Over a week ago I noticed an ad on
Craigslist mentioning a sale from the estate of
Edith Heath of Heath Ceramics. I wasn't sure if it was the real thing as it sounded too good to be true. I emailed
Heath Ceramics to verify that this sale was indeed from the estate of Edith Heath. They returned my email confirming that the sale was real. I next emailed the store owner of Modern i Shop where the sale was to be held in San Anselmo to inquire about prices. I asked if they were going to be estate sale prices or high end gallery. The owner replied and said "estate" sale prices. With my research complete, I planned my Thursday based around this sale.
Dave was in Minnesota so I asked a friend to look after Cerys so that I only had to manage one child. Generally Keiran is the better shopper. He's interested in everything, very chatty, everyone seems to like him and he's helpful overall. Cerys at this time just wants to read every second of the day.
We left Santa Rosa around 10am and arrived in San Anselmo just before 11 a.m. with the sale set to open at 1 p.m. We found a place to park the car where we could park for 4 hours. We grabbed a snack, my empty box and made our way to the front of the store. I wasn't sure whether to expect a long line or not.
We were the first ones there. We luckily had the window to look at although they had blocked off the rest of the store with brown wrapping paper.
Most people that walked by the shop would look at Keiran, me and a man who was also in line early, Steve. He was in the area from San Diego and is part owner of this fabulous website Objects USA.
The amazing woman behind Heath Ceramics.
Keiran after waiting patiently for 2 hours. He and I passed the time by chatting, practicing math facts, playing thumb war and picking out our favorite pottery pieces in the window.
The front of Modern i Shop.
I can't imagine a better job than what this sign describes. I'll take the shop, location (right on main street) and the sign.
At 1 p.m. the doors opened and Keiran was the first to walk through. The shop was very small and it was filled to the brim with plates, mugs, bowls and sculptures. I grabbed Keiran's hand and asked him to stick very close to me. With so many people in the store it made it very difficult to maneuver through especially with an 8 year old boy in tow. As you can see in this photo the prices were indeed higher than this thrift girl was going to pay.
The prices may have been estate sale prices, but none that I have ever seen before. I was rather disappointed to find $60 plates and $150 bowls.
From a life experience point of view, it was fascinating. Some of the pieces in the sale came from Edith Heath's home. The books for sale were her books that lined her bookshelves.
The thing about any sale, is that you never know if it's going to be worth your time or not. This sale was not worth my time as a ReSeller, but I'm still glad that we went. I could have done without waiting for two hours but again, we couldn't know. I attempted to find as much information about the sale before going.
The only Heath purchases I made were these five plates for $10.00 each. And the minute we arrived home I had buyers remorse. Yet how could I go to a Heath sale and not buy any Heath? In hindsight though I would have left these behind.
My find of the entire day was this paper mache figure by Gemma Taccogna. Cathy of California has written a beautiful post about her shortly after Gemma passed away. My friend Jacki introduced me to Gemma's art and I remember the two of us sitting in front of her computer looking at auctions on ebay of her work. Buying this piece for $15 made the entire journey and wait worth it. Edith Heath had this piece in her own home. Did it sit on her mantel? Did you look at it and find inspiration? This is what makes it priceless to me.
What did you find this weekend? Pop on over to Southern Hospitality to see what others have found too after adding your link to Thrift Share Monday.
