Trash or Treasure

As promised, I am finally writing my Trash or Treasure post.  I have a wonderful friend who has had an antique booth for years.  She is well educated on antiques and is a great source of information to me.  Over the past couple of months I have been lucky enough for her to ask me to go hunting for great buys with her.  When I hear her words "Junkin outing this week?", I am so excited. 

We will go on the hunt in consignment and antique stores.  There is nothing more exhilarating than finding something fantastic for so much less than it is worth.  She has a great eye for things and a lot more patience than I do.  

On a few of our recent expeditions I found some items that I really liked.  Sometimes I ponder if they are really great or just something someone else did not want.  I have decided that if it makes me happy then it is a good find. 

 

I have no idea why I have a fascination with barns but I do.  I did not grow up on a farm or in the country for that matter.  When we travel it seems I always see a fair amount of barns in the distance.  I also love cows.  Go figure.  Again, I have no idea where this comes from.  At any rate, on one of our junkin trips I ran across this painting of a barn.  I thought the colors were very pretty.  I have no idea what it is worth or who the artist is or even if it is any good from an art world perspective.  My only one clue and total guess on my part came from the frame.  As you can see from the photo, the frame is quite nice.  So I decided that someone with just so so artwork most likely would not spend more on the frame than the artwork was worth.  

So what do you think?  Trash or Treasure?

 One weekend one of our favorite stores had this silverware on display and ready to purchase.  I had never heard of Community silver so was reluctant to purchase it.  I ran this over in my head the whole weekend until I decided I had to go back and purchase the set.  After all, it was very nice, a full service for 8 with serving pieces too!  So I set off for the store certain that someone had grabbed it before I could return. To my surprise it was still available and I took it straight to the counter for purchase.  

Once I got home I began searching Community silver and what did I find?  Community was the predecessor of Oneida.  This pattern is call Milady and was made in the 1940's or close to it.  The most exciting thing I found was the value.  This little treasure of mine is worth 10x what I paid for it.  I love to entertain and think silver plate is so pretty.  For me, this is definitely a Treasure.  

What do you think?

The first photo you see if of a linen table runner.  At first glance, it seems like this has a lot of holes in it. I ran ribbon in and out of the slits and was quite pleased with the end result.  This was a quality piece at one time but was in really bad shape when I purchased it.  I worked pretty hard getting all of the stains out.  I still have some repairs to make but think it will be a fun piece to have since you can change the ribbon out as your table decor changes. 

If this piece had not had such a hard life before I found it, I would definitely say it was a treasure.  For now, I will say it is just a lot of fun.

What do you think?

Now, I am going to share the prices I paid for each of these items and then see if it changes your mind about what category you put it in. 

The painting = $20
The silver plate = $125
The table runner = $4

Hope you had fun with this post.  Thanks for all the great comments.  Keep them coming!