A few weeks ago, we changed our window display at Antiques On Broadway (from the back to school theme) to reflect the seasonal changes. Now the window features items to create a vintage and nostalgic holiday season, with a heavy emphasis on the kitchen, cooking, and baking. (Because no matter which holidays you celebrate, food is a part of it!)

vintage kitchen window fair oaks antiques

Our case there also received a holiday touch, including the holiday centerpiece made from an old wooden drawer.

rustic holiday centerpiece

At Exit 55 Antiques, we’ve brought in a lot of vintage holiday Christmas ornaments. Some decorate the little tree in our booth space; lots more can be found in our case display too. (Keep an eye on our Facebook page for more as well!)

vintage ornaments from fair oaks antiques

In other news…

We continue to update at Inherited Values and Deanna’s been writing about “odd” collectibles (Part One, Part Two) for Collector Perspectives.

We no longer have a permanent Milwaukee location; so watch for lots of mid-century modern to hit our Etsy shop!

vintage and retro christmas ornaments on tree

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Just some of the old brown glass milk bottles we have available for sale.

vintage borden's and devine's dairy brown glass milk bottles

Like beer bottles, these bottles were made of brown or amber glass to protect the contents from the deterioration of sunlight.

vintage brown glass milk bottle

Glass milk bottles are not too common; and these amber ones are even more rare. They have neat old dairy advertising too.

Currently, the collection of these (and many other glass bottles) is at Antiques On Broadway.

vintage glass milk bottles advertisng collectibles

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One of the rather spectacular items in our Back To School window display at Antiques On Broadway is this vintage set of Science Charts by A. J. Nystrom & Company of Chicago.

vintage science wall chart set back to school window history

Consisting of 16 double-sided flip charts (bound in a metal mounting), each page is heavily illustrated with a different science lesson for classroom instruction. (Like those pull-down wall maps most of us have seen in school; only this is a multi-page flip-chart style educational piece.)

vintage A J Nystrom & Co Science charts

The authors of this Science Chart series are: Ira C. Davis, Professor in The Teaching of Science, University of Wisconsin, and Head of the Science Department, University of Wisconsin High School, and Leroy E. Smith, Head of the Science Department, South High School, Omaha, Nebraska.

Each lithographed page measures roughly 38 by 50 inches.

If interested, please contact us or the shop directly at (701) 451-9111 as we will ship in the USA. [See also: vintage Hammond’s Clear-Relief Wall Atlas and our vintage W. & A. K. Johnston’s Unrivaled Series pull-down school wall map of the eastern hemisphere (circa 1925 – 1935).]

vintage educational school wall science charts

vintage properties of air school science chart

UPDATE 12/2/2013: Since revamping our window at Antiques On Broadway for the holidays, the maps have moved to our Etsy shop (and the links updated too).

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Just a darling little vintage (nearly antique; circa 1930s) carved wooden cuckoo clock from Germany (or Austria) — just look at the the clock face framed by a pair of gnomes!

1930s cuckoo clock

old german austrian cuckoo clock with gnomes

Measures 10 inches tall; 9 inches wide (at the widest point of the roof), 5 inches deep.

And, as you will see & hear, it sure does work!

This old cuckoo clock is for sale, with a price of $200. It is currently on the wall in our booth space at Exit 55 Antiques in Fergus Falls, MN. We *will* ship! If you are interested, contact us or call the antique shop at 218.998.3088. (The shop is open daily between 10 am and 5 pm, central time.)

vintage antique cuckoo clock

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While hubby and I thrill to go pickin’ for antiques in barns, there’s more than a little work involved in dealing with the not-so-nice side of “farm fresh”.

“Farm fresh” really is an oxymoron; for the reality is that these items are typically covered in all sort of “ick” — like bird and animal droppings, spider webs, and other things that make the layer (or two) of good old-fashioned dirt seem heavenly. *wink* Since I’ve just spent the past two days restoring some “farm fresh” finds (and rather spectacular ones at that — antique wooden school desk sets!), I thought it would be a good time to talk about just how to properly clean, care for, and restore antique wooden pieces.

It is important to note that when I say “restore”, I don’t mean “refinishing” these pieces. Like most collectors, we prefer to bring pieces back to life — while maintaining the patina and other signs of their former lives. Whether your antique and vintage furniture and other wooden items are covered in “farm fresh” filth or just need a little clean-up, here’s how you can gently take care of them.

As you can see, these old children’s school desk sets looked like they came out of a barn.

farm fresh dirty antique school desks

To remove the first layer of “crud”, you’ll want to “power wash” with the lawn hose. Stand a few feet away, and let the water spray away the cobwebs, leaves, dirt, clumps of bird poo, etc. Turn the piece over, so that you can get beneath it. This will remove a lot of the surface dirt, as well as stuff that’s hiding in nooks, crannies, and crevices.

antique wooden school desks

Unfortunately, that’s the easiest part. There’s lots more to do yet. And there’s nothing left to do but do it! *wink*

While the piece is still wet, fill a bucket with warm water, add some Murphy’s Oil Soap, and scrub with a rag. While the manufacturer does not recommend using Murphy’s Oil Soap on unfinished or unsealed wood (and with these old pieces, lots of the original finishes have been stripped or have just plain worn away), we’ve never had any problems. As with anything, test a small area first — especially if you have a painted piece of furniture, or one with decals.

At this point, you’ve probably got a bucket full of mud — and furniture that still isn’t clean. So you’ll need another bucket full of clean warm water and Murphy Oil Soap. Only this time, you’ll want to use one of those cleaning sponges with a non-scratching scrubby-side. (For projects like these, we recycle all the sponges which have been spent cleaning around the house.) Use the sponge to scrub off more stubborn dirt, going with the grain of the wood.

