Suddenly Hip: Iconic Flea Market Finds (Part 1)

By Marni Elyse Katz
September 6, 2011

Kate Maloney

Interior designer Kate Maloney groups vintage bobbins amidst books and magazines.

Kate Maloney

Kate Maloney placed the client’s two wooden bowling pins on the ledge behind the banquette. The shape echoes the chair spindles.

A set of bobbins wound with colorful thread makes for a bright spot on a worn wooden shelf in a room designed by Lindsay Bentis.

Trolling the flea market on early weekend mornings, you likely have a plan of attack; booths and bins you scour regularly, and items for which you are on a constant hunt. (We’re partial to vintage Chanel purses and Kenneth Jay Lane cocktail rings, as well as Saarinen side tables and anything teak from Dansk.) Along the way there’s a multitude of other vintage accessories that catch your eye—perhaps worn suitcases, rickety ladders or wind-up tin toys. While anatomical posters and models were in vogue last year, this year, we’re seeing a renewed interest in a few other trinkets no antique market would be complete without: wooden doodads, like spools and bobbins, shoe lasts, and bowling pins; retro clocks; old cameras (film is so last century), and vintage trophies. In a two part series, we'll explore the trophies tomorrow (we found so many examples we decided they needed an article of their own) and the rest of these old-is-new-again-finds today.

Hipster Finds

Wooden bowling pins top a wooden mantle between two anatomy posters at Heir Antiques in Providence.

Hipster Finds

Sport and Spool in North Carolina counts wooden bowling pins among its vintage sporting good offerings.

Hipster Finds

Interior designer Shawn Henderson placed a sculptural cluster of wooden bowling pins on a coffee table in this living room. He says, "I like to mix pieces together that are seemingly disparate, but upon closer inspection are part of a larger composition that make a space feel comfortable, serene, and unique."

Madewell and Anthropologie seem to be working overtime to collect up vintage accessories. A recent trip to both turned up so many vintage decor finds, the shops could host booths at Brimfield. At Madewell, retro clocks, colored glass seltzer bottles, wooden spools, metal gears, vintage cameras, and mercury silver jars were tucked among racks of plaid work shirts, faded denim, leather booties, tassel necklaces, and animal-print cases. At Anthropologie, pitted wooden shoe lasts littered tables stacked with cable knit sweaters and coffee table books, and wooden spools stood at attention on high shelves, interspersed with old wood-topped hat stands.

Top Retailers Look to the Past for Retro Merchandising Ideas

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Vintage shoe lasts scattered on a table of clothing at Anthropologie.
Vintage wooden bobbins perched on an old file box up on a shelf at Anthropologie.
Vintage wooden bobbins line a shelf at Madewell.
Retro clocks are tucked into shelves amidst work shirts at Madewell.
An assortment of old cameras on a shelf at Madewell.

Detroit-area interior designer Dan Davis is known for innovatively incorporating offbeat flea market finds. Take the client who had a collection of vintage bowling pins she acquired from flea markets, antique stores, garage sales and eBay, but didn’t know quite how to showcase them. He says, “The collections were scattered, making the not-so-big house look even smaller. And, they weren’t arranged in a way to showcase their beauty.” They fused old wooden industrial gears to make a stair rail, attached vintage water spigot handles to the outside of the house as installation art, and hung bowling pins from the ceiling. Davis says, “I thought they would be interesting hanging like soft stalactites over the new French doors. Plus, it solved the issue of stabilizing the pins in a house full of pets and kids. She loved the concept, and bought a few more, most on eBay, to help fill out the space.”

Dan Davis

A kitchen designed by Dan Davis boasts vintage wooden bowling pins pinned upside down from the ceiling.

Many of the same folks who are devoted to found industrial items are now taking an interest in actual mechanical pieces, namely cameras. Blogger Kim Werker, who clearly revels in funky old finds, gave a cool camera the place of pride on her wee entry table, which she and her partner made out of an old door and some wood they had lying around. She says of the tableau: “My partner's great aunt made the owl plate in the mid-'70s; we found it at his grandmother’s house under a potted plant. As for the camera, I don't know its year, exactly, but it screams '80s styling. I got it in a $3 grab bag of stuff at the Twilight Rummage Sale in Portland, Oregon last June. It was the big score, for sure.”

Kim Werker

The camera on blogger Kim Werker’s entry table was a random grab bag find that adds an ‘80s flavor to the multi-era tableau.

Vintage lover, seller, and blogger Jess James Jake says of her collection, which includes super-eight movie cameras, “We love the way cameras display on our mantel, creating a momentum towards the center. I am attracted to mid-century pieces and collect items that have pops of color and clean lines. I try to keep my decorating uncluttered, to let the individual pieces stand out.”

Jess James Jake

Vintage lover, seller, and blogger Jess James Jake displays super-eight movie cameras on her mantel.

Finally, Eric Roth , an interior photographer whose studio is housed in an antique barn filled with everything from tin robots to an old Esso gas pump and vintage sleds, is, unsurprisingly, also a fan of outdated cameras. He has over 50, most of which don’t work. Roth acquired them on eBay and loves them grouped en masse. He says with an ironic glee, “It looks like a press conference.”

Eric Roth, interior photographer and avid eBayer, piles a display of retro clocks under a Gothic arch of a cabinet scavenged from a Catholic church.

Eric Roth