Very Vibrant Vintage Vogue Vanities

This Vogue Vanities compact has a very vibrant floral design on the top. The colours are still really bright against the cream background, and it's highlighted with a lovely, deep metallic gold. There's no damage to the design at all, that I can see.

I can date this to the 1950's because Vogue Vanites stopped making compacts during the war years, and started up again in 1946. In the 50's they started making a larger size compact which was 9.5cm diameter, which this one is. The sifter is present, and the mirror is in perfect condition. Considering it's age this compact is in really good condition, and is still very useable today.

All my vintage compacts can be compared together here.

Art Deco to Space Age

A couple of jewellery items with a very different feel to them. The first piece of jewellery is this silver marcasite pendant. I have to confess I'm not sure what the stone is. It could be glass, or it could be real, I can't tell. It's Carnelian-coloured, which is a transluscent orangey-red when held up to the light. That fits really nicely with the Art Deco style of the pendant. Carnelian was very popular in that era, and the baguette cut of the stone is also an Art Deco favourite. The pendant has a handmade feel to it with the intricate fretwork, swirly cutouts, and the delicate silver beading to the design. The sterling silver (it's stamped 925 on the reverse) looks as though it's be hand-shaped, as the edges have a slight wavy effect. It's finished with marcasite stones that sparkle in the light. It's a very nice thing.

Moving on 30 years, or so, the next item is this silvertone bracelet which really evokes the 60's, and space age style. The pink stones are faux-agates, probably made of resin. They have an opaque, light-pink banding inside the transluscent, rose pink stone, giving the effect of banded agate. Each link is slightly concave so when the bracelet is worn it moulds to the wrist. Again, it's a really nice thing.

There's no way of dating either items, but both of these pieces are very evocative of an era and style. And, both are still very wearable today. For more pictures, and further description, click the links above to be taken to my vintage shop.

Vintage Victorian Style

My newest editions to the shop both remind me of the Victorian era. This Mascot compact, would have been made sometime between the 50's and the 80's, before Mascot were taken over by compact makers, Stratton. It's got a petit point design of a bouquet of flowers. Rather than stylised flowers, Victorian designs showed flowers very realistically, which these are. It also reminds me of a Victorian sampler with it's beige background material, and the bright coloured threads used. The metal is a very rich brass colour. Brass was a very popular metal used by the Victorians.









This photo frame has a very Victorian feel to it. The picture that's in it at the moment is a drawing of a girl who is wearing Victorian style clothing. And the roses remind me of Victorian stained glass, like on the doors on the old houses. The final thing is the dark metal and the extra ornamentation of the beading. It was very popular in Victorian times to have a lot of embellishment on items, and they loved dark, rich colours too.

I bought both items because they were interesting. The compact's embroidered design caught my eye, and the photo frame with it's handpainted rose doors, I thought was different. When I put them next to each other I noticed the Victorian look to both of them. There's a lot of Victorian style jewellery around at the moment, so if you like that look, these could be for you.

1950's? Probably.

I have listed another two items in my vintage shop . They are both items that I can't date exactly. As I've said before it's sometimes really hard to find any information on some vintage items, even if you have a maker's name.

The first item is this vintage Kigu Compact. Kigu manufactured compacts from the early 1920's. You can find some examples listed on Kigu's history website, which is helpfully organised into decades, but there's nothing like this one on there. So, I am guestimate-dating this compact to the 50's, or early 60's. If you have a rough idea of the type of patterns and designs that were standardly used in each era, what design features were popular, fashionable colours, and you know when the manufacturing company operated from and to, you can make an educated guess at date. The reason I've gone for my date is the dainty pink flowers and the little, stylised cream stars. They are very evocative of the 50's to me. And the colours of pink, cream and mint green, again, very 50's. Also, with the packaging that came with this compact, there are two labels that are printed in very 50's style fonts. One printed on pink card, and there's an aqua-coloured paper label in the powder tray. All very 50's colours. I think all the clues together make it pretty probable this was a 50's compact. I've not been able to find anything even similar in design to test my theory though, so you'll have to make your own mind up whether you agree.

The other item I've listed is this Porcelain Cat Figurine. Again, nothing to date this item at all. No makers mark anywhere, all I can go on is the style and pose, which is very 50's. The colours of jade green and red are very 50's to me. And the handpainted flowers, which look like stylised stars, and even the neckbow are very 50's things too. I can't be sure, but as I can't find another example, it's my best guess.

See what you think. You can see more pics and a detailed description by clicking the item links in the text above.

First few items listed.

