new crush

Here are a few of my collections photographed this morning as an homage to Lisa Congdon's collection a day blog. I am in serious full swoon with her blog, please go check it out.

1. Vintage wrapping paper.

This is a fairly recently started collection for me. I made a commitment to myself not to buy new wrapping paper a few years ago, and mostly I use comics or old maps and calendars, but when I see this stuff at estate sales or the goodwill I just can't help myself. It feels a little bit like adhering to the letter but not the spirit of the law, but I just can't help myself.

2. Thumb tacks and push pins.

I've shown you some of these before. I have a related thing for cork boards.

3 & 3.5. Security envelope linings and rubber bands.

Here are two things that have become kind of a tic for me, now that I've started seeing them I can't stop and I see new ones, ripe for scavenging, everywhere. The linings I first started noticing when I read Collections of Nothing by William Davies King, and I saw an almost volley ball sized rubber band ball at someone's house last year and just had to have one for my very own. It's coming along, check back next year.

One aspect of the King book is the idea of his collections interfering with his life. I would have to call him a borderline hoarder, and the hoarder border is something all of us collectors face to some extent I think. How much is too much, how much is amazing? Sometimes I walk into an estate sale and a horror washes over me, I want to go home and get rid of everything I own (but I never do.) Sometimes I see something like ACAD and I get the tingle, I want to go find more. Photography is helpful, I photograph a lot of stuff that I get rid of and it makes it easier. Blogging is helpful too, it is a place to put stuff, I think that is part of what LC is getting at with her lovely year long project.

A few other awesome books I pulled down while I was writing this:

Evidence: The Art of Candy Jernigan,

Finders, Keepers: Eight Collectors,

Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder,

and

Typologies

Would you call this #4 for today? Collection of books on collecting?

size and shade

I've always liked the mail in offer. I read a lot of my dad's old comic books from the sixties when I was a kid in the eighties, and I remember thinking about sending in for the special offers, you know, the body building booklets, magic tricks, correspondence art classes, just to see what would happen. I liked the idea of someone still being at the other end after all of those years. (I still like the idea of surprising things coming in the mail, but now, sadly, all mail is starting to seem anachronistic.) But I do wonder how many people took advantage of this one. The incredible hulk and body building seem like a natural fit, the invisible girl and magic tricks, I can see it. Thumb tacks and panty hose? Not exactly an obvious case of marketing symbiosis if you ask me. Still, I love the packaging, primary colors and sans serif, early to mid 80's I'm thinking? There is a bar code, and we all know the first standard bar code was scanned in Troy, Ohio on June 26th, 1974, but that they didn't really catch on until the early 80's.

Both companies, The American Tack and Hardware Co. and the Hosiery Corporation of America still exist, kind of, kind of like zombies. Both were bought out by private equity firms in the mid nineties. Hosiery Corporation of America became Hosiery Corporation International and went through chapter 11 in 2002, after being sued twice by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive business practices, long story, but truly fascinating, no joke. It involves missing wills, a fatal bee sting (or was it?) and a litigious adoptive mother. Anyhow, I don't think either still make things in America. The remnants of American hosiery manufacturing still exist, mostly in North Carolina, but I think that might be a story for another day.