Unique Items

Unique Antiques: World War I Era Wooden Peg Leg Auburn, Alabama

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There is nothing like unique antiques! People often ask me what is the weirdest or most unique item I’ve ever ran across.

In some ways I hate that question because there are so many favorites and it is hard to pick just one. However, I also love it because it always leads to a fun conversation.

I would be insane not to mention my samarai sword taken from a Japanese officer at Iwo Jima by Colonel Rawlinson. How could I miss an opportunity to chat about my 1905 catchers mask or my 1950′s Auburn University Freshman rat cap. Last year I picked a sterling silver cigarette box given to General Robert Knapp inscribed to him by the first man to fly over the Andes Mountains in a hot air balloon in the 1930′s. Those are some of my favorite finds, but what about the weirdest?

Last year I was poking around in a little junk shop and ran across a pair of items I had never seen before. It was obvious from the first time I saw them that they were peg legs used by an amputee. As I looked closer, I noticed that they both had fabric that was a military green. As I flipped one upside down, I noticed that someone had cut out a piece of a tire and made a pad for the bottom of it. Hmmm… not just any peg leg, I thought. What made them so much more special to me was that they were military peg legs.

I love military items. Little left-overs from a soldier’s service in our armed forces are monuments tounique antiques, peg leg, auburn, alabama me. I sit and daydream about what each item must have seen during the course of its life. I wish they could talk and tell us the stories of our forefathers. There’s nothing like sitting around a living room listening to old stories of how our freedom has been won and protected!

Peg legs have been around for hundreds of years. As children we imagined ourselves sailing the raging seas commanding a ship of pirates with half of one leg supported by a hand-carved wooden peg. Famous men of valor have worn peg legs such as the great American jazz artist, Peg Leg Sam (Arthur Jackson).  But the greatest heroes who donned the peg leg was our soldiers who have been injured in service to our country.

Best I can figure, the antique carved peg legs I found in that little junk shop are right around the turn of the century.  My guess would be that they served our country well in World War I or soon afterwards.

You can check them out in our antique/vintage store at New Leaf.  And if you want to chat a bit, just track me down and ask about some of the other unique items I’ve run across the past few years!

This post goes out to all of you who have served in our armed forces to protect our freedom.  We owe a debt to you!

 

 

Sunday Antique and Vintage Pickin’

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Picking. It is something that I really can’t explain or describe. It’s more of a feeling, a fire that races through your veins. It is actually something that I never thought would be apart of my life.  I never imagined just a few short months ago that I would be working in the antique and vintage field that involved digging through people’s old and discarded things and discovering treasures. I also never imagined that it would be my own family’s things.

