Hightstown Dollhouse Show: 2016

callsmall March 6, 2016

I'm lucky to have a small and manageable dollhouse show to go to right by my house: the Hightstown Miniature Show, now in its 37th year. This is my fourth year going--I've written about my visits before--and I've now honed my system for visiting and buying.

Here are my tips for this show, and these may apply to other similar traditional shows:

First: SHOW UP LATE. I arrived with only 90 minutes left for the show and it was not crowded and I found a lot of things. Also, most sellers were offering 1/2 off everything since it was toward the end.

Second: MODERN IS NOT MAINSTREAM. No one is really collecting modern, so you can find some cool styles, usually discounted. This makes the first tip even more relevant, since early birds will be hunting down Victorian quarter scale and not midcentury.

Third: ALWAYS DO AN EXTRA LOOP AROUND, EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU'VE SEEN EVERYTHING. You haven't seen it all, trust me. I always find things in places I thought I had looked. You just overlooked them!

Fourth: HAVE PATIENCE WITH THE DOLLAR BINS. While it might all look broken and/or dusty, you can find some gems in the plentiful dollar bins -- most sellers have some version of them.

So, all in all, it was a productive and happy experience. I do like "getting lost" in all the stuff, and there was a lot of it.

Here are my spoils!

There are some useful things here, for sure. Let's take a closer look...

These cool retro outdoor chairs, also pictured at the top of the post, were sold by this woman who had used them in her original dollhouse growing up in the 1960s. They are metal with plastic tubing, just like the real chairs! The pillow was from a different seller.

This table and chairs were also from the same seller who had them in her house. I am wondering if they are by KAGE or Strombecker....any ideas?

Did you see this paper? I am hoping this might work as exterior stonework for my Contemporary House by Doll Domiciles. I hope to have an update on it soon.

A comfy dog bed -- did not have one of these. Nice green rug, too.

I got a very nice wooden dining table that needs a leg fixed.

Lovely leeks, handmade

A dollhouse for a dollhouse shelf, and a vintage Lundby light

Some retro-wrapped gifts and decorative glass objects

More artwork!

Curious about the price tag for all this stuff? Less than $30!

Hope you enjoyed seeing my finds.

Hightstown Miniature Show: 2013

callsmall February 24, 2013

The priciest piece--I negotiated down to $15.

The Hightstown Miniature Show in Hightstown, N.J., was on Saturday and I was able to run over for 1-1/2 hours. It's quite ideal: small (it's held in a church activity room), fifteen minutes from my house, nice people, and not a lot of vendors (maybe twenty or so). The drawback is that the wares are overwhelmingly traditional, but as with my visit last year, you can find some vintage gems and other treasures from the $1 bin!

My spoils are in the following photos. I probably did five or six laps around the room, making sure I hit each vendor. I spent more time at some than others, and often found things on my second or third round that I didn't see earlier. Read the captions for more detail!

I hope to use some of these pieces very soon!

The whole lot! I spent less than $75

Neat rug with some handmade purses, a tool box, birdhouse, and a fancy decanter.

I have a feeling this light will come in handy.

A reindeer head came home with me, even though the seller dropped him as she was wrapping him! We glued him on the spot and he's ready for his closeup.

A fireplace and a few knickknacks will likely come in handy. Not sure what the wooden piece is, but it looked like a modern house to me!

Vintage fabric, a moose painting, fancy gloves, and some accents caught my eye.

More stuff...

A wooden shelving unit will always come in handy!

Good for rain!

Cute placemats!

The find of the day: a Lundby "Brasilia" office chair, which I have been looking for to match my other Brasilia pieces: it was $5!!!!

This was one of the more unusual finds of the day.

I still think this could work as a modern dollhouse in a dollhouse!

Hit any fairs lately? Any coming your way? Be sure to share your spoils!

Hightstown Miniature Show

callsmall February 26, 2012

Just a quick post to share my spoils from a local dollhouse show that I attended yesterday in Hightstown, NJ, about 15 minutes away from me: The Hightstown Annual Dollhouse Miniature Show and Sale. As I mentioned in my previous post, I rarely go to shows and had not been to this one, which is in its 33rd (!) year, but I really had no excuse, considering how close it is to me!

I'm glad I went. It was super crowded and often hard to navigate, but there were some gems to be found in the 1-1/2 hours I was there. Oddly, I felt like I was the only one negotiating...nothing crazy, and my offers were always fair, but I didn't see bargaining going on. Personally, I can't help it...it's how I was raised! :)

So, here's my finds. As you might imagine, traditional styles reigned, but I did manage to score some great modern stuff.

Check out these two gorgeous artisan-made shelving units sold by a mother and daughter team; the maker's name is Bruce Dawson, and he has an Etsy shop. You'll see his initials on the bottom of one of the units. They were marked down and I negotiated further to get them both for $20.