Tag Archives: ALEXANDER BACKER CO

Vintage Lane Rooster TV Lamp

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Hepcats Haven

As usual Mel and I were out hitting our usual places last weekend and came across a really cool rooster Lane TV lamp. The cool thing is that I am starting to have a chicken thing going in our vintage kitchen.

I don’t think I have ever seen a rooster TV lamp as of yet. I just knew it would be a nice compliment to the top of our 1962 pink Frigidaire refrigerator.

I already had two chickens that now flank the rooster TV lamp just like the one below.

I think together they make a nice set. I really love the light the lamp throws on top of the refrigerator. Remember you can use TV lamps anywhere that makes sense, they are not just for TV’s anymore.

These have such great color and look great together.

I love the shadows and light it throws when the light is on.

These look nice with the other items we have in our kitchen.

These are LARGE ceramic roosters fighting. We got these a while back at the Sacramento Second Sunday Antique Faire.

These hang on the side of the vintage General Electric stove. I love the splashes of gold.

These little fellas are on our lazy susan center piece on the dinner table. I think they are Royal Copley.

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Posted in The Makin's Of Our Pad and tagged ABCO, ALEXANDER BACKER CO, atomic tv lamp, ceramic birds, ceramic roosters, ceramicraft, cermaic chickens, deforest, Freeman McFarlin, gilner, hedi schoop, holt howard, lefton, mid century tv lamp, mid-century figure, Moss, norcrest, rare tv lamp, retro tv lamp, vintage ceramic, vintage tv lamp, yana. Bookmark the permalink.

Retro Framed Chalkware Figures

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Hepcats Haven

The figures were in really great shape and needed just a little touch up. The background was faded to gray.

Mel and I came across these at an antique store in San Jose. As I am sure you all know by now, I love chalkware. I can’t ever get enough chalkware pieces.

Both figures had wear on their nose and knees.

The figures are painted in a pearl yellow paint.

I was not aware how faded the backgrounds were until I removed the figures.

You can see the original aqua color behind the figure.

After I repainted the backgrounds the figures pop!

Shazam!

These will be breathtaking when finally hung on the wall.

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Posted in Restorations and tagged 1950's, 50's, ABCO, ALEXANDER BACKER, ALEXANDER BACKER CO, ALEXANDER BACKER COMPANY, chalkware, Chalkware Wall, Continental Art Company, Decorative Chalkware, mid century, midcentury, Plaster Wall Plaque, Reglor, retro, vintage, Wall Plaque, Wall Plaques. Bookmark the permalink.

This kitty likes vintage wall fish!

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Hepcats Haven

So, funny story…..I was hanging one of a hundred fish for Mel when one fell, shattered and stabbed me in the leg while on the ladder. I fell off the ladder and crawled to the nearest first aid kit and put a tourniquet on. I texted Mel while I was bleeding out and advised her that one of her fish had mortally wounded me. Her concerned response was “which fish broke?”.

The first time Mel saw a ceramic fish it was at a thrift store. At that very moment she fell in love with those little ceramic pieces of joy! From this point on Mel has spent every waking moment searching on Ebay and antique stores for the little critters. She must have almost 100 of these sea creatures by now. She decided to use our large wall space in the bathroom as her canvas to express herself. It is really hard to find ceramic fish that are not busted and glued because so many of them have fallen and ended up destroyed. Ceramic fish can run between $15-$300+ depending on the rarity of the fish. A word of advice to anyone thinking of hanging these little guys, when nailing them to the wall make sure you also use wall putty to adhere them to the surface. Mel’s favorite maker is Deforest but she also likes Freeman, Lefton, Bradley and Ceramicraft. We both agree that the chalkware fish are not as well detailed or as nice.

Ceramic fish were really big in the 40’s & 50’s for those folks who wanted to accessorize their bathrooms with something unique. Mel has a really great book that shows a lot of different kinds of ceramic fish and also different makers. It gives you pricing and also ideas on how to stage your fish (Ceramic Fish, Mermaids & Seahorses: Bathroom Decorations of the 1940s & 1950s). It is really amazing how many of the people we run into in the antique shops collect these. I am not sure when enough will be enough but if wall space is any indicator then we have a long road ahead of us.

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