As 2022 begins, I invite you to visit The Wisdom Lane Antiques Etsy store (which can be seen here).  I also want you to see what I have for sale on eBay as well, which can be seen here.

My goal for the new year is to continue to offer the best variety of items at reasonable prices.

My hope and wish is that the New Year beings each and every one if you good health, smiles, and of course, good shopping!

You have taken the plunge into the world of buying vintage items, and you are now beginning to sell some items online.  What are some tips to keep in mind when it comes to shipping vintage items?

Breakable items like glassware get both packing peanuts and bubble wrap when I pack them.

When I ship clothing, I put a layer of tissue paper in as I fold the item.  I do this to help with keeping it lying flat in the box.

If I am shipping a book in a packing envelope, I will often wrap the book in a plastic bag to help keep the book from getting wet (especially if there is a chance of rain or snow).

When I pack sports cards, I always try to use both a hard plastic holder to put the card in and a piece of cardboard behind it.  This way helps the card from being bent when it is shipped.

This is just a few tips for you to use when it comes to shipping a vintage item.  What tips have you run across?

You are out shopping at one of your favorite places, and you run across an item that you are interested in buying.  You notice that it is missing pieces, and you go ahead and buy it with the thought you will hunt down the missing parts.

There is only one thing you are not sure of—how do you go about finding replacement parts for it?

The first thing that I would do is to try and find what the item looks like with all the parts that it originally came with.  This way you can compare the photo and the item you have to see what is missing on the item that you have.

I have seen what’s called an exploded view diagram that shows all of the parts an item has and how they fit together.  You might get lucky and find one of these to help with not only finding the parts you need but also how they fit on your item.

The next step is to search the internet for the parts that you need.  I have seen quite a wide variety of replacement parts for vintage items on the web.  I have seen everything from parts for a toy airplane to vintage refrigerators and even vintage fan parts.

If you strike out on the internet, then you are going to have to search for the replacement parts when you go to your favorite places to shop.  This might take more time to accomplish, but it can also be more fun to do.

Another thing that you could consider is to visit a place like your local scrap yard or even junk yard.  I have seen several replacement parts for a vintage metal Coca Cola cooler and even metal patio furniture at a junk yard that I was at several years ago.

This is a few ways that you can find replacement parts for vintage items.  What places or ways have you found replacement parts?

This week’s item highlight in the Wisdom Lane Antiques shop is this terrific small Fenton Jack In The Pulpit vase! It dates to the 1950’s and has the JACQUELINE pattern on it.

As you can see from the photo, the vase also sports the yellow opaline color. Even though the vase is not marked by Fenton, you can tell Fenton made it by both the pattern and the color on it.

The vase is also the perfect size for just about any table or mantle to show off your favorite flowers–it measures 7 ½ inches tall. It is also a great size across the top–it measures 4 ¾ inches across so the flowers are not strangled by the vase.

You can see this terrific vase in my Etsy shop here.

Head on over and chek it out!

Woah, what a great art glass piece!

Gabriel Bloodworth made this terrific art glass decorative flat pitcher, and it was made in the Springfield, Missouri area.

The cool thing about it is that it has a blue and white speckle pattern to it.  The flat pitcher also has silver trim at the top and a silver handle. The handmade piece also sports a pontil mark on the bottom, and it is also pretty big—it measures 12 ¼ inches tall and 7 ¼ inches wide.

Because of the size and shape, it would be perfect for either the table or the mantle.

You can see this great piece in my shop here.

What a beautiful art glass piece to display in your house or to give as a gift!

You go strolling through your favorite antique mall, a flea market or even at a garage sale.  You happen to see a piece of Depression glass, and you think it is the real deal.  You look at the price on it and see that it is reasonable, so you go ahead and buy it.

Once you get it home, you start to poke around either in a reference book you have or online to see what you have.  Then it hits you—you realize that the piece you bought is a reproduction.  What are some things that you can do with it?

