Friday 7/27/07

Wiltshire Dr. - Avondale Estates “Estate Sale”

I had not been to a Friday estate sale this summer so I stopped in at this sale late in the morning after the professional resellers had pillaged what they needed. This was not a particularly interesting sale but it was refreshing to wander again in a stranger home examining the artifacts of their life. This smallish brick ranch home had the usual flotsam and jetsam of a long life from the old kitchen wares to the linens and blankets piled upon the beds. The most notable items were the extensive collection of hand painted plaster Xmas figurines. The overtly cute figures occupied three tables in one bedroom and nearly all had angel wings. Some clothing remained in the estate including a collection of women’s hats, a selection of ladies gloves and some garishly colored dresses.



This home held few books. Cookbooks dominated the collection of a shelf where I found these titles “Party Cookbook”, “Cookbook for Two”, “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten”, “Getting the Most Out of Your Life”, “The New Testament” and “The Lucky Stiff”. In one of the bedrooms I found a small stack of old stickery magazines and some religious works. Some artifacts that stuck out among the mundane china and glassware presented in the main rooms were a life size ceramic replica of a magnolia bloom and a dried gourd. In one of the bedrooms I found a box of old faded silk roses and a watercolor portrait of a blond woman in profile.
The basement had more ambience that the upstairs with it’s dim light coming from bare bulbs and sunlight filtered by the dirty windows of the garage door. Here I found old paint cans, a catalog for Hummel collectors, a fishing net hanging from the ceiling, some old Halloween décor, a game called Take 12, a basket of faux apples and a shelf holding assorted containers of miscellaneous hardware that listed in a way that made it look as though it would topple at any moment.
I bought two old tourist brochures for Georgia that were die cut into the shape of the state.

Portrait found in Avondale.



















Cloth items piled upon bed as seen in mirror.


















Multiude of cute figurines.















Hummel catalog in dim basement.