Welcome to another outing at the Thrift Store. After the great Friendly Village find that I wrote about last week I thought it might be tough to find something great at the Thrift Store this week. It seems to sometimes run in a series of good finds and then not much and then another series of good finds. I was pleasantly surprised when we went out on an unscheduled trip to a couple of stores right near where we live.
The first find…..right when I walked in the door….. was this set of six gorgeous glasses. I always look in the glass section. I have found sets of Lenox Crystal, Mikasa, Calvin Klein and even Cartier. You can almost always recognize a good brand even if they are not labeled. Labels on glassware usually appear at the foot of the glass stem. Always check. However, if there is no label, you can usually tell a good piece by the weight and the ring of the glass. Good cut crystal is not light and has a decided ring when you flick the glass with your finger.
This set of six glasses had all the qualities of a good cut crystal glass even though it had no label. When I got home I researched them on-line. A good place to start is Replacements Ltd. They list all of the major brands with pictures of the different patterns. Of course, not every pattern is listed but it definitely gives you a starting point. Turn out the glasses above are Rockford by Noritake. Once you have a brand and pattern name you can look up the cost to see how well you did. These glasses sell for $16 – $18 per glass. I did really well. The added benefit is that I really like the fluted shape and the pattern of cut glass. Definitely a win on this one.
Next I found this set of 8 dinner plates and 4 salad plates. If you are familiar with Mikasa china, these look like a lighter version of their French Countryside pattern…..a classic>
It is, in fact, Mikasa’s Ultima+ Antique White dishwater. I was in another store recently where they priced a set of 8 dinner and 8 salad/dessert plates at $100. When I saw that priceI thought it was way too much. These came in at less than 1/10 the price. So they came home with me. I love having white dishes with some interest on the rim. I had just given my French Countryside dishes to my daughter for her kitchen. I’d been collecting them for awhile and she needed a new set with serving pieces, mugs, etc. I always encourage her to shop at my house first.
This next find was a fun one. For some reason I’ve been seeing a lot of Villeroy & Boch dishes lately. They are on the higher end and have some really nice patterns. This was a set of 8 dessert/salad plates. The pattern is TipoBlue.com. They stopped producing them about 2007 and there are very few on-line for sale. The only plates I could find were selling for about $30 per plate. I bought them because I thought they would go with the blue polish plates I found a few weeks ago and be another shade of blue to add to a place setting. They each have dots as part of the pattern and should compliment one another. It always amazes me that people donate such quality items and that they are priced so inexpensively.
The last thing found that day was the Budvase Cluster Centerpiece. You can see that here: https://www.thriftingwonderland.com/post/cluster-bud-vase-centerpiece
It was a fun find.
That’s it for this week. Hope everyone has a great weekend and that all your thrifting adventures are memorable.