Markets: Porta Portese

I returned to the Porta Portese market yesterday. I was on a mission to reunite the vintage metal chocolate mold elves/Santas I separated last week, remember? I jostled my way through the crowds and was happy to find these guys still available:

I found one big Santa, a small Santa (with a bag of gifts slug over his shoulder and a doll in his hand), and there was another mold of a rabbit pulling a cart filled with eggs. But the Santa riding the burrow was gone. sniff. The man running the stall told me that he could get some more of these molds and bring them to Porta Portese on the last Sunday in June. Hmmm. (Well, I suppose it would be rude if I didn't swing by and check them out... ) As it turns out these little guys are highly collectible and can fetch a premium sum. Vintage molds were made prior to WWII and many were melted down for the war effort. Who knew? By the way, that Santa on the burrow, the one that got away? I saw him listed online for $225! sigh.

OK. guess what I found next? (Lauren, this one is for you):
Why the fascination with sets of little mounted antlers? I have NO idea. Perhaps it started when I saw the amazing dining room of J. Crew head designer, Jenna Lyons, in Domino magazine:


Guess I was Inspired. I recently saw a bunch of little antlers for sale at the monthly Antique Market in Bologna, but they were just too expensive. So, I was thrilled when the vendor at Porta Portese offered these antlers for price I could live with. While I loved them all, I decided on just the middle pair, above (they are marked 1897 - cool!) Although, things really do look better in multiples .... Stay tuned to see how I incorporate these into Chez Schultz.


Can you guess what I wanted in this spread below? While the old wine pulls were tempting, what I really loved here were the two old, hand clips. Unfortunately this was the same vendor who wanted 50 euro for the great biscotti tin I saw last week .... he wanted 35 euro each for these clips. Walk away.

Some other interesting things I saw: old Ray Ban sunglasses. These are very trendy right now. You can easily put new lenses in these vintage frames....

I also liked this old windup Jibby, and cool collection of old metal racing cars.

Finally, I spotted something in this spread below that I thought would be perfect for my good friend Peter Wong. Wonder if he can guess what it is? He will have to wait until his birthday to find out!
LS