This past Sunday, Chelsie and I ventured out to Roanoke, AL. We actually went with the intention of going to church with my family and then visiting with them for the afternoon–what really happened was far from what we planned. We made our way from church to my grandfather’s house. He is a very simple older man who has plenty of history and knowledge under his belt. He has hunted, collected, and hoarded most of his life. I know what you’re thinking–gold mine right? You would be correct. Not only does he have valuable treasures stored inside of his house, he has two barns in his pasture full of  riches waiting to be commandeered by two young and eager pickers. Now don’t let me get ahead of myself. Allow me to fill you in on what happened leading up to the pick.
As the tires of my pathfinder hit dirt from pavement, I looked over to see the expression on Chelsie’s face. It was priceless. I thought to myself, “Has this girl ever seen a dirt road before?” It is so natural to me. I grew up on this dirt road–23 years of pure dusty country. We rounded the corners one by one when we finally reached the many acres that belong to my grandfather. We stepped out of the car to the warm welcoming of my PawPaw. He then guided us around to the back of his house. I could see the excitement on Chelsie’s face. It was like watching a small child on Christmas morning–you know the look of pure interest and excitement they get when they see a pile of presents. Well in this case, it was the unknown inventory of two barns waiting to be searched.
My PawPaw was actually very excited to have us there and eager for us to see the many things he had collected over the years. We decided to start the hunt by first getting acquainted with the area. What does this look like? Well, by visiting with his many animals of course! Chelsie had never fed a donkey before so that was a definite must. As we were walking in the pasture I noticed a large glass object. My eyes met Chelsie’s and we knew we had to investigate this mysterious item. We were both stumped so I asked my grandfather what is was exactly. To our surprise, he informed us it was an old lighthouse light. Who would have thought?! In the middle of a pasture! The next thing out of my mouth was, “Can I have it?!” Of course he said yes and allowed us to load up item #1. We thought we had the perfect day with just this one pick, but it was just the beginning.
The next item that he took us to was an old “Phillips 76” store sign. It was a beauty, covered in orange and blue with a slight rust overtaking the sides. Both Chelsie and I were at a loss for words. Our eyes were huge and we drooled from the mouth when we held it up for the first time. It was truly a great find like Mike from American Pickers would discover. From that moment on, it was a race; a race to see what we could discover and a race to fill the burning desire for more treasures.
We jumped right into the first barn to continue the search for hidden gems. As we walked in, we saw a huge shelf at the entrance full of glass bottles. When we started  going through them we noticed that it was an assortment of old RC bottles, dated Clorox bottles, and a variety of mason jars. Without hesitation we loaded up every single one we could get our hands on. During the gathering of bottles, I noticed a jar filled with water and some type of pink object inside of it. I decided it was worth getting a closer look at, and when I pulled it closer I noticed it was a jar of dentures! I let out a yelp and Chelsie swooped in to calm down the nerves (For the record, I wasn’t scared, it was just a surprise). After thoroughly going through the first barn, we decided it was time to hit up the second.
As we made our way to the second barn, I noticed a kind of gleam in my grandfather’s eye. It was like he knew something I didn’t. He unlocked the door and climbed over a mountain of different items to eventually dig out a small spot in the back right corner. He then called for me to join him so that I could get a better look at a treasure that was literally buried beneath mounds of collected junk. When I finally made it through the obstacles in the barn, I saw a large log standing upright with a metal contraption on the top. I was clueless and I wasn’t afraid to admit it. I observed with such curiosity that it could have killed the cat for sure. Before I could open my mouth, my grandfather answered the dazed look I had on my face. He informed Chelsie and I that we were face to face with a 100 year old corn shucker. Wow! It was crazy to think that we had history like that right at our disposal before we could even blink an eye. To ask if we wanted to take this item was not needed. We knew we had to have this cool and interesting piece.
The experience of picking for my second time was amazing. I love it and I’m so thankful for the opportunities I constantly receive to search and find things that may seem meaningless to some people but are actually worth something to others. Let us not forget the old saying, “One person’s junk is another person’s treasure.” Before you throw something out or decide it has lost its value, call us! You may just be sitting on a treasure chest that has yet to be opened!

Eastlake Furniture Once Over: 1890 Eastlake Chest

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eastlake furnitureHey Guys!  Welcome to our educational feature where we give a piece of inventory the once over so that you can learn more about the stories of the stuff that ends up in our store.  Each “Once-Over” will have a video at the end to give you a visual of what we share in this article.

Today at New Leaf we got in a beautiful piece of Eastlake furniture: a four drawer marble top chest.

Charles Eastlake was an English architect from the late 19th century;  his importance to furniture design can not be underestimated.  In response to the over decorated and elaborate Victorian Era, Eastlake  designed furniture that was simple in style and functional in use.  The Eastlake period actually marks the end of the Victorian period and is often referred to as Late Victorian.  This bold response was the catalyst that caused the pendulum of furniture style to swing to a simple straight line functional design, and  the Eastlake name became a furniture design era.  In England, the Eastlake period is considered to be from 1870-1890.  In America, the periods run about a decade later, so Eastlake style furniture was most popular from 1880-1900.eastlake furniture

This particular piece can be dated between 1890-1900.  There are a few clues that let us know the approximate date.

