O is for Older Charity Shop Stuff

These were procured between January and October 2022, and are from a larger folder we will dip into a couple more times to empty, and there's a run-up to Christmas post on Charity Shop purchases coming too.

We're going from the sublime to the ridiculous in this post, and while not ridiculous, this little set from Red Deer hasn't turned-up in either of the Red Deer haunts Peter Evans or me have been sourcing Red Deer from! But it turned-up in a charity shop for less than a quid? Mini-vinyls!

 

This and the next one, were real finds, they were a few quid each, can't remember how much but not enough, maybe £3.50p each, something like that. They are almost certainly ivory, and not bone, they are too fine a texture, and a few years ago they would have been worth a lot at auction, if not thousands, certainly hundreds, especially for this one, as it's a recognisable character figurine of The Mahatma Gandi?

 

But I'm not so sure now, selling ivory without provenance is hard (I've kept the receipts to establish provenance for futures sale), but they are both 'clean' enough to be illegal, modern pieces, which is what the legislation is designed to clamp-down on?

 

This one is possibly a goddess, or priestess, and with a slight patina, could be a little older, I have a fair bit of ivory in the collection from teeny little Indian cracker-toys, and bracelet charms, from before the last war, to Japanese pieces better than these.

 

But it is all a bit of a liability now, it's fine to own the stuff, but selling it and/or buying it can be problematical, so one day it will probably all go to a Museum, but not until I've put them all on an 'Ivory' page in the A-Z's, or here?

 

Santa is a cat person! Hey, it's not the 6th yet, but three folders of crackers, baubles and cake decorations have now joined Brian's nativity shots for an eleven-month sleep! And I can't remember if the Tortoise was resin or PVC, but I thought it was worth a punt?

This was another real find, a cold-painted 'Vienna bronze', probably German and despite the chipping, a really nice piece of antique novelty figurine, and again eminently saleable in the hundreds, so one day I will part with it, to finance a gap-filler/grail piece, but for now I rather like them and they stay!