Category: Beautiful Things

Here are some more pieces from that same estate sale I mentioned.
My girlfriend has good taste!
Everyone who only knew the old lady in her old age could not believe that these pretty things once belonged to that “old lady”. Well, goes to show, she had good taste too. You can never judge a person – until you really know that person. Even then, we don’t have any right to judge anyone.　And yes, everyone grows old.　Let’s go about it gracefully.

******これって御祓いみたい…OHARAI RITUAL***Japanese Style Ritual My Way***
These vintage costume jewelry finds came from an Estate Sale that took place right across the street. A 96-year old across the street neighbor passed away and her belongings were put up for sale. While I used to find estate sale distasteful especially if you had any personal ties to the deceased, I decided to take a peek with no intention of acquiring anything. A huge line had formed even before the opening – there were still people busily milling about when I finally decided to step in in the afternoon expecting to see little, having only known the deceased in her later years, hardly ever fashionable.

Much to my amazement, there were so many jewelry pieces, still left in the large display cases… I was shocked. I had never seen her with any of the jewelry before my eyes. In fact, I never saw her with any piece of jewelry, at least not anything that left any impression on me. But there it was – items after items of costume jewelry in these large display cases… and a huge crowd pushing and shoving to get a piece of it to try on.

People die and their material belongings remain in this world but not their body and mind – what’s left of them is just the memory that they existed for those who care to remember. It is surreal and yet so real.

For some reason, I could not try them on without really really having a ritual of them – I took these pieces, soaked them in alcohol, patted them dry, sprayed them with rose water, pretending it to be sacred water I used to get from the church, blessed them with prayers to honor what the dead had left behind and as if to purify the possessive grips the deceased may still have on the material goods she left behind – a thought occurred to me – maybe she would have wanted to take these along with her on her journey? No, where’s she’s at, she no longer needs any adornment to be beautiful. Her spirit, the soul is radiant and imbued with eternal beauty that has gone home to be with her family, friends and ancestors. Still, not knowing, this Japanese Oharai ritual my way, allowed me to feel at ease to take possession of these pretty objects left behind by its former owner. Finally after the” Oharai” ritual, tried on just the blue floral earrings – Wow, only to be met by so many compliments of ouuu’s and ahhh’s – on how beautiful they are …Vintage earrings …Call them Mad Men romantic vintage style! they just don’t make them like these anymore.

With my piqued curiosity, found these Vintage Costume Jewelry Collectors’ books. Would love to find out more about these jewelry – Where were they made? Who designed them? Are they from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s? Leafing through the pages of the texts to find out more. These books are chock full of designs from the yester-years. Sigh…such a throw back.　For me, they are something to just look at or to be passed down to young ladies with particular appreciation for vintage accessories.

Amazon has these books for further study for those of us into collecting, designing or just plain curious about costume jewelry from the bygone era.

エステートセールでプロの見極めには脱帽。これがどこどこのメーカーで何年代の物で相場はいくらぐらいかなどなど、オオなんと詳しい事。もっと知りたいといった好奇心があればこういったコレクターが利用するテキスト、ビゲナー編を頼りにページをめくっていけばベーシックスはわかるはず。コスチュームジュエリーはお値段がリーズナブルなので、お財布に苦にならないところが気軽にコレクター的な趣味で遊べるといったメリットがあるのですね。このせいか、マッドメンファンのオシャレな最近の子に人気なのでしょうか。