Shopping Vintage
If you happen to be in southern Rhode Island, perhaps on the way to the Narragansett beaches, may I suggest a stop to do a bit of shopping?
A few miles away from us, in Richmond, Rhode Island, is one of my favorite antique consignment stores, Jules Antiques and General Store, where I have spent a lot of time looking for treasures. My son has been my vintage shopping companion since he was a baby, knows this store as well as I do, and browses for his own finds (vintage Matchbox cars). The stock changes often, so we go once a month. I think that is key to being a good vintage shopper- know the store and go often.
As an artist who uses vintage materials, I wanted to share with you some of the things that I look for. Of course, I always take a look at books.
I don’t often buy books at antique stores, because they are either too nice for collage or too expensive for my paper budget, but that doesn’t stop me from looking at them. This is where I found the atlas I used for my last collection and I once bought a giant dictionary here because it contained so much paper.
Magazines!
I don’t use them in my own work, but I include pages from them in the boxes of paper I sell in my shop. I enjoy reading the articles and the advertising, although I often find myself angry at how little has changed for women.
Letterpress Printing Supplies
Two years ago, I bought my first set of wooden type here. There was a plastic bag with a letter taped to the outside filled, tucked onto the bottom shelf of a locked glass case. I got that case unlocked and sat on the floor while I pulled out letters. I didn’t even have a press yet! Since then, I’ve found a few other letterpress cuts, but never anything as exciting as that first collection. I look in the case every time I visit, just in case.
There is ephemera everywhere you look! Some are sold as individual pieces, but often times there are interesting sets. Some of them are curated around a certain material, location, or theme, but I prefer the sets that are similar to the vintage paper collections I sell (a bit of everything). It’s the colors that draw me in to have a look at these materials and then I get lost in the typography and the quality of the paper. I love the photographs, but I can’t bear to cut them up for collage. Instead, I remove the backing boards and use those in my collages and keep the photographs to look at.
Cobalt glass
A few times a year, this store hosts vintage bottle collectors for a parking lot swap meet/sale. While I prefer to dig up my own bottles, I’ve never found the perfect shade of cobalt blue, so I purchase those here. The staging of this jar with the paint brushes is perfect, but I use all my clear vintage glass for paint jars, never my blues.
A vintage easel and a toolbox? Be still my heart.
I don’t paint, but old easels are so beautiful. I have such a weakness for metal storage and one of my favorite pieces is a red four-drawer tool box that I found here. They are far more satisfying than plastic storage, and estate sales and vintage stores often have them priced inexpensively. One day, I’m going to find a set of vintage metal flat files.
If you want to start a new collection, but don’t want to spend a lot of money, may I suggest vintage metal tins? The lettering, the colors, and the storage potential make this useful and gorgeous. The one on the left looks a bit too perfect (reproduction? I didn’t look too closely), but the others are great. I collect Edgeworth Tobacco Tins and my heart jumps every time I spot that blue tin. I think it’s way more fun to collect just one type of tin rather than going after them all- there are just too many!
Writing this blog post has me wanting to return to Jules, but I’ll hold off for another week or two. There are always new dealers arriving and more treasures to be found. Have I missed anything? What vintage do you collect?