Category Archives: Thrift shop finds

January 22, 2017 · 9:36 pm

www.Wine, Wallabies & Wombats

Quick quiz: what comes from Australia? Not what lives there, what leaves there! Can’t think of anything? Nor can I, except wine and souvenir boomerangs. If one were to look on the bottom of most every manufactured item in our house, I wager none of them would have the word Australia. So we were truly amazed when on Saturday, drifting through the thrift shop next to the Mediterranean grocery store (nothing from Australia in there to be sure), my wife picked up an unfamiliar looking tin cylinder with lids top and bottom. Fastened around the tin with a rubber band was a label bearing a recipe for nut loaf. The lids were embossed with the trade name “Willow” and the word Australia, as well as “NUT LOAF” and dimensions in m/m, Australian for millimetres.

Willow Nut Loaf 170 m/m x 80 m/m

A web search turned up the key to the mystery. Willow nut loaf tins were an Australian phenomenon, made to bake tiny nut loaves, usually two at a time according to the amount of ingredients in most recipes. The printed recipe on the paper was in fact wrong, as it didn’t have the necessary sugar but instead had walnuts listed twice. Never minding this, we baked a nut loaf following the web sourced instructions. Surprise – it was excellent; the recipe worked to perfection.

delicious nut loaf

Sadly, the Willow Company no longer has a nut loaf tin among their many cooking tins. Perhaps this explains why this item is so rare, at least in these parts. Neither of us had ever seen or heard of a nut loaf tin, and that would necessarily include mothers and grandmothers, too, proof positive of its rarity. Good luck finding one; I further wager it will be another lifetime before one of these turns up in these parts, especially in like new condition. There are some for sale out there, so if you’re curious and collect unusual kitchenware, go for it. But don’t go to Australia; they don’t make them there anymore!

the lid(s)

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January 8, 2017 · 11:57 am

The Caravan Royal

Hurry your highness, the peasants are revolting!

Early Royal Caravan

Royalty don’t travel in caravans, unless fleeing the country. However, that never stopped the use of the word Royal from being applied to caravans, or any other thing. Here’s yet another example:

Royal Caravan: the typewriter

I picked this up last week. It’s a variant of a fairly common typewriter known as the Adler or Triumph, Tippa or Contessa, and of course Royal Caravan. It types well and is full featured with basket shift and tabs. Royal typewriter had a previous version that was not portable, although they always call these things portables:

Royal Caravan as used by Bob Dylan in the 60’s

The term “Royal Caravan” does not return the typewriter very high on the search results unless you specify the word “typewriter” however. The most interesting Royal Caravans in my mind seem to be travel trailers – here’s the most well known example:

Buckingham Palace Collection

This one was presented to Prince Charles and Princess Ann in 1955 when they were short enough to get through the door. It’s a miniature version.

no peeking at the royal children please!

There are other Royal Caravans, too:

hotel in Indonesia

Here’s a famous user of the latest clone, presuming from the source that it is Kubrick typing on one of the yellow iterations of the Adler/Triumph/Royal/Tippa/Contessa/Caravan.

Kubrick I presume?

You will see many of these on Etsy for way too much, but it seems that yellow and orange are now popular retro-nostalgia colours!

Have You Heard About the Herd?

While looking through cards in the recipe box I recently found, I came across a few pieces of paper. One of them was folded into six and inside was a recipe for Baked Beans. What was more interesting however, was what was written on the back.

Woody Herman’s autograph, in pencil!

I had a look on the internet and it closely resembles a number of examples of Woody’s autograph, leading me to believe it’s the real thing. I simply can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be. But why was it on the back of a baked beans recipe?

Here’s one of my Woody Herman LP’s, with many familiar classic swing era tunes. Woody was one of the top band leaders of the day, and once had Dizzy Gillespie as an arranger! The first Herman band was known as The Band That Played the Blues, but later they were called The Herd.

I know what I’ll be listening to later today, perhaps over a plate of baked beans…

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December 14, 2016 · 6:04 pm

Mother’s Pie Crust

ye olde recipe boxe

I’ve been looking for one of these for some time. My mother had one similar, but with a tartan pattern and beige brown lid. It too was stuffed full of mostly handwritten recipes. I venture this came from the 50’s, judging by the handwriting (tiny and perfect) and the business card stuck inside, which has a phone number that begins with letters (GR in this case). Having searched most of the cards I’ve only found one that was typewritten, and of course it is clear and easily understood. It looks to be elite (12 cpi), but from what machine? The stasi would have known these things! For those who might be making pies for the holidays, here is that recipe. Note the hopeful suggestion about fingers crossed.

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October 27, 2016 · 5:49 pm

Shiny Black Things

Volkwagen

Seen last summer

Streamliner

Seen today

Can’t afford either one! OK, maybe the Remington, but $130? I have a Deluxe Model 5 already…I think it was $25.

Oh to be on the road in my VW with my Streamliner beside me on the seat, typing as I drive along. Ridiculous, you say? Yes, but how many people died because some idiot was typing while driving? My guess, very very few. How may have died because some idiot was talking, texting, or browsing their smartphone? My guess, thousands. Once again, the typewriter proves its worth.

