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Frederic Weinberg Guitarists/Musician Pieces

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Hepcats Haven
Frederic Weinberg Guitarists/Musician Pieces

We purchased this set from an east coast auction house a while back. We are always on the hunt for Frederic Weinberg (FW) pieces. FW pieces have a timeless design and when they are hung and lit they just pop!

We were able to find the two above images of the pieces in what we think are the original color schemes. I liked the white, red, light green and dark green color option and restored the pieces to that color scheme.

We just put them up today. We still need to have our electrician wire in the bluetooth outlets.

We are really happy the way they turned out. I think if we had kept them white they would have lacked definition.

Once these are wired in we will update this post.

Onto the next project!!!

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Roy Rogers, Dale Evans & Trigger Oxford Mantle Clock Restoration

Posted on January 30, 2022 by Hepcats Haven
Roy Rogers, Dale Evans & Trigger Oxford Mantle Clock Restoration

I have been wanting to get my hands on one of these clocks for a while now. I was cruising on the internet and came across one on Mercari that wasn’t outrageous but needed work, something I’m not afraid of.

Once this item arrived the first thing I noticed upon unpacking is that it appears somebody had painted this whole thing with house paint. It appears they never even took it apart they painted all the figures and even the base. They did a very sloppy job but at the end of the day it didn’t matter because I was going to strip it and repaint it.

I dismantled the whole unit and applied stripper and scrub them clean. It was quite a job but I’m really happy with the results!

Fortunately, the clock actually works. That requires no maintenance so that’s a plus!

The bottom of the platform was stamped with 810 so I’m assuming this is the original platform.

The clock faces in really good condition

This piece came right out of Jersey City New Jersey!

The base cleaned up really nice. Once I was able to get all the paint removed I’d like sanded it applied a little bit of stain and then put a satin clearcoat on it or polyurethane. I’m really happy with a clean finish.

What’s the paint was removed there was no way to just leave the finished it was under the paint it was in pretty sad condition. I have this really cool gold paint that I use regularly and I think it just makes the whole thing come together.

Our cabin up in Canyon Lake will display a large collection of Roy Rogers and this will just be another piece in that collection. I love bringing an ugly duckling back to life! On to the next project!!!

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Vintage Indian Chief Makeover

Posted on January 24, 2022 by Hepcats Haven
Vintage Indian Chief Makeover

Ever since we purchased our cabin near Canyon Lake I’ve been working overtime trying to find decor that would be worthy of the Native American history in the area. I was cruising eBay when I came across this interesting vintage Native American bust. I knew I could make it look cooler so I bought it and waited for it to arrive!

I knew I wanted to create an aged face. If you’ve ever seen those antique black-and-white photos of Native American chiefs, their faces are heavy with wrinkles and lines. I wanted to try and somehow capture that on and create dimension this flat surface of a face.

After hours of detailed painting, I got to the point of applying war paint. I wanted to do something simple and without any real meaning. I decided on the simple design that would still allow a good portion of his aged face to be displayed. The way the lines look on the face, it kind of has a comic book feel to it. I don’t know if that makes sense?

I also wanted to make sure the aging carried onto his neck. Once the other part of the warpaint is done he should be finished!!!

I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It might be hard to tell but this bust has glass eyes which help add to the realistic appearance. Unfortunately, there’s no makers mark, but I can tell from the look of it that this thing is probably pretty old. We just picked up a vintage Ranch Oak Hutch and this will sit on top of it!!!

This isn’t a vintage headdress, it’s a reproduction. It’s been reproduced very well with real feathers and what I assume is real fur. Onto the next project!

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Supergraphic Project

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Hepcats Haven
Supergraphic Project

This was our inspiration for the Supergraphic. It’s a pillowcase. We just reversed the colors.

Supergraphics are such a great way to bring your walls and room into the 1970’s. This has been a project that I have been itching to do for soo long! I thought I would share with ya’ll how I did it. In my opinion, the size of your supergraphic should be as large as you can fit. The circle I drew is about 8ft tall. I have seen people draw a circle on the wall using a screw in a piece of string. However, I wanted to make sure it was exact and there’s a chance that you could wobble and not get a consistent angle to your pen when using a piece of string.

Screw into the wall where you want the center of the circle to be.
Drill a hole on the other end of the ruler and make it snug to hold the pen tightly.
Once all this is done you are ready to go!

I came up with this idea of taking two cheap Lowe’s wooden yard sticks, $.98 each, and drilling them together with two short screws. Then, I drilled a hole on one end and another hole on the other end. One of the holes was to attach a screw to the middle of where the circle was going to be. The other hole was to place my pen in. The hole for the pen needs to be snug so the pen holds tightly. Then, all I did was push the yard sticks around making sure that they were leaving a mark on the wall until I had a complete circle. This way I knew the circle was even.

