One of my greatest joys as the proprietor of the Put This On Shop is finding something strange and wonderful. Spotting something perfect and knowing that I’ll save it from being discarded and find it a perfect home warms my heart.
Sometimes that’s something like a pair of silver cufflinks from the Ancient Order of Frothblowers. Often, though, it’s something that ends up in our Notions & Miscellany section.
Above are a few favorites (and the favorites are always changing). From top to bottom, left to right, they are:
A silver Tiffany bookmark in the shape of a 1980s PC. I loved these so much I bought four from a dealer who’d found them in old stock. What an amazing undertaking for Tiffany & Co., is it not?
A silver vesta case shaped like a peanut. Matches used to be precious treasures – they needed to be protected from the damp, and so: vesta cases. Little boxes, often made from fine materials, that keep your matches dry. Of course, it’s not usually the case that they’re shaped like a peanut!
A bronze sculpture of a pipe. C’est ne pas une pipe, am I right? It’s a little charmer – just a bit smaller than a real pipe. The perfect shelf adornment for a gentleman.
A naval semaphore decoder. Who doesn’t need one of these, to ease in ship-to-ship communications? I love the graphics on this baby, and I love the idea of decoding messages of all kinds. I’ve sold two of these, but there’s one left.
A petrified horn magnifying glass. Another spectacular desk accessory. Do you have any desk accessories? They make your office into a home. This was one of the most popular items at our in-person sale. Everyone wanted to pick it up and play with it.
A chrome hippopotamus. Did you know the hippo is one of the world’s deadliest creatures? They kill more people than any animal you have nightmares about – crocodiles and lions and bears and so forth. This chrome example, however, does not have murder in its heart.
A benevolent eye. Or maybe an evil eye. Hard to say. Let it watch you, and you’ll be more moral.
A beautiful leather measuring tape. One of those things you just want to turn over in your hands. Perfectly engineered for the last hundred years and the next hundred, as well.
The “Executive Pocket Chum” slide ruler. A perfect gift for an engineer – or anyone who just needs a Chum on hand at any time.
A Tramp Art desk box. A perfectly handsome hand-carved box for your desk. Almost certainly not made by an actual tramp.
Of course, these treasures are just the tip of the iceberg. Head over to the shop and see what you can find, whether it’s for stocking stuffing, a thoughtful gift for a good friend, or just something to enliven your home. Use the code SANTACLAUSE and almost everything in our shop ships free to US addresses through Christmas.