One of my favourite things about buying and selling vintage is the research. I excitedly find out as much as I can about my treasures as soon as I get them home. A lot of my buying is done on instinct and I'm trying to get a good 'feel' for when something is special and a sense of what will fit well in my Etsy shop. I certainly don't always get this right but the learning process is a big part of the fun for me.
On the home front, my long-suffering husband has encouraged me to organise myself and my shop over this last week and this included transferring all my research into one notebook - not a problem as there's nothing I love more than a new notebook and pen! Another task has been to delete the hundreds of photos no longer needed but still residing on the computer and turning it's poor electronic brain to mush - not such a delightful prospect and the cause of many expletives over the last few days. All this activity has helped me focus and I now have more than 50 items listed in my shop - the next aim is to reach 100!
Latest to go on is this characterful marcasite and 935 silver camel brooch.
My research has shown that this little fella was most likely made in Germany in the 1930s and is one of the best quality marcasite brooches, with individual bead-set stones in very good quality silver (935 - or 93.5% silver content). He struck me as special the moment I saw him and I just couldn't walk away from him. The marcasites positively shimmer and little details such as his characterful face and ruffles on his neck add to his charm.
My desire to acquire this little jewel may also have had something to do with the fact that I'm currently reading another mystery by Elizabeth Peters - Thunder in the Sky. It's a rolicking good adventure set in Egypt during WWI and the heroine, Amelia Peabody, is a feisty Egyptologist-cum-amateur-sleuth. I've a head full of intrigue, arab robes, desert sands and handsome heroes - no wonder I couldn't resist buying a camel!
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