You might have to make a couple of passes to get a dark line.

Then, I had to tackle the inner circles. All I did there was drill another hole 12 inches up to mount the pen in and then I made that circle. I did that again and again until I made a total of four circles. When I was done drawing the circles, I just took some wall spackle and spackled the hole where the screw was and sanded it down.

Next, I took painters tape that I purchased off of Amazon that was about a quarter of an inch wide. This made it really easy to outline each circle. If you use traditional painters tape that’s around an inch wide or wider, it won’t make the turns you need.

To make the lines that came out of the circles, the most important thing was having a good long level. You just put your level in place and draft out each line. After the lines are drawn you then take that painters tape again and tape off each area.

I got my inspiration from a pillowcase that we ordered for our bed, but I just reversed the colors. This is a really cool project and it took me about a day and a half to get it done. I still have to run the bands around a quarter of the room. I can do that next weekend. On the other wall in our bedroom, I plan to do a different colored Supergraphic in blue, green and purple. I will blog about that later once I get it done. I hope I gave you all the inspiration to try it on your own and some techniques that will help. Here are photos showing its progression…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Liquidation of Carlo of Hollywood Collection

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Hepcats Haven
Liquidation of Carlo of Hollywood Collection


Hello all,

One of the most frequently asked questions we get is “are you selling any Carlos”? The answer is finally a big YES!!!

As many of you may know, we have been collecting Carlo of Hollywood for well over a decade and have amassed a very large collection (around 70 pieces). Our current collection consists of ALL original watercolors by Carlo, no prints across all genres such jungle cats, nudes, tropical, asian, western etc. just to name a few. All the ones in our collection are still vibrant in color. Now that we have arrived in Texas we are going in a different direction with our decor. This means most of our collection will be put up for sale in the next few months. This isn’t going to be a bargain basement sale and we are not desperate or in a rush to sell. As many of you collectors know, these watercolors seem to be climbing in value. More to come so keep an eye out! If you’re curious about what Carlos could be up for sale please search for “Carlo” on in Keyword Search on our blog. Even so, that only covers a fraction of our collection. 

Items we may consider as trades are as follows:

-Frederic Weinberg

-Steelcase floating furniture

-Chromecraft

-Eero Aarnio

-Kartell

-Eames

-Knoll

-Broyhill Chapter One

-Adrian Pearsall

-Joe Colombo

-Modeline

We are open to any high end space age and MCM pieces. Feel free to send us photos of anything you have that you think might be of equal trade. We are not looking for projects, so please don’t send items that require a complete restoration.

Below is a small sample of our collection.

Example of our jungle cat collection
Fish, under the sea trio
Dancers & Asian pair
Boat trio
XL Asian
RARE lighted pair
Western trio

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1962 the Voice of Music Model 1448 Integrated Amplifier and Model 1462 Tuner

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Hepcats Haven
1962 the Voice of Music Model 1448 Integrated Amplifier and Model 1462 Tuner

While I was searching for a cool vintage Heathkit audio set up I stumbled across this really cool “the Voice of Music” set up which includes an amp, tuner, record player and reel to reel. As you may remember this is not our first product from “The Voice of Music”. We also have a Tri-O-Matic Model 560A.

These units are in really good shape. I was hesitant to purchase them because the amp did not have all its original knobs. After a short search on eBay I managed to find some knobs that should look very close to original.

These units are completely functional and the tuner is very strong and clear pulling in stations easily. It’s crazy how tight they pack the units into their cases. When these old tuners and amps run the tubes can get so dang hot. Most folks take the cases off so the electronics can breathe.

It’s hard to believe how little info there is online about these units.

The outside cases have some kind of durable textured finish that seems pretty bullet proof.

This is the record player that came with this ‘the Voice of Music” lot. This was taken out of a stereo counsel. The gentleman I purchased it from actually did a good job building a wood platform base for it. I need to have a power cord installed and audio jacks so I can run it through the amplifier.

My purchase also included a small reel to reel that I got for free. It isn’t functional. I prefer the larger reel to reels and will be looking for one. I also want to locate some “the Voice of Music” speakers to complete the set. If you got any let me know!!! This will all be dealt with once we get down to Texas. I can not wait!!!!

 

 

 

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Vintage Heathkit/Daystrom Component Audio System

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Hepcats Haven
Vintage Heathkit/Daystrom Component Audio System

As I mentioned earlier I have always wanted to assemble a really cool vintage audio component system. It took some time and some money but I was able to do it. After pouring over all the options out there and what looked the most atomic I decided on  Heathkit. The four components I was able to find were the Heathkit AJ-30 Tuner, AA-100 Amplifier, AA-11 Pre-Amplifier & AC-11 Multiplex Adaptor. I am in no way an audio aficionado. I am gonna have to figure this out as I go. Of course since these are vintage I need to get them completely checked out before I seriously start to use them. It is kind of hard to know an exact date these were produced. Searching online I have seen folks say 1961 and as late as 1963???

