This is the card for the 2010 Container Party at the shop.  The party is going to be held Thursday night, September 23rd from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm.     Make plans now to attend this year’s event, this will be your very first chance to see the antiques I carted back from Europe.  This is one party you do not want to miss.  I was in Europe longer this year and bought more than ever before, I bought better than ever before, and I bought with my customers in mind.  Soon I will be posting images from the July European buying trip.  The container includes: French 18th and 19th century decorative arts, industrial lighting and objects from Belgium and Holland, cast iron architectural elements, Louis Philippe gilt mirrors, church altarsticks, garden artifacts, folk art, French linen feed sacks, and many, many more interesting objects for the house and garden.   Click on the image to enlarge.

This is the last week of the store wide Sale at R. Ege Antiques!

Everything in the store is 20% off.  The sale continues next week, Thursday the 26th, Friday the 27th, and Saturday the 28th.

The August sale has been a great success but we still have to make more room for the new shipment arriving soon from Europe.   Try to make it by the shop this next week and treat yourself to a wonderful new addition to the house or garden and receive an extra 20% off.   This is the final week of the sale.

Art Chicago is an annual event held at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, Illinois during the Artropolis event.  I exhibited at the International Antiques Fair at the Mart that is held concurrently with the art fair, this past May.  Click on images to enlarge.

These large scale prints are composed of tiny images of other “personalities,” such as the Madonna image might be made up of tiny pixel images of Marilyn Monroe.  The artist is Alex Guofeng Cao.

The gallery had cards in the form of small boxes with photos on two sides.  Greg and I were disappointed that the boxes didn’t have any treats  inside of them, it would’ve been a nice touch.

This artist’s work has a jewel-like quality to it.  Click on images to enlarge.

The imagery of this piece of artwork is haunting and rather mysterious.

The “boy with a bird” looks like it was drawn using gunpowder that has been burned.

She is in such a relaxed state after her refreshing swim, still dripping with water.  I’ve always enjoyed watching the reactions people have to life-size super-realism figures.  I find this sculpture more calming than most of the life-size figures, especially those of Duane Hanson.

I will never get tired of looking Deborah Butterfield’s Horses.  This polychrome over bronze example has such an elegance and looks effortless.

Richard Wright Gallery had two really fine Harry Bertoia “bush” sculptures on a low coffee table.  Click on images to enlarge.

Packer Schopf Gallery never disappoints.  Aron has an amazing eye that I like to think has been influenced by his years in the antiques trade.

The “beast” has been composed out of many, many books; most likely encyclopedias.

This cut work on books at  Aron’s gallery is by Brian Dettmer.

This artwork is by Diem Chau.  The artist has stretched very fine “fabric” over ordinary household china plates and stitched these curious images of people or parts of people.  You can check out the Packer Schopf Gallery here.

This life-sized sculpture was covered entirely in puzzle pieces put on end, thousands and thousands.

Now that could be Duane Hansen sculpture on the right, but he is actually a Merchandise Mart employee.  Click on images to enlarge.

This paper and cotton sculpture was so delicate and so beautifully crafted I was fascinated by the workmanship as well as the concept.

There were about seven or eight of these “smoking aircraft”  sculptures along the back wall of the gallery booth, they were so clean and white and yet so tragic. I loved them.

Odd little creatures their bodies covered in shells.

This humming bird is just a little larger than life size and is made from cast lead, it and following snake sculpture is by the artist Mark Calderon.

The snake sculpture has a sinuous sleekness about it.  It would look great displayed on a large table as well as it does hanging on the wall.

I rarely see contemporary photography that I find fresh.  If a  photographer’s work makes you take a second glance than you might stand a chance at a show like Art Chicago.  This photographer has challenged the viewer to stop and question the refection in the puddle and what it is telling us about the reality of the street scene.

As far as I am concerned William Edmondson was one of Americas most important sculptors of the 20th century.  This totemic as well as whimsical sculpture by Edmondson was shown by Fleisher/Ollman Gallery at Art Chicago.

Both of these labor intensive drawings are by Joan Linder who uses very tradition materials in her work.  The dandelion drawing is over six feet tall and was drawn entirely with a ball point pen.  Joan is represented by Mixed Greens Gallery in New York City.  Click on images to enlarge.

Carl Hammer Gallery always has great contemporary fine art as well as an amazing inventory of antique folk art.  These polychromed “jiggers” date from the 1930s and have great appeal en masse.