It's open! I've listed the first few items in my new vintage shop, Josara Vintage, which is on Etsy.com. The oriental peacocks, Old China Stratton Compact in the previous blog post is one of the items listed. I have also listed this really nice Exotic Bird Metal Box. I can see so many uses for this. It's just the right size to have on a desk in the home, or office, for keeping small bits and bobs together. I said in the item description I could keep my tape measure, sellotape, small stapler, paperclips, and pencil sharpener in it. I'm always losing them on my desk. Or, you could use it as a trinket, or jewellery box. It's marked - G MB Made in Great Britain. Unfortunately I can't find anything out about this mark. I would guess the age of the box to be 1980's as it's got oriental style designs on it, which was very fashionable in the 80's. It's a really nice thing  in good, vintage condition. And, bizarrely, the exotic bird on this box is very similar to the birds on the previous blog's Stratton compact. Considering there could be 20-30 years between their manufacture, it just goes to show how things come back into fashion.

Another item listed is this fantastic Taunton Vale jug. I say over on the item's description that I really like this jug. I'm not just saying that, I really do. The colours are right up my street, very 70's retro. I really like the country feel that it has too, with the buttercup wildflower design. It's me to a tee. I love old country style things, yet I like 70's retro design too. And, it's all vintage.

I will be dripping stock into the shop, and I will update this blog with some of items, which will update onto my Facebook page. I will also be updating stock on my website, Josara.co.uk, which is like a central showroom for my online shops stock.

Right, I'm off to hunt for more interesting things to put into my new shop.

The benefits of research.

Whatever I put into my vintage shop I will research as much as possible to give you the fullest picture of it's history. Which I think, all adds to the charm, and interest, of vintage pieces. Sometimes it's very hard to find any information at all. But, sometimes, you happen onto a gem. That's the case with this Stratton compact.. It's quite hard to find any specific info on the Stratton designs. Then I happened onto a picture of an unused compact from the same range. The picture had in it the original leaflet that came with this range, and which had some very useful info on it. I can now tell you this compact is from Stratton's Old China range. The range had 3 similar style patterns, and 3 colours. I think you must have been able to get all the colours in all the sizes, so to speak. The picture of this compact pattern on the leaflet had a blue background. Next to it was a different design with this green colour as a background, which I'm sure I've seen for sale in red. And red was the colour of background on the last compact of the 3 designs on the leaflet. More information that I gleaned was that the Old China range was influenced by the porcelain designs of Worcester. Specifically First-Period Worcester 1751 - 1783. Further research reveals this period at Worcester was influenced by Japanese and Chinese porcelain patterns, and also the porcelain designs of Meissen of Germany, and Sevres of France. Before I found all this information out I could see the lid design on this compact was a hybrid of styles, with the oriental birds and oriental stylised trees, ornate French Rococo style gold decoration, and the very English posy of roses and irises. The green is a very English green too. It's very country cottage gate, and old steam trains. In fact, I'm sure you can buy a fence paint in this colour that's called Old English Green, or something similar. So, anyway, there you have it. A bit of research and I am now more informed about this oriental influenced design style which you see on a lot of vintage items, and I've been able to add some flesh to the bones of info on this vintage compact.

My new vintage shop will be opening soon.





I've been working towards launching the vintage side of JoSara. (The handmade side is up and running already.) I've been hunting out some stock items to fill the vintage shop with. There are some very interesting things out there still, which is a relief. I started collecting retro items about 10 years ago. Then, a few years ago, I stopped, due to lack of room, and the prices were beginning to rise on the items I wanted. Now I've started looking around again, and it seems that a lot of items have found their true value. Some are a bit too rich for my liking. I know there's a price range that most people are comfortable in, and I'll try and stick to that in my shop. But there are still some great items out there, at reasonable prices, if you look hard enough. Although, you don't have to. That's the point of my shop. I'll hunt it out, all you have to do is pop in once in a while and see what's new. In fact. if you follow me on Facebook you'll get new stock updates straight to your wall. How convenient is that?

The idea of my vintage shop is to be like a kind of online bric-a-brac shop. I won't be having a theme to my items, but they will be at least 20 years old to class them as vintage, and have something about them. That could mean good design, colour, or shape. Or it could be that the item has good 'quirkiness' value and it strikes me as interesting. Or, it could be retro and useful. I'm not just going to fill my shop with anything and everything. What I choose will be vintage, plus at least one of the criteria above. What I have got lined up so far is a very eclectic mix of items. Another criteria for the stock will be it's rarity. I will try not to stock things that I see turn up every other week or so. In fact, I will try and find things that are pretty much unique. My idea of good vintage is that you would struggle to find another one.

I also like finding the more useful vintage items. Ornaments are great for creating an atmosphere, but if you get to use your vintage item too then that's a bonus. Although, I do also think, if you really like something, the price is right, and looking at it gives you that warm glow because it's just your thing, then you can justify spending out on it, even if it is just to look at. Having nice things around you is good for you. Honest.

I will use this blog to talk about some of items I put into my shop, what they are, their age, and their history. Now, I must get on. I've got a few more things to set up in my shop before I launch. Keep an eye out, JoSara Vintage will be in business very soon.