One Track Mind

There is seemingly no end to Valery's obsession and two more vintage Architectural Pottery hourglass planters have suddenly manifested themselves in our home. 2012 appears to be our best year yet for acquiring LaGardo Tackett pieces and we honestly hope the trend continues ...at least until the impending apocalypse!

Day Tripper

It seems that—despite a relative abundance of free time—we've been neglecting this blog something awful lately. Sorry about that, folks! Rest assured, it's been business as usual around GG&S HQ for the past month or so, and we have plenty of recent arrivals to show for our efforts!

As you may remember, we opened a booth at Highland Row Antiques, and trying to find fresh inventory has kept us especially busy. A few weeks back, we thought we'd lucked out and found a good resale item via a buried Craiglist ad for a Sonneman lamp. Of course, as unrepentant addicts, we couldn't bring ourselves to actually resell the lamp once we'd picked it up. It's a beauty and we know it'll work perfectly in our (future) office. Thanks again, Barbara!

In another attempt to wrangle more vintage goods, we also hunkered down and made our way to Chattanooga last Saturday for some thrifting. The building featured above is not a thrift store, but it is a fantastic piece of period architecture and design. And this drug store remains very much in business!

This time out, we somehow managed to track down good stuff for both our booth and ourselves. The above photograph is our keeper pile, and includes stuff we picked up in Chattanooga, as well as a few things we picked up locally, too!

The McCoy planter and the West German pitcher are spoils from our trip to Tennessee.  We also found the four vintage dessert cups—produced by a stoneware artist named Jonas Roberts—in a Chattanooga thrift. The mod canister set is actually something Valery had been frantically searching for recently, and we scored it (and the low Burke tulip table holding everything up) from our newest favorite vendor at Kudzu Antiques! We still need the Sugar container, so if anyone's holding, please let us know!

These Guzzini salt and pepper shakers were scored for $2, and they were originally slated for our booth ...until we realized that our personal set was made of smoked plastic instead. Oops?! We found the Copal flip-clock at an enormous antique mall we spent close to two hours going through just before we left Chattanooga—and we're really grateful, since it would've totally sucked to have wasted all that time, only to walk out empty-handed! The 60s Brazilian ice bucket designed by Jorge Zalszupin was recently discovered in Atlanta of all places! We never expected to find one of these in the states, let alone one complete with its interior liner and tongs!

These toucans were also purchased from our pal Barbara when we picked up the Sonneman lamp, and we're happy to have 'em both roosting here in our home. The Avon bottles also came from Kudzu—Valery had been wanting these for a long while, but she figured she'd find 'em eventually. Now we just need the other four! Lastly, we turned up this mod container, but it has no identifying marks, and we've never seen another like it. Does anyone recognize this lid? 

On a final note, we woke up really early in order to secure our second-in-line spot at an estate sale that started today at 10am. We'd spied this Franciscan Starburst set in the sale's online photos last night, and we knew we had to try to get this assortment for ourselves. We somehow covered 7,000 square feet in roughly ten minutes and emerged victorious, in spite of repeated dead ends! We're keeping a dozen pieces for our personal collection, and we'll be placing the remaining 30+ pieces in our booth next week. 

We've got stuff coming through weekly, so remember to keep your peepers peeled!

Just Head

Here's a quickie to let y'all know that—while we were unable to maintain our annual procurement cycle—we finally managed to scoop up our third (and final) most-wanted egghead. Designed by Mr. LaGardo Tackett and released in '58/'59, these ovular rascals have become increasingly sought after and hard to find—especially the larger 11" versions. While we wouldn't say no to getting a few more, I think we're plenty satisfied with this quarter-dozen. A big thank you to Debi and John for cutting this one loose!

The Last Time

Unbeknownst to most everyone, we just got back from a weekend in Pittsburgh. And, as much as we both love the steel city, we're saddened to report that it'll be our last pass through for at least the next year. We'd certainly grown accustomed to visiting often due to my enrollment in grad school at the University of Pittsburgh, but—barring any unforeseen circumstances—I should be receiving my MLIS in less than a month. Woo!

Outside of my extended education and (subsequent) gainful employment, the best part of the entire experience was becoming better friends with our buds Hone, Carmela, Steve, Siena, Suz and Pogo. Thank you guys again for always being so welcoming—and a special thank you to Hone and Carmela for never griping about our habitually late flights and, especially, for their unparalleled hospitality. We hope that we can repay the favor sometime soon ...and many times over!

Now that all that sentimental crap is outta the way, here are some pics we snapped while we were outta town:

 Now, I'm sure everyone is wondering what we scored on our jaunt, so here 'tis:

Valery spied this vintage Lagardo Tackett planter the first time we visited Pittsburgh in 2010, but we were reluctant to pick it up due to its size and the fact that someone had painted it a delightful shade of orange. Fortunately, we both liked the new color and the planter's previous owner quoted us a clearance price far below what an (unpainted) original Architectural Pottery example typically sells for.

I'd purchased these Georges Briard glasses for Valery a few months ago while I was visiting solo, but I left them behind because I didn't want to deal with packing them up. Fortunately, Valery found a few more fragile ceramic items to bundle them with. We also found this fantastic perpetual calendar at an antique store we stumbled into. We've only ever seen one other example and it was ridiculously overpriced—way more than the $6 we paid for it!

I'd been looking for some new bookends for a while and nothing beats two solid lucite bricks! I was convinced that stuffing these in our carry-on luggage would guarantee a full cavity search, but we only had to deal with some slight harassment and a few puzzled looks.

Valery continued to score with a mod polka dot purse, a vintage modernist ring, a stuffed Sluggo and a bizarre Blondie acrobat squeeze toy from '82!

Valery also found this vintage Norwegian Cathrineholm pan for $20. This is the only time we've found an affordable example in the wild.

We even managed to hit a record swap while we were in town! Gotta say, I was pretty stoked when I flipped to the Alfred Hitchcock LP I've been searching everywhere for; unfortunately, the record's condition still has me hunting for a decent copy. Oh, well! At least we found a complete Visible Man for a flat tenner.

Dew Drop Inn

We'd been kicking around the idea of starting up a booth for a while now, so we were pretty pleased when we caught wind that there might be a little retail plot out there for us to call our own. It should go without saying that we're really excited to start this project, and we promise we'll be good about scrounging for new items regularly. Many thanks again to Angela and the crew at Highland Row Antiques for letting us share in the fun! 


The above photo was snapped at the last minute, but it should give you an idea of what to expect—unfortunately, it's already outdated, as we brought in even more stuff the following day. We've already got additional items ready for delivery as soon as time and space permit. Please remember to stop by when you're in Atlanta and make sure to check back often!

Instant Pleasure

Just a quick note to let y'all know that we recently joined the iPhone universe and have taken advantage of some of its perks—like the Instagram app. We're on Instagram as GonkedGlookedSlurped, so look us up if you're able. For those of you who aren't, we'll likely be dumping a sampling of those updates on here semi-regularly. Enjoy!