Circular Saw Marks:

The saw markings on the wood in this piece of furniture tell us that the piece was built after 1860 when circular saws were invented.  Anything prior to 1860 will show straight line marks indicating the use of a handsaw.  Check drawer surfaces and larger pieces to look for circular saw marks– the back of a furniture piece can be particularly helpful in determining sawing techniques.

eastlake furnitureSymmetrical Parts and Cuts:

The symmetry that we see throughout this piece in both the art and the structure give us a clue that this piece was machine-made in a factory.  Anytime you see inconsistencies in art, joins or matching pieces you can assume that the piece was hand cut.  The unquestionable proof of this will be covered later in the dovetail section, but even without examining the dovetail it is obvious that this piece is machine cut.  Factories that mass-produced Eastlake style furniture popped up in America in 1890 and continued until 1910.  This style was massed produced but was short-lived.  A factory that produced the earlier Victorian style furniture would have had to completely retool their shop in order to transition to the straight lines of Eastlake.

Pin and Cove Dovetail:eastlake furniture

This is the tale-tell sign of the date of this piece of furniture.  The drawers of this piece are joined with a pin and cove dovetail.  This joining technique was the very first dovetail for factory manufactured Eastlake furniture.  It only lasted 10 years and one can be quite sure that the date of a pin and cove joined Eastlake drawer is between 1890 and 1900.

 

Other Notes:

Once I determine the approximate age of a piece of furniture I begin to look for modifications and repairs.

This particular piece of furniture has several clues of repairs and modifications.

Hardware

One of the first things that antique furniture buyers look for is original hardware.  On the Eastlake furniture the drawer pulls were usually rectangular with some decoration.  There are two ways we can tell that this piece does not have its original hardware.  One is style.  The hardware on this chest has a batwing style drawer pull.  Batwing would not have been used with Eastlake furniture.  Also, we can look at the screws used in this drawer pull.  This hardware has Phillips head screws.  Phillips head screws were not invented until 1934 and was not used en mass in furniture making until the mid-1940s.

Drawer Repairs and Additional Supports:

Another place to check for repair is in the drawers.  The bottoms of the drawers in Eastlake furniture often break or slide forward and back.  This particular piece has glue residue on all the drawer bottoms indicating repairs.  In addition, there is an added piece of wood supporting the raised back of this piece with Phillips head screws.

Although this is a beautiful piece of furniture, it does show signs of repair and has some parts, including hardware, that is not original to the piece.

If you enjoy the Eastlake style and are looking for a functional chest that has the charm of the old world, this piece is for you!  The most important aspect of a piece of furniture is that it fits the needs of the owner.  At $295 this is a great way to experience life 100 years in the past while having an economical solution to a storage problem.  It is not necessary for furniture to have all the qualities of a museum grade piece in order to meet the needs of its new owner.

Buying less than perfect period pieces is a great way to “Live for Less so you can Give More to the things in life that really matter.”

Brilliant Cut Glass Primer

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Glass products have served the human race for about 3,500 years.  Some of the most beautiful pieces are those that are decorated by cutting.

What is cut glass?

According to the American Cut Glass Association , “Cut glass” is glass that has been decorated entirely by hand by use of rotating wheels. Cuts are made in an otherwise completely smooth surface of the glass by artisans holding and moving the piece against various sized metal or stone wheels, to produce a predetermined pleasing pattern. Cutting may be combined with other decorative techniques, but “cut glass” usually refers to a glass object that has been decorated entirely by cutting.

The period of cut glass from 1876 to 1917 in America was called the Brilliant Period, and brilliant it was!  The brilliant cut glass is a purely American art form.  There are dozens of patterns and brilliant cut pieces are often signed by the artist.

The Brilliant Cut period saw it’s decline in the early 20th century for a number of reasons. Since true cut glass is entirely hand-decorated, high labor costs made it extremely expensive and out of reach to all but the affluent class. Intense competition, both domestic and from abroad, and the introduction of inexpensive pressed glass in patterns imitating cut glass, forced cost cutting short cuts on the dynamic, new American industry.  (http://cutglass.org/articles/art11.htm)

Stop by New Leaf Galleries before June 1st to see this beautiful Brilliant Cut Ice Bucket. 

