La Belle Brocante

Devotion

 

Remembrance

July 26, 2010

A life lived to the utmost, and the full. 

Brocante Essentials

If  you go the the brocante, you will need sturdy shoes so you can walk for miles.

Lots of money, preferably in small bills. 

 

And a getaway van, roomy enough for all your treasures.

 

Screwball

 screw•ball [noun]

1. Baseball: a pitched ball that moves in a direction opposite to that of a curveball.

2. Informal: a crazy or eccentric person.

3. France: a handmade hardwood sphere, to which someone painstakingly attached screws at regular intervals along scribed lines. 

4. Belle Brocante: a highly unusual find, possibly for sale. SOLD

Vintage Indian Clubs

Popular in the late 19th - early 20th century, Indian clubs were swung in choreographed patterns as part of an exercise regime to develop physical fitness. Indian clubs were featured in the gymnastics program during the Olympic Games in 1904 and 1932. 

These particular clubs vary in weight from ¾ lb. to 1 lb., and are 14" to 16½" in height. $40 each.

Biblia Sacra

Shadow Box elements being arranged and rearranged, added and subtracted, and moved once again:

• French business letter, 1904 
• Britains 3-legged cow (originally 4)
• Biblia Sacra, 1829
• Pair of German porcelain legs, 1890
• Vintage French photo booth images

Ephemera

 

The Marché aux Puces in Nîmes begins at 5:00 in the morning. The brocante girls were late, because they had stopped at the Anduze market first. 

 

One gentleman was selling old books and prints from the back of his van. Stacks and stacks of landscape engravings, and images of religious figures. Serious men to a one, with equally somber long grey beards. 

One plastic sleeve held five plates from the Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle. Late 1700s. Four plates relating to the classification of bird feet, and one of bird heads and beaks. Folded and creased, but otherwise in impeccable condition.

   

The price on the sleeve? Expensive. Pour tous? No. Each. Et pour tous? Expensive minus 18%. 

 

Moss Street Paint-In

Your support. Your enthusiasm. Your thoughts and ideas. Your curiosity. We are touched and humbled. We would like to say thank you.

If you were at the Paint-In, please leave a comment. Perhaps share a little anecdote. A snapshot. A story.

We will select a winner. We might even use our antique roulette wheel. And what's in it for you, you ask?

A pair of petite saint's hands, to reach out and say thank you.

Elements

The Moss Street Paint-In is Saturday, July 19th.

Shadow Boxes are under construction.

Precious elements are being culled and sorted.

Antique finds emerge from cabinets.

Specimen jars are opened.

Time is precious.

Shadow Boxes

 

 

Custom open-front shadow boxes. Reproduction and original vintage imagery. 1800s medicine vials and corkscrews. Finished with turned wooden feet (not shown).

Works in progress. 

Prices/Additional images upon request.