First flea market in a very long time

I didn’t’ t go to the flea market in a very long time, maybe since November? It was a cold and busy winter and I didn’t have the energy or the motivation to go, even if it is one of my favorite things to do. But this Sunday was nice and sunny. It was a very good flea market day, with some good finds for my collection, with some relaxing time walking around and looking at stuff and also with some friends met there.
These are the things I have found:
An antique gold plated locket in a very good condition, with the two photos (of mother and sun, maybe) still inside under the clear celluloid). It’s my new favorite from my collection.

An old pocket watch winder that I’ll wear as a pendant.

A glass brooch ( I think it’ from the forties).

This unidentified thing (maybe some fastening for a jacket?). I don’ t know what I’ll use it for, but I liked the acorn like shape and it was very cheap, of course.

An old wood and brass knitting doll for my collection.

And a pretty silver ring.

 

Pocket watch and ephemera

These were some finds from a quick visit to the flea market yesterday. A notebook from 1909 that has illustrations for each month and two ethereal old photos.

A gold plated old chain.

A tiny knot ring that goes so well with my Art deco sapphire eternity ring.

And a pocket watch case, without the watch itself. I plan on fixing the cover that is not closing anymore and use it as an oversized locket. It is silver and very beautifully engraved and I really like the small character with a bird. The other silver watch case, with the acorn and leaves, is an old flea market find also.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays and Vintage Charm parties.

 

8th of March

Some of my happiest childhood memories are about the visits we would make with our primary school class to different factories in the city. Getting to see how everyday objects, like textiles or books or bread is made, seeing the machines and the smiling workers and feeling that everything and everyone has a place, a role and a purpose in this world. My memories of the socialist factories I visited as a child are as clean and dignified and serene as these staged propaganda photos from the eighties, even if this was only a reality filtered through my child eyes. And also, the reality of women workers included very much the third image. Most of them were the ones whose care work exclusively supported their houses and families (and they still are). And this was never as playful and without contradictions as in this magazine page.

The images are scanned from issues of Femeia (The Woman) magazine from the early and mid eighties.

Happy 8th of March to everyone identifying as women!

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.

Leningrad slides

These slides are a flee market find from a while ago. I think they are from the sixties or seventies and they were used in schools, for history class. They are about WWII. Images of war in the city, tanks, ships, people looking at the lists of dead and wounded, poverty. I don’t understand what all the images represent, besides the general horror of war. The meaning of some of them is completely mysterious to me.

I think I would have looked at these images with a totally different state of mind as a kid, when all these were sad and heroic history that led to a safe and stable present. (Of course that this safety was not everyone’s experience back then also). These were images of the war against fascism, part of a history of heroism and sacrifice that led to a better present.

Now, images of war and destruction are so much part of a hopeless present (even if not in my immediate vicinity).

I photographed a few of the slides, choosing the ones that are the most enigmatic to me, the most indirectly bleak, the ones that still hold in them a hint of hope.

Old cards and photos

I had a great time at the flea market yesterday, with lots of nice finds that I’ll show in the next days. These is an assortment of old cards and photos that I paid less than 2 euros for.

My favorite is this funny card written in October 1905, in Bucharest, by a guy to his dear cousin Adeline, assuring her of his devotion. But he also says Honny soit qui mal y pense (the card is written in French, like people who would want to think of themselves as being well mannered would write at that time in Romania). So, he wanted to say that his affection is purely platonic, I guess.

This is another love card, but a more committed love this time. This is a really crazy late seventies card, sent out by a girl to a guy in August 1980. She writes: “Oh, how beautiful it will be the moment of our reunion. Sweet kisses.”

I have also found some old photos. This studio photo is from the late thirties, I think.

Some real snow in this one:

These ballerinas are from France (there is a photo studio stamp on the back).

A street photo of a handsome guy. (I have written about a similar photo here).

And finally a type of photo I want to collect more of, an image of workers in the factory, in the seventies, maybe. Or was this taken earlier? No inscription on the back, unfortunately.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays and Vintage Charm parties.

Excuses

This guy apologizes to a woman named Luiza for not visiting her during his vacation and promises to visit her next time. The stamp on the back says this card was sent on the 9th of July 1924. Luiza is married (the card is sent to her husband’s name). Maybe this guy is a cousin? A friend? The tone is kind of formal (or at least this is how my limited Hungarian knowledge makes me see it) but could he be a secret (and uncommitted) lover?

Looking at me

I don’t buy so many antique photos anymore (I always see them and I prefer to be more selective lately) but I really liked her.

Slide

It’s Bucharest, I think, sometimes in the sixties, maybe? So empty and strange and nostalgic. I have found this slide at the flee market, in a box of junk.

Painted backgrounds and a real one

Some photos from my collection. I think they are more or less from the same time period (end of the nineteenth century, first decade of the twentieth century) with the exception of the smoking young man which is dated in pencil on the back 1930. The one with the two women and two boys is from a studio in Buenos Aires, so strange for it to end up here, in my collection. The woman in the ruffled dress, holding a book is from a studio in Timisoara, with an Art Noveau logo. The woman from the country side and her children are photographed, most probably, in front of their house.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays and Thriftasaurus.

Doll

This funny postcard is from the seventies or early eighties (it used to be in my childhood collection but I don’t know who are the people who wrote a formal note of spring good wishes on the back). I used to have dolls similar to the one in the photo and I can say they were much less creepy in reality :).

Linking up with Vintage Bliss Tuesdays.