Find more on American Brilliant Cut Glass on the following sites: 

In recent times cut glass reproductions have been harder to distinguish from the Brilliant Period of the late 19th century.  Diamond cutting wheels have allowed glass makers the ability to create very beautiful pieces with half the labor involved 100 years ago.

Here is an excerpt from “Ruby Lane” regarding identification:

The new mass produced cut glass can generally be detected by four main features: wheel marks, shapes of teeth, overall glass quality and chemical composition of the glass (as tested by ultraviolet light).

Wheel Marks: Rough cuts on authentic ABP cut glass were made with an abrasive slurry dripping on steel or iron wheels. Those first cuts were then smoothed at stone wheels and finely polished with wood and cork wheels. Eight-inch bowls might take 10 to 20 hours of labor. New cut glass, by contrast, is mass produced with high-speed diamond wheels cutting 10 to 20 times faster. Smoothing is generally eliminated in present day reproductions with pieces being polished after the first cutting. Eight inch bowls may take as little as 1 to 2 hours to complete.

Modern diamond wheels leave virtually continuous unbroken parallel ridges and grooves the length of the cut. In the vast majority of new cut glass, these marks are never polished out and remain in the finished piece. These marks can usually be seen by the unaided eye but are especially obvious with the aid of a magnifying glass. Virtually all traces of wheel marks have been polished out of ABP cut glass. If there are some faint lines present in ABP, they tend to be short and broken because they are the result of multiple passes with the old wheels, not long continuous passes as with diamond wheels.

Teeth: Authentic ABP cut glass was made for dining and entertaining and logically had to withstand reasonable amounts of handling, washing and storage. In contrast, almost all reproductions are made as decorative objects and their construction is often illogical with the function of the original piece they imitate. This is most obvious with the teeth on cut glass reproductions. Virtually all new teeth come to extremely sharp dagger-like points. Tips of authentic ABP cut glass teeth were intentionally rounded or squared off as part of the finishing process. Vintage teeth are blunted for two very practical reasons: safety and appearance. Sharp points on teeth would knock off at the slightest touch with a ladle or serving spoon, sending chips of glass into the strawberries or ice cream. After one or two uses, the chipped teeth would look shabby and unattractive.

Overall Quality: Pinhead-size and larger bubbles are rarely, if ever, found in ABP cut glass, but are fairly common in new cut glass. Large bubbles in old blanks caused the piece to be discarded, or the pattern was deliberately cut over the bubble to hide it. Patterns should remain within logical boundaries. It’s common in new cut glass to find overlaps in patterns where elements of one design intersect, overcut, or run over elements of another design. Rays of starbursts and arms of pinwheels, for example, frequently touch neighboring stars and pinwheels in new cut glass. In some new pieces, entire segments of the pattern run off the edge of a blank due to poor planning. Grossly out-of-round circles, stars with wobbly irregular points, unbalanced patterns, and any obviously misaligned cuttings are all warning signs of a reproduction.

Ultraviolet Light Testing: Virtually all authentic ABP cut glass fluoresces candy apple green or yellow green under long-wave (365 nanometer) ultraviolet light, more commonly called black light. Small black lights, six inches in length or less, or of low wattage may only fluoresce thicker areas of glass such as rims and handles. Larger lights—12 to 18 inches—will fluoresce the entire surface of all but the largest pieces. Generally, the darker the room, the more obvious the fluorescence but absolute darkness is rarely necessary to observe the effect. Be aware, though, that 19th and early 20th century cut glass from other countries may or may not fluoresce.

Marks: Never base your judgment of age or quality on cut glass marks. Fake and forged marks, especially acid stamped marks, are so widespread that all marks on cut glass should be ignored. Faked marks are widely found on cut glass reproductions as well as on genuinely old but originally unmarked cut glass.

Although all the tests described above are important, never rely on any one single test. Consider all the factors—wheel marks, teeth, overall quality and black light results—together before making a judgment on age or authenticity. Unless specifically stated otherwise, all references in this article to refer to cut glass of the American Brilliant Period (ABP).