This piece of artwork by California artist Cameron Gray was one of my favorite pieces at Art Chicago.  The artist uses tiny paintings to create his large scale artworks.

The smaller scale paintings are all from the history of art.  Many of the greats from the Renaissance to post impressionist are used in his work.   Gray doesn’t actually paint the smaller panels but has other artist do these pieces and then he assembles them into a larger cohesive image .  Cameron Gray’s website is here.

I rather think Vincent Van Gogh would have been fascinated by many of his paintings being used to help form a much larger piece of artwork completely unrelated to his original work.  Or maybe not.  Art begs questions sometimes more than it makes statements.  This is the joy and the challenge of going to shows like Art Chicago.  Make plans to attend the 2011 Art Chicago show now, all of the info is here.  Click on images to enlarge.

The Chicago Merchandise Mart annual Antiques and Fine Art Fair was held April 30th thru May 3rd, it was a distinct pleasure to be exhibiting at the Mart again this year.  The quality of the dealers at the show and time they take to create engaging booth spaces makes the show exciting to see.    So here are a few photos to give you a taste of the variety of amazing material that was shown at the Mart during this past event.  Click on images to enlarge.

The two photos above are dealers from Italy that always bring objects that I especially covet, their business name is Il Segno Del Tempo and they have a great website you can check out here.

One of many booths with rare Art Deco and Modernist pieces.  Click on images to enlarge.

More tramp art than you can shake a stick at, this is the booth of Clifford Wallach who has an intriguing  website filled with tramp, you can see it here.

Now this is a billiard table.  The inlay work is impressive.  To the right is a large double gaming wheel slot machine.

This back wall panel is European tile and is spectacular, it is in the booth of Rita Bucheith, Ltd.  Click on images to enlarge.

Harvey Pranian is good friend and a great dealer with an ever changing inventory of folk art.  His website is here.

Tiffany, Tiffany, and more amazing Tiffany everywhere you look.

Mid-century modern at its best.  The banana yellow Tommy Parzinger console at the back of the booth is one of those show stoppers I would love to try to work into my house.  It would make a great “stage” for sculpture and objects.

The scientific sign makes a strong statement in this eclectic booth display.  Click on images to enlarge.

I could move into this room.  The lighting was tweaked just so to help give the room the impression of a luxurious apartment in an exotic locale.  These last two photos were taken in the booth of  The Golden Triangle, located in Chicago.  They have an extensive website you can check out  here.

Hard to believe this is a booth at an antiques show until you notice the white walls in the distance.   If you did not make it to the show this year hopefully these photos will entice you to visit the Mart in 2011.  The photos I took at Art Chicago will be coming soon to this blog site.  Stay Tuned.  Click on images to enlarge.

I thought this year’s show at the Merchandise Mart was more visually interesting, and even an even higher level of quality then in any of the previous years I’ve been to the show.   Setting up at the show is an amazing experience on many levels.  Set up allows me the luxury of seeing  rare and sometimes startling objects being moved past my booth before the show opens up as everyone is trying to work their booths into beautiful room-like settings.  The enormous Mart building, two football fields long, fills up in just a few short days with antiques from all over the world as well as dealers from several different countries exhibiting their very best for this fair.  Click on images to enlarge.

My booth at the mart show had my usual mix of periods and styles that for some reason seem to work together.  I like to think of the pieces as all settling in together in the booth whether they like it or not.  Each piece seems to find to place to show off without competing with the others…or so I tell myself.

The 19th century framed botanical flowers formed a backdrop for the dark oak 18th century gate-leg table with a small grouping of santos figures on top.  Click on images to enlarge.

The santos shown in the previous photo replaced this grouping of 19th century candlesticks that sold one by one at the show.

I love this mix of art work on the back wall of the booth.  The top painting is by Guillermo Silva Santamaria, an artist from Bogota, Colombia below it is a painting by a St. Louis artist, Margery Dodson Imster.  To the left of the lamp are three 1920s stained glass window watercolor studies from the Emil Frei Art Glass Studios in St. Louis.  Click on images to enlarge.

Greta Von Nessen “Anywhere Lamp”, circa 1951 in original mint condition.  The lamp and the painting in the background found really good new homes.

The Italian gilt mirror on the back wall was a recent lucky find just a few days before the show.  The modernist painting on the right is by St. Louis artist Virginia Davis, it stayed behind in Chicago, now showing off on a new wall.

The 19th century European skull and crossbones pediment was lucky enough to find a new residence in the Windy City.

