go with me! There’s a vintage camera there that I think he’d like. Thanks, Kathy!
I admire how well curated your collections are. You have a lot of knowledge about each set of items and look for special pieces. You’re very sweet about the herd of sheep that you must leave behind. I’m sure each one has its own quirky charm. I think you got a real beauty!! My aunt who never had children but loved them used to buy me dolls or knickknacks with kids on them every time I visited her even as I was into my 40s. It tickled me because when I shopped with her, I knew she looked at every example on the shelves for the ones with the dearest expressions, no wonky eyes, no sour smiles, checks that were just the right kind of rosy. It was an exquisite feeling to know how much special attention she gave to each perfect little human-like or animal-like gift. Thanks for reminding me of her.
I love researching, so I do a lot of it when it comes to the things I collect. I just want to know about them!
Such a lovely memory of your aunt, Nora!
I agree with Nora. I’ve learned a lot from you, Claudia. You’ve introduced me to things that I didn’t even know were collectable (or even what they ARE). You are always well-informed about your collections.
Question for you: I know you are deadset on vintage because that’s your quest and love; you want authenticity and purity of the item, and that’s important. I wanted that for my little cottage on the hill which needed to be brought into the 21st century but it wasn’t often possible, so I had to renovate rather than restore, mixing thoughtful repro with vintage for the home. When it comes to your collections and home decor, especially at Christmas, do you ever settle for repro? I do remember when you got the little repro-jadeite for the doll house, from Michael’s. (I went right out and I think got the LAST one they had on the shelf; they were perfect.)
The reason I ask is that for all your efforts on the blog (interesting reading from you, faithful/daily postings; cyber friendship!), I often want to send you something (thanks in return), but I can never find vintage the way you do; I often also don’t have enough knowledge to even spot what’s vintage. Lots of egg cups, but they’re repro. Lots of miniatures; again, repro. Tons of Christmas stuff in the stores; repro.
So, your thoughts about mixing it up? When will you take repro as second best, on what, say, doll house items or your Christmas vignettes around the human home? (Did you ever much use the Squint Box repros for the doll houses? But what am I saying, you’ve gone to the doll house shows and bought currently-crafted items, true? I’m probably not making sense on what I’m trying to say! You’ve got authentic vintage doll houses but their furnishings are probably mostly vintage-like as opposed to true vintage.)
I just don’t want to send you something you wouldn’t want or use.
And by the way, because you’re a true collector, you HAVE to be a sort of purist, I get that; and it’s not easy. You have to really, really search for things. And so much of the time it’s indeed the timing. I recently searched and searched for a snow man that we had in the family when I was growing up; papier mache, covered a whiskey bottle for the Kentucky Tavern brand; I’m making a dedicated effort to find one as they’re out there in various conditions; I’ve googled them; it’s just that some are really ratty like ours got (after all, made of paper and upwards of 70 years old now [not everything lasts]).
We also had the Santas made in West Germany (more like early 1960s) which were called the Herwi Bobblehead. They stood on a table and the body cavity was filled with wrapped candies; you could get them at Woolworth’s. They’re out there; just gotta find ’em. Cody Foster has reproduced one bobblehead this year but it’s like $50+ or something. (There’s lots of Cody Foster at Target and Amazon; is pricey repro, though; putz houses, putz trees, etc.) Again, these original bobbleheads (they’re like 8-10 inches tall) were, back in their era, essentially cardboard and a hard plastic (face), so they could get bashed in over the years with an active family. But I want one and I’ll eventually get one, repro or real. I just shudder to think what my folks got rid of when they thought something got tattered and was no longer ‘pretty’; ah, well…
A lot of us are nostalgic baby boomers at this age!
But, again, your thoughts on what you accept as repro in your home/doll-house/Christmas decorating? Readers want to give you things; I love seeing what they send you. I owe you big thanks for this blog and your kindness all year long, year after year. I don’t know when it would be/how soon, but I’d love to sometime surprise you with some-little-something in gratitude as do your other readers, Claudia. You deserve it.
We have to clarify repro and vintage. Most people don’t use vintage dollhouse furniture because scale varied wildly and it’s hard to find good vintage pieces. I have almost no interest in vintage dollhouse pieces. Rather, I like pieces that evoke a certain style, are true to scale, and are well made. That almost always means they’re not vintage. They may be made to look like vintage pieces of furniture – that’s an entirely different thing. The only pieces that I have that would be classified as vintage are the Petite Princess pieces made by Ideal in the 60s. I use some of them in my houses, but not all of them, because they aren’t quite to scale. Several readers have sent me vintage Petite Princess, so I think of them as a separate collection.
Almost everything I collect, however, IS vintage. McCoy Pottery, Roseville Pottery, miniature pottery like my Shawnee miniatures, vintage china, bakelite, and most of my egg cups are by definition Vintage because they were only made during a specific time period. And I’m rigorous about the provenance of those pieces. I can spot a fake McCoy or Roseville piece a mile away. Most of my egg cups are figural in nature. Figural egg cups are still being made, but they don’t have the look of the older pieces, and again, I can spot them a mile away. I do buy some newer egg cups – the Beatles egg cups and the Emma Bridgewater egg cups that I bought in London last year – but only if they’re quite specific and evoke a memory. Otherwise, vintage.
Christmas tree decorations are mostly vintage because I started to collect vintage ornaments about 12 or 13 years ago. They reminded me of my childhood and I was working part time at my friend Heidi’s shop. Heidi had a vast collection of vintage ornaments that she sold in the store – a separate room just for Christmas – and I started to pick them up one at a time. I also found boxes of Shiny Brites while antiquing. Now, except for a few ornaments found in my early twenties, it’s almost all vintage. The big bottlebrush ornaments are made to look vintage.
Hope this explains it!
Okay, yes, good explanation; I’m so untrained in a lot of it. I’ll tuck all this away for reference. I do remember, if I really put my brain into it, that my doll house was metal and the furniture/people were plastic; so, not really very desirable! This was 1950s.
Bethany Lowe puts out good-quality, reproduction, vintage-inspired Christmas decorations. I love some of her stuff. It can be expensive.
Can you email me your mailing/shipping address? My email address hasn’t changed from when you and I had an email exchange in a previous year. I had your addresses once then, of course (when I’d sent you the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys puzzles, too), but I’ve misplaced them. (I have a lot of probs with my home computer and haven’t been successful in using your mail icon on the blog; it’s me, not you.)
Thanks, Claudia.
I had a metal dollhouse as a kid, too.
Thanks, Vicki.