Skeleton Keys and 4 Million Dollar Dresses

My Uncle used to have a very large ring of old and antique keys. He would collect them at yard sales and antique shops and when he found a piece of furniture that had a lock but no key or an old door with a missing key, out would come his key ring and he would try every key in the hopes of finding a match. Sometimes it would work, sometimes not. The great thing about old locks is that they are sort of generic and more often than not he would find a match. A few years ago I started my own collection and until recently they were just decoration.

The great thing about old homes and apartments is that there are so many charming details. Our new place has that in spades. All of the interior doors have the original door knobs and keyholes. Sadly they have been painted over for decades. Me being me I had to know if they still worked.

I set to work using an exact-o knife, dust buster and patience. I cut away the layers of paint on three doors to uncover the original brass deadbolts.

                          

  Sorry for the blurriness. 

My patience paid off.  The bathroom lock is now uncovered and work but something isn't lining up. I think I need to take off the lock plate and move it up but that's a task for another day.

The office door is uncovered but I can't find a key for it. Not sure if there is paint still stuck in the lock or I really don't have a matching key for it. 

The bedroom, however, has a working lock AND I found a matching key!

I felt so accomplished! Is it weird I like to slip the key in my pocket like Cinderella's Stepmother? I've discovered that there's a painted over pocket door in the kitchen and I'm having an internal debate whether or not to uncover that. It looks like it would be much more work than a couple of locks.

On a side note I went to the Debbie Reynolds auction preview. I got to see this dress before it sold for 4.6 million. Check out my flickr set here. Aren't creepy mannequins with clear hands the worst?

Long Beach Flea Market

Bob and I finally made it out to the Long Beach Flea Market yesterday. I'm not sure what took six months to finally get out there but I'm so happy we did! I found two pieces of Pyrex that put the finishing touches on my collection and one item that I didn't know existed and I actually gasped when I saw it.

If you follow the Thrift Collective you know that I have this glass and have been looking for matching pieces (and it's also the logo of the Thrift Collective). The trouble is with this design is that I know very little about it. The glass I have has no maker's mark or logo or anything on it. I found matching plate on flickr and all that says on it is "Taste Setter's Collection". There was a pitcher on ebay but it got too rich for my blood. So yesterday as I was happily walking along I saw this ice bucket and bee lined for it. For $20 I'll say it was an amazing deal. Sadly, there is no maker's mark or any kind of identifying stamp on this either.


The Pyrex were great scores as well. They were $10 a piece with the lids and they finish off my collection. Although I think maybe I need a couple more yellow pieces...

It was a fantastic flea market. Not as many professional sellers as the Rose Bowl but just as much good stuff. On a side note Bob and I discovered something about haggling. We are both very polite when we ask for a better price usually saying "Would you take ____?" but we've noticed that if you ask the price and just stand there the seller will usually come down on his or her own. It happened a few times this weekend and last weekend. One of us would ask the price, the seller would give it, we'd remain quiet and then the seller would come down five or ten bucks. So I guess apathy is a haggling tool now?

Nudie

This past week and weekend I visited a bunch of Antique Malls here in Los Angeles. In my Google search I came up with five, FIVE isn't that sad? Well I went to all of them and only ended up with one thing but it's a doozy.

Shield those virgin eyes!

If you remember I've found two other centerfold puzzles. This one is different because it came in a box not a can and it's a dude. Peter Lupus to be exact. Lupus (who is clearly not Jewish) had all his pieces and was only ten bucks at the Long Beach Antique Mall.

Of the five I went to this was my favorite, it was huge and it had everything. It was aisles and aisles of old signs, Pyrex, Housewares, Records, Doo-Dads and Thing-a-Ma-Bobs If there's a heaven, I hope this is what it's like. The prices weren't terrible. This puzzle was $10 and This Sunday at the Rose Bowl Flea Market they had the Playboy Puzzles in cans for $25 and $35.

Although they did have my $14.99 dresser for $485 but I consider that a normal price for Mid-Century furniture here in in LA.

Now I have a weird little pornographic collection

Neat

Los Angeles is a strange place. Not just in the sense that there are a lot of free thinking individuals out here, Like the kind of people who name their kids "Rainbow" and grow their food on communes (Don't get me wrong there's plenty of people like that). I mean strange in a way that the movie industry effects this town in a huge way. I think if it were decided tomorrow that all the movie studios would move to Omaha this place would turn into a ghost town.

When a new movie comes out there are XL billboards for it everywhere; at parking garages, plastered on buses, in hundreds on handbills on abandoned buildings etc. On an average day I see Johnny Depp and Zach Galifianakis' faces twenty times. One of the byproducts of this being where movies are made is that businesses pop up to cater to the studio's needs. There are stores that resell clothes that have been used in movies and television and There are prop houses for furniture and miscellany that are used on film. The latter is what I visited this weekend. 

Right near my grocery store is a place called "Nick Metropolis The King of Collectible Furniture". The outside of this place at any given time has giant Greek statues, Life size plastic horses with the Louis Vuitton logo painted on them,  giant neon signs...I had to check it out.

This place is huge and filled with treasure. It is all available for rent or to purchase. They've been there for 19 years and they can usually tell you what movie or show any item has been in.

There's something really awesome in this picture I wanted. No, not the giant Colonel Sanders. Next to him is a vintage chart of the digestive system. I want that for my kitchen. Sadly it was out of my price range.

There was furniture as far as you could see, every kind and style. Need a giant model of the Simpson family? They have two. Need some bowling pins with the Beatles painted on them? They've got you covered.

See? Louis Vuitton horse. I don't lie.

So with all this amazing stuff what did I come home with? Something entirely pedestrian. Five years ago when Bob and I moved from New York to California we were moving from a two bedroom to a studio. We had to get rid of a lot of non-essentials and I ended up giving up this huge vase from Ikea. As soon as I dropped it off at Goodwill I regretted it. Since then I'd been checking every glass aisle whenever I was in a thrift store for the same one. Well, this treasure trove of the weird had two! I was happy.

It's a really awesome place and if you're here for a visit you should take a look. The guys there are super friendly, I even got a Dentist recommendation.