Friday, February 19, 2010

This week's finds... and Blueberry Wine...

I happened upon a rummage sale on my way home today. I came away ($2 later) with  a small oil painting in it's original frame, and a 1951 Websters Tower Dictionary, beautifully showing its age.
The painting is "Scottish Highlands" by G. F. Bastian (?) It's very difficult to read the label on the back, impossible to read the signature on the painting.
 I also scored more vintage books at my favorite thrift store... "Antique Furniture; Explained and Illustrated" by K.W.M Bowers. It has lots of lovely line drawings. Another one is a 1944 edition of "Curtain Rises" by Quentin Reynolds. It has 2 signatures and 2 stamps of previous owners inside the front cover. It also has wonderfully aged pages. The last book I got wasn't as old, but it's just as beautiful... 1971 edition of "Victoriana" that is beautifully illustrated and has gorgeous photos...
and look at these wonderful dolls!
My favorite part, though, is the illustrations of lamps inside the front and back covers...
 
My other great "find" this week was a gift from a friend at work... a sample bottle of homemade Blueberry Wine...  It's yummy! Thanks Gene!
 
 The portrait in the background is my grandmother, my namesake (not Dianne, but my first name... but that's another post) at age 16.  I'm going to do some research on the painting. Maybe I'll have one of those wonderful "Antiques Roadshow" stories to tell later... You know... I bought it for a dollar and it's worth ten grand or something... lol... Wouldn't that be cool?!?!

4 comments:

  1. what great finds you got.Hope to hear the Roadshow story.Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment and you are right those are
    Hyacinths.
    Have a great weekend

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  2. You never know!! I just love the painting and the book you found! Looks so pretty in the picture with that Blueberry wine! What a nice gift! Making my mouth water, and I haven't even had my coffee yet!! Have a great weekend!!

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  3. I just googled your G. F. Bastian and came up with a message board where the nephew of said G. F. has a comment. Looks like lots of people love his paintings. Yours certainly is worth far more than the dollar you paid, I would think. Check it out:
    http://www.askart.com/AskART/artists/bulletin.aspx?searchtype=DISCUSS&artist=122094

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  4. This website has lots of biography and lots of paintings of GFB. What a find your painting is!!! Scroll down on this site till you come to his paintings and history. It's pretty far down.
    http://www.kevindaniel.250x.com/indiana.html

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