The soft whites of the walrus tusk and the shells play so well against the warm browns and grey color tones on the 18th century Russian table.  Click on image to enlarge.

The brass swan sculpture on the wall is by Curtis Jere.  To the left of the Jere are two French manikin forms, both the manikins and the Jere represent the variety of objects I bring to show and fortunately seem to be what I sell at the Mart as both stayed behind in Chicago.

The rare advertising poster behind the manikins announces Herman Miller’s opening of a store in New York City that would sell their furniture as well as fabrics by Alexander Girard and “sympathetic” decorative objects (those objects I would be curious to see.)  The poster must date from the late 1960s to early 1970s and is in mint condition.

My booth is on a corner so I have an outside wall to decorate.  At the beginning of the show the wall looked like this, and then after several things sold it evolved to the wall pictured below.  Click on images to enlarge.

The wallpaper stamps shown in the previous photo got replaced with a collection of vintage dog photos. Part of the fun of being at the show for so many days is seeing the other booths at the show change as items are sold and moved out and new things are brought in from storage and the booth redesigned.

I brought one of the showcases from the shop for displaying collections of objects.  The shelf has a collection of 19th century plaster heads and hands.

“Just say ah.”  Which is appropriate for this sculpture and is also a cool website showcasing the work of Adam Hughes.  You can check it out here.  The object in the image above was made as a European medical teaching aid in the 1930s.

One of my favorite pieces that I brought to the show was this balustrade from the Chicago Stock Exchange building designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler and completed was in 1894. Click on images to enlarge.

Staying in downtown Chicago is an experience, however staying on the 33rd floor of a downtown hotel is a better experience.  This was our view from the Hotel 71.  Wacker drive is on the left and the Merchandise Mart is on the right past the wonderfully ’60s Marina Cities twin towers.  Every morning  starts off with a nice brisk walk to the mart with a quick stop for a morning shot of caffeine and then to the 8th floor for a visual feast for the eyes as the elevator doors open and the day of selling begins.  There is something about the energy of downtown Chicago and the Mart that makes going to the show a time to remember and something I very much enjoy.   Photos from other booths at the show as well as images from Art Chicago will follow in this blog soon.  Click on images to enlarge.

Once again the Chicago Botanic Garden show does not disappoint.  The weather was perfect, unseasonably warm for that time of the year so the narcissus and tulips were in full bloom as were many of the trees.  So the stage was set for a beautiful show even before you got into the show itself.  I’m going to start off with a few photos of my booth and then follow up with some of the floral displays and a sample of  the dealer’s booths that were setup at the show.  Click on images to enlarge.

The pressed flower botanicals date from 1887 and have the plant specimen’s name, and often which state the plant was found in written delicately in brown ink.  They have been archivally framed in silver gilt frames.

Several of the botanical specimens were arranged in a naturalistic way above a water-colored rock landscape.  This is a very unusual technique and quite beautiful.

The carved wooden deer paper-mache mold forms, in the foreground of this photo, found greener pasture and a new home.  I’m sure they will enjoy living in the Chicago north shore area.

As you can see I actually did bring everything…. and the kitchen sink, albeit a french early 20th century farm sink.   A collection of door-knockers shows off well in their unlikely location.

Certainly the heaviest thing I brought to the show was this huge fossilized shell.  Luckily we did not have to put it back on the truck when we left the show, the fossil having found its way to a new home.  The chairs on either side of the shell were designed by Pipsan Saarinen in the 1950s, they also found a new place to dwell.

The Swedish tall case clock is dated 1772 and is all original.  The workbench was crowded with collections of unusual objects, including a collection of found sculptures made from vintage gas burners by a St. Louis artist who had collected them many years ago.  Click on images to enlarge.

The Sculptures on the workbench were joined by french glove display hands and a pair of 19th century male manikins marked with their Paris labels.

The articulated artist model has found a perch on an English garden gate from the 1920s.

The flying cranes in the photo above were actually tin litho advertising signs that one by one flew away at the show (sorry couldn’t resist).

Hanging above the industrial tall cart was a Curtis Jere sculpture of a giant over-sized chrome kitchen strainer from the 1970s.

The doll head mold forms create an interesting collection in mass on the shelf, above them is a hand-painted folk art steel trolley car with great color and crackled surface.  Click on images to enlarge.

The booth had an area that felt like a small room off  to one side that at times became a very tight space which seemed to draw even more people into it and make it feel even smaller.

