A few weeks prior to Halloween, my husband (Josiah) and I by chance stopped at an estate sale while we were apartment hunting. It was the final day of the sale and as my fellow estate-sale enthusiasts know, that is the best day to find deals but the worst day to find truly wonderful items. The sale had a few interesting items left including some vintage cotton kid gloves, (that would never fit my E.T. fingers) a few articles of luggage, circa 1950's or 60's that I didn't feel I had the strength or enthusiasm to repair, and the chairs. We didn't have an apartment yet, we didn't know how much space we would be working with but we knew we had to have the chairs. 

 The three cozy chairs, the men running the sale explained, were part of the show furniture when their parents bought the house in the 1960's and had remained there since. They also came with a marble topped coffee table, inscribed with the name of the studio that created the set. The men imagined it was Italian furniture. I am not sure, because I'm having a hard time researching the name that I can't read very well. 



One of the initial things that drew us to these chairs was the detail on the arms. The flowers are made of plastic but look just like the flower details we found on a 1920's end table earlier this summer. The table was in desperate need of repair but we found it and fell instantly in love. Thank goodness I have such a handy husband!

The end table was found on the final day of an estate sale at a bed and breakfast that was closing. They had accumulated a wealth of objects over the years and rather than hiring a company to host the sale for them, the retirees had decided to let guests wander the building and pick up what they wanted.

If you've never been to an estate sale before, seek out one like this. Companies do research into products' worth and overprice everything. They have to make money themselves, which I don't blame them for, but I'd much rather pay ten dollars for a designer handbag at a self-run estate sale (even if I have to dig for it) than sixty at an estate sale where it's been laid out for me. We paid a mere four dollars for our little table, easily the best estate sale find we've ever had.

Anyway, the table was stained, there were nail polish marks on the top, and water damage to the beautiful feet. The copper claws were heavily tarnished.