New To The Shop This Week

What's new in the shop this week?? In a nutshell, a big mixture of stuff.

Some of it is more the 'traditional antique shop' kind of item and not usually what we sell, but sometimes we like to broaden our range just a little.

Lets start with some Art Deco celluloid jewellery. This beautiful carved pendant is complete with its original chain.

 

Currently playing the matchy-matchy game with the big green straw hat. 

I'm sure I'm a product of my generation (or perhaps even the previous generation, LOL), but I can't be doing with this wearing-all-different-colours-together-and-thinking-it-looks-great thing. Am I alone on this???

Seriously though, in the 1950s (and earlier), matchy-matchy was how things were done. In addition, people used to keep things for much longer than the average person does now, thus mixing their eras, so in that sense our displays are in keeeping with times past.

Dolly gets to wear this early celluloid 'ball' necklace. I'm a bit jealous of her- I want to keep this one for myself!

Not as old as its looks suggest, this plastic box purse is 70s or 80s. Never mind, I love the style and the colours and I think it's a winner.

Look at the beautiful moulding and hinges....no way was this getting left behind!

And it has the three graces embossed into the lid...lovely.

Now for a bit of lustre ware. Remember the Barsony post I did a while ago? This is another little-known Barsony piece, a lustre ware trough vase. Not worth much, so it's lovely to have on hand for collectors.

Braemore pottery 'Dahlia' wall pocket (vase). Braemore is a well-known Australian pottery and very collectable here.

Lots of collectable old tins. (I'm going through a tin 'thing'. Bear with me okay?). The one you see there with the label almost gone, is a 1930s coffee and chicory tin which still has almost all its contents...but I didn't open it!

More tins, Victorian bottles and a Bushells tea jar. People seem to love this crusty stuff!

An enormous Czech crystal bowl, about 15" high. It makes such a fabulous centrepiece, or imagine it as a punch bowl at your next party.

I'm not one for crystal so much but I do love this, I think I'd use it as a fruit bowl next to my Lewbury stuff in the kitchen.

Greek key depression glass footed bowl by Heisey, ca. 20s/30s

 

Last but not least, a whole lot of old hard cover Enid Blyton and Norman Lindsay books. No matter what their age people love a bit of nostalgia!

Bakelite & Xylonite Restoration - Tutorial

Today I'll show you how to restore vintage plastics...well, bakelite and xylonite anyway. For those not familiar with the name, xylonite is the celluloid that is made to look like ivory. Celluloid is derived from cellulose nitrate, and was invented around 1876. Xylonite came into being not long afterwards but experienced the height of its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s.

I bought this Art Deco bakelite box for resale a little while ago, and while I was pretty happy with it, the top was dirty and dull but the interior still retained its original shine. (I'm very big on original shine with my vintage plastics).

The pic below was taken in full sun held at an angle, so you see how dull it was. (I think it's more noticeable in person though).

First step, to clean it thoroughly. I gave it a quick wipe over with Domestos on a soft sponge. You can use Domestos on most bakelite pieces, but you need to be *quick*. It releases the phenols and dulls the surface so it's a quick wipe and rinse only.

See the dark corner in the picture above? I was so quick that I missed a bit and had to re-do it. Better to do this than be too heavy handed though, as there's no going back.

The corner I missed at another angle. This pic was also taken in full sun- see how much the Domestos bites into the surface.

I then rub this polish in with a clean, soft cotton cloth, using circular motions. This only takes about 3 minutes; nice and quick!

Hey presto, restoration of original shine and completely even colour.

And this is what the interior of the box looks like, which I haven't touched. 

Next piece is a nice 1910s or 20s xylonite tie box. I thought I might be able to clean this up enough to put it on ebay this week, but that turned out not to be the case.

I'm pretty fussy with the vintage plastics I put on ebay now. With xylonite, I like to appeal to the big collectors, and they're getting fussy because they've already bought all the common pieces in average condition.

This view of the side of the box shows the original shine, and this is how the top of the box will look when I've finished with it.

With xylonite you sand back the surface by hand, with this fine steel wool. You need to use grade 0000 only. It comes in this sort of roll. Pull a chunk off and sand along the grain, as if it were timber. It takes quite a bit of work, as this steel wool is very fine and therefore not very strong, but the main thing is that it doesn't scratch into the celluloid.

I then applied the paste polish (above), to restore the shine. This is what I got it back to.

Not good photos as I took them at night, but the remaining spots are more obvious than you can see here.

Overall a great improvement, and if you have a piece thats just a bit stained/dirty this works really well.