On a marble top table I have a french fist door latch, a Chinese terra-cotta fountain, an English 19th century carved marble basket of fruit, and a huge battery jar from Belgium full of oranges, just encase we got hungry at the show.

The very back corner of the booth chocked full of curious objects.

After the large hand-painted carousel panel with “Rosalie” painted on it left the building we put this life size European Art Deco garden sculpture of an archer on the back wall.  The shadow play is great.  He seems to look just as good inside as it will outside in a garden.  Click on images to enlarge.

Now for the incredible floral displays placed throughout the show.  This urn greeted you at one of the main entrances to the show, it reached seven feet high full of fresh flowers.   Boxwood topiaries were in each corner.

“Picnic on the lawn in Provence”  seemed to be the theme of this display in a long hall.  Large urns full of hydrangeas are at either end of a long table setup in shades of blue and white.

Two geese decoys seemed to be having an intimate conversation surrounded by all the festive table decorations.  I also noticed the decoys were the only antique pieces in this display at the antiques fair.

Orchids… huge balls of blooming orchids.  Wow.

This is a closeup of one of the spheres of orchid plants, they were really amazing.  Click on images to enlarge.

There were four corners in one room planted with this park-like setting at one of the entrances to one of the two large tents at the show.

This is a wonderful 19th century cast iron twig-form gate and fence that was used in one of the garden displays.

Please excuse the dark photo.  It was taken on a cloudy day and so the tent was very dark.  This is part of the same display that is in the previous photo.  I thought the hen and chicks planted in the horseshoe chair were a great visual.  The play of textures and color are great.  Click on images to enlarge.

One of the many halls that were fully planted and decorated with blooming flowers and water features in and around the shrubs.  One of the reasons I enjoy doing the show so much is to see what creative and  interesting floral displays are going to be at the garden’s antique fairs year after year.   Think about attending next year’s show if you couldn’t make it to this one.  I’m going to follow these images with just a few photos from the over 100 antique dealers booths from the antique fair last week.

Linen walls and no kitchen sink..that’s for sure.  This is Branca’s booth.

This is Balsamo’s booth they are from New York state.  Click on images to enlarge.

The Finnegan Gallery from Chicago with a really great carved limestone bench.

Rod Lich and Susan Parrett’s booth with wonderful garden objects as well as rare Old Hickory furniture and folk art.  They are from Georgetown, Indiana.  A link to their website is here.

Kimball & Been, Architectural and Garden Antiques always have a great assortment of iron urns and garden containers.  They are from Woodstock, Illinois.

Doug Taylor and John Lynch of Praiseworthy Antiques in New York state brought everything and the bathroom sink as well as the toilet and the tub all of which are salesman samples.  Interesting play of scale with the child size bathroom pieces and the large porcelain enameled ampersand sign standing at attention behind them.

More & More Antiques, from New York City had a great pair of dogs very similar to a pair of J. W. Fiske zinc dogs that I had at the garden show two years ago.

Celtic Gardens Imports, located in Michigan has an amazing collection of stone objects mostly from Ireland.  He has a very nice, very green website here.

Michael and Lynn Worden of Worden Select Objects from Michigan have a wonderful assortment of garden antiques often with a strong graphic quality.

Michael Worden and I were wandering the halls taking photos at the same time, hence this photo of him taking a photo of me while I’m photographing him.   This show has an intense setup getting ready for opening in less than two days so we can get a bit goofy by the end of the day.  Another great show is now over and time to go to the Chicago Merchandise Mart International Antiques Show coming up next week.  The show starts  Thursday, April 30th and runs through Monday, May 3rd.  You can find all the info on the show and FREE tickets to all the shows at the Mart that weekend by clicking here.

The Chicago Botanic Garden Antiques Fair is coming very soon.  The show opens April 16th and runs through the 18th.  There is a gala preview party held Thursday night April 15th.  All of the information for the show can be found here.   The show was not held last year so we are very glad that it will be back this year stronger than ever.  Click on images to enlarge.

This large hall was decorated like an 18th century Italian engraving with “della robbia”  fruit garland around a boxwood garden planted with primroses.

Color everywhere you look.  The show has three main areas for displaying the impressive array of garden antiques and artifacts that the antique dealers bring to the show, the halls connecting these areas are beautifully decorated with floral displays like the one shown above.

White, white, and white, with color all around you makes for a statement at one of the main entrances to the show.

