Welcome to the first day of the Cherished Collections Blog Tour! Today I’m starting the collection tour, but be sure to come back each evening this week (starting tomorrow) for a look at what others participating in the blog tour have posted about.
I had the worst time picking out what to share with you; I have a lot of little collections so choosing which to include today proved to be a bit challenging. In the end the three I picked I hope you’ll enjoy seeing!
the little yard sale find that started it all.
First up is my growing collection of vintage sweetheart and nautical-themed jewelry. I unwittingly purchased my first piece at a yard sale years ago (ironically the day SH and I went on our first date–fate perhaps?!). I didn’t really know about Navy sweetheart jewelry until much more recently, and have been picking up pieces here and there—although most have been lovely gifts from friends and family who know I collect it! Of course nautical pieces have also made their way into the collection as well. The trio of anchors is one that SH picked up for me earlier this year. I’ve always loved just about anything with a nautical theme, but I’m especially fond of it now because of SH and how proud I am of him and Navy heritage.
a 1964 pattern book that I was given years ago by one of my aunts. I think it belonged to my paternal grandmother at one point.
paging through for inspiration.
the sometimes mad-cap fashions of the late 40s. more images here.
You’ve seen snippets of my vintage pattern books and booklet collection over the years, but I wanted to show it collected up together! These are just the sewing pattern booklets; I have another (smaller) collection of knitting and needlework ones as well. A handful of the 40s booklets I bought as a teenager (some of my first Ebay purchases!), and they hold a very special spot in my collection. When I bought these I was just becoming interested in sewing vintage fashions and integrating it more into my everyday wardrobe. I’ve referred to all of these many times over the years for inspiration and ideas; they never fail to provide on that point!
Lastly is my very tiny stash of antique tintypes. (Wikipedia has a good history of the tintype photograph here.) These I mostly picked up some years back from my grandfather who ran an antiques business. But I’ve added in a couple since then as well! I still look for interesting images when I go to antique stores; I especially like group photos as you can see. I particularly love ones from the 1870s; the clothes of the decade are particularly beautiful in a Victorian way, and the piled-high hairstyles have always fascinated me. There is something haunting about old photographs that have found their way into antique stores and flea markets; and I think that appeals to me. I was always one of those children who would sit and stare at pictures in history books for hours, studying the faces of the people in the image and wondering what they were like. Though none of these are terribly remarkable or dynamic photographs, it’s an appeal of old images that still draws me in to this day.
Those are my three collections! I hope you enjoyed these, and be sure to stop by again tomorrow evening to see some of the collections others are sharing!
Oh I’m so sad I missed out on joining in this blog tour – I was so looking forward to sharing some of my collections! Never mind, hopefully I can join a future one, now that the big wedding is over and I can settle back into a proper blogging routine
xx Charlotte
Tuppence Ha’penny Vintage
Wow – how many collections do you have exactly?! I really wanted to join in, but realised I don’t have enough of any one thing to consider it a collection :/ hmmm… shall have to work on that.
With regards to your nautical and sweetheart jewelery, I just LOVE the three anchors and the wings too – i can’t believe you find all these things! I wish our antique sales, flea markets and craft fairs had just a few of the treasures you seem to unearth. Also, i’m very inspired by your Antique Tintypes collection – do you display these? It seems a shame to think there are probably hundereds of these out there, forgotten in drawers or shoeboxes
Another Wonderfully inspirational post Casey
Wow! I like it. I love the nauthical themed jewelry. I’d like to have some pieces as well. It’s really cute and it suits you! It must be nice to wear it in combination with some white dress or shirt with dark blue stripes…
I really love your collection of vintage pattern books. They must be amazing resources when sewing your own clothes. And those old tintype photos are incredible. I’ve also always enjoyed studying people in old photographs. Their clothing, hair, facial expressions and props are all incredibly fascinating. I’m looking forward to seeing what upcoming collections hold!
I’m like you, many collections and trying to pick and choose for my upcoming post! That is cute jewelry. My husband is retired USAF and at one of his official functions i was given a stick pin with his insignia rank on it. My mom has the old tin types of the family, generations ago, but I fear all of that will go to my brother. Those are lovely collections that you have.
Laurie
How special that you bought your first navy sweetheart pin the day you and SH went on your first date. This collection must be so meaningful considering SH’s profession. I think it would be neat if you shared a post that went more in-depth on the history of sweetheart pins.
i’m a huge fan of the sweetheart jewelry–i’ve begun a small collection of my own in honor of my grandfather, a mechanic in the army air corps during WW2. and as a photographer, i especially appreciate the tintype collection.
are these collections that you display in any way? and if so, how?
You have such wonderful collections, so inspiring.
I love these! Thank you so much for sharing with us!
Those photographs are really amazing!
wow, I love those pins, super pretty! I would not be able to choose which to wear first!! Can’t wait to see more of the others collections as well!
