French Fleamarket Finds - THAT suitcase

Remember I said in a previous post that I had spent a huge chunk of my brocante money on a suitcase, a tattered and battered old thing? Well of course it wasn't the wrecked old case I was so excited about, it was the contents. Oh my, and what treasures it contained! The most beautiful cross I had ever seen, with hand carved mother of pearl embellishments everywhere, was lying on top of other religious items, and it was that cross I wanted to buy. Probably just that cross and one or two other things. But the dealer had other ideas. HE wanted me to buy the whole lot. So we talked and haggled, and smiled, and haggled some more, and put things down, and made all the right not-really-interested noises............ and after I had spent ages going through everything in the case a little more carefully..... I did buy the whole lot, lol!

The suitcase is really knackered, but the lining paper is gorgeous -

I have photographed most of the items from the case, but I haven't taken photos of the most beautiful mother of pearl embellished cross yet, I want to clean it up a little first, so I'll save that one for another post. In the meantime, here are the pics of my suitcase finds -

An ebonised cross with silver metal Christ -

A stunning Holy Water font/benitier with very ornate brass cross on a beautifully shaped wooden cross - 

Another beautiful large benitier/Holy Water font, this time a black velvet cross on a carved wooden cross -

This is the loveliest crucifix I have come across so far. It is engraved with a name and date, 1891, on the side. Wouldn't that look just fantastic as the focal piece of a piece of jewelry? -

A simple wooden crucifix with a brass figure of Christ, small hole at the top for attaching to a chain -

This Holy Water font is so unusual, it features the Peace Dove instead of  a religious figure. Beautifully sculpted bird on onyx and brass back with glass font-

This is another really unusual piece, something I had never come across before, a thermometer with a religious plaque, Jeanne d'Arc. The onyx (?) has a most delightful pinkish/lavenderish tint to it, and don't you just love the gorgeous little bow at the top, covering the ring for hanging it up? -

A white plaster plaque of Christ -

Beautiful plaque of the Virgin Mary on onyx and brass gothic arch. I think originally it might have had a little plaque underneath the intricate metal filigree, but now its a great blank canvas for you to put your own stamped metal message or name on it for example -

These three hand beaten metal crosses are very primitive and had me somewhat puzzled. I don't know what their function was -

Isn't this little statue just so beautiful? -

I love love love old velvet items, so this red velvet benitier really appealed to me. It has a delightful little porcelain font rather than the more common metal one -

Two simple little crosses, one in dark wood, one in lighter wood, both with beautifully detailed figures of Christ -

Aaah, this is beautiful, a statue of the Virgin Mary in virginal white. She has lost her hands, does that matter? Not in the slightest, she is so serene and calming with a lovely aura-

I adore these very intricate figures -

It was a beautiful experience discovering all those wonderful pieces in that battered old suitcase.

Toodlepip xxx

An Italian Story

Oh dear, I have done it again, teased you with a title which is just a little misleading. Yes, I'm afraid, its the weekly challenges again. Over at the Every Inchie Monday blog, the prompt was STORY. Over at the Tag Tuesday blog we had finished the alphabet and were back to normal word prompt. This week's word was ITALY.

Inchie first. I was going to do a Once upon a time inchie, but that had already been done, so I decided to go with the fairytale ending of a story, And They Lived Happily Every After, The End ;-) -

When I thought about Italy, the second thing which came to mind was Venice and the utterly amazing Venetian carnival masks. First thing was food, of course, I love Italian food. The background of the tag is an image of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. I cut out a couple of masks and tarted them up with some coloured crystals and a silver glitter pen, tied some sort of matching ribbon to the masks and glued them onto the tag so that they looked 3D -

We have proper summer weather at the moment, yay! Temps are up to 30C, the sky is blue, we are getting a lovely gentle breeze coming up from the valley and life is good :-).

I hope life is good for you,too, wherever you are.

Toodlepip xxx

Our beautiful world week 2 and Sunday brocanting

The theme for the second week of photo sharing over at the Our Beautiful World blog is July. Oh goodness, July is so full of wonderful things, I could post  dozens and dozens of photos of what I think of when I think July. July in France is incredible sunrises, the most awesome sunsets, aperos with friends and neighbours which go on til late in the night, lazing about in hammocks, its the height of the brocante season, the vegetables in the garden are beginning to look soooo lush, the beautiful white charolais cows and their gorgeous little calves are everywhere munching away in such green fields, and then there are the crickets singing to you effortlessly and ceaselessly, all evening, all night it seems. I think the sounds of the crickets is what I associate most with July at the cottage, so here is a photo of one of the little blighters on our very old barn door -

Photo info -

Camera - Nikon D40, 55mm focal length

ISO 200

F/8

1/60th exposure

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We went to an awesome brocante this morning in a largish town about 3/4 hour drive from us. Oh boy, I could have spent a fortune there, there were approx. 200 stalls and a lot of the dealers there had such gorgeous stuff! I only spent half a fortune though, lol, and managed to haggle for some beautiful new treasures for you! I'll be very busy photographing all those new delights over the next few days.

I was going to finish this post right here, but I couldn't resist running downstairs, grabbing a couple of things and taking photos of them straight away, just a little teaser, lol. I spent a BIG chunk of my half a fortune on a tatty old little suitcase full of delightful religious objects -

I usually end up buying a book or two. This one is just divine, with many an illustration just like these -

This little powder compact stole my heart, it is the sweetest little thing, 19th Century and real tortoiseshell -

A little bit of lace, nowhere near as much as I had hoped for -

And a gorgeous little ( I think ) hand coloured booklet about Versailles -

So many things to photograph! But this is enough for today, it is Sunday after all :-). I'll be back tomorrow with French Fleamarket Finds part trois.

Toodlepip xxx