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Tagged as remington streamliner, vw beetle

September 19, 2016 · 5:10 pm

JP-3 Sighting

Brother JP-3, Profile 720 model

Mint condition, rare JP-3 model with parallel action carriage shift, push button ribbon selector, wide carriage and all original papers. I have nowhere to put this, but if it had been regular carriage and $20, who knows?

P.S. more photos of the paperwork. It was made in 1967, and had a rapid paper feeder!

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September 13, 2016 · 10:05 pm

Typewriter Love, Italian Style

beautiful curves

More about the machine: a close inspection reveals this is really well built, like indestructible! The mechanics of the carriage are unlike most every other typewriter; it has large dished bearings which hold a thick stainless steel bar that carries the carriage. Basically a larger and much stronger version of the Lettera 22. It feels like a 22 as well, with the precise but soft touch. Quiet, too, for a typewriter! From the small number of these that I’ve ever seen in the shops, they weren’t terribly popular, and perhaps were quite expensive. One can imagine this would have been high priced – it appears to be made with no expense spared. Even the case is different; a truncated pyramid shape when stood upright. By the serial number the TWDB says it was made in 1961 or 1962.

carriage runs on this round rail – note the huge pinch rolls

innards

oversized platen for this scale of machine

elegant keys

large folding paddle like lever is easy to push

right side – note the scooped lower edge! So subtle..

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Tagged as olivetti studio 44

August 25, 2016 · 11:35 am

The Road to Elvis

Elvis with his phonograph/amplifier

When I discovered long ago that I shared my birthday with Elvis, it came as something of a shock. Despite knowing that millions upon millions of people had the same birthday, January 8, somehow I relished the thought of Elvis and I as birthday buddies. When I was a young teen I even bought several of his current hits on 45, including Return to Sender, She’s the Devil In Disguise, and One Broken Heart for Sale. Two of those must have been on one 45, but I can’t recall which, nor the song that filled out the other missing side. I also had such hits as PT 109 by Johnny Horton, The Twist by Chubby Checker, and Hello Dolly by Satchmo. I’m slightly embarrassed by all this, with the exception of Louis Armstrong, who I still revere as a true musical legend. This may be apostasy with regard to Elvis, but I have this sinking feeling that Elvis’s fame, though seemingly immortal, will one day fade away to a footnote. Only his early stuff will, and should, endure as great music; the rest should be forgotten.

That being said, Elvis still exerts a strange fascination which was piqued yesterday in the aftermath of my examining an interesting old portable phonograph in a thrift shop.

it resembled a typewriter, but wasn’t

Opening the lid I saw it was a phonograph, and a very interesting one indeed. It was a Perpetuum Ebner Musical 5v Luxus, as near as I can determine.

Rex, stands for the King

I took a picture of it and went home. Later I did some research. Now I wish I’d bought it, but when I returned this morning it had been sold. Perhaps another buyer had Googled it right on the spot and seen what it was! Maybe I’m fortunate however, seeing as how I really have no use for it, and nowhere to put it.

The point is of course, Elvis had one in Germany. He used it not only for listening to records but as an amplifier for his guitar.

What sort of look is this? Puzzlement, curiosity, or disdain?

the one that got away

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June 25, 2016 · 4:07 pm

Seiko Time

Seiko Sportsmatic 1970’s – hidden stem at 4 o’clock

I recently acquired two 1970 era Seiko wristwatches in thrifting expeditions. The first was a lovely and elegant Sportsmatic. I wiped it off and have been wearing it for months now. It loses one minute daily, which I can live with. I may crack open the case and adjust it soon however.

Seiko 7006-5019 blue face

The second watch I found last week – a square blue faced gem in a man-sized stainless steel case. I polished the crystal with Brasso, which did an amazing job of removing most every little scratch. It needed a strap though, since the original steel band had been made so small it didn’t fit my man-sized wrist. I then proudly strapped the watch on, only to discover that the second hand sometimes jammed against the minute hand. I would have to open the watch now, but I didn’t know how, since it was not like any watch I’d ever seen. It has two spring clips, which are between the lugs and only visible when the strap is removed. To remove the watch from the case, one pushes in these springs and pries out the case. The case-back is a steel clam-shell affair on which the crystal sits, gasketed to the rim. Once the case is opened the entire top part comes away leaving the watch with the crystal loose on top. I cleaned up the usual gunk and lifted off the crystal to access the hands. With a tiny bit of adjusting I got the second hand to clear the minute hand and assembled the watch. To get it to snap back together I inserted one clip first, turned the watch face down and pressed on the case until the second spring snapped into place. Once you know how, it’s dead simple and very ingenious.

Both watches have a similar auto wind function where the stem only sets the time but does not wind the mainspring. Winding is done by wearing the watch. The stems are made to fit well into the watch cases and thus do not protrude and catch on things the way most watch stems do. I don’t think these were expensive watches, so I admire how well they have lasted, both of them around 40 years old and running quite well.