Live Well, Spend Less on Glassware and Dinnerware

Hello, fellow scavengers! Welcome once again to our little corner of Blogistan, in which we share stories and tips to help each other find bargains and great ways to reduce, reuse and recycle through scavenging yard sales, thrift stores, auctions, estate sales and the occasional sidewalk and alley. Today's topic is on finding inexpensive items for stocking your kitchen cabinets or dining room hutch.

One of the easiest and cheapest lines of glassware that you can collect is Anchor Hocking's Early American Prescut.

If you want to start collecting some pretty and practical glassware, Early American Prescut (or EAPC) can be found in abundance at thrift stores and yard sales. Easily identified by the ten-pointed stars and "palm leaves" in the pattern, EAPC reached the height of its popularity in the Sixties and early Seventies. (Some pieces just have the leaves but are good matches with the starred pieces, so feel free to add them to your collection, too). As "empty nest" Boomers downsize, they flood the thrift stores with some good quality items and the abundance means low prices. I don't think I have ever visited a Goodwill that didn't have at least one piece of EAPC, usually for under $5. You'll easily find bowls, plates, trays and vases to start your collection. In the case of EAPC, don't confuse "inexpensive" with "cheap". This is very good quality glass with a pretty, light-catching pattern and you'll have something nice to serve chips, dips and snacks in at your next party. A few items are very rare and can actually have good re-sale value. Be on the lookout for the 11 3/4" panelled bowl with brass handle, the cocktail shaker, the oil lamp, and the 5" footed bud vase. The cocktail shaker is particularly rare and can sell for several hundred dollars.

While you may not "need" pretty glassware, every household needs something to eat off and utensils with which to eat. While the thrifts have plates and bowls and silverware in abundance, the problem is finding complete matched sets. For china, stoneware and silverware, I prefer looking at estate sales and auctions. Yard sales seem to offer the best values for small kitchen appliances and widgets.

So what's your deal this week?

Hors d'oeuvres of 1953

My wife picked up a copy of the 1953 Better Homes and Gardens cookbook at the Goodwill the other day. It's a fascinating document of post-war America. Leaving aside the assumption it makes that the kitchen and home were the exclusive domain of women ("Dear Homemaker... Of course you're a busy lady)", it offers a glimpse into how our attitudes and tastes have changed. How would would these hors d'oeuvres go over at your next party?

Cream 3 parts bleu cheese with 1 part anchovy paste; form in small rolls; chill; wrap in lettuce strips ad fasten with cocktail picks...

Moisten sieved cottage cheese with catsup; season to taste with Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper; form in tiny balls and roll in grated raw carrot...

Stuff chilled cooked prunes... with: (1) Cream cheese and pineapple tidbits. (2) Nippy cheese and chopped nuts...

There's also recipes that call for shredded salt codfish, mashed sardines, and deviled ham (well, not all in one recipe). Now, these all may be delicious. Let me know how they are if you decide to test them. But I suspect there's a reason that these tidbits have faded in popularity.

Coming Up On Sunday's Scavenger Club

Finding cheap kitchen- and dinnerware, including an in depth look at Pres-Cut glass.

Check back later. I'll be sharing some recipes from the 1953 Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. Liver pineapple, anyone?

Let's Play Oddball!

A bargain is not a bargain if you buy something you don't need and don't use. Yard sales are chock full of coffee grinders, espresso machines, bread machines and the like precisely because they seem like good ideas but in reality usually sit collecting dust in somebody's pantry. Those items are always bought with the best intentions. But what about all that stuff you just had to have even though you knew there was no rational need for it? I'm talking about cheesy, weird, strange or goofy stuff that you were inexplicably drawn to. Say, for instance...

I was at the Goodwill last weekend and saw these sitting on a shelf. I could just imagine them decorating the walls of a Hollywood bungalow circa 1950.



The price stickers are still on because the plates are cold painted and I don't want to damage them more than they already are. Can't just peel them, cant soak them so I need to figure out the best approach to removing them. I have no idea what I'm going to do with them once they're cleaned up. All I know is I had to have them. They were just too kitschy to pass up.

Another oddball in my collection is this:


This is called a pouron. You fill it with wine, grab the handle and pour the wine into your mouth from the spout. Most commonly found in the countryside of Spain.

Now of course, not everything weird and wacky is a bad deal. I bought this oddball in an auction box lot for $5.


This is something called a "figa".

The Figa (fee-gah) is a symbol of one of the age-old myths of Africa, this clenched-fist good-luck charm came to Brazil with its XVII century slave trade. As its memories paled over generations, belief in its powers to increase warriors' fertility also faded, but until nowadays it is prized by brazilians for luck, prosperity, and protection. Ranging from delicate earrings to meter-tall sculptures, Brazil's attractive figa may be carved from wood or stone, crafted from plain or precious metals, and even set with gems. The figa can be made into jewelry or sculptures (produced from plain wood or precious metals and gems), but the figa is now used purely for luck. The figa tradition is that to obtain luck from this symbol the figa must be received as a gift.

This quote fails to mention that making a figa with your fist is considered an obscene gesture. The "good luck" that it is supposed to convey is luck in conceiving. My figa was made of rosewood and decorated with brass and stones and measured about 8" in length. I had no idea what it was until I did the research. I wound up selling it for a handsome profit but it was the mystery of a strange wooden fist that drew it to me.

So what's your deal this week?