Antique Shows And Rummage Sales -
Alike But Different

Someone said to me the other day that there is a lot of stuff around.

He, or it might have been a she, didn’t define what they meant by stuff, but I understood the notion, nevertheless.

We were helping at our annual church rummage sale and were surrounded by buyers worrying over items costing in the neighborhood of a dollar. That’s usually the way things are priced at a church rummage sale. A minimum of research, a lot of fifty cent items and occasionally a five or ten dollar “bargain.”

After spending three days as sellers at the Portland Expo antique show, where customers agonize over a $25 purchase, I had a hard time worrying about whether someone sprung for a $1 buy. I guess I shouldn’t be so calloused, because I can imagine that $1 can be a hardship for someone as easily as $25 is for another.

I am overlooking, of course, the possibility that their agonizing is over whether they have shelf room or other thoughts that have nothing to do with the economics of the purchase.

There are other differences between selling at Expo, where the next sale might make it possible to pay the booth rent, and selling at the rummage sale. My official job in both instances was to watch for customers who might have sticky fingers and attempt to solve their money woes by getting something for free.

When you are paying several hundred dollars for the opportunity to sell at Expo, I think it is proper to worry about the occasional thief. At the church rummage sale, where you spend about the same amount of time but only earn free coffee, I tend to think that if someone can’t afford the dime or the dollar, he is cheating a mission project, but is perhaps a mission project himself.

When it’s time to pack up at the end of an antique show, I wish that my loving wife would work on the same theory as she does at the church rummage sale. On the final afternoon, grocery sacks are provided to the customers and admonished to fill them up for $2 a sack, no limit. The stuff goes away fast that way.

The concept of rummage sales is pretty simple compared to antique shows, even if the amount of effort put into doing them is similar.

At the rummage sale, the stuff has been donated from church members and/or the public. You price it so that it goes out the door. And you do something worthwhile with the money you make. Plus, an added feature is that an exchange of stuff is taking place and the same stuff sometimes comes back the next year to be sold all over again.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see some of that rummage sale stuff show up at the next Expo, or perhaps at the nearest flea market, where the 10 cent items are priced at $5 and the $1 items go for $10 or $15. That’s the way it works. Dealers have to find their merchandise where they can.

And a person can really make out when a whole sack can be filled for practically nothing.

Ron Miller

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Restaurants Lured Customers With Bears In Days Before Animal Rights Movement

...a note from history
For many years in the early 1900s, a tradition at the hotels on Mt. Hood was to keep a tame bear. The tourists were thrilled to see wild animals, and were allowed to feed them or give them a bottle of soda.

The resident bear of Government Camp hotel was named Teddy. he was a big, angular 400-pound male, although fairly gentle. Construc tion crews enjoyed wrestling with him and although he could have killed any of them with a swipe of his paw, the bear seemed to enjoy the play, too.

Minnie, a small female, was kept by the Battle Axe Inn, also at Government Camp. Her favorite drink was strawberry soda. On busy Sundays, tourists would give her up to 10 dozen bottles a day. After such a period, she would be holding her stomach and groaning.

Those who hold a belief in a more enlightened humane treatment of animals today are appalled by this early activity. For Minnie, life got even worse before it got better.
A wildcat motion picture company came through Government Camp in 1929, making up their story as they went. Minnie became a star, climbing through windows and stealing pies while a frightened camera man tried to stay close enough to record it.

The company bought the bear for $80 and took her to their studio, an old airplane hangar in Beaverton, Oregon. When the company ran out of money, they abandoned both studio and bear.

After several days, the Humane Society rescued Minnie and she spent her last several years in comfort at the Portland Zoo.

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‘Flow Blue’ Pottery Popular With Many

Blue and white ceramic pieces are a perennial favorite with collectors. One of the special types that many collectors look for is the kind called “flow blue.”

Most flow blue was made by transfer printing, a process in which the design is transferred from a printed sheet to the unfired clay. Instead of sharply defined lines in the design, however, the pattern is allowed to “flow” into the white portion of the pattern, giving a soft look. A few pieces of flow blue were also made by hand painting, rather than by transfer printing. Glazing occurred after the flowing.

Sometimes the flow is dark, and covers a large amount of the piece. Other times, it is very faint and can only be seen around the edges of the design.

Most flow blue was produced during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Occasionally, pieces were additionally decorated after glazing, with gold trim, enameling, copper lustre or by the addition of other colors.

For examples of flow blue, see Flow Blue China by Mary F. Gaston (Collector Books, 2005.)

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