 

 

 

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New Leaf fashion show

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Customers sometimes ask me how I can work here without wanting to buy everything that comes in the doors. I always laugh at this question– I think we recieve so many beautiful and awesome pieces but I’d rather see someone else find a treasure. I may not struggle with buying everything, but I do have a hobby… testing out any ”new” vintage apparel and accessories we get in.

I’m not the only one who likes to do this; sometimes Kevin will come back from an estate or a pickup and he will bust into the store wearing some crazy outfit. One time he marched across the parking lot in some kind of military outfit and had us all rolling! I can’t tell you how many times I busted in downstairs and surprised Barbara and Kevin with some crazy get-up and it never gets old.

“Only at New Leaf,” we joke.

We just can’t help ourselves– we have a blast here! You’ll find us laughing most of the times and if you walk in the store at just the right time, you’re bound to find one of us sporting something fun.

This morning was one of those moments…

-Chels

Vintage or contemporary?

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I love whenever we get vintage pieces in– that’s why you can always find me in our upstairs store. I get so stoked to learn about the history and stories behind these pieces… everyone around here laughs at me because of how excited I get!

Today we got another awesome camera in– I love to have some fun with these pieces whenever I have a few spare minutes, ha. (Obviously I have a few of those right now)! Since I don’t ever get to go out exploring with the guys, I have to have my adventures in the store.

What about you? Do you like contemporary pieces or throw back vintage pieces? Lucky for you, whichever one you chose, New Leaf has a variety of both!

-Chelsie

 

 

Watch it Glow

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Since we’ve opened our upstairs store, Kevin has told me to be on the lookout for “Vaseline Glass.” He told me it was sometimes yellowish-green just like the color of Vaseline, but other pieces could look more green; he promised me that I would know it when I saw it.

He bought a black light soon after upstairs opened and told me to take any glass to the back room if I suspected it to be Vaseline Glass by using the black light as a test. If the glass started to glow, we would have ourselves a real piece. This made for a fun disco party (by myself, ha) with glass every once in a while– I can’t tell you how many pieces of green or yellow colored glass I’ve tested since we’ve opened upstairs!

One morning about two weeks ago, Kevin was telling us that he could not believe in the time that New Leaf has been open that Vaseline Glass has never come through the doors. That same day we received a huge load of glassware and I made a joke saying,

“Maybe our first piece is in one of these boxes.”

As we started to unpack the boxes and price things, I came across a plate.

Kevin was right; I knew it when I saw it.

I was starring at the yellowish-green plate with my mouth open for a minute before I held it up to show Kevin. In excitement, he ran upstairs to grab the black light. We turned the lights off in the bathroom downstairs, (now you know what gets tested in the bathrooms around here), and all we could say was,

“WOW!”

The plate was glowing brightly, just like a green glowstick would. Sure enough, New Leaf finally had its first piece of Vaseline Glass! That same day, we found a set of wine glasses and cups in the group of boxes that glowed as well! We thought the glasses were just Depression Glass, since they were more green than the plate, but when we took a black light to them, those babys glowed just as bright!

 

 

What in the world makes Vaseline Glass glow?

Small amounts of Uranium would be added to a glass mix before melting it, which gave the glass it’s pretty green color. If the glass is more green than yellow, it is referred to as Uranium Glass, while the yellowish tint is named after its look alike substance, Vaseline. This glass glows when put under a black light because of Uranium being a radioactive substance. However, when this glass was being made, no one was aware that they were putting radioactive materials into their glassware! (But don’t worry, although Geiger Counters will detect the radioactivity in the glass, there isn’t enough Uranium to cause harm).

Modern Vaseline Glass became a hit in the mid 19th century, with most of it being made from 1880s to the 1920s. During the Depression, a greater concentration of Uranium was added to the mix to give the glassware a brighter green color. During World War II, the U.S. halted the making of this glass, due to needing Uranium for the war.

 

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