Since this is the last fresh to market vintage post before Thanksgiving, it’s time for our annual post encouraging you to think beyond Christmas-specific decor and use what you have. You don’t need a Christmas tin to fill with antique mercury glass ornaments for a feather tree, you can fill a Teenie Weenie peanut butter tin and it will look awesome. You don’t need a Christmas vase to fill with greens and berries, a McCoy wall pouch will serve brilliantly.
Now is the time to summon forth those vintage planters or milk glass or galvanized or grocery tins or baskets that are yearlong workhorses and give them a chance to shine with fairy lights, ornaments, greens, kneehugger elves, spun cotton angels and whatever else you have hidden in your Christmas stash.
That’s not to say we don’t think you should shop for Christmas decor, of course you should. But don’t overlook the useful decor staples you have around every day. Your guests will be impressed with your creative use.
We hope you’re impressed with this week’s fresh to market vintage…
Monarch “Teenie Weenie” Peanut Butter Tin c.1926
Another piece of vintage packaging that survived after the contents were long gone. This tin once held a pound of peanut butter that was sold by the Reid Monarch Co. in 1926. The date is known because the pail is decorated with the darling characters from William Donahey’s “The Teenie Weenies” comic strip. Inspired by Palmer Cox’s “The Brownies,”,the strip began in 1914 and ran in the Chicago Tribune for over 50 years. It was temporarily discontinued in 1924, so Donahey sold the rights to the characters to be used in advertising Monarch food products…hence the key to the date.
Vintage Monarch Peanut Butter Tin, $75
-Linda, Selective Salvage
Victorian Agate & Pinchbeck Bracelet
Victorian jewelry is often highly decorative and complex. This agate and pinchbeck bracelet is in contrast to that. The polished agate stones and simple bicone beads may have been an early student or apprentice piece. The stones and pinchbeck beads are a bit rough in shape and the plain style isn’t in keeping with the fanciful style we think of throughout the era. Nonetheless, this bracelet is very much early Victorian in its materials. Agate was very popular at the time as was pinchbeck, which was only in use up to the 1840s.
Agate and Pinchbeck bracelet, $125.95
-Pam, Vintage Renude
McCoy Letter Box Wall Pocket
This wall pocket was made in the 1950s and pays homage to the U.S. mail delivery system. I love the color and the design. The fact that it is a wall pocket allows you to make a more delicate flower or greenery arrangement and then hang it on the wall to keep little hands from disturbing it and also free up table space during the busy holiday season. Speaking of mail, when I was a child we would get seasonal cards from relatives near and far and put them on the tv set to display and to admire. This reminds me to send out some Christmas cards or note cards to reconnect in the old-fashioned way. Will you join me in brightening up someone’s day by using the mail in such a cheerful and loving way? Happy Thanksgiving!
McCoy Wall Pocket, $78.99
-Mary Ellen, AuntHattiesAttic
1950s Corning tableware cups
These milk glass with fired on red border cups by Corning tableware scream vintage restaurant ware. They have been elusive to track down, eventually I found them on Replacements.com, a site to which many vintage dealers owe a debt of gratitute for their extensive inventory. One wonders where their saucers went, how came they to go skittering into the world bottomless. But none the less, they would be awesome on the table as a fruit bowl or to serve dessert. Pair them up with an Anchor Hocking forest green or ruby red saucer and you would have a thing happening.
Red and Milk Glass Corning Tableware Cups, $36.
–Laurie, NextStage Vintage
As the year accelerates towards the new year, we hope you take time to relax and enjoy each day. A celebration doesn’t need to be a festival of stress, although it often becomes one unless you put a harness on it and tell it to “whoa the heck down.” We have some ideas for things to do after Thanksgiving that don’t involve the mall.
One thing you can do is subscribe to our newsletter. One email a week with every post–consider each one an invitation to sit down, have a cuppa and catch your breath, which we hope you are doing as you read this fresh to market vintage post.
