I got home and was taking a nap when dana called. Apparently she had called me last night and I missed the call – I have no idea how. I had carried my phone around last night specifically because I thought I would take Anna over there to meet them if they called. Anywho, Greg was up from Atlanta this weekend to see them, and they invited me over to hang out and go to an antique auction tonight. Then James called to invite me to dinner at their place tomorrow night. I cheerfully accepted both offers. Fulfilling spinsterhood, here I come! Seriously though, I love that I have friends that invite me places. It was good to feel like I had plenty to do.
The auction was pretty cool. It was at a nice auction house out in Traveler’s Rest. Apparently they are trying to build a clientele. There were lots of freebies tonight. For showing up we got free t-shirts. Because I am a larger size, mine ended up being a TR shirt instead of one for the auction house, which I thought was very cool and quirky. I can’t wait to wear it tomorrow. Justin will be so jealous of my TR tourist shirt! They also had complimentary little pocket measuring-tapes with the auction house logo on them. I picked one up for Justin. I keep one in my glass bag, but I don’t think he has one. I also won 25 auction dollars from a ticket drawing they did later that evening, so I ended up getting a pink console bowl for free. You just can’t beat that. I’m not sure what the pattern the bowl is – it’s a very plain etched pattern, and may not be in the book; but the bowl has a lovely shape and is in great condition. From the date of much of the stuff from the estate, I'm sure it's period. I’ve just always wanted a console bowl, but haven’t ever had one.
I also bought Dad’s Christmas gift. This is going to be chancy. One summer I told Dad about a friend of mine who had an old wrought iron dog door-stop that had been in his family for years. He and his brother had fought over it until they finally had to agree to joint custody - each kept it in their home for six months of the year. When I told Dad about it, we started looking for them at the flea market, back when we used to go together, but we never found any but the cheap reproductions. This one is an old one, and I got it at a pretty good price – about half what I figure it is worth; but they go for $125-$200 depending on the condition. I think Eve will like it just because it’s a cool old thing, and is worth a bit of money; but if Dad doesn’t remember us looking for them it’s going to kind of fall flat as a gift. But I’ll take my chances. I usually give them a gift certificate for a meal out somewhere. This will at least be a change.
This old doorstop looks very similar to the one I bought Saturday night. (I think the paint on mine may look a tad better.) Apparently "Hubley" is the sought after maker here. I'm going to have to do some research before Christmas to find out exactly what I bought.
It was a great estate they were selling. There was lots of cool stuff - most of which I couldn't afford, of course. They had two exquisite sets of matching glasses. One was a set of light green champagne glasses, the other an gorgeous set of hollow-stemmed, hand etched sherry glasses. The bowls were almost a vaseline yellow color. I expected them to go high, and they did, but Helen bought them! I was pretty surprised, but they are gorgeous, and a set of 12 like that is very rare. They must have never been used - they looked perfect.
There was also some beautiful jewelry. The woman's engagement ring ended up for sale. I can't imagine how, unless there was no family left. It was almost a karat sized octagon solitaire, set in a gorgeous old platinum band. It had been given in 1897, and the couple was happily married for many years. What a romantic history for a ring. If I'd had someone to give it to, I would certainly have done my best to snatch it up.
Miss Kat made the big buy of the night though. I went outside to talk to Helen while we smoked, and when we came back in, Miss Kat had purchased a very nice washer and dryer that had come out of the estate they were auctioning. She made a great buy – this is a very fancy set of the newest type, both front loaders, etc. She got them for about half price. The problem was that we hadn’t planned to purchase anything like them that night, so we had no way to get them home. Fortunately, the auction house is used to stuff like that and we worked out a time to pick them up tomorrow.
We left and went to dinner at a little country place, where I had an excellent tuna melt. I am way over my quota on fish for this week. But you only live once, right?
We got back to their house and hung out and smoked for a while before disbanding. We’re meeting in the morning at 9:30am to go get the appliances, so we needed to go ahead and turn in.
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