French Treasure Hunt Thursday

I know I promised on Saturday to show you photos of THE most amazing tablecloth I bought in France, on Sunday, but I after the bootfair on Sunday morning I came down with a rotten cold and have spent the last few days sneezing, coughing and spluttering on the settee, feeling sorry for myself. Feeling a bit better today so I spent some time this morning catching up with your posts. when I saw that it was Treasure Hunt Thursday again on Blue Creek Home , I thought I could combine showing you the tablecloth with the Treasure Hunt, because this tablecloth really is an amazing treasure.

I have been collecting all kinds of linens and fabrics for many many years, and I can honestly say that I have never seen anything as beautiful as this. The condition of the tablecloth is fantastic, the workmanship is incredible, the pattern absolutely gorgeous. In fact, the embroidery is so masterly and unbelievably fine, I took a whole lot of photographs of the reverse, lol, and it wasn't until I went to fold it up, that I realised my mistake. The following photos really don't show the beauty of this tablecloth properly, but perhaps they show enough to give you a good idea. Click twice on the photographs to enlarge and fully appreciate the beautiful workmanship -














Isn't this 19thCentury French whitework embroidery at its finest? As you can see, it is huge, too big for my dining table, so now I am contemplating whether I ought to keep it and fondle it and drool over it anyway or perhaps put it in Vintageland. Hmm. We'll see.

Tag Tuesday Challenge - CHAIR

Of course I am very late again, but it took me forever to catch up with my blog reading after our week in France. Last week's tag challenge theme was "CHAIR", and the chair had to be the focal point of the tag. As soon as I starting thinking about the Chair tag, this silly little rhyme came into my head, and I so wanted to incorporate it. Soooooo, the little tag at the bottom holds a little secret -


In case you can't quite read it without turning into a contortionist, this is what the little rhyme says -

Don't you dare
to sit in my chair
with its colour so gorgeously rosy.
This chair is so kind
to my big fat behind,
all soft and squishy and cosy.

Tehehehe. Toodlepip, xxx

Some recent French Vide Greniers finds

It is still a little early for vide greniers in our area of France, but I did manage to find one whilst we were at the cottage. I had the best intentions of taking a whole bunch of pictures there, and I did take a couple as soon as I entered the grounds where it was held........... and then of course it all went awry, lol, I totally forgot I had a camera with me as I was way too busy haggling in my best vide greniers French, lol -


I do love the beautiful warm glow of old copper, so when I saw this very prettily decorated copper cauldron, I had to haggle for it -


This little antique photo album was empty, of course, and a lot of the pages had some damage, but at least I won't feel guilty when I take it apart and use the lovely thick pages for collages -


I also found this beautiful Art Deco religious plaque, wood inlaid with brass -


And a fantastic snakeskin clutch bag, the real thing -


I have a bit of a thing about old tools, wooden handled tools, and old folding measuring sticks kinda fall into that category as well. I just love the feel of the wood, smoothed by so many hands over so many years. And look at the gorgeous curly numbers -


The dinky narrow brass one was too cute to resist -



There is a lot of, ermm, patina on this brass one, I think I will need to give this one a good clean.

I was so thrilled to find the next lot! Tiny little glass jars, with the proper wire closures like their big brothers, but so dinky! I am going to decorate them with some pretty vintage images and tiny laces and perhaps fill them with some vintage French buttons -


I also found THE most beautiful ever tablecloth at this vide greniers, incredible whitework embroidery, finest workmanship, fantastic condition, made my the vendor's grandmother almost a hundred years ago. I haven't taken photographs of it yet, I'll do that tomorrow and do a separate post about it. Together with the three antique French books, which I haven't photographed yet either. They have such beautifully aged pages, thick, handcut paper, just lovely.

But I did photograph a few things I found in a shop, like this adorable old tin, which was filled with buttons. Well, it was half filled, and I spent another 1 1/2 hours patiently going through all kinds of jars and boxes and tins, taking out some more MOP buttons, and adding them to the tin.


The images on the tin are just so precious, each side shows different scenes with the cutest little children -


You probably saw my France post the other day, and the pic of me sitting outside the cottage sorting through the buttons.............. hours of fun, lol, and this was the result, lots and lots of MOP buttons, some beautifully carved, some very large, some white, some grey, some very dark -


And a whole lot of other buttons, including some beautiful glass buttons, 19thC. jet buttons and some rather gorgeous Art Deco buttons -


I was also very lucky to find some antique French lace, some of it amazingly fine and narrow -

so perfect for embellishing the tiniest little treasures.


I also found some small pieces of the most delicately handmade broderie anglaise, just look at the fantastic workmanship -


But the one thing which I was really excited about was this beautiful vintage boite a poudre, face powder box, from L.T. Piver, one of the oldest and most prestigious Paris perfume houses. I think it dates from the 1940s, and it is PINK! Deliciously pink and white and utterly adorable, don't you think?


There you have it, my few finds from last week's stay in France. I am so looking forward to the summer and spending a couple of months there again. It was such a pleasure strolling through a vide greniers again after the long winter, and doing what I like best, haggling for little French treasures.

I hope the weather will be good enough tomorrow to take photos of the exquisite tablecloth I told you about earlier. Fingers crossed. Have a fantastic weekend,

toodlepip. xxx