Antique Shopping at SLEEPY Poet Antique Mall--Part 2

Back we are again to finish up my shopping for antique artwork , prints and picture frames at the Sleepy Poet Antique Mall in Charlotte, North Carolina. The mall is 55,000 S.F., huge, enjoyable...and the possibilities to lose yourself in here...physically and emotionally, are endless. We are halfway through, from the last post I did...so let me take you by the arm , and guide you through some more.

Let's go....

Here is a gorgeous antique frame, I would have jumped on, but the last owner of it did it the major Disservice of spraying it with gold paint. Please, do NOT EVER spray a picture frame with gold paint, either paint it directly by hand with burnished gold, or antique gold paint from  small can. Test the color first, if it comes out a bright, garish gold, DO NOT Use it. It destroys the value of a frame, by over 1/2 ( or more ).  Also , I will mention one of my personal pet peeves, that I will show in a picture later...and that is spraying or painting everything you can get your hands on WHITE. Shabby-chic, Cottagy  etc. look completely destroys the value for future generations, of a piece of furniture or mirror, or whatever someone decides to spray in white or an Easter egg color that is chic at present. 

One of my rants...but don't worry, knowing me there will be more.

Let's keep going, oh...passed on this frame.

 I love this ladies booth, she loves art like I do...I can tell. I have bought many things from her, but more difficult as she has them priced for what I would sell them for, so no profit for me.

Really like this antique landscape, but at 500.00, too high for resale. Perfect for someone for themselves though.

Pass.

 A antique oil on canvas of a harvest scene. Nice, but has numerous areas of damage, and the colors are very dull...my camera flash brightened them.

Pass for now. Sometimes I reconsider these at another time when I come through. Markdowns, sales, etc, help me reconsider.

Aisle after aisle after aisle after aisle....

Some lady has some fun with her furniture, she obviously likes to repaint everything...and it's hers so she can right ? I saw the large S a ways away from her booth, and made me think of Sarah.  Sarah would have liked all this ' funness ' in this booth, she came here with me twice. 

I wish I could buy her the S .

Then I looked around, and saw the large R on the wall behind me. I considered buying it for my oldest daughter Rachel, but at 300.00, and not knowing if she would even like it ( probably not )...I passed.

What a glue gun and fabric tassels can do to a lamp.

What faux orange fur and pink paint can do to a vintage chair.

Ok, enough silliness, let's keep walking.

Wanted to show you this, and since I do not have you in person, and cannot take the best pictures with my camera...will try to explain that this is NOT a painting. It IS a antique print that mimics the ' look ' of a painting. You have to run your finger gently across some of the people, and surroundings...and see there is no raised paint...no roughness at all. Not all paintings are ' rough' or have evident areas of paint, UNLESS you use a magnifying glass to check it out closely. In time, some restorers have shellacked or lacquered a paintings o much that it is smooth...drives me nuts I can't take each of you and show you the difference in person. 

This antique PRINT would fool most people, as it has the look of a painting, but if you run your hand across...totally smooth. It even has old rips and reglued tears in the paper ( or fabric ), and that makes it look like a painting. Just know it IS an antique print , in a antique frame ( frame had too much damage for me to buy ), BUT is not a original oil painting.

Gee whiz, I am frustrating myself , not being able to explain this well enough to help you.

Promise that entry soon about the difference with the best pictures I can possibly take,

Pass here.

Thought this was cute, glue magnets on the game letters and use them on your fridge. They had magnets on the back of them. Also, dealer here left this piece of furniture UNPAINTED, and remember, they sell better in the future in original state. Dresser , 1940's time frame, mahogany.

Another one of my favorite booths here, you end up gravitating towards booths you buy from before. Look down at that statue, I have two of those dogs below my arbor in my front yard.

Cement, heavy statue...but the staff here can lift anything and everything and put it in your car.

White earthenware abounds here , heavy and substantial kitchen and dining service pieces. 

One of my favorite signs in a booth. Really, for Pete's sake, you have to buy something here if you shop for 3-6 hours right ?

Antique French mezzotint ( hand tinted engraving ) , prints with glass are a bear to try to photograph properly. Bought this after dealer gave me fair price.
Bargain when you can.
Scored.

I bought this great  Santa painting for a song, 18.00. It is large, very well done...and I am probably going to put him up above the fireplace with some other Christmas style paintings beside him for the holidays.
Wanted to do something to make my little boy enjoy Christmas.
Scored.

Climbed out of the booth backwards and kept moving.

 Lovely antique print in antique frame. Will show you why I did not buy it..for resale.

See to the right of my finger, is broken off gesso ( decorative plaster ), and some broken off wood molding. Someone painted the area gold again, which is fine..I even do that...but too much gesso missing for me to buy for resale. Good deal at about 48.00 , I think was the price..., for someone for their home though.