At the beginning of set-up for the antiques show this lush english garden looked like a hill of wet dirt, not so great honestly.  By the time opening night had rolled around a day and a half later it looked like the photo above.  The variety of texture and form as well as color makes this hillside garden really dynamic and lust worthy.  I want my garden to look like that!  Click on images twice to enlarge.

Scot Lace’s booth at the garden show in 2008.   I could move into this space.

Mariyln Draper of Thistle Antiques has a very distinctive look.  Clean, sculpture forms playing wonderfully off of each other. Click on images to enlarge.

Industrial artifacts refurbished for today’s home in creative ways.

The Worden’s booth is always a feast for the eyes, their business name is Worden Select Objects and it fits perfectly.

This booth had a great assortment of very heavy stone objects from Ireland.  The heavier it is the more I seem to want it and this dealer had plenty to want for, from troughs to stadlestones to church finials all covered with moss and lichen. The following photographs are images of my booth at the last Chicago Botanic Garden Show in 2008.

My usual mix of unusual objects all coexisting nicely.   The marble top table is actually a 19th century operating table base with a round marble top added later, perfect for someone that wants to lower and raise their dining table.  The stone birds were found in Europe and literally flew out of the show…sorry couldn’t resist.   Click on images to enlarge.

I am lucky enough to be in “Nichols Hall” in the Botanical Garden Show, which is a large square room with a pyramid form glass ceiling, so the light moves across the booth during the day casting shadow puppets along the walls.

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The academic drawing I found in Belgium and has two polished steel Jielde lamps on either side of the it.  I have only one pair of Jieldes left in stock and I will be bringing them to the show.

1940′s oil painting in a melange of sculptural objects.

Life-size zinc dogs made in the late 19th century by Fiske in New York state.  They have been long ago sold but I still miss them.

The booth after opening night had to be a little rearranged thank goodness.   This year I have a larger booth and am bringing some great furniture, some industrial some not, mixed in with garden artifacts, mixed in with fine art and found objects.  I will post photos from this year’s show in late April.   After the Botanic Garden Show the Merchandise Mart International Antiques Show opens April 27th, now is the time to plan on going to both.  Click on images to enlarge.

It’s so much fun to finally do a Spring window for 2010.  It has been a long and cold Winter in St. Louis and so these first few signs of Spring are to be celebrated.   I have a large battery jar full of pussy willow in front of a wonderful 19th century gold gilt mirror that is a recent addition to the shop.  Roxie is barely visible in the shop window, on the left,  keeping an ever watchful eye for her neighborhood dog friends.   Click on images to enlarge.

Battery jars, a Japanese fishing float, a butterfly net, and a wonderful pair of cast iron fleur-de-lis fence post finials all compete for attention in this window display; Roxie, on the far left side, wins hands down.        I have had spring flowers on my mind since the Winter Container Party here at the shop a few weeks ago and so this week I made my hotel reservations for the Chicago Botanic Garden Antiques and Garden Fair in April.   If you are not familiar with the show  information about it is here.  The Chicago Garden show in Glencoe, Illinois  is one of the most beautiful antique shows in the country.   The Antiques and Garden Fair is April 16th – 18th, make plans now to attend.  Click on images to enlarge.

I had to trim the pussy willow tree at my house this week, it was invading the neighbor’s eaves and gutters, never a good thing.   This was a great opportunity to fill the shop with one of the first signs of spring. Click on images to enlarge.

We had a pussy willow tree behind the house when I was growing up and I can remember my Mother forcing those tender bare branches into beautiful fuzzy bouquets of the softest grays and browns.  Antique Battery Jars make the perfect container for forcing branches as well as for forcing spring bulbs in.

Pussy willow branches dry very easily for arrangements, they are also very easy to root for planting a new willow tree.  I have given several cuttings  from my tree as my Mother did from hers years ago.  Spring is the time to think of  bringing flowers from the outside in and maybe giving a few away to friends and neighbors to brighten their day.  Click on images to enlarge.

This is the second year for the Winter Party and I have a to say it was a great success.   St. Louis still had some snow on the ground and it was snowing the day before the party, but last Thursday turned out to be a  beautiful sunny day, the perfect weather to feel the beginning of spring at the shop.  Click on the images to enlarge them.

Surrounding the 18th century English mirror are European wallpaper stamps from the 1950s.  The stamps make a dramatic wall covering and hence are almost all sold out.

Miniature roses fit perfectly in the Dutch white ironstone “tub”  surrounded by French mother of pearl opera glasses.

This French style chair has been upholstered in black silk with a hand-stitched Crane across the back.  The forged iron table has bronze detailing  in the manner of Oscar Bach.

