Plycraft Mania

Plycraft is perhaps best known for their knockoff interpretation of the Eames 870 Lounge chair. However, I've always found the Plycraft lounger below to be a much more distinctive design. I found the one below at an estate sale ... somewhere in DFW (I don't remember where.) But I've seen these from time to time at other sales in Fort Worth.


What's odd is that after I bought this chair, in started to pop up in other pieces of MCM ephemera I bought, including this Robert Goulet album. Of course, the real mystery there is who put the tin foil on the floor.


Then there's the picture of the bachelor pad your Dad moved to after the divorce. Nice socks!


But my favorite is this hi-fi room from a period home improvement book. As PeteW would say, it's totally googie.

Cool Finds

We're back to our estate- and garage-sale cruising now that the holidays are over. At a church rummage sale, we found this copper chocolate set for $2.


This 34-by-14-inch "motel art" -ish oil painting of a turbaned gentleman, (by the artist known as "Drake") cost $1.



Got this General Electric "Telechron" lucite-and-metal battery-operated (!) clock, below, at an estate sale the day after Christmas. It cost $12, a little more than we like to spend, but we decided it had enough zing to justify the cost.


We know. You hate us. It's OK.

I Love a Good Stool

And six of 'em ... even better! I have been on the hunt for the perfect stools for my breakfast bar at El Rancho Deluxe, and today the quest was complete.

It's hard to find two or three awesome MCM bar stools. Today, I found SIX. Here's the check. Thank you very much. Plenty of MCM goodness remains at the Anne Bourland estate sale on 4009 Hildring in the 76109 part of FW.

Fort Worth MCM Sale in Wedgwood

Anne Bourland is at 3501 Lawndale, Fort Worth, TX 76133. Wedgwood house has a Heywood Wakefield king bedroom set and (Appliance Porn Alert!) an avocado green fridge. From Southwest Loop 820 exit Trail Lake and go south, staying in the left lane to take Woodway. Go south a mile to Lawndale and turn left. Mapsco 89Z. Hours are Friday and Saturday 10-5, Sunday 1-4.

MCM Estate Sale in Dallas

Looks like a good one at 5210 Pershing Street, Dallas, 75206 (Dallas Mapsco 35V). Russel Wright dining suite, Vladimir Kagan coffee table and end table, Samson Burman credenza, a pair of Baughman tub chairs, Heywood Wakefield chest and end tables.

Times are Friday & Saturday, 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. until 5 p.m.

Out of the Attic sales take cash, checks and credit cards (for purchases over $50.) And if you want the cool stuff, be there early Friday and be prepared to fight for it -- which is why I probably won't be there.

For a map, click here. For pictures, click here.

This Is Why I Go To Estate Sales

My wife found this Russel Wright Pinch tumbler at an estate sale in south Fort Worth yesterday. We already have a ton of Iroquois and we wanted the glasses to go with the plates. However, whenever we found them, they were always priced at about $35 to $45 each. Yesterday, we found 11 for $4. Not each -- $4 for all 11. How sweet it is!

Great MCM Estate Sale in Lancaster

And they have a Frigidaire Flair! Lots of tiki/bamboo style furniture. Looks like a treasure trove of kitsch! 508 S. Dallas Avenue, Lancaster, TX 75146. Runs Thursday through Saturday, 9a-5p. See thee DMN for more details.

Appliance Porn for Friday

I don't get down to DeSoto much, but maybe I ought try to go to theB& B Estate Sales at 211 N Lyndalyn Ave to see this kick-ass O'Keefe and Merritt gas stove. Righteous!

UPDATE, 6.15.07: I wonder if this is the same stove?

Album Cover: Afternoon in Amsterdam

I go to a lot of estate sales in my voracious quest for cool MCM artifacts. I found this album at a North Dallas sale a few years ago. I thought it was kind of kooky. Why would someone have an album of Dutch caliope music? Who would want that? Well, me for one.

Anyway, a curious thing happened. After I bought it, I started noticing this album at many of the estate sales I went to over the next six months. I must have seen it 10 times. Evidently, Dutch caliope music was pretty popular in Dallas in the 50s and 60s.

Another similar episode happened two weeks ago in Fort Worth. I went to back-to-back estate sales in Ridgmar, and at both sales is this Winston Churchill Ezra Brooks bottle commemorating the Iron Curtain speech. I've never seen the thing before in my life, then I see it twice inside of a half hour.

That's estate saling. Sometimes you follow things, sometimes things follow you.