What I dig about these are the saddle colored cases, chrome tapered bezel and of course how the displays light up!

As usual with newly acquired vintage electronics they will need work. It appears the pre-amplifier lighted display isn’t working. Once I get these all dialed in it will be something to see!

The next thing I want to locate is a Heathkit record player, Heathkit reel to reel (AD-22) and also some matching Heathkit speakers (Heathkit/Altec Legato).

 

Heath was one of those companies that help started the kit business. Ed Heath founded the company in 1926 with, of all things, an airplane kit. He died in a test flight in one in 1935, but Howard Anthony kept the company going. Right after World War II, he bought a batch of electronic surplus. Out of that came one of the first successful kits, a small oscilloscope for $50, which was a real achievement in its time. With that success came many new products. Heathkit most notable product is their ham radios. Tragedy struck yet again in 1954 when Howard Anthony was also killed in an plane crash.

Edward Heath
Howard Anthony

 

Products Heathkit produced over the decades have included electronic test equipment, high fidelity home audio equipment, television receivers, amateur radio equipment, robots, electronic ignition conversion modules for early model cars with point style ignitions, and the influential Heath H-8, H-89, and H-11 hobbyist computers, which were sold in kit form for assembly by the purchaser.

What was great about Heathkit is folks could either order a kit to assemble these products or order them already assembled. Heathkit manufactured electronic kits from 1947 until 1992. After closing that business, the Heath Company continued with its products for education, and motion-sensor lighting controls. The lighting control business was sold around 2000.

I can’t recall where I read it but it appears Heathkit is back making kits and if that’s so I am sure there are a lot of folks out there who would love to get their hands on one of those kits. Once we get down to Texas I will have these tuned up and hopefully be well on my way to finding the other items mentioned above. If you have a line on any of the items I mentioned above feel free to reach out to me.

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Rare 1943 Lumitone Radio Lamp

Posted on March 28, 2020 by Hepcats Haven
Rare 1943 Lumitone Radio Lamp

I stumbled across one of these while I was cruising eBay. I had never heard of these before and was fascinated by the design and the idea of it. For the next few months I searched for them on auction sites and luckily managed to secure two of them for our collection. What’s crazy is one of these lamps was produced in 1943, that’s only 2 years after the Pearl Harbor attacks (the other lamp has no info on the bottom). With World War 2 occurring, did that influence the style of these lamps? Who knows, but they are cool!

The ones I ended up purchasing had different bases. One was cream like the body color and the other was a gold color.

These are in found condition and I plan to restore the cases and make them both have the gold bottoms.

The shades I put on these units are not original. The original shades were kind of lame and to me did not compliment the lamps. I’m not sure what lamps these came off of (maybe Majestic), but I like the look they give these Lumitone lamps. They look more Atomic.

It’s crazy how expensive things become over time. It’s cool to see ads with the original price.

The all cream Lumitone unit had all its tags on the bottom. The other one seems to be missing all that info.

With us moving to Texas in the next few months, I plan to create a music/audiophile room. These are the perfect pieces to compliment that set up.

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Beach Blanket Bingo! The Wonderful World Of Vintage Beach Towels!!!

Posted on February 16, 2020 by Hepcats Haven
Beach Blanket Bingo! The Wonderful World Of Vintage Beach Towels!!!

 

One of the hardest things to find in good condition are vintage textiles. They could be curtains, sheets, blankets, and yes, even beach towels. You have to remember when these things were made they were nothing special to folks back then. It’s only now we look back at them and admire the imagery and design. Many of these towels were actually travel souvenirs. Folks wanted something to remind themselves of where they had visited. It’s really amazing what some of these beach towels go for now! Here is a large sampling of towels I came across cruising the internet (please excuse the graininess, images are printed on Terry cloth so not a crisp image)… 

I love the vibe of these beach towels!
They really try to capture the sub culture of that time.
Hey Ho Daddy-O!
Here’s an unhappy bongo player! How is this possible?

Mel and I just picked up the following two. They are NOS (New Old Stock) from Australia. No tags or artists name.

Some of the artists you might come across if you search for vintage beach towels are the following: Phillis Morgan, Landau, Anticio, Peter Max, Gilmour, Cannon, Londraville, Ralph Hulett, Vernon, Lady Galt, Vera Neumann and sooo many others. Some went by their full name, while others went by their last name.

This one must have been produced during all the US space missions!
Great vibrant colors on this one!
There’s a super creepy “Peeping Tom” in the background.

