Waconia Baseball Pennant 1889

     The sorting of my 50 years of collected stuff is still running well.  In the past few days I have been working on the boxes that piled up in the closet of my at home office.  I've found some really interesting things.  I have piles of trash bags ready for the dump.  I am reasonably certain that I will have no further need for electric bills from 1999 or auction receipts from 2004.  I also have a growing pile of boxes of things that I have priced and packed for Spring sales at the Wright Co. Swappers Meet.  I have found many books, atlases and thousands of photos and postcards.

The pile of boxes ready for the Meet on April 1st.

The view into a box.

    I have found a number of interesting thing to sell and I have cleared office and closet space.  I still have many more days to process the inventory in my house.

One of 12-13 display cases with WWII military patches.

Framed Sleepy Eye Flour sign.

Travel agency advertisement for

Swedish-American Lines.

Judd cast iron mechanical bank.

    My favorite find is this 1889 pennant for the Waconia Blues town baseball team.  I knew that I had it, but I have been looking for it for more than 5 years.  Today it appeared in a box of obsolete Soviet naval flags that I bought at the Moscow flea market in 2001.

    The search continues and I hope to find more interesting items (and some more empty floor space).

Mr. Flannery

 

Wright County Swappers Meet Opens in One Month

    I am sitting in my at home office looking out at 15-20 inches of new snow covering the yard and the frozen lake.  I am suffering cabin fever and am ready to be outside wearing something lighter than my hooded parka and mukluks.  It is bright and mostly sunny and the higher angle of the sun is radiating much more heat.  The Twins have a Spring training baseball game on the TV.  There are signs of the Winter breaking here on the tundra.  Then I remembered that the Wright County Swappers Meet is scheduled to begin in one month.

    I retired from selling at Second Hand Rose in Buffalo in December about 5 years ago.  By Springtime after my retirement, I decided that I missed selling my large selection of antiques emphasizing the strange and unusual.  The Wright County Swappers Meet is one of the largest outdoor markets in Minnesota and is located only three miles from my house.  I decided to give the Meet a try.

    I hauled my truck filled with antiques over to the Meet on a Saturday morning to give it a try.  I met a lot of people and sold a few antiques.  Since then I have become a regular, selling almost every Saturday from April through October.  I have learned that I am a bit unique amongst the Meet sellers.  I am not the typical seller, with tube socks, cassette tapes and Chinese tools.  I sell real antiques and unique and strange items, but no tube socks.  I usually know what my item is and often have a history for it.  I have treated my space at the Meet as an antique shop rather than a flea market booth.  I have also indulged my penchant for often selling the heaviest item that isn't a tractor.

    I have attended many auctions in the past 50 years and buying heavy has always been my practice.  Last year at the Meet I had a huge cast iron cauldron which had been converted into a yard planter by placing it is an iron framework that sported an iron school bell above the cauldron.  I estimated its weight in the quarter ton area.  It was part of my "windproof patio furniture" line.  In addition, I had two cast iron wheeled foundry carts that had been converted into yard planters.

    I always have a couple of tables full tools, tiles, crocks and bowls, all from the 1930's or earlier.  I have collected Red Wing crocks and bowls since the beginning and pieces and parts of this collection are regularly appearing on my tables.  There are always clocks, plumbing fixtures, pieces of architectural salvage, fancy windows, barn doors and porch posts.  Some of of my favorites are old paintings, frames and photos.

    Remembering the re-opening of the Wright County Swappers Meet in a month has got me contemplating what kinds of items I will be setting up this Spring.  I have made lists of this and that to have available at the Meet.

Wool striped full bed blanket, 1930's

Foundry cart loaded with cast iron.

Tin game board, 1920's.

Copper plated heater (converted to a lamp)

1920's.

Hand carved and painted Mexican bar, 1950's.

    I am anxiously awaiting the opening of the Meet on Saturday April 1.  I have spent parts of the past few weeks sorting through some of the totes and boxes in my house.  I have dumped the trash and priced the goods.  I will have piles of "new" items to sell at the Meet.

Mr. Flannery

Victorian Clock Shelf with Beaded Skirt

   This is a very interesting Victorian clock shelf that I picked up today.  I have never seen one decorated with a beaded skirt.  I think that it will make a great display shelf.

Mr. Flannery

X-ray to TV Stand

   I have been contemplating a number of projects for the upcoming show season.  The snow on the tundra is still more than a foot deep, but cabin fever is starting to grip my psyche.  I was thumbing through the internet and found this photo of an old platform grain scale turned into a TV stand.

  This hatched an idea.  I have a 1920's dental X-ray machine with the tube mounted on a cast iron articulating arm.  The arm extends, spins and at the tube mount tilts.