Here is a nice booth , but lots of painted furniture..which by the way is VERY popular here...just not my preference. She has the chic silver/white shabby chic look going on on her booths.

Antique glass chandelier, and architectural elements. I don't sell glass chandeliers, I already stress out too much over wrapping and shipping antique artwork and frames to torture myself by attempting to wrap a gorgeous chandelier.
Pass.

I almost bought this vintage seascape, I have almost wanted to buy if for about 5 months. Not quite old enough, would say it was 1960-70's time frame.
Knowing me , I'll consider it again when I come back up.

Very fun 4 feet tall 1960-70's glass vase.
Passed, but fun.

The dealer had this seascape on sale...I basically wanted the vintage frame the most. Picked it off the wall, carried it with me.
Scored.

Original  1800's oil painting I made an offer on last month, and they did not get back to me...appears they couldn't locate the dealer. Anyway, it has alot of surface damage , and it was better I did not buy it then. BUT...I have come back if something has been marked wayyy down..and snatched it up.
Hope springs eternal.
Passed for now.

Saw this a week ago, it has been there about a month I would guess...and the dealer had marked it down for the second time. I love the handpainted flowers, the rich colors, the condition was good. Very heavy and sturdy, 1930-40's large firescreen.
Pulled the tag, and passed  it to one of the guys who works there, and he carted it off for me to my pile of stuff at the front counter.
Scored...really like this.

There is a lady that sells GOBS of vintage clothing in here...and I saw this 1970's men's butterfly shirt and had two thoughts:

No. 1--butterflies still make me immediately think of my Sarah.
No. 2--Who on earth would have ever worn this shirt ?
I like it though.

A very nice vintage ( 1930-40's ) oil on board Marine painting by listed artist at fair price. Still got a discount from dealer, pleased.
Scored.

Gorgeous gesso antique frame..but I passed as the oval are difficult to sell for resale. Consider these though to make mirrors out of for your home.

Phew...about 3 -3 1/2 hours have passed...I have to get back on the road. There is my firescreen to far left, and on the counter now...

My stack of too many paintings and one print.

That is David to the far left, ringing up my finds. He is one of my favorite employees here, him and Jason  . I really like everyone who works here, and one of the owners , Dixon, is also nice and witty. They all make this a very pleasurable shopping trip.

It is a big distraction for me to come here , and I appreciate them helping make it so.

Here is the link to their mall:
http://sleepypoetstuff.com/index.html


Hope you all have a nice day,
Gina

Antique MALL Shopping Trip-Part 2---

Well, I will finish up our antique mall shopping trip today. My last post explained that I dragged my unwilling 9 year old son to the antique mall, but I have much experience in dragging unwilling children ( my own ), to antique malls over the last 20 + years...so I was up for the challenge. Here is a wide shot of many of the spaces in the antique mall, to the right is a nice thick tapestry. I will show it to you...

Sort of medieval , Renaissance style with the unicorns and lovely colors. I got closer to of course, check the price, as I stated before ...that ends up being my final qualifier for my purchases.

Yikes, 450. dollars ! That lovely heavy, piece of fabric will remain for someone who will buy it for their home. It was a reproduction tapestry, probably worth around 200.- 300 or so. This is not going home with us...

I saw this large oil painting, but I needed to lift it off the wall to check out the back. I am still trying to recover from this costochondritis ( inflammation of the cartilage in ribs and sternum ), so I am not lifting anything heavy if I can help it. VERY hard for me to ask for help, but my doctor says this takes 8 weeks or more to heal, if you are careful . Don't you hate when you can't do what you physically have had no problem doing before ? Anyway, I needed to lift this and look at the back of the canvas to show me if it was old or not. I had a suspicion it was not. Let me show you..

Obvious new painting, manufacturers try to darken the back of canvases, but this is a uniform sort of muddy color, not anything like what real back of canvases look like if they are truly vintage or antique. Then they are more tan-brown, not grey-taupe brown. Pass on this..

I will show you what an antique back of canvas looks like, so many reproduction paintings out, and you don't want a repro if you can buy original antique paintings...in my opinion. This was an OK painting, when you look closely, not very well done. The colors were pleasing to the eye, let me show you the back...

This is the color it should be, or a darker tan, the older the Art. Be careful of the faux swash of brown paint that importers are putting on the back of canvases to fool buyers. I will show you what that looks like in another entry. For now, we have to keep hunting...

Here was a jackpot find for me, a vintage potato masher...you know the ones you use to smash the potatoes before you mash them with an electric mixer. I did not want to pay 7.00 for it, but it went into our pile at the register because I need it.
I love homemade mashed potatoes.

I thought these vintage Chinese children's shoes were so cute with the hand-painted design on them. I like anything with hand-painted artwork on it, at least if it is good hand painting.

