Let’s not pretend that the past eight months have been anywhere near normal. All my favorite shopping events were cancelled, and day to day antique and vintage shopping has been difficult. Still I persevered and made a few well-protected trips into those wonderous spaces called antique malls. Here’s a look at what I did not buy.
I love vintage packaging, and had there been a little dog on a leash helping with the Christmas shopping, I would have bought this.
This was just sad. I found the perfect slippers but in a child size.
This is a vintage picnic hamper. I’ve been wanting one for quite a while, but I just can’t seem to find just the right piece. Someday…
There might have been treasure in this box, but I just didn’t have the patience to sort it all out.
I guess I could have used that sportswear sign.
This ready-made collection of eyeglasses surely delighted some reseller who knew these were a bargain at around $12 a pair.
Somehow the thought of cleaning my face with a substance that comes out of what looks like a Comet scouring powder container is not very appealing.
The temptation was real, but so was the fact that I do not need another Scottie bookshelf.
Technically, this quilt was not for sale. It’s part of an old stuff display in a roadside tourist trap. But the applique elephants were just too good not to share.
Sorry about the quality of this photo, but I hope you can tell this is a 1920s salesman’s sample box with an ice skating scene.It’s from Detmer Woolens, and I have a similar box featuring a beach scene. Had this one been in color, I would have bought it.
I’ll let these 1960s boots speak for themselves, and what they are saying is, “I am fabulous!”
So many wonderful vintage posters; so little wall space.
The Vintage Traveler 
Such a great display of what you didn’t buy! I don’t think I could have resisted those boots, though!
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I really tried to find an excuse to buy them!
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I was missing you (seriously) earlier this a m – and here you are! Such a treat to excursion with you. So sorry the slippers did not fit! Do you hunt / pick weekdays or schedule around favorite haunt business hours? “sportswear” -I do not think the current “fashion” industry knows what that is? Lerner Shops is certainly a blast from the past. The antique malls are obsolete here as with anything reminiscent of the past. My friend (interior designer) in DC tells me the charity shops are filled with vintage fine china / silver / vases -it seems the “new order” has deemed totally undesirable! Disposable rules?! A sign of our current social disorder – worth investigating? History repeating itself?
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I have been going on weekday mornings when there aren’t many people about.
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“Another Scottie bookshelf”?! Someday I will have to make an in-person visit to BAM (Bramlett Archive and Museum).
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You would be amazed!
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I have a friend who doesn’t like antiques because they can give off negative vibrations (or something like that). I can’t imagine thinking that way about my beloved old antiques and my bits of what is mostly “women’s material culture” (!)
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She is a victim of Bad Vibes Jive. I’m with you!
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What a wonderful curation of things-that-caught-your-eye-but-not-your-pocketbook!
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I’m glad you enjoyed them.
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I so envy you the antique malls and the fabulous finds in them–here in the San Francisco Bay Area they are mostly obsolete, killed off by ebay, etsy and 1stdibs.
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