I *finally* found a sofa and the style is perfectly reminiscent of a Chippendale, giving it an obvious 30′s/40′s look without being way out there. And I love the four feet up front.
This thing is in pretty bad shape: it needs reupholstered, restuffed, and the springs adjusted, but 1. except for a relatively small crack, the frame is intact, 2. this just gives me an excuse to put vertical stripes on it as was common in the day, and 3. it was a STEAL!
Total spent today: $26.75
Last weekend, Jenny and I went to Fairmont Antique and Mercantile which just recently reopened and I picked up a couple board games.
The 25 Game Combination Board is copyright 1939 and has a double-sided board, 2 wooden dice, and a bunch of pellets. Most of the games are simple and unique. Jenny and I played a few and it was pretty fun. One “game” is the Game of Fate where you roll a die 5 times to make a sentence that spells out your fortune. For example, if you rolled 2, 6, 4, 6, 4, your fate would be “You will marry rich, ugly old man.”
The other game is Finance, copyright 1936 and belongs to the complicated Monopoly family tree. For all intents and purposes, you could say it’s a predecessor to Monopoly, but for the full history, check out http://www.worldofmonopoly.com/history.
Total Spent Today: $38.50
I ordered a beautiful MINT condition 1941 wall calendar from ebay and it arrived today. Each month has a print from Currier and Ives.
Total Spent Today: $34.59
My aunt heard about the forties room and sent me some things she had from my mom’s side of the family.
The first is a collection of pin-up girls that my grandpa got while in the army during WWII. My aunt said some of them had some bites taken out by “the mice.” She didn’t specify whether or not these were pet mice.
The second is a set of four ink blotters that belonged to my grandpa’s cousin. Ink blotters, as I found out, were used before the invention of ballpoint pens to remove excess ink on letters; since they used ink wells and fountain pens before the fifties, the ink would bleed and smudge if they weren’t blotted. In the picture below, you can see one of them was used.
Finally, I got a set of 1943 ration books, complete with envelope and instructions, sent to my grandma’s uncle who was a farm laborer in Hamilton County, Illinois and who had never married.
Last night I caught up with Leonard for the first time since he got back from Seattle where he went to a Christmas decoration show and sale. I picked up a dozen ornaments and he was kind enough to throw in some stamps. The box the ornaments came in is in great shape.
Total spent today: $30
I don’t go to the mall often, but I was there today and I noticed that there was a store called American Coin & Currency which sells all kinds of money from different periods so I popped in and they had a good selection of money that would be good for the room so I got:
Total spent today: $20.81
Tonight I went over to Leonard’s place and picked up some Christmas ornaments, tinsel, and lights.
Some of the ornaments have cardboard hooks because metal was so scarce during WWII. In fact, Leonard said that if you were a “real” patriotic American, you would have broken all of your German and Japanese ornaments and given the tiny bit of metal to one of the drives going on. The tinsel is lead-weighted and can be bent into different shapes. Finally, the two boxes the Christmas lights came in are in excellent condition except for the fact that someone wrote 75 cents on them in marker when Leonard bought them from Goodwill in the 1970s. The bulbs aren’t authentic, but the wiring is mid-to-late forties.
Total spent today: $29
By now, you might be wondering why I’ve been getting all this stuff for a room with nowhere to sit; it’s because I have not yet found a sofa or any chairs that I’m sure about. But I’ve been spending hours upon hours on google and in stores looking and my eyes are always peeled just as they were this morning when Jenny and I were on our way to get breakfast. I spotted an old couch in the yard along a busy street that looked like it could work.
After breakfast we went back to the house and I got to take a closer look at the couch. It was a bit too ornate and seemed a bit earlier in style than what I envision, but as it turned out one of the guys that lived at the house was a sort of Christmas decoration historian and he knew a LOT about lights. His name was Leonard and he was very friendly and gave me some good info on what to look for as far as bulbs, tinsel, ornaments, etc. He had some strings of lights, one was probably from the forties and the other two were newer but in the same style so I bought them.
Leonard gave me his contact info and said he might have some more stuff for me to buy early next month as he prepares for a Christmas decoration show in Seattle in mid November.
Naturally, I will have to mostly use bulbs that only look like they’re from the forties for the tree since they burn out and I’m not going to break my back looking to replace every bulb with one manufactured during the period. I think if I stick to the “fat” looking bulbs, it’ll be fine. The wiring is what matters most.
Total spent today: ~$2
Today, Jenny and I went to A-D & D Antiques in Council Bluffs, IA which is only open on Saturdays and is owned by this older gentleman who seemed very knowledgeable. He had a nice selection of phones and I spotted what is no doubt a Western Electric 202. From reading this awesome guide, it looks like mine was made in 1936. Also, on the inside it says “TEL. CO. PROPERTY” because people used to rent their phones from the telephone company.
Total spent today: $150
My parents came for a visit this past week and my mom brought over some of her dad’s things for the room:
