On our way back from Wisconsin (to Fargo), we’ve been stopping here and there at sales we find along the way.

Our next stop, Ripon. Here I find a retro vinyl Barbie case (#1002, copyright 1982). It’s not perfect, but it’s just five cents. (Another empty box, “Sold!”)

In Princeton, Wisconsin, we stop at American Garage and Garden. It’s a place we’ve passed by often but never stopped in yet. Today’s the day!

Outside I spot a few old metal bicycle baskets. I’ve been looking for one for my old bike for quite some time now and here’s a beauty for just $8. We grab it and head on inside to look around.

Mostly architectural pieces and furniture, the place has all sorts of goodies. We only bought the bike basket because everything else we loved was well past today’s budget — very reasonably priced mind you, but more than we have on us.

In fact, when it’s time to pay we discover that we’re short on cash so we have to ask the 10 year old to float us a short-term loan. Des scampers off to the van to dig out her wallet and we wait while the shop owner writes out our receipt. He’s laughing that we have to use a little girl as our bank, but we comfort him with the fact that she knows we are good for it.

Is it time to stop just because we’re out of cash? Maybe that’s a sign. We don’t think so. So back in the car we go, and Derek and I continue to look for real signs along the roadside.

Just west of Oxford, Wisconsin, Derek spots a home made sign for a “Giant Sale” and he makes a right-hand turn onto a ‘road less traveled.’ Another sign of the same design directs us to a gravel drive. Derek pulls in and there looms a large metal warehouse of a garage — next to a gloomy forbidding pine tree forest. The light eerily pours through the trees and as Derek parks I say, “And this was the place they were last seen…”

But neither a lack of our own cash nor spooky environments can stop us. And for good reason — inside we found quite a few goodies.

Immediately I spot and grab this vintage tin of Max Factor’s Society Make-Up, Hollywood face power (circa 1940’s, early 50’s). The top is tin, the bottom is cardboard and while I’ve got tins and cardboard cosmetic containers, I do not have one that is both. (Likely the cardboard bottom is a refill to the ‘keeper’ tin cover.)

Most importantly it’s only a dollar.

I also found a few plates (which I need to research first, so they’ll be ‘here’ later) and an ashtray from a Wisconsin bowling alley (no Laverne and Shirley jokes, please). Arms full, I head toward the check out when I spy this small wooden bench.

Being a girl, I am drawn to it’s charming details and small size (just 22.5 inches wide, 27 inches tall, and 15 inches deep). But I become entranced when I discover the storage nooks: the lower half of the front face of the seat’s “box” has a small latched door, perfect for hiding away dirty shoes, and the seat lifts open for anything else that might be better placed out of eyesight. (We women just love things like this.)

I immediately begin to run numbers in my head… It’s only $6, but I put the ashtray back and then I begin to work on Derek. (“I’ll make room for it, I promise! It’s soooo neat and practical!”) Next I ask the lady if she’ll accept $10 for the $11 worth of items I’ve got. She agrees — so the cute and practical bench is only $5. As if I needed the one dollar savings to rationalize it to Derek! By this point, he’s been eyeballing it from a construction point of view…

The seat is a fine example of genuine rustic farm furniture. To get finely crafted furniture in the early 20th century, a farm family had to invest in either a drive to a larger town or devote time to waiting for the Sears Roebuck order to arrive. Utilitarian furniture, those useful furnishings that valued function over form, were often built to purpose right there on the farm from whatever was available. This seat wasn’t designed to be beautiful — it was built to give Ole a place to sit when he takes off his muddy shoes, and then conveniently hides them away.

A finer woodworker probably wouldn’t have mounted hinges in a place where they might snag on the seat of someone’s trousers, and they’d have countersunk screws rather than assembling it with raised panhead screws, but that’s all part of the charm.

The wood on the sides and back are clearly from a much older piece of furnutire, probably late 19th century, but the rest was cobbled together from available materials, probably in the 1930s. The hinges, screws, and latch all appear to have been pulled off other furniture.

The screws were inserted irregularly, more for strength than aesthetic purposes. Despite the hackish way the seat was built, it cannot be disregarded as sloppy. The joints are tight and strong, edges and corners are straight and even, and the various doors were designed well (I don’t think I’ve ever bought modern furniture that fits together so well, let alone expect it to in the next century). Furniture like this is hard to come by, and you can tell why $5 was a steal to us.

Over all, a wonderful way to travel home.

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Article Tags: American Garage and Garden, Barbie, Ripon, Wisconsin

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 1:51 am and is filed under flea market finds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.