Yes, we went to another estate sale! This one was in Slingerland, a lovely suburb of Albany. They had quite a few articles that interested me, but I was leery as each object gave the impression it could be entirely too expensive. And it was a take a number auction! First come first served… Again, my ever patient… always thoughtful husband… agreed to embark on our excursion before seven in the morning.
A quick stop at McDonald’s for his coffee jolt and we were off. We were hoping to arrive by eight so we would have a low number for official entry. But, with the coffee pick-up and needing to refuel, we arrived about quarter after our desired hour. No #1 for us, but we did obtain #7 & #8. I told the lady who handed me the tickets what we were looking for. She pointed directly to it so we would know which direction to aim.
. We returned to our car to await the bewitching hour of admission.
A few moments before nine we approached the door with about twenty other anxious bargain hunters. Within a few minutes I realized at least ninety percent of the people there were looking for the jewelry that was available. Smiling, I thought, ‘We just might be fortunate enough to secure our sought after objectives.’
At one minute after nine they opened the door. Scott bee-lined to our primary objective while I zoomed to the second location to scope out the dishes. Most items were priced too exorbitantly high, but the two I wanted most, a covered casserole dish and a flowered oval serving dish, were slightly less and in pristine condition. I tucked them under my arm and went to Scott’s location.
Here stood the honest to goodness treasure of our mission. A pre-World War II tea set from Japan. Not just any pre-World War II tea set, but a pre-World War II DRAGON inspired tea set. (For those of you who may not know, in the Chinese calendar I am a golden dragon.) And, this tea set was a golden dragon inspired tea set which had been brought back to by a returning soldier for his mother. The porcelain is Arita, also called Imari, an almost translucent porcelain. A rare fine porcelain… a pleasure and treasure to own.
So, our Slingerland estate sale outing was a phenomenal success…