Now, you’ll want to let the pieces dry to be better able to evaluate them. (Plus, your arms will want the rest!)

Once completely dried, we discovered that these desks had been used as tables for painting projects — or at least to hold one of the paint cans, for there was a giant ring of paint and several large splashes of paint too. (Likely lead-based too.) So we had to make a choice and we opted to lightly sand away the offensive paint stains. Then it was one more wash with another bucket of diluted Murphy’s Oil Soap; this time using the soft side of the sponge to go with the wood grain.

After the desks and chairs had completely dried again, we were left with what nearly looked like bone-dry, but spotted, wood that had been left in the desert. Once again, we had to make a choice. While we do adore the charms of worn wood, this was too-worn looking; so we opted to liven it up a bit. But just a bit. While oil can darken or even blacken stained wood, we felt oil was better than wax in this particular case. (With finer pieces, you’ll probably want to use a paste wax. And if you have a lot of different types of antiques you want to treat, Renaissance Wax Polish can be used on lots of other surfaces. And, again, always test in a small, inconspicuous area first.) In the case of these antique school desks, we applied Old English Lemon Oil. Twice. The first coat was rubbed in, left overnight, then another coat was rubbed in the next day. This was the final result:

oiled antique school desks chairs

I think they turned-out quite lovely; even if I do say so myself!

I just love the patina on the one desk with the fancier (older) iron legs — complete with whatever remains of the green stain used and, most charming of all, the old carvings former students had made in the desk top.

names carved into antique wooden school desk

And this is how they look in the “back to school” window display at Antiques On Broadway, here in Fargo:

antique wooden school desks window fargo antiques on broadway

Now let’s talk about taking care of your antique furniture.

Beware the orange oil cleaners, especially for every day use. We can tell you from painful personal experience that those cleaners stripped the finish clear off an antique five-leg table in less than a year. For every day cleaning, use a damp towel with a mild soap — and, with a soft clean cloth, buff dry thoroughly. Wax or oil only when the shine has really left, which is likely once or twice a year.

 

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On Monday, we updated our case at Antiques On Second, in Milwaukee, WI (here’s a map). We added lots of mid-century mod items, and we’ll post photos of individual gems on our Facebook page in the next few days (so be sure to “like” us so you won’t miss the pics!). For now, you can click the image below to see a much larger view.

Our case is #95, located on the third floor of the shop. It’s easy to find our case: get off the elevator, turn right & walk a few steps to the desk and the case is there on the left!

fair oaks antiques mod case in milwaukee

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I don’t like to throw anything out, if I can help it. I suppose that’s true of most lovers of vintage items and antiques… Many of these “old used things” can go on to live another life — if you can only see what they can be!

Sometimes, however, no matter how inspired I am, I just don’t have the time to make the things I see in my mind’s eye; those things we put up for sale. Like these antique wooden organ pieces. Wouldn’t they make great birdhouses? These are available at Exit 55 Antiques (Fergus Falls, MN).

antique wooden pieces from an organ

(More photos of these on our Facebook page.)

And these old spigots and turn-handles make lovely sculptural flowers — that last long after Summer has come & gone. These can be found in our space at Antiques On Broadway (Fargo, ND). (Another photo of these is also on our Facebook page.)

vintage outdoor faucet handles

If you have the inclination to get crafty and repurpose these beauties, contact the stores — or us, and we can get them to you!

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We’ve taken additional space at Antiques On Broadway (Fargo, ND): the big storefront window! Right now we’re showing off some lovely primitive antiques — perfect for the garden, mancave, and your rustic rooms. Taking photos of the outside of such large glass windows is more difficult than I thought! But here’s on scene from the street, featuring an antique cultivator, lots of old galvanized things to plant in, a collection of vintage soda pop bottles, and a enameled vegetable draw from a refrigerator which makes a very cool planter.

antiques on broadway window full of primitives fargo

And here’s a section of the window as it appears from the inside, when you are near the sales counter. In this photo you can clearly see the antique
Heinrich beer crate, the old Pepsi bottle cap crate, vintage Ford truck hubcaps, and a few other assorted rustic (and rusty) pieces, such as vintage bike wheels and spigots.

primitive antiques and vintage fair oaks antiques at fargo

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We’ve been busy sorting through the tens of thousands of antique and vintage photographs we have amassed over the years.

antique and vintage photos

Since we are collectors first, we’re pulling a number of them out for our own collections (and trying to organize them). But we just cannot continue to save (hoard) them all — not properly, anyway. That’s a lot of space and archival materials! So the rest we are going to part with.

wehaveyourcollectibles antique vintage photos

Some we will placing up for sale in our Etsy shop. (We also have some sets of photos available in our “crafty” Etsy shop partnership for use in collages and other altered arts.) And we are making some of these old images available as products in the Zazzle shop we share with some artsy folks.

The sorting, scanning, pricing, organizing, etc. is no simple task. We’ve been doing this for days already and have barely made a dent! In other words, watch this space — and the other spaces we linked to, to see the results as they come in. And if you’re looking for something special, don’t hesitate to ask us!

fair oaks antiques antique vintage photographs

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More photos of great things we just brought in for sale at Exit 55 Antiques in Fergus Falls, MN, that I just love. The feature of this little set-up is the antique child’s chair. Details on the chair can be found here. Other special pieces include the antique doily holder, a ceramic black poodle bank, a smokey-colored glass decanter, a floral tin, catalog or salesman’s cards for Italian lamps, and those theatre pieces from a production of The Nerd. As always, if interested in anything shown here you can contact us here; call me, Deanna, directly at (701) 306-6145; or call the shop directly at (218) 998-3088. And keep an eye on our Facebook page for more photos of our antiques and collectibles.

antique child's chair and pieces

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