etsy storque London treasure Hunting with cowgirl caities

UK Edition: London Treasure Hunting With cowgirlcaties

Story by cowgirlcaities

Published on Apr
8, 2011 in How-To

Photo by ajom

Caitie Cannon of Wisconsin, U.S., has been collecting
since she was a little girl. Her dad would take her to antique shows
and flea markets before she could even walk, and she's just back from visiting
him where he now resides in London. The pair scoured the city's markets
to stock her two Etsy shops, cowgirlcaities
and cowgirlcaitiesdeux, with vintage wares. Today she
shares some of her favourite spots and treasure-hunting tips with us.

As I trundled up to the customs agent with four bulging suitcases, the
officer asked me how long I had been in London. "Two weeks," I said casually,
with what I hoped was a confident grin. He gave me a look of sheer disbelief,
double checking the stamps on my passport and shuttled me to a special line
where I was asked all kinds of questions. Whipping out a business card, I
explained that I had been on a buying trip and launched into the greatest hits
of my adventures.

The
Markets

I had a great guide (my dad, who lives in London)
but it's worth doing your research before you hit the town — Time Out's
Top 10 Car Boot Sales is a great place to start. Car boot
sales are held all over the outskirts of London, usually on Saturdays and
Sundays. They're filled with non-professional marketers that fill the boot (or
trunk) of their cars and head off to sell their personal items. This is a great
way to find some bargains, learn the history of pieces and meet some really
interesting people.

Portobello Road is everything you can dream of in a market.
It's huge and has an assortment of the latest fashions, jewellery and funky home
décor items. The streets are lined with market stalls, each wheeling and dealing
handmade crafts and some of the most amazing antiques I have ever seen. Running
alongside the market stalls are shops — warrens housing treasures from the dawn
of time. I discovered ancient Roman coins, Elizabethan dining implements,
Victorian décor items and Edwardian silver, to name just a few.

Brick Lane, with the ever-present, delicious aroma from its
many curry houses, is a vintage seeker's paradise. Secondhand clothing rubs its
trendy shoulders with up-and-coming, high-end designer attire. Antique furniture
is piled high all over market stalls and vintage china in every pattern
imaginable balances precariously alongside old toys and fabulous books.

The best market I found by far was the one in Greenwich. The array of
items at this small and cosy setting makes your mouth water. Its food stalls
bring people from miles around and the people are just some of the nicest in all
of London’s market community. I found so many treasures I had to go back to the
car twice, with my backpack loading me down like a redheaded Santa Claus.

Spitalfields has higher-end pieces, but down-and-dirty Deptford
and plentiful car boot sales (like the fabulous one at Wimbledon) are where true treasures can be found after lots of
digging.

London
is close to the sea and traditional market food is jellied eels and winkles
(little sea snails), but you can pass these up for a nice cuppa tea and a bacon
roll. English markets are some of the most ethnic in the world (over 300 hundred
languages are now spoken in London), and you will see this multiculturalism
reflected in the food vendors' hand-thrown noodles, dragon candy, curries and
exquisite chocolates — not just a hotdog and a Coke.

Treasure Hunting Tips

Make sure you wear sensible, comfortable shoes: they will save your feet and
your sanity. Pick up a cheap brolley (umbrella) and dress in layers as the
weather changes on a dime. Bring small bills and change, especially to boot
sales, as you'll find it easier to bargain with small bills and pound coins.
Cash is king — credit cards aren't accepted at most market stalls — and large
bills are fine at the higher end markets such as Spitalfields and parts of
Portobello Road. As always, watch out for pickpockets and panhandlers, just as
you would in any large city.

If, like me, you're a foreigner on a buying
trip, bring an extra suitcase with bubble wrap and tape or find a cheap
secondhand suitcase (or three) at a car boot sale. Wrap all items carefully and
pack things in smaller tins and boxes. Scavenge for packing materials as soon as
you set foot in London, because getting the treasures safely home is part of the
adventure.



Haggle
a little — it’s a fine art, so don’t be too demanding or offer an outrageously
low price, but sometimes you can get a few quid knocked off. A wonderful local
catchphrase you can use is “What’s the best you can do?" The majority of places
give a discount, especially when you buy a number of items from a
stall.

Whatever your treasure is, you can find it in London. First
edition Dickens, mother of pearl buttons, clay pipes, union jacks, antique keys,
ceramics, funky clothes, beautiful tins or the perfect Willie and Kate wedding
memorabilia. If you can't find what you are looking for, chat up the market
stall owners as and ask them where you might try. The marketers can be a
wonderful, tight-knit community, and they may be able to direct you to someone
who can help you fill your suitcases to the brim. Then maybe, just maybe, you
can find enough treasures to have the customs agents shake their heads with
disbelief.

Many thanks to Caitie for sharing her tips
with us! Tell us about your favourite market in the comments below.

Vintage On The Etsy Blog | Shop Vintage | UK
Edition

Tags

redhead.......... and absinthe

naked.....witches ........

"Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft were written by men."— Neil Gaiman

zodiac clip art ........ free great for halloween projects

Lovely clip art-

left click on mouse- go to save pictuew as... and viola it is in your pictures ready to use and resize

smooches caitie

My Queen tin, lovely, simply lovely, for sale on cowgirlcaites at Etsy .........

summer......... walt whitman

Press close, bare-bosomed Night! Press close, magnetic,

nourishing Night!

Night of south winds! Night of the large, few stars!

Still, nodding Night! Mad, naked, Summer Night!

~Walt Whitman

ETSY FRONT PAGE ITEM NUMBER LUCKY SEVEN....WOW SO COOL

My sweet little vintage cow.......... on the front page

I am so proud of her!!!

smooches caitie

Amy Sedaris..... the amazing.........

"I think it's good for a person to spend time alone. It gives them an opportunity to discover who they are and to figure out why they are always alone."— Amy Sedaris

Get out. Meet people. Join a ceramics class.

smooches caitie

I see London I see France.........

These are a few of my new inspirational international antique groupings that I have for sale at cowgirl caities on etsy

                                    Cartier Brisson lavender from PARIS

Cream Twist from London Flea Market

JP Coats threads from US

Lace from London

Bow lace pieces from London

Unity soft thread Made in BRITIAN

Pearls from Paris

Silver string,Blue FLOSSO, lingire thread blue/silver, blue wooden spool thread, H hankey, two yards of blue and white ribbon- from london

blue crochet flowers, 4 glass crystals from a chandelier, embroydered butterfly, silver lace- from paris

Flower bits and Mirror from the North end of the Mississippi

Teapot- I do not know where this appeared from- must be magic

Just as it should be......

Packs International goody groupings $20-$26

all rights reserved

Free vintage clipart.......... bookplate.................

If a site reappears, so will we. If the criminals move overseas, we will follow

Oddly charming..............Every once in a while I like to watch a movie online...... the movie starts, you can see a movie screen and hear people talking in a wonderful colorful  foreign language, the movie is blury and out of focus, and people are constantly getting up and down and you can see them moving around, sound is terrible and sometimes in russian,the picture goes from crystal clear to totally pixilated in seconds flat and then back again.  Its like seing a movie in a theater and I find something oddly charming about it...........  I thought these movies being posted was illegal but then why were the sites so professional, and up for so long, and offering a huge variety........ these times they are a changing.......

 --  a HUGE PIRACY SEIZURE BY THE US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE AND OTHER AGENCIES--- I was wondering when they were going to do something.......... they siezed the sites, the bank accounts and the properties of 9 sites........ and even though I am for freedom of speech I do believe in intellectual property ..... I do think this whole seizure is incredibly  interesting.

"If a site reappears, so will we.

If the criminals move overseas, we will follow"

John Morton, Immigration and Customs Enforcement 

I love this very clear susinct, powerful quote.

she didnt like her fortune................ free clip art

She was depressed about what the fortune teller had told her. She was told she would never find a lover unless she waxed her moustache. Death to all she cried, those who do not love a fine moustashe-ieo,,,,,,,,,,, and dribbles of plum jam left over from lunch

You decide who you are and who you want to be and you hold on to that and ride it out, like an old west sheriff.

"Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'

"Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.'

I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. There goes the shawl again!"

— Lewis Carroll

Vanguard Studios 1970 Wall Sculpture woman .......vanathane

Still deciding whether she is the the ugliest or the coolest.............. marked on back with brass tag Vanguard Studios 1970......... made out of vanathane

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.”

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.”

Voltaire quotes (French Philosopher and Writer. One of the greatest of all French authors, 1694-1778)

 

This is a page from one of my favorite antique french books, a charming book with three fairy tales--- this is one of the pages of text-- please feel free to use this as  clip art in your projects - a lovely little bit of french paper ephemera-- and more will be coming--- smooches and happy crafting--- caitie

free phrenolocical clip art.....now if that isnt a mouthful of a word I dont know what is.........

This image is from the lovely graphics fairy.... I had a different image up but hers was so much better- thank you Karen-you lovely fairy, you!!!!!!

I love reading the weird bumps on peoples heads.

smooches caitie

Free clip art gypsy

Gypsy- free clip art

smooches caitie

Stories, like people and butterflies and songbirds' eggs..........

"Stories, like people and butterflies and songbirds' eggs and human hearts and dreams, are also fragile things, made up of nothing stronger or more lasting than twenty-six letters and a handful of punctuation marks. Or they are words on the air, composed of sounds and ideas-abstract, invisible, gone once they've been spoken-and what could be more frail than that? But some stories, small, simple ones about setting out on adventures or people doing wonders, tales of miracles and monsters, have outlasted all the people who told them, and some of them have outlasted the lands in which they were created."

— Neil Gaiman (Fragile Things)

Tom Robbins sets us straight .......................

"So you think that you're a failure, do you? Well, you probably are. What's wrong with that? In the first place, if you've any sense at all you must have learned by now that we pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Go ahead and fail. But fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. A mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success. Embrace failure! Seek it out. Learn to love it. That may be the only way any of us will ever be free."

— Tom Robbins