A French 19th century cast iron urn with more miniature roses poses in front of a pair of garden planters.  These smaller iron urns can be used in so many different ways inside the house as well as outside.  The urns can be changed out for the seasons with a variety of contents, ie: blooming bulbs in the spring, shells in the summer,for fall.. well you get the idea .  Click on images to enlarge.

The theme for this Winter Party was “Spring” so fresh flowers continued throughout the shop .   In this photo note the wonderful European iron awning, for over a door, that hangs above the terra-cotta obelisk.   Hanging from the awning are several hand-painted Mexican pottery birds from the 1940s.

A very whimsical European armillary sundial rests on the round marble top table.

The teaching posters were printed in France in the Flemish language.  The circa 1940s posters have wonderful graphics and color.  Click on images to enlarge.

The zinc downspouts on the left of the photo were found in Belgium.  I think it would be interesting to make lamps or sconces out of the pair of downspouts, the shadows that the light would create could be dramatic.

The whimsical painted dove weathervane stands between several European cut stone planters.   To the right of the planters is a carved stone well-head of a mans face that has an incredible worn surface.

In the two previous photographs you can see the window display is of Japanese paper lanterns from the 1930s.  Roxie is keeping watch in her window perch, a job she takes quite seriously I might add.  She often feels the need to alert everyone in the shop to the presence of a dog being walked in front of her shop, often loudly… unfortunately.

The bookcases behind the counter hold an array of unusual objects.

I have never seen the bronze pieces with hands mounted on stands shown in this photo ever before.  They are the pockets from a 19th century billiard table and are made of bronze.  The ivory balls shown in the hand-cups would fall through the hole and be “caught” by the small hand that is holding the round cup.

To the right of the Italian Mirror is a very organic bronze light in the form of a gnarled grape vine with leaves.  It has holes in the base suggesting this wonderful bronze light might have been used on a newel post of a stylish house in Europe at the turn of the century.

In this photo a wonderful 19th century religious artifact with carved gilt-wood rays hangs in a shelf above the ever wacky doll head mold forms.

Blackforest antlers surround the wooden “gear” mirror made from an industrial mold form.

The venetian mirror in this photo found a new home very quickly.   The owl sculpture is by a St. Louis artist, Tom Blaizer.  The owl body has been made out of tin and the eyes out of sliced agate stone.

Nothing says spring like fresh flowers and we had a nice assortment of them at the shop for the party.  For me forsythia brings back childhood memories of my grandmothers gardens, she let it grow huge and wild, it always seems so bright,  bold and cheerful.   The forsythia is in a huge battery jar I found in Belgium.  The oversized chrome strainer also on the table is by Curtis Jere and dates from the 1970s.

I currently have a great collection of vintage medical teaching aids in the shop.

One of the more unusual items in the shop right now (and that’s saying something) is shown in the center of this photo…. the “mirror.”   A relief sculpture made from resin of a muscular nude male holding a woman in his arms has been applied to the mirror glass and put into a chrome frame, the piece has a Los Angeles label on the back and dates to the 1970s or early 1980s.  Click on images to enlarge.

A Curtis Jere swan sculpture hangs above the 1940s machine age aluminum tricycle.

One of my favorite pieces to just come into the shop is this European industrial cart.  It has great surface-ware and patina.

The wire “donut” on the wall is actually a handmade wire crap trap,  I think the trap has a fine sculptural quality to it.   The tin trays, the lanterns, and the candlesticks are all from Mexico and date from the 1940s.

Rosalie seems to be pondering the wooden bowling balls from Europe that are on either side of her carousel panel.

I am fortunate to have tall windows in the back of the shop that really let the light pour in.  The anatomical charts on the back of the shop wall are from Belgium.  Click on images to enlarge.

I wanted to end this post with a photo from the shop of simple a simple way to say spring.   I used green depression glass salt and pepper shakers for mini vases.  I placed three of the bouquets under a 19th century glass cheese dome on top of a plain glass cake stand.  The flowers have been in the shop for almost a week now and still look great.  There is so much we can all do to enliven our lives with fresh flowers without costing a fortune.  I try to have something blooming or have cut flowers in my house throughout the winter.  It makes the house smell great and it makes me feel good.  Until spring gets here and gives us fresh bouquets daily get out there and bring some flowers home.  You just might need an antique battery jar or garden urn for those flowers, luckily R. Ege Antiques has a few of those.  Come in and check us out.