Blue Ridge Flea Market

The Blue Ridge Flea Market is located just South of Blue Ridge, Georgia on the Southbound  side of 515 (I 575). It is a small market with a lot to offer.

Primitive Tools on Ebay

Blue Ridge Flea Market - Indian Crafts

 I visited on a cold November morning so I expected it to be a little slow.  Even so, there were antiques and chickens. Clothes and primitive tools. I came away with a wooden level, a vintage rotary executive phone, a bayonet and an old trap.

Old Trap

 
There was a table full of antique and primitive tools to the left of the entrance. On the other end of the market there were converted storage units. A few of these had been joined together as an art gallery and Indian Craft Store. I spent quite a while in there looking over the hand made knives and leather work.

The Blue Ridge Flea Market is definitely worth a stop if you are in the area.

Dixie Highway Yard Sale

The Dixie Highway Yard Sale runs along old Highway 41 from Ringold, Georgia to Marietta, Georgia along the old two lane Highway 41. The event is held the first weekend in June.  This year, 2012, that will be June 1st through June 3rd. The weekend after Memorial Day.

I have set up just south of Calhoun the last two years. The results were very good. While there are many good spots on this celebration of the old byway my favorite is the stretch between Adairsville and Calhoun.  A service road at the Airport south of Calhoun runs parallel to a section of the road and is always full of vendors. Reseca at the Highway 136 crossing has been another hot spot in years past. Many of the shops along the route in Calhoun run sidewalk sales in conjunction with the Dixie Highway Yard Sale. I would also expect to see a lot of activity at any flea market along or near the highway


You can find more information at the Dixie Highway Yard Sale FaceBook page.

John F Kennedy Cards

 These John F Kennedy cards were found in a scrapbook amongst other abandoned items and trash in a house I rented a few years back.

I kept them for a while but eventually auctioned them on Ebay. Faded, with ragged edges and tape marks these collectable John F Kennedy cards were far from pristine. For a price of $3.00 including shipping I made a collector very happy.

The cards were published in the 1960's by Topps which sold both sport and non sport cards in packets of bubble gum. The five shown here were part of a series of 77.








These include:

N0. 9 - A photo of the Kennedy family when JFK was a boy.



NO. 43 - President Kennedy and the First Lady on an evening out.


N0. 50 - JFK laughing at a news conference.

NO. 56 - President Kennedy and First Lady in profile watching an event on the South Lawn of The White House.


NO. 66 - John F. Kennedy and his college football team.


These 1960's collectible John F Kennedy T.C.G. cards by Topps are just another example of items which pass through the markets discarded by one person, but treasured by another.

Book Review: Official Price Guide To Collecting Books, Sixth Edition

Collecting Books has forever been a habit of mine. I tend towards accumulating titles of my current interests and keeping a few of my favorites as I move on to other pursuits. Recently my interest in flea marketing and antiquing has led me into buying and selling books. After a while this led me to look for a book on the topic. The "Official Price Guide  To Collecting Books, Sixth Edition," by Marie Tedford and Pat Goudey has become my guide to the topic.

"Collecting Books" has been useful and informative guide into this foray. It uses a question and answer format with interviews with people actively engaged in the industry. Besides a good listing of authors and valuable titles there are chapters on:

• Market Review
• A closer Look at the Book Trade
• Collecting in Genres
• Bibles
• Care and Repair of Books

There is also an excellent glossary of terms relating to the Book Trade and an index. While Price Guide is not comprehensive it is a good reference for authors and titles you are more likely to come across and is easy to tote along. If I was to voice a complaint about the book it would be that the authors spend too much time bemoaning the affects of the internet on the market for collectible books. But at the same time they provide a cornucopia of information on how to use the internet for the buying, selling, collecting and research on the value of antique and vintage books.

The Official Price Guide to Collecting Books, 6th Edition is a good reference and easy to tote along on book buying expeditions.

F B Rogers Silver Company

The F B Rogers Silver Company came to my attention one Friday night in December. Amongst many other treasures of an estate being offered that night were a set of four antique silver plate salt cellars with cobalt blue inserts. They were resting in a box labled F B Rogers Silver Company. Very quickly the bidding went past the wholesale price, ending closer to forty than to thirty dollars. I usually avoid silver items but this set piqued my interest. If for no other reason, they were extraordinary. Items of beauty, well crafted and a date on the bottom.

Thanks to saddlelite63 for permission to use the picture.

There had been quite a bit of discusion about the salt cellars before the bidding started. Were they silver or plate? Were the numbers "1883" a date of manufacture or something else? Some of us with smart phones tried to pull info from the web. No luck at the time. But later, after the fray, I started research and turned up a few facts.

• F B Rogers specializes in silverplate holloware.
• The brand has been owned by National Silver Company since 1955.
• The "1883" is NOT a date of manufacture.
• The "1883" incorporated in their mark is the date the original company was founded.
• There are other similar brand names.

F B Rogers' specialty has been holloware which are tableware items other than the flatware. Sugar bowls, tea sets, covers and other rounded service items for the table. Rogers holloware is usually silverplate over copper. The salt cellars with cobalt blue inserts which attracted my attention are typical of items classified this way.

The brand has been bought and sold many times since the company started in 1883 and is currently part of National Silver Company. I am not sure as to what markings the company is using today. The older silverplate at the auction I attended had 1883 worked into the mark. The date has nothing to do with when the piece was manufactured. It is the founding date of the original company and the brand F B Rogers.

There are similar brands such as Wm Rogers Silver or William Rogers Silverplate, Rogers Brothers and a Chinese brand that uses "F B Rogers China" as its mark. All of which add to the confusion.

F. B. Rogers silversmiths have made and continue to make some very nice pieces of silverplate holloware. The "1883" date in their mark is a proclamation of the many years this brand has been produced. As with any vintage or antique purchase be dubious about claims of age until you can verify. Numbers on the bottom of many silverplate or ceramic pieces more often represent something other than manufacture dates.