Treasure Hunting in Portugals Capital City - Feira da Ladra the 'Thieves Market'.

So I haven't posted for a while but I'm just back from an amazing treasure hunting trip to Portugal and thought I would share my experience.  Portugal is a beautiful place full of wonderful people and the lifestyle is something I would love to have more of in the U.K.  The local fresh food markets, the celebrated traditional craft fairs and the flea markets are just amazing.

One such flea market, hiding in the sloped streets of Lisboa, or Lisbon as us English speakers call it, is Feira da Ladra, or the 'Thieves Market"located in the Alfama District (Campo de Santa Clara).  If you head for the area between the Panteao Nacional and the Church of Sao Vicente on a Tuesday or Saturday, you will find it.  I was determined to visit this market as it sounded huge, so we set out early at 7 a.m to arrive for some bargains.

When we got there at 8 a.m, many of the stores (most simple blankets thrown onto the ground) were still setting up so we headed to a small cafe near the train station for some breakfast.  On heading back we were greeted by a true marvel, hundreds of traders and thousands of items for sale.

Most of the items seemed to start at around 5 Euros, from a rugby ball to a small painting!  There is an eclectic mix but I was struck by the quantity of quality brass ware and furniture.  If only I could have fit it into my suitcase! The sellers were friendly overall, not everyone spoke English but that is no barrier to getting a few treasures.  The traders that did speak English, which was most engaged in friendly conversation about Europe and asked what we thought about Brexit, it was nice to see how real people in Europe thought.

We easily spent 2 hours walking and rummaging through the boxes for hidden gems, you could spend all day here if you are a determined buyer.  Unfortunately I had a grumpy boyfriend with me who does not have flea markets and treasure hunting in his, "List of top 10 things to do".  He did carry my bags though so I can't complain too much, and I did buy him the rugby ball so he cant complain too much either!  I would thoroughly encourage you to take the tram over to the market if you are in Lisbon as it is full of atmosphere, in a beautiful part of the city and you might even find some treasure of your own.

Here are a few of the items I selected to bring back with me, and believe me when I say if i had a bigger suitcase there would have been much more!

Vintage Wicker Place Mats - http://etsy.me/2uD68Du

Vintage Coin Purse - http://etsy.me/2h4qKRF

Vintage Candle Box - http://etsy.me/2uyaT2u

To purchase any of my hand selected treasures from the Thieves Market head over to my Etsy store where I have hundreds of wonderful vintage items in stock from all over the world. http://etsy.me/2uYRPLO or look me up on Facebook http://bit.ly/2v0GA54

The Snow I Really Want - Big Freeze 1963 - South Wales Echo

So I LOVE snow! I hate being cold, but I love snow. Where is the logic in that eh? Well most of my favorite childhood memories are of going out, 3 pairs of socks on my hands because we didn't have gloves, and trekking miles through the snow with my father and the dog.

The last month or so we have been teased with a few falling snowflakes and none have stuck to the ground, much to my huge disappointment.  However in South Wales, back in 1963, we had this!

Holy Snowballs Batman! 

They are digging through 10 feet of snow ... now THATS what im talkin' about!  This Souvenir newspaper of the South Wales Echo was produced to contain stories and information about 'The Big Freeze'.  This included Mr. B. Waite of Rhoose who abandoned his car in Porthkerry only to have to dig it out days later from under six feet of drifting snow, "and it started first time!" the article proudly states.  Milk was in danger of rationing because farms got cut off and people were not putting their milk bottles back out for collection.  The Army and RSPCA had to trek on foot in North Monmouthshire with food for wild ponies who had, "been on a cardboard diet" and a slab of ice fell down a mine shaft in the Maesteg Valley injuring three miners and damaging the cage bringing work to a standstill.

Things have changed.  Now the slightest mention of a snowflake and people are fighting in supermarkets over the 20 pints of milk and 15 loaves of bread that they think they need, I'd be amazed to see a modern car that would start after being left in a snow drift, the mines have all but closed down, and charities like the Welsh Pony Rescue and Rehoming Charity are left to help feed the ponies even in mild weather.  The paper ends with, "...the only happy people around were the travel agents as they dealt with a telephone blizzard of inquiries from people searching for the sun"... I guess some things do stay the same.  I however, would be happy to fly out for some real snow.  I'm so busy at the moment the chance would be a fine thing.