There are many things that you can do with it.  The first thing that you can do is to sell it off either online or at an antique matt at the price that you paid for it.  If you do this, I recommend that you describe it as a reproduction so that everyone knows that you are being truthful about it.

If you happen to give the reproduction as a gift to a friend or family member, this gives you the chance to give a brief history lesson on it.  You could even take the opportunity to show what the tell-tale signs are that make it a reproduction.

Another thing that you can do is to use it yourself.  Vases could hold flowers, or even be used as a hat stand.  It could possibly even be turned into a lamp.

If it is a bowl, the sky’s the limit on what it can hold.  Paper clips, fruit, pens and even pocket change are a small sampling on what you can put in it.

And if it is a candy dish, it could even hold something like potpourri. If you happen to have bought a reproduction, what kinds of creative ways have you used it for?

Just about anyone who walks by a movie theater will see at least one poster hanging in the window advertising what’s playing.  These posters will eventually come down when new movies are released.

From 1940 to 1984, the National Screen Service produced the posters for the film studios.  The theaters would return the posters to the NSS so that they could be sent to other theaters.  During this time, movies were kept in the theaters for several years.  Because the posters were sent out to several theaters, they were often in rough shape when they were finally pulled from circulation.

Movie posters come in so many different sizes and varieties, it can make your head spin like a cheap horror movie villain’s head!  Here’s a brief breakdown:

Lobby cards—these were popular in the 1910’s and 1920’s and are small advertisements for the movies.  Lobby cards were usually produced in a set of 8 and hung all around the lobby of a theater (this is how they got their name),  and they tended to be black and white scenes from the movie that were often hand-tinted with some color.   These were discontinued in 1985 in the United States.  This type is very collectible for the fact that they are small–usually 11 inches by 14 inches or 8 inches by 10 inches.  They don’t require much display space.

Teaser Poster—these were sent to a theater to advertise a movie that was about to be released.  This type of poster is also known as an advance poster.  There really wasn’t too much information put on the poster.  It had the title, some of the people starring in the movie, and sometimes even a tagline for the movie.  Teaser poster sometimes were released way in advance of the movie to drive up hype, but occasionally funding ran short, and the project was shelved.  It would pay off to see if the movie was actually made if you buy a teaser poster.  Even if the movie was shelved, it could be more valuable if it featured a now-famous actor or director in one of their first movies.

Character Poster—this poster highlights one character from a movie currently playing.  Often, these are character’s the public is already familiar with (the movie releasing can often be a sequel or part of a series).  For example, a character poster features Freddie Krueger from the Nightmare On Elm Street, or even Jason Voorhees of the Friday The 13th movies.

As with any collectible, be sure to do your research.  Posters are often reprinted if the movie is a smash hit (like Casablanca, Gone with the Wind, or even The Wizard Of OZ).  You could pick up the reprints at quite a few major retailers, or even online.  When you have an authentic poster, especially from one of these areas, they can really have some good value.

What kinds of movie posters would you proudly display on your wall?

This sounds like a plot from a book or even a movie, but this actually happened with the banking system.  During the early 1800’s, the banking system was not as safe as it is today.  The banks would go out of business almost as fast as they would open their doors for the first time.

When a bank opened, they were allowed by the United States Government through a charter to print their own paper money.  This was to help the country get the monetary system up and running.

But when a bank went out of business, the money that it produced became worthless.  With the country being on the gold and silver standard at the time (which means paper money could basically be traded in for silver or gold coins that equaled the face value of the paper money), it was impossible to take the  worthless money in to redeem it.

So how did businesses and other banks know that a bank had gone out of business?  The most common method was to check a list of out-of-business banks, which were also called “broken banks.”  The list was updated, but it did take time to get it out to everyone.  The main problem that people faced is that banks folded after the list was updated, leaving some businesses with worthless money in exchange for goods and services.

Because it was so problematic, the banking system stopped printing money—it became the job of the BEP (which is the Bureau Of Engraving And Printing).  This early form of printing paper money created two types of collectibles—“Broken Bank” Notes and Obsolete United States paper money!

Have you ever run across this type of paper money?