vintage transfer patterns

The Flea Market Acquisitions, Part I

On the first and second days of the Giant flea market at the WV fairgrounds, I did a little hunting for myself.

Transfer Prints

My first purchase was from Jan, one of my favorite regular flea market vendors.

She pulled out a cardboard box filled with embroidery transfer prints. It has a great mix of the standard floral and kitchy novelty kitchen designs -- those animated pots and pans, animals doing chores, and the like.

Not all the transfer prints are embroidery-related. There's one for cut-work designs.

Two transfer patterns are from J.P. Coats: a little doll pattern transfer with instructions for her wardrobe--my favorite pattern in the bunch-- and an applique of a dog and cat.

Some of the best things in the box are the pattern envelopes. Note the very simple address format -- just name, city and state -- and illustrations printed on the envelopes. I wonder when did away with the Needlecraft and Pattern departments at the Charleston Gazette.

I love finding a full collection of something like this, where you can see bits and pieces of the original owner's history and personality peeking through.

Beauty Culture - Hair Products

About the same time that I found the beauty salon matchbooks on ebay, I also started hunting vintage hair product packaging with interesting graphics. I intended to use the illustrations as cut-outs for decoupage boxes.

I've thought about framing the collection for a bathroom.

These were all found on ebay for $6 and under.

My former employer was going through a merger at the time I found these on ebay -- relevant because the months of disarray gave me opportunities to scour ebay for good auctions and pounce at the right moment.

Modern Beauty Culture

One of the things I love about my beauty matchbook collection is the variation of several themes in the clip art and language, like these silhouettes.


"Beauty Culture" is one of the better phrases in the bunch. It's actually much more descriptive than the fairly drab "personal grooming" or "health and beauty industry".

Some more examples from my matchbook covers ...

on beauty ....




on looking good




on beauty culture




on the beauty shop(pe)



and, finally, on beauty services



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Charm Beauty

My interest in vintage matchbooks dates to 1999/2000. A good friend's boyfriend of the time, Joel, was a passionate and knowledgeable matchbook collector and introduced me to Phillumeny, or matchbook collecting. Joel referred to it simply as "The Hobby."

Joel and his dad had a match cover collection that they estimated was in the tens of thousands. They would take road trips to go to match collector conventions and were always on the lookout for matchbooks to trade or sell in the pursuit of a prized specimen to fill a hole in their vast collection.

I had been gathering some ephemera (paperdolls and hair product packaging) to use on little decoupage box projects. I was excited to find the world of matchbooks -- a new source for old images at a reasonable price.

My first buy was from ebay -- a collection of about 100 beauty and barbershop matchbooks. Even though I had ventured into the ebay buying world before, Joel was experienced in the details of matchbook auctions on ebay. He was my able adviser, helping me determine the collection's value and how low I could bid and still win (the answer - $15).

I love this little collection. The clip art didn't work as well for my decoupage, but I did end up using many of the images for little fridge magnets that I gave as gifts that year.

My second matchbook group came from Joel as a loaner, which I interpreted as "keep as long as you need." Joel specialized in sports matchbooks, and the ones he lent me were all duplicates and less valuable.

I love these match covers -- the "action shots" are so disarmingly graceful, the old school uniforms and two-color printing. And, while I do cherish these little beauties, I am prepared to state, for the record, that I will release them to their rightful owner (if he ever asks).

I'm starting to scan some of my favorite matchbooks in the large -- full matchbook format -- and uploading to a Flickr matchbook set.

Betsy McCall

Betsy McCall goes to school
Originally uploaded by cluttershop

McCall's magazines were one of the first things I hunted in antique stores. I knew the Betsy McCall paper doll from the magazines my mom bought in the 1970s and 80s. Looking for old magazines with the paper doll page intact became a good way to occupy myself when accompanying my mom and grandmother on their many antiquing excursions.

I still reflexively open all old McCall's magazines I see at flea markets and antique shops. If Betsy's there, the magazine goes into my pile.

Here's to Betsy -- my first proper antiquing fixation.

Corto radiator

Corto radiator
Originally uploaded by cluttershop

This radiator catalog was a 2003 ebay purchase related to my bungalow fix-up project. That first summer of rehab work was directed by a new friend and old hand at house repair named Robert. He loved radiators and worked hard to convince me to paint my radiators bronze rather than cover them with those wood and metal radiator covers.

He won and my radiators looked quite stunning. The picture above is the first image in the catalog. I loved the stark simplicity of and respect for the humble radiator in this picture. A fitting tribute to my friend Robert who showed me the way.

Radiators in context - a couple of illustrations from the catalog.

Plumbing catalog

I picked up this small catalog of household plumbing fixtures in Fall 2003 shortly after I bought my 1918 fixer-upper bungalow.

The catalog represents a phase of my hunting old house parts catalogs -- partly looking for inspiration for my renovations and restoration. Mostly, I think I was just charmed by the illustrations of domestic bliss.

The catalog isn't dated, but it appears to be late 1920s or early 1930s from the looks of the fixtures featured inside. Too late and far too fancy for my modest little house, but still a great resource for early 20th century American bathroom design.

See more catalog pages on Flickr