If you are interested to learn about Welsh Pony Rescue and Rehoming Charitable Trust who I mentioned briefly here please visit their Facebook Page . I see first hand what brilliant work they do. So come on snow! I want to build an igloo!

My Love of Objects: From Lady Chatterleys Lover to Tony Robinson

My story began as a small child.  There was a path along side the local park, affectionately named "The Pig Trough" - I was searching in the undergrowth for treasure, hitting back plants with a stick like wading through an overgrown jungle. I found it.  One VHS copy of "Lady Chatterleys Lover" ... I proceeded to take this back to my house where I stopped and I knocked, like a door to door sales man, asking my father if he wanted to buy a naughty film.

My intrigue grew as I did, I wanted to find more, to discover, to learn.  My love of history connected with my love of forgotten artifacts when I went to university and qualified as an Archaeologist, here I learned not only the physical skills but the intrinsic value of objects, their meaning, their stories - the theories and links between people and things.  Archaeological theory calls this "personhood", the life of an object.  This personhood of items is what really draws me to objects.  Before anyone asks, yes I have been on Time Team and yes, Tony Robinson is lovely!

So the present day, I opened my Etsy Shop "The Vintage Archaeologist",  to continue my treasure hunting, to pass on objects to others and extend the personhood of those treasures.  Their story continues through time, through their links to people, the people that made them, the people that dis guarded them and the people that will own and love them again.  Im keping these treasures out of a future archaeological spoil heap, for as long as I can, by passing their history on to you.

I've just had a very lovely shiny new banner designed by a very talented Graphic Artist, Terry Cooper.  Highly recommended! I think it reflects this story perfectly (aside from the 18 rated video tape haha!). If you need any work doing I'd 100% send you his way.

So that's how I got to be an Etsy Store owner! I have over 300 items of treasure in my store right now and this is growing week by week.  These unique and amazing objects would just love to have their story continued by you so check it out and see if you can be part of an objects life The Vintage Archaeologist

Next Blog Post I'll update you on my latstest expedition, treasure hunting in the ancient ruins of Caerphilly!

Finding Things in the Darkness

Are you afraid of the dark?

Straining eyes, desperately peering into the grainy, greyscale of shapes. Opening your eyelids wide trying to let in the scarce rays of light from the moon to navigate, slowly, cautiously. Charcoal coloured masses merging into unknown hazes of slate grey. Is it a rock, a step? You feel the way with your feet or hands, something moves … you cant make it out, your heart beats faster...

Anyone who has been outside on a cloudy night with the low moon light knows this scenario, but imagine a dark so encompassing, so deep and empty, that you don't know whether you are still alive or if it is just your consciousness floating around in the infinite blackness. Not one pinpoint of light, not one shade of grey. It surrounds and devours you. Just an empty void of nothing and the thoughts inside you head. I have experienced this ominous black hole only one time in my life, and it was deep down in the belly of a coal mine.

I usually write about items that I come across on my travels that I have to research or items that I find interesting. On this occasion I had two beautiful miners or safety lamps which I wanted to find some more information about. The same lamps that the brave miners all over the world used not only to guide them in this pit of blackness, but to protect them from gas explosions. I currently live in South Wales, an area of tight knit mining communities and a hive of mining activity during the 19^th and 20^th centuries. During a period of 80 years, from 1850 to 1930, there were nearly 40 gas explosions here, in two counties alone. This caused the tragic deaths of 3119 men and boys.

Lighting the way.

Many people associate the initial invention of the miners safety lamp with Sir Humphrey Davy in 1815 but the fact is, that there were many lamp manufacturers, including including George Stephenson and Dr. William Clanny, whos safety lamp designs appeared almost simultaneously along side Davys. So which lamps had I found and which period were they from?

Although I am an Archaeologist, this period of modern Industrial history is not my forte so I had to look for more specialist advice when identifying the lamps that were in my possession. I sent an email off to Gary Chedgy of minerslamp.co.uk and received a very prompt and helpful reply, informing me that I had a bonneted lamp from the 1920's period and a much earlier lamp, a Clanny, from around 1880. If you're looking for a lamp in particular to purchase this site is the place to go.

