The Spring Crud Can't Keep Me From a Good Estate Sale!

I've spent the week fighting off the spring crud and am just beginning to emerge out from under wads of Kleenix, aspirin bottles and nose drops.  I got up off the couch this weekend and hit two nearby estate sales.  My biggest prize turns out to be this 8-3/8" berry bowl in my favorite depression glass pattern:  No. 610 Pyramid by Indiana Glass.  This pattern was made from 1926-1932 and came in green, pink, yellow and crystal originally.   I love the art deco lines of the pattern; when Steve and I were in Jefferson, TX last October I found this 9-1/2" oval bowl that I had to have.  The green is my favorite though I like the pink, too.

Anyway, I was walking through a crowded estate sale and the house was filled with stuff.  It was a lot to take in.  I picked up a couple of little things and as I walked through the kitchen I saw the green bowl jammed in the back of a pantry with a $9.00 sticker on it.  It's in beautiful shape and I was thrilled.  I clutched it close to me as I made a beeline to the table to pay up and leave.  I just never see this pattern anywhere except on eBay or in an occasional antique mall.  To find one at an estate sale at such a great price was fun.  A real treasure!

At another sale I picked up this Fostoria American pitcher.  It's squat and stocky (and heavy!) and I like it.  I like this pattern, too; my grandmother left me some pieces which is how I got into semi-collecting this pattern.  There are lots and lots of pieces to this pattern and you'd have to live in a warehouse to collect it all.  I pick up the odd piece here and there.  I got this pitcher today and the salt and pepper shakers.  I gave long thought to a relish dish that was there and to a oil and vinegar cruet set on a tray but left them behind.

At that same sale I also picked up two books - one is an 1895 edition of the complete works of John Keats; I, of course, have several old volumes of Keats and some modern printings, but I liked this old one.  It's got a plate with his portrait in front.

I also picked up a 1958 edition (hardback) of Gilbert Highet's The Art of Teaching which is apparently considered a classic.  It's filled with such gems as "The teacher's chief difficulty is poverty."  And on the subject of "tough schools" and the challenges of the unmotivated, he writes:

"A woman teacher in such a situation has a far harder time than a man...it is worse than useless to post a woman to such tough schools.  One of the essential reforms which should be made is to staff them all with men.  Girls will respect a man, and the boys will at any rate not despise him."

I can't wait to read this book and see what other bits of advice I've missed out on all these years.  I'm not being wholly sarcastic: the book is reputed to be filled with good common sense.  I'll add it to my summer reading.

Other than that, it's a lazy Saturday at chez SIGIS while I crawl back onto the couch to continue my recovery.  My neighbors are industriously working in their front flower beds and I feel like a sloth, but I've got to get this crud behind me.  Summer is coming!