   The arm is mounted on the right bottom corner of this photo and then folded and bungeed around itself.  The X-ray head, on the left side of the photo, will be dismounted at the pivot.  I think that I can modify a TV wall mount to fit the pivot.  I will then mount the arm on a heavy cart, table or fixed spot.  I think it will give a very industrial look.

   Another idea is to gut the tube area and convert the arm to a desk lamp.  I have a cast metal lamp fixture with a 6" x 4" rectangular lens.  I can fit that on the arm and create a desk lamp that would operate kinda like a doctor's exam light.

   Either way it will be a contest to see if I can bring my thoughts to fruition.  Its only the middle of February and I already have Spring fever.

Mr. Flannery

Two of the Coolest Items I Have

I bought 2 of these hammered copper building decoration at a local on-line auction.  They are 120-130 years old, 51" wide, 4 inches deep and 27" tall.  They were originally from the St. Benedict's Monastery in St. Joseph, Minnesota.  I am trying to decide whether to keep them or sell.

Mr. Flannery

The Heavier the Better

I thought that I'd give the old blog another spin around the net.  Mr. Flannery, your correspondent, has sorta migrated to Facebook, but I think I like the old blog format better.

I have retired selling at any of the shops.  After more than 30 years, I decided that I didn't need that concentrated work anymore.  I have retreated to selling at a show or two and at the Wright County Swappers Meet (aka the Annandale Flea).  The flea is seasonal, only on Saturdays (except for the 3 summer holiday weekends), well trafficked and only 3-4 miles from my house.  I figure that once I make the minimal rent I am already up a couple hundred bucks because I didn't go to an auction on that Saturday.

I participated in a local online auction this week.  They were selling some of the fixtures from the old butcher shop.  I spent a little money and ended up buying some very heavy items.

This Time They are Auctioning My Stuff

It is happening.  Instead of buying at auction, an activity that I have enjoyed for more than 40 years, I am going to SELL at auction.  The auction is next Sunday, October 2nd at Noon in Fairhaven, Minnesota.

I have rented a 40' by 25' large garage for storage for many years.  My landlord has now sold the home site and garage and the new owners want to use the garage rather than receive my rent payments.  I have until October 12th to empty the building.

My first instinct was to move my stuff elsewhere.  I have now accepted that that is an unachievable task.  The panic was setting in.  How am I going to move this mountain of junk in 2 weeks.  Luckily I was able to persuade a local auctioneer, Derek Lundeen, to take this auction on very short notice.

I have been unpacking, sorting and throwing for the past week.  I have suffered a junkalanche or two.  My feet and back are stiff and tired.  I am too old to deal with this hoard.  Now it will be auctioned, after the crew sets it up, and hopefully all of the junk will depart.

This photo gives you a glimpse of what I faced when I peared into the big building.

There is a lot of "in the rough" and antique furniture.

A couple of horizontal file cabinets.

Lots of drawers.

I hope everything sells.  I especially hope that it doesn't rain next Sunday.  I haven't attended an auction this month and it looks like my selling auction will be the next one that I make it to.

Mr. Flannery

I am ready SO early.

We had a special sale for a bus load of women on a ladies' weekend adventure.  This meant that we had to have our spaces ready more than a week early from the normal monthly market at Second Hand Rose in Buffalo, Minnesota.  I am almost never ready early and often am the last one setting up on the Sunday evening before the normal event.  I have been bringing items in since the last sale.  I brought a load from my soon to be abandoned storage building on Friday and finshed my set up by 10 PM.   And I wasn't the last dealer to complete my set up.

I will probably bring in a few more items and maybe do a little bit of rearranging, but I am now ready for the October market.

The north wall of my space.

A piece of church fretwork, lantern, arts and crafts umbrella stand, silverplate tray and knick-knack shelf, just sort of stacked together.

Silverplate tray sits on the umbrella stand making a small table.

1907 3-D (high relief) Atlas School Map of Africa.  Decorative wood fragments sit on a table in front.

1907 map of South America.

The pile on the east wall.  The table is a narrow drop leaf with only one leaf and a small drawer in the end.

Appears to be a heavy antique vest from India.

Tamborines, 3 vintage Franch berets, a marjong set.

Rolled up antique runner, Doctor's bag and big bucket.

Fancy wood finial

Mid-Century Modern double desk lamp.

Ten Girls by Dickens

Early Minnesota Stories

The west wall.  The table is a vintage small harvest table that will make a great sofa table or TV stand.

And it's orange.

Vintage stained glass window

1920's woman's coat.  Seal with minl collar and wonderful blue and gold liner.

Hardware carrier

Tall Mid Century Modern Italian art glass lamp.

I like the variety of items that I have this month.  Let's hope that the buyers feel the same way.

Mr. Flannery