I am really expecting to see what everyone is collecting. People collect the most peculiar, cute and interesting stuff!
I never even knew about the sweetheart jewelry before I read about it from your blog. I think it was one of your older posts.
And those photos are gorgeous. I also collect old photos as you can read from my CC blog tour-post, but I also like old photos showing clothes, jewelry and hairdo’s. Great inspiration and history documentation.
Isn’t it fun! You can learn while blogging
I had no idea you collected old photographs! How many collections do you have, exactly?
Can’t wait to see what everybody else has to share!
The brooches are beautiful, thanks so much for sharing! x
Love your collections especially the nautical themed jewellery!!
pretty jealous of your tintype collection!
I also have a navy sweetheart pin, just like one of the ones featured here, but I hadn’t realized exactly what it was until now, thanks!
I enjoy looking at old, old pictures and imagining what their lives were like. Whether they loved, laughed, was happy……just in general, what their life was like. I also do this same thinking with seeing old abandoned houses.
Oh, I love sweetheart jewelry so much. I have a small collection of it that I’m always trying to add to. The best is finding lockets that still have the original pictures of the sweetheart in them
Oh! I love old photos, too, and you capture exactly what is so appealing and poignant about them. I am always incredibly sad to find old photos, albums, etc. in antique stores as it means that someone did not care enough to preserve a family history– it was just easier to give it all away or to sell it. I feel like I need to “adopt” all the old photos I find in antiques shops– to give a home to all those dispossessed memories.
Recently, at a flea market in the south of France, I found a whole box of these amazing little photos that had been made into cards. They were all of the same couple and each card had a terribly romantic letter from one of the people in the couple to the other; there were letters written from/to both the man and the woman in the couple. It must have been their little tradition. The box basically documented years and years and years (in the 40s and 50s) of their relationship. For some of the time, it seems, based on the content of the letters, the couple were separated– was he in the armed forces?– though all the photos were of the two of them together, the letters seemed to be long-distance love letters.They were too expensive for me to be able to buy the whole box and I could not bring myself to buy just a few– it felt so deeply, deeply wrong to separate them from each other. The lady selling them was very callous about it, shrugging that several had been bought already. When I gasped and asked if that didn’t make her sad, to see them separated from each other, she just made a dismissive (terribly French!) sound and said, no, not at all. I still feel a bit sick that I could not manage to “save” them… it makes me so forlorn to think that I just left them all to be separated instead of performing a heroic act of self-bankruptcy and buying them all to make sure they stayed together… I still wonder how it is that there was no one in their family who wanted to keep that amazing written and photographic record.
Sorry– loooong comment for a sad story! Your collections are lovely and I am glad that you are interested in the subjects in your photos– I always wonder about who the people were in old photos, too.
I love these old photographs. My father has a lot of them from his family history, and I’ve been trying to get him to preserve them in some way or get them copied. They will one day be so fragile. Have you ever watched the PBS series 1900′s House? I think there is Pioneer House, 1900′s House, 1940′s House- and many more. They took families and completely put them back in time for about three months. It’s so interesting. I think most libraries have the series on dvd for teachers.
I love that im not the only person who loves, collects and wears sweetheart jewelery!! My fiance is in the Army here in Australia, and sweetheart pieces are a little harder to find, but Ive got a few pieces which I treasure. Its a way to show our pride in them and what they do. I see a lot of RAAF and RAN pieces, once a fantastic RAAF compact!
Thank you for sharing your collections!
Oh Oh I want to see the old photos up closer . . .REALLY closer.
I’ll respond to your email you sent me soon. Haven’t been online much lately. . trying to get back into it slightly. Gearing up for Kindergarten for Leto and been doing Ballet in my home.
Hi there, I just stumbled across your blog and how I love it already! I absolutely adore nautical themed jewelry, old pictures and vintage patterns! I use the patterns as inspiration for my illustrative work because I’m not the most advanced seamstress yet, but I’m learning!
I LOVE to collect sweetheart jewelry. Thanks for sharing part of your collection. I tend to look for the very unique ones. I also collect v-mail.
I’ve started collecting vintage sewing books to use inspiration. I also love your tintype photographs. I am planning on experimenting with the process when I take advanced photography next spring.
I collect memorabilia from Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, My Child dolls from the 80s, and children’s patterns from the 30s to modern. And books, I suppose. My Lois and Clark collection is boxed up–I have a baby and a three-year-old, and the rarer dolls are on high shelves where Bit can’t reach them. The patterns are rather eclectic because I’m not picky about when they’re from–I just buy what I like. I’d like to join in your blog tour, but I won’t have time until Thursday when I don’t have the girls all day!
I love those old photographs! They’re so fascinating and sort of bittersweet. It’s sad to think that someone let go of or lost family photographs, but wonderful to know that new people will collect and cherish them.
Wow what a collection of beautiful pins!