Stumbling Upon Hidden Gems

First of all its been nice 'meeting' a few of you via Facebook. I was always a little wary of using it in the past but its a pleasant way to keep up with friends, and play games! I'm wearing myself out in Farmville and Treasure Mania at the mo but you're all welcome to join me :-)

Now, thrifting.

I was sauntering along the booty the other day and idly browsing through a rack of clothes (nothin special - Asda, Primark, Matalan stuff) when I overheard a conversation between the two girls on the stall and a lady who seemed to know them which sent me on to 'amber alert'.

Girl One , "We haven't a clue what we are doin."

Girl Two, "We could be selling priceless heirlooms for 50p!"

Friend, " Your stall looks nice but how come you've got all those old tobacco tins? You don't smoke roll-ups do you?

Girl Two giggling, "No they were part of Grans collection. She was always poking round secondhand shops and jumbles and collecting unusual things."

I walked round to the stall at this point and spotted the old rusty tobbacco tins and looked on the stall carefully for 'Gran's collections'. I didn't see any, but amongst the pile of cheap plastic handbags thrown down in the mud and grass I spotted the gleam of..... something interesting.

Putting the newer handbags to one side I lifted up a blue beaded bag.

"You can have that and the other one for 20p each," called over one of the girls glancing up as put out more plastic toys and other modern bits and bobs.

I, meanwhile, dug in my purse and bought the two beaded bags that had been thrown carelessly on the ground. Truth is, I thought for 20p they wouldn't be any good but I liked the colours and couldn't walk away from a possible 20p bargain.

Then, amongst the rusty tins I saw that one of the girls had placed a lovely sweet little tin with the nursery rhyme 'Simple Simon' printed all around the sides and a vintage looking picture on the lid. I gave 50p for this one and popped it into my bag and walked away.

Later I really regretted not hanging around to see when else those two girls brought out the car boot and now I'll show you why...

The sweet little tin is a small toffee tin and probably dates back to the '50s/60's, maybe even earlier as its hard to pin down a date on this one.

Its next to my Cath Kidston pin tin (its about twice as big) at the moment and I've found I much prefer it in appearance to her pin tin. Its making me wonder if I should sell the CK one and keep all my pins in this one!

As for the two beaded bags well I enjoyed researching a few sites and if anyone knows any good sites with further infomation can you please let me know?

Here is the first one that I was drawn to...

From the top of the clasp to the ends of the beaded fringe it measures around 12/14 inches long. The design is created by tiny coloured beads sewn on to a cream coloured cloth.

The colours are lovely and bright and there doesn't appear to be a single bead missing. Inside the lining is cream silk and unmarked.Its actually only when I got home and dug this out my trolley that I realised how very pretty it is and how much work has gone into it.I've been trying to find similar beaded evening bags and think this one dates from between 1900-1920's. One similar in USA was advertised at $900 while another in the Uk (but damage to the beadwork) was only £70.

I'm not sure whether I'm the most suitable person for this bag - I keep thinking of selling to a collector. Not that I know of any collectors and then how would I price it? At the moment its hanging from my dresser handle where i can look at it as I walk in the room.

Next up is the smaller beaded bag which sadly has about 4 beads missing. What's even more annoying is when I took it out my trolley I noticed two loose beads and thought I'd put it down very carefully so they didn't drop off and get lost. But somehow they did.

This one is about 6 inches long and the label inside states;

The other bag is made in Germany (stamped on the clasp) so both are Eurpean bags.This one is called a Milk Bead bag and I know they were popular in the '50s.

Isn't it sad that these bags were lovingly kept clean and tidy for decades and then just chucked on the ground and sold for 20p each? Or is it just me being overly sentimental? Never mind bags, I rescued you!

So, I had quite a good day at the booty! A new vintage evening bag collection started and a vintage tin to join my other jumble sale one from a few months ago.