Friday, August 27, 2010

Vintage Tin Overload..?

It's been all about tins, recently - I sold one to the lovely Nina, of Temps Perdu, a lunch tin to the marvelous Alex, of Pink Feather Paradise, and a third one today, to a buyer who should remain nameless as I believe it may be for a swap (ooh, how exciting!). So I was a bit astonished to see four quite large vintage tins in my usual Troc shop today, as that's not their normal kind of stock. None of the tins was perfect (for condition, or for my style) but they were large.
j

I have actually been looking for storage for patio shelves, but it was clear that battered old vintage tins weren't going to survive out of doors, even if sheltered... But I did some lateral thinking and realised that the nasty '90s IKEA shelves upstairs had some zinc tins on them, which could go outside, and which might just be replaced with these new vintage ones... Voila! Shall we break it down..?
The shelf above houses all our glues, sellotapes, fixings and fastenings - we had two of the zinc tins housing everything before and things got lost and muddled quite often. I've kept a list of what's in where, never fear!
j
The tin below is one of the new ones, which I've entitled 'Lady Patronising Cottagers'. My list tells me that it now contains 'stickers and misc'.
This tiny little tin is one of my older possessions - when I started teaching in 1991, in a tiny village school in Cumbria, the new head teacher and I went through all the old drawers. In one of them was this tin - it had a sticker over it and had been holding pins, I think.
I was raving about it and the head teacher was clearly thinking me nuts, and suggesting I bin it. "But it's lovely!" I wailed. "It was lovely once," replied my boss. An early education in Shabby Chic.
Moving swiftly on, here is the one I bought last year, entitled something like: "Unconvincing 1930s people in 18th century Versailles," in my own head.
Did you spot the Little Grey Rabbit tin I owned in my teens? It is perhaps worrying that I owned LGR tins at that age. There are now paperclips in that one, to go with the biro grafitti.
On the other shelves, here's a faux vintage tin I bought last year and the second of my new buys, below it.
"Kid with fish". I've not titled this one imaginatively, because I actually quite like it. I seem to save all my imagination for the ones I don't like. I'm beginning to worry...
Below the main display is my Troc 'n' Broc Vintage Shop shelf. Yes, ladies, you too could own something from this shelf!
The tin at the bottom of the pile below is the most stunning newbie. Don't you think it's kind of Egyptian?
Unfortunately, on top, it features, "Girl you were most likely to scratch at school", so I've covered it up with the lovely Swallows and Amazons tin which is for sale.
I'm being mean, arent't I? I just don't like chocolate box images on top of my Egyptiana.
This one's just dull on top - I haven't even given it a mental name. (Hmm, mental name meaning name in my head, or the other..?) But it is interesting that it looks like a British coaching inn on a French tin.
And so we end with 'Crinolined Lady', whom I love despite her dress, as Serenata and Lululiz both own her too. Perhaps she can walk between her different images, like the portraits in Harry Potter? Maybe she could chat to my blogging friends?
Definitely overloaded today. In my defence, I've been clearing these shelves in 36°C temperatures...

14 comments:

A garden just outside Venice said...

Droooooooool!!!!!! Amazing collection!

Unknown said...

I love tins! I so enjoyed this post! Susie x

Jane and Chris said...

The "naff" (do people still say "naff"?)pictures on some of the tins reminds me so much of the sickly pictures that used to be on chocolate boxes.
Jane

Marigold Jam said...

Wow what a lot you've got! And how beautifully organised your shelves are - mine wouldn't look like that but then maybe that's because I don't have any tins like yours!

Jane

Elderberry-Rob said...

Your delightful little Peter Rabbit tin caught my eye straight away, I pictured next to bright blue Aconite flowers. Some good finds Floss.

Serenata said...

Oh send some of those warmer temperatures over here please!

Wonderful collection of tins, my collection is growing as well so perhaps I ought to do a post one day? 'Kid with Fish' is cute - I like it as well. Of course the Crinolined Lady is extra special ;-) because three of us have this special tin, as is 'Girl wearing bonnet', which you sent me.

Elizabethd said...

Love the patronising squire's lady, I'm sure she is carrying a basket covered with obligatory white cloth...calves foot jelly do you think??

Needless to say, Brittany is wet, very wet.

Ticking stripes said...

I love " Kid with fish" and I love the fact that you name your tins too - I thought it was just me!

Anonymous said...

You can NEVER have too many tins, I love them, my fave was my lovely man's grandfathers, miught have to look it out and take a pic! That's a beautiful collection you have there!

Andi's English Attic said...

What a lovely lot of tins. You display them well, too. xx

Pink Feather Paradise said...

I am absolutely loving my new tin... and I also have a thing for tins, boxes and wooden items...

x Alex

Between Me and You said...

Tins and boxes are my thing and I absolutely love your collection. I feel sorry for the poor little things who may have had to `model` for the pics on top - they always seem to look quite sad.Well done you.

Maggie said...

Lovely collection of old tins you have there Floss.
I used to have an identical one to the green & gold Steamship Molasses Candy tin.
I wonder where it went??
Have a great week.

haizi daizi said...

Hello Floss, I came across your blog by chance and just wanted to say what a gorgeous collection of tins you have. The one with the roses is delicious! I love tins too, but due to shortage of space I decided to collect small pharmaceutical ones so I could display quite a few in a small cabinet. Thank you for sharing ~ Haizi.