Tee-tiny little feet, and when I flipped them I could see the paint on the flip sides...which meant they were definitely hand-painted and not machine painted. I gave these to my son and he carried them to the front counter with our pile. Kids can be quite handy like that.

Antique pictorial book with cover of beautiful Victorian woman. I have many of these type of romantic books at home that I have not read, but I love the decorative covers on them.

The vintage floral in the reflection was too 1960-70's for me, and the frame of the mirror was nice but too big for shipping and not old enough for me. I look for many frames, and usually if they have a mirror inside, I discard the mirror as when I sell it they are very difficult to ship with the mirror inside.

I have seen this mirror in here for a year so , but it is still too pricey at 200. dollars for me for resale. Good price for someone looking for a nice old mirror though. Look at the detail,

Beautiful gesso overlay. Then I spy a sign out of the corner of my eye, here it is..

Love to see 50 % off signs. Let's look..

Lots of fabrics and nick-nacks...and  my associate and I open up this vintage quilt to check it out . He is still quite bored...and I am trying to keep him occupied until I take him to McDonald's for lunch later.

I wish it was older than 1970's, and the colors are typical 70's colors, but I loved the Bible verses throughout in hand stitching, and there were many signatures all in hand stitching, very charming..

Even Dear Old Dad signed this.

 I really liked all the signatures and more Bible verses. I got it for a song, can't tell you my price as I am listing this on eBay later. It did have one square damaged, but otherwise clean and in good condition. I held it in my arms for awhile, looked around the booth some more, and then looked to hand it to my associate for him to carry it up front for our pile of purchases...and this is what I find..

He has decided to lounge on all the other quilts for sale, and I was tickled to see in this picture that one of the college banners to the left ends with ' SON ", and since he is my son...it looks like the picture titled itself.
What a phoney-baloney still, such a hard life he has ...putting up with his mom at the antique mall.

I found this faux-stone , and it was ceramic and not resin... a large do-dad for my garden. It was in the 75 % off everything booth I found at at 36.00 dollars originally , I believe I paid about 10.00 for it.
Scored for my garden this time. Picked it up, handed it to my son...hesitated and asked him if he thought it was too heavy to carry up front ? He grabs it and walks off  to the front counter , acting like I ask the dumbest questions.

 Nice deco frame and mirror , price was Ok, but I passed on it.

Too high around 450. dollars I believe it was for resale, but beautiful, elegant mirror.

I have seen this art deco hand-painted mirror many times here, I consider it each time, but it is close to 90.00 dollars, and mirrors are very difficult to pack and ship. I am a paranoid, careful packer of the items I sell. But mirrors like this stress me out , I feel like I hold my breath until they get to the buyer...for days. It's hard enough to breathe lately, so I pass on it again. 
Trying to eliminate stress in general , but life is full of it right ?

I look to my left and see a wall of paintings...so I have to get closer.

Consider this one, but it was to high for resale and anything with wheels, windmills, water-wheels...does not sell well for me. I pass for now.

This Victorian pastel with violets or purple pansies was too high at almost 300,. for resale, but it was l lovely. Pastels sell for less than oil paintings, and I mainly sell antique oils.

Here was my pile that my son added to for me..

He slipped in a Hershey chocolate bar , amongst his hotwheels.
I looked up and laughed at the signs above the counter, look at my favorite...

Then I saw this one...
If I had this in my kitchen my husband could make a mini- fortune off me right now.

I looked over at the fresh flowers someone had placed at the front, andthe Halloween candy to try. We had a long wait to check out as only one very nice woman was working the counter, so I helped wrap my own things and paid and we headed out , down the street to a small antique store, on the corner. 

Cute, we run in.

I wanted this dragonfly for my garden but it was 75.00 !!!  too much. Pass.

Found this homemade mosaic platter for about 6.00 on sale. Grabbed it for my garden. May place it in the ground or put it on my porch with seashells from Edisto Beach in it.

Found this beautiful Deco frame with original print for a great price, I already have this listed on my eBay site. Then we scurry out, but I do make my son pose for a picture in these garden chairs, as they remind me of my grandparents' chairs we used to sit in out on the lawn. The parents and grandparents would sit in these, and drink iced tea... and then we kids would run around barefoot in the thick centipede grass and play.

Then I start to detect the ' look ' from him. Here it is...

I have bored him half to pieces look. 
So off we go, into the car for the ride back, quick stop at the drive through of McDonald's for a happy meal..and then we get home to Ms. Spoiled rotten..can you see her through my newly painted back porch here ?

My oldest son and my husband have repainted the back porch and the back of the house. Looks great. Look closely in the railings...

Yep, there she is.

Do not be fooled by that pitiful look, she is about to get some hamburger buns, and she is going back in the house to sleep all day...as usual. 

Thanks for going on my antique trip, I do this often...I will do a few more in some other shops some time.

have a nice , peaceful day,

Gina