Today I left the office right at noon to meet my second year students for lunch at the local Mexican restaurant, and from there, I headed down the street to Goodwill. I had a hunch I was going to find a treasure today, but seeing nothing at Goodwill worth mentioning, I headed to Salvation Army to browse there for a few minutes. Nothing there either, so I started back to the car and decided to peek in to a little antique store on the way to the parking lot.I poked around in the Tin Rabbit for a moment, decided to check out one more shelf before I left, and stopped when a very elegant, white porcelain hand thrown bowl caught my eye. Immediately I thought of Gwen Hefner, a potter from Kentucky who used to exhibit her pots at the Indian Summer Festival here in town many years ago. Her work was strikingly elegant, yet of simple line and form--beautiful white porcelain vessels with slightly altered rims. I always wanted one!
When I picked up the bowl, I saw the stamp on the base that Gwen used to sign her work and was absolutely ecstatic when I saw the price on the sticker had this piece marked at $8.00 --only $8.00 for this lovely piece of art that cost probably about $60 - $75 twenty years ago.!!Obviously, someone had no idea what he/she was selling. I couldn't believe my eyes or my luck!!
When I went to pay for my find, the little elderly woman in the store remarked on its beauty. She rang up the sale and only charged me $6.80. A Gwen Heffner bowl for under $7.00!! I still can't believe it! I found the Gwen Hefner bowl pictured here on the internet, and it's very similar to the one I found today. Its list value on the site I downloaded it from was $350.
I really think the bowl called me to it because I had no intention of stopping at another store as I returned to the car from the Salvation Army store. It's now cleaned up and beautifully positioned on the buffet in the dining room, and I'm feeling very, very happy, grateful, and excited.
Maybe this afternoon's stroke of luck means Mercury's out of retrograde...Halleleujah!!! It's about time!!!
2 comments:
Congratulations! I love when that happens! I once bought an antique radio---a Philco tabletop model from 1939. After some bad financial problems I had to sell it. A couple of years after that I was walking through a flea market and saw one like it. When I looked closer, I saw it was the very same radio! Needless to say, I bought it back! :)
Wow T, that is a handsome and fortunate find. I think Mercury is out of retrograde because I had a brilliant stroke of luck this morning, too!
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