A dealer who had taken over her mother’s business was displaying skirt lifters and nosegay holders from the 1880s. Most shoppers did not know what they were. A skirt lifter looks a little like a pair of scissors with blunt ends. A lady held the handle and pinched her skirt at about knee height with the blunt ends. She used it if she was walking across a muddy street or climbing stairs. The nosegay holder looks like a funnel with a solid handle. You put a small bunch of flowers in the holder and used the handle to carry it so it would not stain your white gloves.
I noticed a few other things. Life-size busts made of marble, bronze, pottery or other materials seemed to be everywhere. And I saw many being rolled in wagons to the door after they sold. A dealer with very expensive silver also had boxes labeled “Sterling spoons, your choice, $10 to $15.” People were searching in the boxes every time I passed the booth.
I overheard a woman selling her costume jewelry to a dealer in a fine jewelry booth. The costume pieces were “fantasies” made from old costume jewelry. Each item was huge, perhaps a 6-inch pin or a bib necklace. I saw some of these pieces last year at the same show. They’re attractive but not meant for serious collectors.
A woman from Buenos Aires had a booth filled with amazing pieces of unique furniture, crystal chandeliers and other decorative pieces. On an elaborate table, she was displaying a group of baby shoes (pictured) from the 1930s-50s. I couldn’t believe they were selling, but she told me she sold six pairs opening day.
There were two things at the show that “called to me,” but—alas—were too expensive. There was a Martinware bird vase with a removable head priced above $7,000. Martinware is art pottery made by four eccentric English brothers in the early 1900s. The other was a set of silver cups (one is pictured) made in Germany in 1901. Each cup looked like a musician. When you took his nodding head off, the bottom was a cup. Set of nine: $22,000.