Buying vintage isn't always as straightforward as spotting one great thing and bringing it home. Sometimes that's exactly what happens. Other times, the thing that catches our eye is buried in a mixed auction lot—and everything else comes along for the ride.
This week was a little of both. We bought one lot knowing exactly what we wanted, another because we recognized something the auction listing didn't, and a third for one very small thing hiding among a whole lot of other stuff.
Here's what caught our eye—and what happened when we brought it all home.
Sometimes, it's simple.
These cast-iron fishermen didn't require much deliberation. They were the lot, we liked them, and we bid on them.
Sometimes an object just has the right combination of age, character and a little bit of oddness that makes us want it on our shelves.
These two did.
View this find in the shop
View this find in the shopSometimes, you know what to look for.
This lot started with the blue stoneware plates.
We'd only recently learned about American potter Ken Edwards, who established his stoneware studio in Tonalá, Mexico, in the 1960s. Another vintage seller mentioned his work in a YouTube video, and something about the style stuck with us. It looked familiar enough that we went back to a piece we already owned and realized it was his.
So when this little group came up at auction, we recognized the style again. The piece wasn't identified as Ken Edwards in the listing, but it was the reason we bid on the lot.
And then we kept everything. It's a good example of how sourcing knowledge tends to build: you learn about one maker, start noticing the details, and suddenly you're seeing things you might have passed right over before.
Sometimes, the rest is a surprise.
Mixed auction lots can be hard to judge from photos. Things overlap, pieces disappear into the background, and something that doesn't look particularly interesting in a crowded photo can be completely different once you get it home and look at it on its own.
Buried among assorted decor was a little set of dice-shaped cocktail picks. That's what caught our eye—and ultimately what made us bid on the entire lot.
The dice picks were keepers, but so were a hand-painted wooden toucan, a frosted glass box, a wooden owl plaque and a wonderfully strange decorative mat made from strung shells. We also pulled out a Wedgwood holiday plate and a pair of brass-plated candlesticks that we're saving for the Holiday Shop.
We bought the lot for one tiny set of cocktail picks. Seven things ended up earning a place in the shop.
View this find in the shop
That’s part of the fun of buying vintage: sometimes you know exactly what you’re bringing home, and sometimes you don’t know what you found until you unpack the box.
Either way, there’s usually a story behind why we bought it.