Pennsbury Pottery at Tiny's Lambertville

I love Pennsylvania Dutch folk art.  I love pottery.  Therefore, I love Pennsbury Pottery.

Pennsbury Pottery was founded in 1950 by Henry Bellow in Morrisville, Pennsylvania.  The company produced an array of clay tablewares featuring Pennsylvania-Dutch motifs such as birds, hexes, and Amish couples, as well as American folk art emblems like eagles.  The company closed its doors in 1970.

Pennsbury Pottery has been collected for a while now, and its popularity seems on the rise.  Like McCoy pottery, these pieces should be snapped up now! I would love to have my own collection, displayed in a pie safe or country cupboard.

For now, I have to content myself with the pieces on display at Tiny's.

New Art at Tiny's Lambertville!

This just in: a pair of wonderful impasto florals by Arkansas artist Jan Ironside.

The impasto technique involves laying down thick swaths of color, often with a palette knife.  The end result is a painting with depth and texture that you want to reach out and touch! These geraniums and tulips are much more gorgeous in person, and they're so cheerful, they coax me out of my November blahs whenever I look at them.  12x12 on deep canvas panels, priced at 100 each.

Also in is this lovely 12x16 tonalist acrylic by Sarah Jane Studios (larger when you take into account the gilded plein air frame).  Priced at 225. Ignore that diagonal shadow running across the center -- that's just light streaming in from Tiny's window!

My favorite things at Tiny's has to include these two still lifes by Florida artist Han Young.  Han was born in Korea and received extensive fine art training there.  After moving to Florida, he's received numerous regional awards for his meticulous, luminous renderings of fruit, florals, and wildlife. Each of these 16x20 canvases (larger with gilded wood frames) is priced at 350.  I'm awed by the amount of patient layering Han did to create such realistic looking fruit!



Finally, who doesn't love a little impressionism in their life?  This is a nicely-sized 25x30 canvas in a gilded wood plein air frame.  Not sure who the artist is, but he certainly is talented!  Priced at 350.

Tiny's Lambertville Loves Folk Art

Tiny loves folk art, don'tcha know.  Like these incroyable silhouettes of distinguished gentlemen.  The mini one to the left is a genuine 19th Century cutting.  The one in the antique gilded frame is a clever artist's reproduction.

Tiny's loves antique and vintage carved decoys, too.  Goosey here is a vintage model made in Wisconsin.  He's got the glass eyes to boot.

This carved fish isn't a decoy, but it certainly has that folksy charm.

You know what else Tiny's loves? Firkins! Those are antique sugar buckets, to the ill-informed.  Tiny has a whole stack of them, and they look fabu.

Pile these in an antique Windsor chair, and you have a dream come true.



Tiny's Lambertville: Vintage Salterini Style Wrought Iron Table

Tiny's latest addition is this uber-adorable mid-century wrought iron table.  I love the ribbon weave, the center medallion, and the leaf motif on the sides.  In fact, I just love it, period!

I'm not sure of the make of this piece, but the design resembles those of the great mid-century iron furniture producers: Salterini, and Woodard and Sons.  I'm so glad the old Italian craftsmanship of wrought iron made its way to America!

Selling Vintage Furniture in Lambertville, NJ

Selling fabulous vintage finds in Lambertville can be tough work.  When I'm not hunting down treasures or refurbishing them for resale, I have to look outside my shop window at the canal foliage:



Then, if it's warm enough, I just might have to park myself by the canal and get a little dreamy.

Sometime my husband stops by to take a break from Zatuchni & Associates.  He sits beside me with his fishing pole, and we chat about our day while he snags a few bass.  Then we close shop and bring the catch home for dinner.

It's tough work, no doubt about it.  But somebody's got to do it.

Wolf Creek Folk Art Carvings

Ma and Pa have shacked up at Tiny's for the season.



They're right at home here, what with that awesome folk carved rooster and the vintage toy barn Tiny's has for sale.

Ma and Pa are creations of Wolf Creek, a folk art studio based in Eldora, Iowa.  Wolf Creek has been producing delightfully primitive hand-carved figures since 1978.  According to its website, the company remains a small family-owned concern.

Wolf Creek figures are becoming quite collectible among folk art lovers.  I like their unabashed whimsy and country colors.  Check out the detail from their Circus line:

Perhaps Wolf Creek is best known for their intricate ark collections:

Here's my all-time favorite: Lady Liberty, via Vintage Collectibles and Folk Art:

Think Ma and Pa would feel right at home in your house? Stop on by!

Vintage French School Posters

Tiny has been captivated lately by Editions Rossignol: the series of mid-century classroom teaching aids produced in Montmorrillon, France.

There's precious little web information on the Editions Rossignol, and most of it is written in French!  However, a Google search with a Bing translation yielded (roughly) the following:

During the 1950s and 1960s, Rossignol editions were used as teaching aids in an impressive number of primary schools in France.  These large color plates and their modular wood frames marked several generations of teachers and students. They are still used today by some teachers, and some of these boards are assiduously sought by collectors.

Source: http://nalliers86.pagesperso-orange.fr/Rossignol.htm

I kind of, sort of gather that Monsieur Rossignol was an innovative French educator who collaborated with teachers in designing the posters.  However, I'm operating on high school French, people -- when I say "I gather", I mean "I'm totally guessing."  If anyone out there in webby-land has further information, please post.

What's NOT in dispute, however, is that the colorful graphics in these posters are an absolute delight.

Who says didacticism can't look super-hip?

My absolute fave Edition, however, is the one currently framed and for sale at Tiny's:  "The Poppy", or, if you prefer, "Le Coquelicot".

This one's in top-notch shape with no rips, tears, staining or discoloration -- not bad, for 50+ years in a classroom.  It's a Francophile's dream come true!