Yesterday my friend and I set off for Wimbledon Greyhound Track at the crack of dawn. She took a car boot full of junk to sell, while I took an extra pair of hands and an eye for a bargain.
It’s not the most high-class of London car boot sales, but I still came away with a modest stash of goodies (and a spot of sunburn) to add to my collection of vintage tat.
This is my favourite buy – I’ve got a few old pharmaceutical bottles but I especially liked this one’s gold label. There was also a battered luggage tag inside, with an intriguing inscription in wobbly handwriting…
It says “Quin Sulph bottle. In use at Bartlett & Goodall, Crawford St, Marylebone until about 1960. Bought for Mr Horne. See photograph.” And in different writing on the back “There was a Dr Bartlett living in upper rooms of the same house about 1810”. I hope Mr Horne’s not too upset about me buying his bottle for £2.50.
I couldn’t walk past this pretty embroidered tablecloth. The date on the hem – 26/4/53 is a sweet touch. It’s sad to think that the lady who embroidered it went to all that effort for it to end up in a car boot sale for 50p. I’ve vowed to use it and appreciate it again to make it worth her trouble.
These are a bit of a cheat as my friend had a stack of them on her stall to sell and she let me pinch a few. They’re meant to be coasters but I like the illustrations, so will probably stick them up somewhere… one day.
{all Decorator’s Notebook}
Nobody had bought this lovely deckchair stripe sundress by the end of the sale either. It fitted me perfectly so I decided it would be only right to rescue it from the charity shop.
I bought another frameless mirror too as I plan one day to do something like this in my living room, but I couldn’t take a photo of it without getting my face in it – having got up at 5.30 this morning it wasn’t a pretty sight!
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