Friday 8 February 2013

a curious rubber dog and his friend, the soviet devil

So you've seen a little teaser of the colourful lot I hauled in the last time I went thrifting. Let me show you the most interesting pieces in a bit more detail.

Edward Mobley rubber toy laughing dog orange 50s 1958 vintage baby squeaky
Edward Mobley Arrow Rubber Plastic Vintage dog baby toy laughing grimacing

 My absolute favourite (although hard to pick such a one from this particular lot) has got to be this curious looking rubber pooch. You might have guessed that he is a squeaky toy, suitable for brave babies and loopy collectors like moi... Some of you might love it and some of you might, khm.... ask why I bought the darned thing?
Seeing its kooky grimace I thought to myself that it looked awfully 50s - or if it was later, then superbly 70s soviet. Either way it had to land in my shopping basket, for it was also priced at a meager fifty cents. After a  little research back home I managed to find out that it is an Edward Mobley toy cast in the Arrow rubber & plastic factory in Germany. There's even a faint stamp on my dog which told me that it was cast in 1958. I'm happy about that but still happier about his fab orange colour!

From grimacing dogs to a bird biscuit cutter. And a heart one also. Simple but sweet. Besides, I've been thinking about starting a cookie cutter collection for a long time. These looked like ones I wouldn't mind starting with.

vintage cookie cutters bird shape red heart

Next, a bit of vintage mink fur. I am very aware that fur items, even vintage ones are quite controversial but because I appreciate vintage design, and because they are practically old unwanted items, I sometimes buy real fur secondhand. (Never new, because I don't support the contemporary fur industry.)


vintage fur brooch mink beaded 50s 1950s

This little piece of chocolate mink fur adorns a 1950s brooch, decorated with faux pearls and plastic beads. I am tempted to wear it with my dress-down grey t-shirt even though it probably should be worn accompanying a coat, a wool jacket or a cashmere cardi. Oh, the brooch was priced twenty cents.

devil krampus nutcracker vintage soviet 70s
vintage krampus nutcracker devil societ wooden 70s

 Okay, now look at this fellow... what do you think of him? I thought he looked super-weird and very nicely hand-crafted too! He is a wooden nutcracker in the shape of a Krampus-type devil. Nicely carved, wood-peg jointed, painted and varnished. He cost about an euro and had to join the furry beaded rubber dog crew in my shopping basket. I wonder what the cashier thought...

After a quick research at home, I was delighted to discover that my devil is from around the 70's and was made in soviet Bulgaria. In my research it also became obvious that he is definitely hand-crafted, because all the other examples looked recognizably similar to each other but not exactly the same.

By the way, I love how this thrifty lot has such bright, clashing colours - almost each find has some red in it! And thinking that I nearly didn't go to hunt that day because I felt the fleashop would be still in its picked-through post-Christmas state...

vintage Rosti Denmark danish ashtray red melamine 60s

I came upon this great little 1960's Danish Rosti melamine ashtray too. It was a must for fifty cents. Out of the lot, my boyfriend's favourite.

Then last but not least, some sewing-related items: the wonderful trio of turquoise 60s craft books that I've photographed all the other things on, and some big spools of cotton thread in brilliant retro colours.

vintage Kauneimmat Käsityöt kirja vanha 70 craft books
The books have a great cover design and are really nice inside too; I'm posting about them in detail in a separate post.

More vintage finds same time next week!

11 comments:

  1. The dog is really great - and a bit weird, too ;-) You do spend a lot of time thrifting, maybe I should try it too - too bad that flea market season still is quite some time away! Thrift stores really aren't that common here... pffft!

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    1. i guess i do spend a lot of time with thrifting... i always have done though, anywhere i lived i scouted out the thrift shops and fleamarkets, even before i'd knew where to buy food from ;)

      i go to a lot of inside markets and junkshops, which are luckily many of in this town. But believe it or not, there's a couple of old ladies at the open air market place in the middle of town, who pretty much every day who despite snow, ice, sleet, whatever always set up their tables around 9-10am and sell their fleas... if the finnish weren't so shy and slightly unfriendly toward strangers I'd ask them for a photo for the blog...

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  2. I don't know what it is about the cookie cutters after christman, I also got some myself this week. I am really looking forward to the books.

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    1. I am buying an s for the christman, so that he can become christmas!

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    2. hihi, i didn't notice the misspelling first :)

      i'll try to take good pics of the inside of the books tomorrow, and it should be up next week sometimes :)

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  3. I am liking the brooch! a lot! I might try to use up some of those old brooch thingies I have and make something similar. In my book this goes with just about everything. You are really good at this thrifting and finding the small cool items!

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    1. thanks for that Carol! :)

      i hope you make a furry brooch - you are good at making jewellery, so looking forward to seeing it!

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  4. Okay - that devil is COOL!!! I would have grabbed him in a heartbeat! Awesome finds. :)

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    1. :D glad you like the devilish devil. Thanks Wendy!

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  5. the dog has a very weird face
    but it's cute : )
    and the devil-nutcracker is quite interesting!
    you make good picks!

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    1. thanks Evdokia - sometimes when I go to these fleamarkets there's nothing, and sometimes, like this time there are so many good things!

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