 Some of the more common beach towel manufacterers that produced these vibrant towels were as follows: Royal Terry, Terry Treasure of CA, St.Mary, NEMS, Cannon, Dryfast and many more.

I dig this one, Love the Peek-A-Boo!!!
Riding a dolphin! Lucky!
Is that her locker combination?…Nope, her measurements!

Obviously, bathing beauties were a very common theme.

This is one classic beach towel! Based on the TV series “Laugh In”, this bikini babe is surrounded by sayings from the show-very cool!
Take me to your leader!
Great one for Valentines Day!

These are fun looking. Who wouldn’t want to shake your tail feathers?

There were some really cool fish scenes on the beach towels.

This would be fantastic as wallpaper.
This is a really fun image.
Love it!

There really is no shortage of pinup women towels.

I never catch anything fishing, this would be a whopper of a tale!
Here’s a cute Mermaid.
This one is very vibrant.
This looks like a real classic pinup image.

I love the “Daddy-O” shorts guy!

The loss of innocence.
He looks like a real lady killer.
I think this fella is walking on sunshine!

These are some cool cats!
I’m not sure if this is the ESSO cat.
This was the ESSO oil mascot.
This little fella has the right idea!

As you might have guessed, this one is the one to get. There are two other beetle towel styles I have seen, but this is my favorite. It seems anything Beatles has crazy value attached to it. I like the Beatles, but I am more of a Rolling Stones Man!

All these towels are just a small sampling of what’s out there. It’s cool how expressive these towels are and how well they capture the era. These terry cloth dreams would be a great addition to anyone who collects items from this time period.

 

 

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1970’s Easy Listening Room (“Easy Like Sunday Morning”)

Posted on February 15, 2020 by Hepcats Haven
1970’s Easy Listening Room (“Easy Like Sunday Morning”)

At one point Mel and I had a house in Sacramento and an apartment in San Jose. This was required because of Mel’s work. It was just easier for Mel to stay in San Jose during the week for work, and then come home to Sacramento during the weekends. As somebody who loves to decorate, I saw her apartment as an opportunity to decorate in space-age decor.  When we decided to go “all in” in the bay area and buy a house, we didn’t want to get rid of all the space-age furniture. We ended up deciding to devote one of our rooms in our house to 70’s space-age.

I would of loved to have been able to find some super large vintage lava lamps but I don’t trust them.
These two really large lava lamps were purchased online from Wal*Mart.
While I really do enjoy decorating with atomic Mid Century decor, it’s nice to explore a different genre. Decorating in a different style can really get your creative juices flowing. 

We purchased two of these lava glaze lamps at an antique shop up in Paradise CA.
I’m not sure if that shop is still around after the major fire they had up there.
We would hit Paradise all the time when we were on the hunt for cool stuff. I hope they come back from that tragedy.
The real issue was going from decorating a full apartment to decorating just one room. It came down to a battle for space. We had so many cool pieces in her apartment, but they coudn’t all fit in one room. We tried to keep the coolest items from that collection.

I am big into music. I wanted to create a room to hang out in and listen to records and cassettes. I think I’m one of the few out there who are still listening to their cassette tapes. LOL! I remember the first cassette I ever bought was the “Black Celebration” album by Depeche Mode. I was raised on 80s music, but listen to everything! This is our wall of cassettes! I also use this wall to display some choice records.

We were able to keep Mel’s Seeburg Olympian 160 jukebox. Because I was a kid raised in the 80s, we loaded this sucker up with all 80s music! Since space is an issue, I took the closet doors off and created a cove for the jukebox. I also had an electrician come out and wire an outlet into the closet so I didn’t have extension cords hanging out. 

We have a few space-age radios and TVs, and the shelves in the closet above the jukebox are great for displaying those.

You might remember this Chromcraft couch, chair and ottoman set. We blogged about them a while back after we had them reupholstered.

I’m not sure who the maker of this red chair is, but we also had this one reupholstered. It is so comfortable to sit on.

This corner table is really unique. We came across it at an antique mall, and I knew it would be a great addition to the space-age decor. The bottom is a terrarium and I was able to put some of my favorite artificial cacti in there.

I suppose this table could also have been used as an aquarium. I’m not sure if that would work, but it might be a cool idea.

These vintage concert posters are all original prints. We purchased them from a dealer at Midway Antique Mall. The story behind them is that an elderly lady living in the bay area back in the 60s would see these posters on telephone poles and light poles. She would take them down and save them not really knowing that they’d be worth so much later. Anyway, the house she lived in was being demolished and I’m assuming she had passed away or moved on. A couple of observant ladies were walking by the dumpster that was being used and noticed a bunch of papers rolled up. Since they were being thrown away, they grab them. When they got home it was a massive collection of original concert posters from that era. They went to Midway Antique Mall and sold quite a few of them to that dealer. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure!

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