Tormod Sjaamo painting

I finally got my painting up on the wall where I wanted it before photographing it and showing it to you. I found this in my local charity shop a couple of weeks ago and was instantly drawn to it. The artist’s name is Tormod Sjaamo and around 1950-60s he used to teach at Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole in Oslo (similar to the Royal College of Art in Britain). He also lived in Nesodden which is my area.

Although it's signed '82, I think the style of painting is very mid-century. I love the colours and the composition and the fact that people interpret it differently. What do you see?

(Click on the images for a larger version.)

Stavangerflint Fox

How's this for a great vintage kiddie's plate? I had never seen this previous to finding it on an online auction site. I was very happy to have the winning bid :-) It is another Turi-design and the decor is called 'Fox'.

Little dog "Lost"

Every now and then when I'm thrift shopping for ceramics, porcelain and glass etc. I stumble across a picture that I just can't resist. This was one of those. Call it kitschy, I don't care. The expression on this little puppy triggered my rescue gene.

The picture looks like an etching, it's got an English title, "Lost", but I can't make out the signature (click on image for larger version). My guess is that it's from the first half of the 1900's, but I'm no art expert. If you are, or if you're able to interpret the signature, please leave a comment. If you're not an art expert you're welcome to leave a comment anyway :-)

I also found a painting on the same shopping trip. Stay tuned.

Blue again

While I'm preparing something else for the blog, here's a little blue bit that I picked up thinking I could always list it in my Etsy shop. Meanwhile, I like it enough to hold onto it... I don't know the make as it's unsigned but I know I've seen it before. Most likely it's by a Scandinavian ceramicist. The colour and finish reminds me of Söholm, but is it? Again I trust one of you readers might be able to help me with the name.

Update (or: It's a small world): Gro sent me a comment to this post today – it turns out this vase used to be hers... She had donated it to our local charity shop where I found it. (It's from Greece, so not Scandinavian at all, as it turns out). My reply comment to Gro is this: next time you want to get rid of something this nice, don't bother with the detour - you can just give it to me directly :-)

Vintage children’s book III: La Fontaine Fabeln

The last book in this blog post series is a vintage German children's book. It's got fantastic colourful illustrations by Gerhard Oberländer and was published in 1964.

Bottled mice, anyone?

Vintage children’s book I: Singeling for rare ting

Blogspot had big problems this week. As a result, the original version of this post (and comments) disappeared and was never restored. I'll try to repeat myself as best I remember..

This Norwegian children's book was published in 1961. The illustrator's name is Unni-Lise Jonsmoen. (She's the wife of the author Ola Jonsmoen.)

The story is about Enok who's 6 and home from school one day due to a cold. He's bored and his mum suggests he do some drawing, which he does. He then makes up some fantastic stories based on the drawings.

The sign on the tram reads 'Enok’s town'.

Vintage children’s book II: Min første bok

Picture books naturally don't have much text, but this one doesn't even have the year of publishing. Judging from the photos I'm guessing it's from the 1950s. The title of the book translates to "My first book" and the subtitle reads "A picture book in colours". And what colours!

Note how the banana is posed on some soft furnishing. I find that amusing for some reason.

There's more of course, but this will have to do for now.

Have a nice weekend! I'm off to another fleamarket tomorrow and hope to have something to show for it here later.

Blog bother

I was a little alarmed to find that my Vintage children's book post from yesterday suddenly seemed to have vanished. All day today I've been trying to blog, only to find out blogger was doing maintance work. Sigh. I hope they manage to restore all missing posts as promised. Meanwhile, I'll continue with part two of the children's books.

Big apple by Arabia

This is my latest vintage treasure. It's a huge serving platter and it's got pride of place on the dining table. Designed by Gunvor Olin Gronquist.

Beautiful blues recently thifted

Stavangerflint plate. Can anyone help me with the name of the pattern?

Christmas platter from Porsgrund. Incidentially from the same year that I celebrated my very first Christmas... Good vintage, in other words :-) I don't know who did the illustration, but as far as Christmas platters go I think this is one of the best I've seen.

This little vase/bottle has a stamp on the underside, but I'm not familiar with it. (This goes for a few items in my collection. Maybe I'll do a post on them later and ask for your assistance in interpreting them.)
Update: The vase is called Zyklon, designed by Cari Zalloni for German company Steuler. Thanks to Christin and Skynda Fynda blog for the info.

This ashtray is by Maria Philipi for Söholm, Denmark.

An Italian dish, possibly Bitossi. Very 'Rimini Blue' anyway.