Treasure Hunting

Sometimes, I just get the feeling I’ve got to go somewhere and check out what they have, and more often than not, I find a treasure.  There’s a charity shop right around the corner from my office, so I swung by there at lunch today just to check it out.

When I went in the shop, one of the gals pointed at an old laundry cart and just left it at that… When I walked over to it, I was gob-smacked to see that it was full of old silverplated pieces of serving-ware. But all of the way at the bottom of this cart, I found something I’d never seen before. There were about a dozen silverplated cups. Not like a Jefferson cup or a julep cup, but almost like a tea cup. They were absolutely filthy. Dirtier than almost any other piece of silver I’ve ever seen. But when I turned them over, the underneath was fine, so I thought I could clean them. I still have some work to do on the one on the right, and then seven more to clean, but isn’t it amazing what a little (a lot) of elbow grease will do for a piece?

The other little treasure I found was a sweet book called “The John F. Kennedys” by photographer Mark Shaw. He was a photographer for Life Magazine who became a friend of the Kennedys in the late 1950s and early 60s. There are photos I’ve never seen before which present a side of the family just before JFK became president and then immediately after.  Here are a few examples.

I love how contemporary the top image of JBKO looks. It could have been taken this summer.

If you want to come treasure hunting with me, I am thinking of doing a Friday-only pre-holiday shopping trip to a couple of my favourite places in Baltimore. Probably the first Friday in December. Let me know if you’re interested.