New treasures (one new-new, others new in that I never got around to showing you before) and a booth update.

When I got back from my vacation last week I was hoping to have cleared out a ton of stuff at my antique mall booth so I could shift a ton of new stuff in (and get it out of my increasingly hoarder-ific house).  I was a bit disappointed.  Looking around, there were very few holes to fill.  So that day I did some rearranging.  Since I first moved into booth 78 at Kenrick Antique Mall in February, I've had a great old leather suitcase sitting on a luggage rack against the back wall, with some other items for sale sitting on top of it.  That day, I put a small old console table I had picked up in its place, and put the suitcase in the front corner, just sort of sitting there by the aisle, and everything that had been piled on it got piled on the table instead.  This week when I came in, the leather suitcase had gone!  Apparently using it as a table discouraged people from trying to buy it - who knew? Also sold: the cheery yellow retro telephone.  Two pretty substantial sales to kick off June, which is very exciting.

Also exciting?  May was my best month yet!  I only made 14 sales, but it was enough to bring me to an actual profit of almost $50!  That may not sound like much, but to me it sounds like Progress!  So while I do a happy dance around my still-cluttered living room, you can peruse the collection of lovely and wonderful things I did manage to fit into my slightly rearranged space today:

Glass carafes with various star-burst patterns.

American Express Travel Services carry-on.

Adorable sad-eyed basset hound Napcoware planter.

Tiny Oomphies multicolored lamé flats.

1940's vintage Androck nut grinder.

Pretty little quilted purse from Joseph's Shoes.

small pink and gold mid-century lamp.

Large mid-century swirl-glazed/wood table lamp.

Pair of Fire King mugs.

Another, later model Androck nut grinder.

Bright cute sherbet green stool/mini-table.

50's/60's vintage men's paisley/plaid shirt.

Of the above treasures, my favorite are:

-The Napcoware basset hound planter, which is so cute and doesn't eat and poop like a real dog.

-The first of the three carafes in the picture.  It has a very stylized handle and these slightly off, atomic-y star-bursts.

-The two lamps.  The first is so pop 50s with the pink and gold asymetry - I wish the picture had turned out better, but take my word for it, it's cute as a button.  The bigger one with the swirl glaze is a pretty Danish modern looking style that is understated enough to fit in with any decor but still have a point of view and a presence.  This was the one item I actually did just pick up on Monday afternoon when my Mom and I checked out the new DAV-serving Red Racks thrift store in Afton (my take on that coming soon).  

-Honorable mention to the shoes, because of the lamé, because of the pink satin interior, and because they're called Oomphies!

Now I'm off to Apron Thrift Girl to see how many awesome finds I'll have to peruse through there this week!  What about you - find any treasures?

Learnin' about my treasures, or "I has a fez!"

Only the very coolest among you will know why I'm so happy to have procured for myself a fez, but the reason is simple: Fezzes are cool.  Just ask this guy:

Thanks to http://anothermoviegeek.blogspot.com for the image!

And can I just say that this is not just any old fez I have found.  This is a super duper old fez, apparently.  At the Value Village Last Wednesday of the Month Half Off Sale (sorry, but yes, I do have to capitalize it.  It's a holiday, like Big Trash Day), I spotted some nice men's vintage hats behind the counter and bee-lined in their direction because, as you know if you've been playing along at home, I can't keep them in the booth.  Now, I am thrilled with the two non-fez hats I got as well, but the fez... well, first of all, it was way cheaper.  At half price, I paid $2.95 for the fez.  I feel good about telling you this because, like my favorite vintage dress, I will be keeping this little red gem for myself.  It already looks jaunty hanging on my wrought iron lamp, don't you think?

Check it out - my very own fez!

What's interesting is that while someone decided to donate his fez to a thrift store, he also left a little note inside:

Note reads "Genuine Fez Hat from Cairo Egypt  1947". 

It's a little moth-eaten in a few spots, but I think that just adds to the character.  It's felted wool stretched over a woven straw form with a band of leather inside where it would touch your forehead, and a silk tassle attached to a sort of "tail" of the wool in the center of the top.  The "ceiling" of the inside of the hat is a very cool sort of blue-green woven fabric - you can kind of see it above, along with one edge of a label in the center: a sort of eight-sided star with arabic writing inside across the top and across the bottom it says "Tarbouche Zawati".  In between the words is a heart.  Being the curious sort that I am, I asked old man Google what he knew about my fez, and it turns out that "tarbouche" is the name of the (shh!) not-quite-fez kind of hat this actually is.  From dictionary.com:


tarboosh , tarbush or tarbouche  (tɑːˈbuːʃ) 
 — n
a felt or cloth brimless cap resembling the fez, usually red andoften with a silk tassel, worn alone or as part of a turban by Muslim men

By this I have inferred that Zawati was the name of the maker of said tarbouche.  I also found one reference in a buyer's ebay feedback to some 'advert labels' for Tarbouche Zawati from 1922, a 5 year old sale page for a 'fez' just like mine on Worthpoint where the seller thought they had a Mason's or Shriner's hat, and this, from the website of a graphic designer:

This is definitely the label in my hat!

And last, and most excellently, a really crummy picture and a good description of a sadly squashed version by the same maker, apparently from 1918, on the website of the Marlborough Museum (in New Zealand!)'s Collection of Hats, Gloves and Handbags.

So what I think I know is that in 1947, someone went to Cairo and got a fez that was made either at that time or previously, by a maker who was making them as far back as 1918, and no longer exists except in 4 (now 5, including this one right here!) references on these here interwebs.  And some time recently, that person or a descendant/loved one thereof, donated his beloved fez, including in it a note that was either written to the future buyer (me!), or written at some point in the past for a kid's show-and-tell or some other random reason and left inside for me to find.