The design of this early Clanny lamp follows a similar design principle to the other lamps of the era, a naked flame (sometimes behind glass as in this case), placed within a metal gauze funnel surround. This provided a very small amount of light, only 0.1 – 0.8 of a naked flame candle but most importantly provided some warning of an explosive gas risk. If a dangerous mix of methane and air was encountered down in the mine, (which would be anything approaching 5% methane), the ignition from the naked flame and subsequent explosion would be contained within the gauze mash and prevented its spread to the galleries. Miners lamps based on this principle are still used today in all UK mines to check for these potentially deadly gases, commonly known as 'Firedamp'. They have saved countless miners lives since their invention to this day and as an interesting side note, modern versions of these lamps also carry the Olympic flame.

The finished Clanny

I spent a long time indeed cleaning up my Clanny lamp, about 6 hours in total! It is a beautiful thing, especially considering the lifeline that it provided to so many people in such appalling working conditions. It is a piece of living history that saved many lives and for one man, his only guide, light and protector, a mile under the earth.

If you are interested in purchasing the lamp please get in touch. It is £290 plus shipping

More Information

For anyone who wants to learn more about mining history and experience a mine (with a few zip wires and a bit of abseiling thrown in) and the blackness I described at the beginning of this article, I recommend Go Below in North Wales. www.go-below.co.uk  Below is an image of me down the actual mine with the benefit of a head torch.

There are also The Big Pit and The Rhondda Heritage Park but I am yet to visit these exhibitions so I cant vouch for them in any way (aside from the good quality of the sandwiches at the Rhondda Heritage Park coffee shop lol)

Information on mining lamps used in the writing of this article www.mining-memorabilia.co.uk

If you are interested in collecting lamps and meeting like minded people I recommend The Miners Lamp Collectors Society www.thebigmeet.org (They also have a facebook page)

Term Time! - Cloisonne.

Term Time!!

No, we aren't back at school. its time for a new word.

I found this piece and wondered if there was a name for detailed enamel work on metal.  Turns out there is, and its ...

Cloisonne

Thin wire work, often in silver or gold is used to create a pattern outline, often on a copper base piece. It creates an outline for different sections or colours.  They are then filled with enamel powder made into a paste and fired.  It was first used on jewellery and small clothes fittings in Ancient Egypt, during the Roman Empire and in Anglo Saxon crafts,  It got picked up by Chinese craftsmen in the 14th century who used it for much larger pieces.  It is still a hugely popular method of decoration in China today.

If you are interested in the piece shown above it is available in my store Chinese Dragon Cloisonne Vase

Hope you found this snippet of information useful!  

Ciao,

Ignis.

Its Finally done! The Bloggin Begins!

So I've finally gotten around to making the blog.  You may be wondering what this blog is for?  Well, I LOVE old items.  Carboots, skips, auctions, charity shops... even the ground we walk on is full of treasure that we can still learn from, use and cherish.


You may now be thinking, "Under the ground?! What is this crazy woman talking about?" Well my degree was in Archaeology and I worked in it for a while (including a couple of stints on the infamous 'Time Team').  So it turns out, I have found quite a lot of 'treasure' in muddy holes in fields!  These days I mainly concentrate on slightly warmer and cleaner means of finding my treasure!  I have an Etsy shop that I have been running for the past year which I thoroughly enjoy, its becoming more a full time thing now which I'm thrilled about.  Id really love for you to check my store out as I have got some amazing Christmas stock in, loads of items would make lovely and unique gifts.  Why buy a generic high street store item when you can rehome some treasure eh?!  MY STORE


Found anything you like? I hope so.  Sharing these items, pairing them with new loving owners and ultimately saving a lot from landfill is a huge part of the joy of doing this.  I see so many beautiful and functional items that are discarded or undervalued because they aren't appreciated, they aren't in fashion, they don't match the new carpet, etc.  It really annoys me.  In an overpopulated world and consumer society we should be taking more care with re-purposing, recycling and re-loving our old items instead of simply getting rid of them.


Hopefully over the next few blogs I will be sharing with you interesting bits of information I find out.  This passion is really something where you are learning new things all of the time.  Plus I will share any extra cool items I come across, tips for cleaning things, my general moaning about stuff: Like my store, it will be a weird, eclectic yet interesting mix of 'stuff' that I hope someone out there will appreciate and love.  There is always that one special item for everyone.


Ciao for now,  I have treasure to list in the store.


Ignis.